1918 was Stalin's time to shine as a military power, he served as a general of the red army in a civil war which lasted for 3 years, Lenin then appointed him commissar of the workers and peasants.
In 1922 Lenin gave Stalin the position of General secretary of the central committee of the communist party, This position gave Stalin the power to appoint people were loyal to him key jobs in the Party. .
In January 1924 Lenin died, the country was led by 5 people: Stalin, Leon Trotsky, Lev kamenev ,Grigori Zinoviev and Nikolai Bukharin. After 10 years of his "ruthless pursuit for power"(WW2 Biographies) he was the only one left alive out of the 5 original leaders he was now the leader of the entire Soviet Union. .
In 1928 Stalin set in play the "5 year plan" this plan involved building dams factories and large state owned farms , farmers were taken off their small farms that they owned them selvs and went to work in these state owned farms , those who refused to work for Stalin were went to "Gulags" or work camps , or they were killed. The Russian people were afraid to state their own opinion because they knew the penalties were harsh and swift. in the 1930s the rules were changed a little because of most of the crops in the state owned farms were harvested and the farmers who worked there were able to return to their own farms and use them for them selves.
In 1934 to 1939 during Stalin's "reign of terror" Joseph had his secret police send over 25 million people to the gulags and over 1 million executed and 7 million died in the gulags , these people were sent to the gulags and murdered because Stalin was paranoid of enemies and conspirators so he had whoever he thought was suspicious send to the gulags or murdered. He even went as far as to kill important officers in the soviet army. .
In 1939 Stalin signed a treaty with Adolf Hitler that they would divide the eastern European countries and would not fight each other in them though his advisors told him that Hitler would not stay true to this treaty and attack Russia Stalin ignored them and went about his business.