 The Soviet Union was a one-party state governed by the Communist Party, and during Gorbachev's childhood was under the leadership of Joseph Stalin.Stalin had initiated a project of mass rural collectivization which, in keeping with his Marxist-Leninist ideas, he believed would help convert the country into a socialist society.Gorbachev's maternal grandfather joined the Communist Party and helped form the village's first kolkhoz (collective farm) in 1929, becoming its chair.