I vaguely remember that during Lenin's reign as Premier, he gave Stalin the weak office of General Secretary, who's role was to give out jobs to party members, but he eventually gave jobs to his friends and cronies. Although Lenin had no intentions of appointing Stalin as his successor, by then, when Lenin was detoriating, Stalin was already consolidated his power through his allies and made his office of General Secretary the de facto leader of union. But like I said, I don't remember it too well.
Also fun fact:
View attachment 29139
This was Joseph
Styling during his youth.