he man who will become known as Josef Stalin is born in poverty in a provincial backwater town in central Georgia. His father is a violent alcoholic. His mother Keke makes big sacrifices to give her son the best education she can. She sees “Soso” (her nickname for him) as a future bishop of the Orthodox Church. With those dreams in mind Keke scrapes together the money, and uses her contacts to get Soso into a church school. But Soso also has a difficult childhood. Serious accidents mar his childhood and he is caught in violent gang life. Soso though is also an excellent student, and in his teenage years at an Orthodox Seminary, is a choirboy heading towards the priesthood with a growing reputation as a romantic poet. But then he reaches a Turning Point courtesy of a Karl Marx and a zealous priest nicknamed Black Spot. He will later change his name and become Josef Stalin, dictator of Russia.