What was Josef Stalin's nationality?

Josef Stalin's nationality was Georgian. He was born Ioseb Jughashvili in Gori, Georgia, then part of the Russian Empire, and later adopted the revolutionary name Stalin.

Stalin came from the Georgian-speaking Caucasus rather than ethnic Russian society. His background shaped his early identity, although he eventually operated almost entirely within the Russian-dominated institutions of the Soviet state and became its most powerful leader.

A common mix-up is to describe Stalin simply as Russian because he ruled from Moscow and worked mainly in Russian. That refers to his political environment and public culture, not his ethnic origin. He was a Soviet citizen and leader, but “Georgian” is the standard canonical answer to this question.

Georgia became part of the Soviet Union after the Red Army invasion of 1921. Stalin later governed the USSR from 1924 until his death in 1953, making his Georgian origins an important contrast to his central role in Russian and Soviet history.