Yakov Dzhugashvili
Yakov Iosifovich Dzhugashvili (1907-1943) was born from the leader’s first marriage. His mother died a few months after the birth of her son from typhus. Stalin was illegal and could not take care of the child, so Yakov was raised by his mother’s relatives. He met his father as a teenager.
Yakov graduated from a regular school (he studied well), then was a worker, in 1936 he graduated from college and received a specialty as a turbine engineer, and studied at the Artillery Academy of the Red Army. Until the mid-30s, relations with my father were strained, then they somewhat normalized.
On the very first day of the war, Yakov Dzhugashvili went to the front, commanded a battery, received the Order of the Patriotic War and the Red Banner, but in the summer of 1941 he was captured. He was held in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp.
There is a persistent legend that Yakov Iosifovich was offered to be exchanged for Field Marshal von Paulus, captured at Stalingrad. There are two options for Stalin’s answer to this proposal:
- A soldier is not exchanged for a field marshal.
- Where can I get enough for all our captured field marshals?
The story has no documentary evidence, but it is not customary to document such things. There is only one fact: the unequal exchange did not take place, and Yakov Dzhugashvili was killed by a concentration camp guard.
Granddaughter of Mikhail Gorbachev left for Berlin
Mikhail Gorbachev's granddaughter Ksenia has been living in Germany for many years. She moved there after her second marriage. In Berlin, Ksenia chose a doctor who helped her child be born. In one interview, Ksenia Gorbacheva admitted that she did not want and did not intend to give birth in Russia. After the birth of her daughter, Ksenia Gorbacheva and her family lived in Germany. The daughter of Ksenia Gorbacheva and former concert director Abraham Russo Dmitry Pyrchenkov, Sashenka, studies at a Berlin school. The girl is told that she has famous Russian figures in her family by showing photographs. The family comes to Russia only for the New Year holidays.
Vasily Stalin
Vasily Iosifovich Dzhugashvili (1921-1962) during his lifetime bore the surname Stalin. He was born into a second marriage and was considered a spoiled child. But after the death of his mother (19342), he was raised separately from his father, subject to the strong influence of his guards.
In 1938, Vasily graduated from the Kachin Aviation School. He always studied unevenly, but turned out to be a good pilot. He went through the entire war, was respected by his comrades for his skill and courage, was promoted several times, and received government awards. True, he was often subject to penalties, as he had an adventurous character and a penchant for bravado.
Vasily served in aviation after the war, becoming one of the youngest lieutenant generals of the USSR, but all contemporaries agree that Joseph Vissarionovich not only did not promote him, but also “overshadowed him.”
After the death of the leader, Vasily was dismissed from the army and then arrested. He was accused of making unfounded allegations about the poisoning of his father and attempting to emigrate to the PRC. Vasily served 8 years with a break (for some time Khrushchev gave him freedom).
The leader's son never had a healthy lifestyle, and in prison his health completely weakened, so he died young. The official cause was alcohol poisoning.
Svetlana Alliluyeva
If anyone in Joseph Stalin’s family was truly a darling, it was Svetlana Iosifovna (1926-2011), but she treated her father and his memory worse than all the children. Svetlana used her mother’s surname – Alliluyeva. She studied at the philological and historical faculties of Moscow State University, was engaged in scientific work and generally succeeded in the USSR. However, in the spring of 1961, Svetlana, while in India on personal business, asked for political asylum at the US Embassy. There they were delighted with the prospect of giving it to Stalin's daughter.
Svetlana's emigration offended not only the Soviet government, but also her friends and relatives. Returning to the USSR in 1984, she encountered hostility from others (including family and friends) and 2 years later she left for the USA again.
Svetlana published several books in which she portrayed her father in a more than black light. She is the author of the legend about Stalin’s alleged murder of Nadezhda Alliluyeva (in fact, there was a suicide, and Nadezhda was such a gift).
Svetlana was officially married 4 times, constantly divorced, and had many affairs. She died in a nursing home in the USA.
There are many legends about Stalin’s illegitimate children, but such facts need proof. The leader also had an adopted son, Artem Sergeev - he adopted the son of his comrade-in-arms, the famous Ukrainian communist “Comrade Artem”. Artem Sergeev lived a long, happy life, became a major general and one of the founders of the missile forces. Also, Stalin’s children had children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, so now there are many direct descendants of the “leader of peoples” living in the world.
Stalin's favorite son: fighter hero or bitter drunkard
The son of the “Leader of Nations” Vasily was born 100 years ago.
100 years ago, Vasily Joseph Stalin and Nadezhda Alliluyeva (this was the leader’s second marriage) . Unlike his eldest son, Jacob, the leader paid more attention to his younger son. He was his favorite son. But Vasya became famous more for his antics than for his exploits. There were many myths about him. Which ones are true and which ones are fiction?
"KP" cites the main legends about Stalin Jr.
Myth 1. Vasya fought with everyone
This happened. Stalin's youngest son first studied at school No. 175 (later No. 25) on Arbat. Then, in 1937, he was transferred to special school No. 2. Both the first and second included both the children of high Soviet officials and children whose families simply lived nearby. A number of teachers noted Vasily Stalin’s defiant behavior. In particular, Olga Leonova (the future director of this school) taught his daughter Svetlana. In the memoirs of graduates of this educational institution, it is noted that Vasya not only studied poorly and was insolent to teachers (once he interrupted the demonstration of an educational film by sharply drawing the curtains in the classroom), but was not averse to blaming others. For which one day they gave him a dark detention, covering Vasya with his own coat and beating him. The story reached Stalin. Having learned about the reasons, the leader did not punish anyone at school.
However, such an incident with revenge from classmates was an exception to the rule for Vasily - he did not allow anyone to punish himself except his father.
Joseph Stalin's wife Nadezhda Alliluyeva and son Vasily. Reproduction TASS
Myth 2. I flew without a parachute
Yes, Vasily despised the parachute. But during his studies, he had to fly with him - the only one of the cadets. I didn’t pass the exams at the Kachin Flight School (in Crimea). At first he lived there in a “guest house”. He ate what was prepared in the officers' mess. He had free access to Sevastopol, where he rode on an American motorcycle delivered from Moscow. After a fall on a mountain serpentine road (the damage was not critical), the incident was reported to the leader of the peoples. And in December 1938, all privileges from the thieves’ son were removed. Including public security. Vasily was transferred to the cadet barracks. He ate in the common canteen with his fellow students. But, by order of the school management, he, the only one of the cadets, had to take a parachute on training flights (the younger Stalin cursed through his teeth - not only because he did not want to stand out, but the parachute took up a lot of space in the cramped cockpit). During his studies, no accidents happened to Vasya in the air (although the death of 3 cadets and a colonel from the political department of the school was recorded during these years). And the leader’s son did not have to make an emergency parachute jump.
During the war, as a rule, he no longer took a parachute into the cockpit.
Myth 3. Killed a colleague
Alas, it's true. Risk accompanied Stalin's son all his life. But he risked not only himself. While fishing on the Selizharovka River in April 1943, when Vasily himself was already commanding a regiment, a tragedy happened. They killed the fish one and a half kilometers from the airfield using grenades and rockets. None of the 7 participants (according to other sources 9), including 4 Heroes of the Soviet Union, followed the safety rules. Regimental weapons engineer Razin died. One of the fighter pilots became disabled. Stalin Jr. himself, with injuries to his left cheek and foot (his heel was crushed), was taken to the Kremlin hospital and removed from command.
Vasily Stalin with his father and sister.
Any other officer would have been court-martialed for this incident. Vasily received only a reprimand and was demoted, but soon returned to flying.
Myth 4. “Fought in the rear”
No. Stalin Jr. cannot be blamed for wanting to sit in the rear. Vasily, like the sons of many leaders of the USSR, was eager to go to the front. According to the memoirs of his half-brother Artem Sergeev, already in 1941, during a raid of German bombers on Mtsensk, Vasily, taking off in the air without ammunition, literally “pushed out” the Nazi planes, attacking them head-on. For which he was nominated for the first of his three Orders of the Red Banner. As commander of the 32nd Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment in February-March 1943, he participated in effective attacks at least a dozen times. According to the memoirs of Hero of the Soviet Union Sergei Dolgushin, regiment commander Stalin attacked the Germans first. From May 1944 he commanded the 286th Fighter Division. According to the commander of the 16th Air Army, Sergei Rudenko, Vasily Stalin carried out 26 combat missions and personally shot down 2 aircraft (according to other sources - 5).
Myth 5. I loved sports
Yes. Vasily supervised the Air Force football team as the head of the air force of the Moscow military circle. His club competed with Beria’s favorite team, Dynamo Moscow. The best football players in the country were lured into the Air Force team. The future Olympic champion, Spartak player Nikita Simonyan recalled that he was pulled out of his vacation in Kislovodsk and taken home to Vasily Stalin. Simonyan asked to leave him at Spartak and... received permission - unlike most of his colleagues from other clubs. Sports rivalry with Beria was also expressed in the fact that the creator of Spartak, Nikolai Starostin, hated by the head of the NKVD, was not only under Vasily’s patronage, but at one time even hid from Beria’s people at facilities guarded by the Air Force. And on the podium of the Dynamo stadium I sat in a box next to the leader’s son. But Vasily Stalin’s love for football did not bring big titles to the Air Force club. And the Air Force hockey team died in a plane crash on January 5, 1950.
Vasily Stalin after the war.
Myth 6. He was known as Casanova
He loved women. He was officially married four times. He met his first wife, the daughter of a special services officer, Galina Burdonskaya, at the Dynamo skating rink in 1940; the marriage produced a son, Sasha, and a daughter, Nadya. They broke up after 5 years because of Vasily’s betrayals and spree (with a salary of 5 thousand rubles, he later paid alimony - 1.5 thousand). The second wife was the daughter of Marshal Timoshenko, Ekaterina, who fled to Vasya from her family in August 1945 - they had a son Vasya and a daughter Sveta. They separated in 1949. The third wife was 12-time USSR swimming champion Kapitolina Vasilyeva. They lived with her in a mansion at 7 Gogolevsky Boulevard - she left Vasily a week before the death of Joseph Stalin.
When Vasily was in prison (more on this in Myth 7), all three ex-wives came to see him in Vladimir on a date—longest of all, Kapitolina.
A nurse with two children, Maria Nuzberg became Vasily’s fourth wife in January 1962. They signed just a couple of months before the death of Stalin’s youngest son.
But the number of “serious” novels confirmed by friends, relatives, and co-workers exceeds the number of marriages.
Myth 7. Died from alcoholism
Vasily drank a lot and with pleasure. Three weeks after the death of his father, having disobeyed the order of the then Minister of Defense Nikolai Bulganin to leave for one of the distant districts, Lieutenant General Vasily Stalin was transferred to the reserve. A month later he was arrested on charges of slandering the country's leadership. Of the 8 years, he served about six in the Vladimir Central Prison. There he fell ill and was released early in January 1960 on the orders of Khrushchev.
He continued to drink, got into accidents, and again ended up behind bars for a year. After which he was exiled to Kazan for 5 years. Where on March 19, 1962 he died of alcohol poisoning (the official version was that he drank with his father’s fellow countryman for several days) - on the eve of his 41st birthday...
