Before taking the stage as a ruthless dictator of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin was both a poet and a bank robber.

Stalin is credited with being the mastermind behind numerous bank robberies in the early 1900’s, one of which caused the death of six people and injury to about forty. Stalin organized the robberies to gain money for the Bolsheviks’ political movement. Stalin’s poetry is romantic and flowery and reads as follows: “The pinkish bud has opened / Rushing to the pale-blue violet.”

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Information sources:

“When Stalin Robbed a Bank: Fascinating Footnotes from History” by Giles Milton

Photo Credits / Sources:

Copied from the book “Josef Wissarionowitsch Stalin – Kurze Lebensbeschreibung” (Josef Wissarionowitsch Stalin – short live description), Publishing for russian literature in foreign languages, Moscow 1947