On July 9, 1903, the future leader of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin, was exiled to Siberia for 3 years. Financing the Communist movement in Russia by robbery, extortion and kidnappings, it is no surprise that Stalin (born Ioseb Jugashvili) was arrested several times and sent to Siberia, where he invariably escaped to return to fomenting revolution. Vladimir Lenin likewise served 3 years of exile in Siberia for sedition. (If punitive exile was supposed to erase revolutionary zeal, it appears not to have worked.)
Digging Deeper
Many future leaders of countries had found themselves in jail prior to becoming the person in charge, both revered national icons and history’s criminals.
Among the infamous variety, Adolf Hitler did prison time for his unsuccessful “Beer Hall Putsch” attempt at a coup, and served 9 months of a 5 year prison sentence. The former jailbird engineered the costliest war in human history as leader of Nazi Germany.
Another infamous leader, Saddam Hussein of Iraq, fled the country when an assassination attempt against the establishment failed. Conspirators were sentenced to death, a fate avoided by Hussein’s flight to Syria and Egypt. Upon his return to Iraq, Hussein was jailed prior to release and partaking in the government.
