Scientific article

UDK 94(47).084.3"1919"
pdf-version

Sergei G. Piroev
master's student, Saint Petersburg State University
(Saint Petersburg, Russia),
spiroyev@mail.ru

Joseph Stalin as the Leader of the Spring-Summer Defense of Petrograd in 1919

Scientific adviser:
Ilya S. Ratkovsky
Reviewer:
Evgeny V. Kamenev
Paper submitted on: 08/24/2025;
Accepted on: 09/28/2025;
Published online on: 09/28/2025.
 Abstract. The article analyzes the activities of the authorized representative of the Defense Council, Joseph Stalin, as the head of the spring–summer defense of Petrograd in 1919. The study draws on archival materials from the Central State Archive of St. Petersburg, the Central State Archive of Historical and Political Documents of St. Petersburg, and the Russian State Archive of the Navy, which had not previously been circulated in scholarly discourse. Based on the analysis of this new archival evidence, supplemented by published sources, and existing scholarly literature, the author concludes that Stalin’s deployment to Petrograd in May 1919 contributed to a positive shift on the Northwestern Front, ultimately enabling the 7th Army to launch a successful counteroffensive.
Keywords: Russian Civil War, defense of Petrograd, Joseph Stalin, Northern Corps, Seventh Army, Krasnaya Gorka

For citation: Piroev, S. G. Joseph Stalin as the Leader of the Spring-Summer Defense of Petrograd in 1919. StudArctic forum. 2025, 10 (3): 33–43.

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