Like Lenin, Stalin acted modestly and unassumingly in public. John Gunther in 1940 described the politeness and good manners to visitors of "the most powerful single human being in the world".

Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born as Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili) (18 December 1878 – 5 March 1953) (Name in Georgian იოსებ ბესარიონის ძე ჯუღაშვილი; Russian: Иосиф Виссарионович Сталин) was a Georgian-born Russian revolutionary and politician who was the 2nd leader of the Soviet Union from 1924 