Would History Have Been Different had Stalin Become a Priest?
In 1894 Joseph Stalin enrolled in the Orthodox Seminary of Tifilis when he was just 16. Years earlier his father had cut him and his mother off financially. Now this is important because in 1899, the year he would have gradutated and become a priest the Seminary raised it's fees right before he was to take his final exam. Unable to pay his fees or for the final exam, Stalin didn't take the final and was expelled. It's was after being expelled that he heard of Lenin and decided to become a revolutionary.
But what if Stalin's father had never cut him off? What if he'd had the money to pay his school fees and became a priest? Would he still have learned of Lenin and become a revolutionary or would he have been too devoted to the priesthood?