Modern Russia and the Soviet Union: StalinModern Russia and the Soviet Union: Stalin's character was the main reason for his rise to powerStalin was born as Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili on December 21, 1879 in Gori , Georgia. He grew up in a mountain town of about 5,000 people. He was the third and only surviving child of Vissarion Dzhugashvili and Catherine Geladze. His father drank and beat him and his mother; this made Stalin very cold. A friend commented on his behavior: "Those undeserved and appalling beatings made the boy as hard and heartless as his father." His father died in a fight when Stalin was only 11 years old. Stalin was enrolled in school in the village at the age of eight. He was an intelligent student and was at the top of his class. He read many books glorifying Georgia's past. Georgia was an independent country until the conquest of the Russian tsars. One book that had a profound impact on Stalin was a Robin Hood-like book. His name was Koba and he hated the Russians and avenged their crimes against the Georgians. His acts were very ruthless and bloody. Stalin began calling himself Koba and this caught on among his friends. He would later assume this alias while hiding from the Tsar's police. By 1894 Stalin had finished all his studies and had received a scholarship to the theological seminary in Tiflis, the capital of Georgia. The theological seminary building was dark and depressing. The students were given no privacy and were spied on by Russian Orthodox monks. The monks also checked their rooms to see what they were reading and planned each day carefully, with prayer and study. The students had only a short break in the afternoon during which they could go into town under close supervision. At first Stalin seemed to adapt to the rigid schedule. He did well in his assignments and received top marks for conduct. He found time to write romantic and nationalistic poems, these poems were published in a Georgian magazine dedicated to the preservation of Georgian culture. Gradually Stalin began to feel frustrated with the harsh regime. Years later, Stalin told an interviewer: "To protest against the outrageous methods... prevalent in the seminary, I was ready to become, and in fact became, a revolutionary." In 1898 Stalin took his first step towards a revolutionary lifestyle when he joined a Marxist group in Tiflis.