LOOKING BACK AT HISTORY

 ‘Stalin takes care of each of us from the Kremlin’, Viktor Govorkov, 1940, Iskusstvo (Moscow, Leningrad) via Australian National University  In today's post we're going to get close and personal with Soviet dictator, Joseph Stalin. Here are 10 weird yet wonderful facts you probably didn't know about Stalin. 1. Joseph Stalin was not his real name. He was actually called Josef Dzhugashvili, or Soso to his family. He first used his pseudonym 'Stalin' when writing for the St Petersburg based Bolshevik newspaper, Pravda, in 1912. Many historians believe that he took the name as it was similar to 'Lenin'. The meaning of 'Stalin' is steel or man of steel which I can never get out of my head when I think of the famous Superman movie, Man of Steel .  2. He came from a violent family. Given Stalin's violent nature, it probably wont surprise you that he was beaten by his father as a child.    However, his violent upbringing goes further than t...

We all know that Bristol has got a lot of history. From Brunel's bridges and ships to Concorde and the aerospace industry, we all know that the city is jam packed with historical significance. But there are a few things you probably don't know about the city. Here are 4 new interesting facts that you didn't know about Bristol's history. © Bristol Culture 1. First Ever Chocolate Bar. Did you know chocolate was originally consumed as a drink? This was until 1847 when Joseph Fry & Sons started to use excess cocoa butter to produce a paste that could be moulded into something you can eat and bam you've got your first chocolate bar. Fry's Cream stick was the first industrialised and mass produced chocolate bar that was actually affordable in 1853. In 1873, they went on to create the UK's first chocolate Easter Egg. 2. Stalin's Daughter Lived There. Svetlana Alliluyeva the daughter of Soviet leader, Joseph Stalin, left the Soviet Union in ...