In 1900 and 1901 he led strikes and demostrations in Tifilis and Batum (Block 791). In 1901 the Czar"s secret police searched Stalin"s room but he had gone and joined the underground movement that was springing up throughout Russia. He worked for a number of newspapers and on September of 1901 he offically became accepted into the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (Marrin 825). .

             Stalin was arrested and exiled to Eastern Siberia, seven times between April 1902 and March 1913, for revoulutionary activity. He escaped numerous times to come back and wreak havack upon the Czarist goverment (Nash 2836). In late 1905, he traveled as a Caucasian delegate to the secret Boleshevik conference in Finland. It was there that he first met Lenin, later on he started to carry out orders for Lenin. Stalin soon became Lenins most trusted lieutenants, he also became good at raising money for the Party. He supposedly helped with the seccessful attack on the Tifilis bank convoy (Block 791). He wrote articles for newspapers such as the Zvesda (The Star) and Pravada (The Truth). Some say it was about this time when he started calling himself Joseph Stalin (Block 791).

             In 1914 Germany declared war on Russia and France. World War I had erupted. Stalin was in exile were he stayed until 1917. Russia was suffering badly and many people were starving. Riots and demonstrations broke out through the cities and on March 15, 1917 Czar Nicholas III gave up his throne to a provisional goverment mostly lead by Mensheviks (Marrin 826). The provisional goverment freed all political prisoners (Block 791). .

             Stalin returned to Petrograd to help direct the Bolsheviks before Lenin"s return from Switzerland. When Lenin returned he opoosed the new goverment and again began to lead a revoulution with Stalin supporting him the whole way. While Lenin and other revoulutionaries were forced to live underground, Stalin stayed in Petrograd.