Often, people go by a name other than their birth name. Joseph Stalin adopted his moniker, which means “Man of Steel,” in 1912/1913. The Russified version also helped him blend in and build a reputation within broader Russian-language revolutionary circles and the leadership of the Bolshevik Party. Like many underground Marxist revolutionaries of the time, Stalin used dozens of aliases to evade arrest during his illegal political activities, bank robberies, and labor organizing in the Russian Empire.