In Russia, the Tsarist police hunted down democrats and revolutionaries with a vengeance, putting them in prison or sending them to Siberian exile. Russian political parties had to find places abroad to meet. In 1907, the Marxists chose to hold their congress in London, and so it came about that a certain Ivanovich took up lodgings at 77 Jubilee Road. His real name was Joseph Dzhughashvili; he became better-known in later years as the Soviet dictator Stalin. He chose Stepney because the lodgings were cheap and the poor Jewish landlords spoke Russian. Congress participants could fold themselves into the local community without being noticed by the police. Stalin's East End
