What happened to the children of Yakov Dzhugashvili. Life tragedies of Stalin's children. Why Yakov Dzhugashvili sought death. The current is ahead of the bullet

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It is unlikely that any adult in Russia, or indeed in the world, needs to be told about Stalin the politician. Much less is known about Stalin as a person, but he was a husband, father and, as it turns out, big hunter to women, at least during the time of their stormy revolutionary youth. True, the fates of those closest to him always turned out tragically. Dismissing fiction, myths and gossip, Anews talks about the wives and children of the leader.

Ekaterina (Kato) Svanidze

First wife

At the age of 27, Stalin married the 21-year-old daughter of a Georgian nobleman. Her brother, with whom he once studied at the theological seminary, was his close friend. They got married secretly, at night, in a mountain monastery in Tiflis, because Joseph was already hiding from the authorities as an underground Bolshevik.

Marriage concluded by Great love, lasted only 16 months: Kato gave birth to a son, Yakov, and at the age of 22 she died in her husband’s arms, either from transient consumption or from typhus. According to legend, the inconsolable widower allegedly told a friend at the funeral: “My last warm feelings for people died with her.”

Even if these words are fiction, then here real fact: Years later, Stalin’s repressions destroyed almost all of Catherine’s relatives. The same brother and his wife were shot, elder sister. And his brother’s son was kept in a psychiatric hospital until Stalin’s death.

Yakov Dzhugashvili

First son

Stalin's firstborn was raised by Kato's relatives. He first saw his father at the age of 14, when he already had a new family. It is believed that Stalin never fell in love with the “wolf cub,” as he himself called him, and was even jealous of his wife, who was only five and a half years older than Yasha. He severely punished the teenager for the slightest offenses, sometimes he did not let him go home, forcing him to spend the night on the stairs. When, at the age of 18, the son married against the will of his father, the relationship completely deteriorated. In desperation, Yakov tried to shoot himself, but the bullet went right through, he was saved, and Stalin distanced himself even more from the “bully and blackmailer” and mocked him: “Ha, I didn’t hit!”

In June 1941, Yakov Dzhugashvili went to the front, and to the most difficult sector - near Vitebsk. His battery distinguished itself in one of the largest tank battles, and Stalin’s son, along with other fighters, was nominated for the award.

But soon Yakov was captured. His portraits immediately appeared on fascist leaflets designed to demoralize Soviet soldiers. There is a myth that Stalin allegedly refused to exchange his son for the German military leader Paulus, saying: “I don’t exchange a soldier for a field marshal!” Historians doubt that the Germans even proposed such an exchange, and the phrase itself is heard in the Soviet film epic “Liberation” and, apparently, is an invention of the screenwriters.

German photo: Stalin's son in captivity

And the following photograph of the captive Yakov Dzhugashvili is published for the first time: only recently it was found in the photo archive of the military leader of the Third Reich, Wolfram von Richthofen.

Yakov spent two years in captivity and did not cooperate with the Germans under any pressure. He died in the camp in April 1943: he provoked a sentry to fire a fatal shot by rushing to the barbed wire fence. According to a common version, Yakov fell into despair after hearing Stalin’s words on the radio that “there are no prisoners of war in the Red Army, there are only traitors and traitors to the Motherland.” However, most likely, this “spectacular phrase” was attributed to Stalin later.

Meanwhile, Yakov Dzhugashvili’s relatives, in particular his daughter and half-brother Artem Sergeev, were convinced all their lives that he died in battle in June 1941, and his time in captivity, including photos and interrogation reports, was from beginning to end played out by the Germans for propaganda purposes. However, in 2007, the FSB confirmed the fact of his captivity.

Nadezhda Alliluyeva

Second and last wife

Stalin married for the second time at the age of 40, his wife was 23 years younger - a fresh graduate of the gymnasium, who looked with adoration at the seasoned revolutionary, who had just returned from yet another Siberian exile.

Nadezhda was the daughter of Stalin’s longtime associates, and he also had an affair with her mother Olga in his youth. Now, years later, she became his mother-in-law.

The marriage of Joseph and Nadezhda, initially happy, eventually became unbearable for both. Memories of their family are very contradictory: some said that Stalin was gentle at home, and she enforced strict discipline and easily flared up, others said that he was constantly rude, and she endured and accumulated grievances until tragedy struck...

In November 1932, after another public altercation with her husband while visiting Voroshilov, Nadezhda returned home, retired to the bedroom and shot herself in the heart. No one heard the shot, only the next morning she was found dead. She was 31 years old.

There were also different stories about Stalin's reaction. According to some, he was shocked and cried at the funeral. Others remember that he was furious and said over his wife’s coffin: “I didn’t know that you were my enemy.” One way or another, with family relations was forever over. Subsequently, numerous novels were attributed to Stalin, including with the first beauty of the Soviet screen, Lyubov Orlova, but these were mostly unconfirmed rumors and myths.

Vasily Dzhugashvili (Stalin)

Second son

Nadezhda gave birth to two children for Stalin. When she committed suicide, her 12-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter found themselves under the supervision of not only nannies and housekeepers, but also male guards led by General Vlasik. It was them that Vasily later blamed for the fact that youth became addicted to smoking and alcohol.

Subsequently, being a military pilot and fighting bravely in the war, he more than once received penalties and demotions “in the name of Stalin” for hooligan actions. For example, he was removed from command of a regiment for fishing with the use of aircraft shells, as a result of which his weapons engineer was killed and one of the best pilots was wounded.

Or after the war, a year before Stalin’s death, he lost his position as commander of the Air Force of the Moscow Military District when he showed up drunk at a government holiday reception and was rude to the Air Force Commander-in-Chief.

Immediately after the death of the leader, the life of Aviation Lieutenant General Vasily Stalin went downhill. He began to spread left and right that his father had been poisoned, and when the Minister of Defense decided to appoint his troubled son to a position away from Moscow, he did not obey his order. He was transferred to the reserve without the right to wear a uniform, and then he did the irreparable - he conveyed his version of Stalin’s poisoning to foreigners, hoping to receive protection from them.

But instead of abroad younger son Stalin, a decorated participant in the Great Patriotic War, ended up in prison, where he spent 8 years, from April 1953 to April 1961. The angry Soviet leadership brought a lot of accusations on him, including frankly ridiculous ones, but Vasily admitted to everything without exception during interrogation. At the end of his sentence, he was “exiled” to Kazan, but he did not live even a year in freedom: he died in March ’62, just a couple of days before his 41st birthday. According to the official conclusion, from alcohol poisoning.

Svetlana Alliluyeva (Lana Peters)

Stalin's daughter

Naturally or not, the only one of the children whom Stalin doted on gave him nothing but trouble during his lifetime, and after his death she fled abroad and in the end completely abandoned her homeland, where she was threatened with the fate of suffering moral punishment for the rest of her days. father's sins.

From a young age, she started countless affairs, sometimes destructive for her chosen ones. When, at the age of 16, she fell in love with 40-year-old film screenwriter Alexei Kapler, Stalin arrested him and exiled him to Vorkuta, completely forgetting how he himself, at the same age, seduced young Nadezhda, Svetlana’s mother.

Only official husbands Svetlana had five, including an Indian and an American. Having escaped to India in 1966, she became a “defector”, leaving her 20-year-old son and 16-year-old daughter behind in the USSR. They did not forgive such betrayal. The son is no longer in the world, and the daughter, who is now approaching 70, abruptly interrupts the inquisitive journalists: “You are mistaken, she is not my mother.”

In America, Svetlana, who became Lana Peters by marriage, had her third daughter, Olga. With her, she suddenly returned to the USSR in the mid-80s, but did not take root either in Moscow or in Georgia and eventually finally left for the USA, renouncing her native citizenship. Her personal life never worked out. She died in a nursing home in 2011, her burial place is unknown.

Svetlana Alliluyeva: “Wherever I go - to Switzerland, or India, even Australia, even some lonely island, I will always be a political prisoner in the name of my father.”

Stalin had three more sons - two illegitimate, born from his mistresses in exile, and one adopted. Surprisingly, their fates were not so tragic, on the contrary, as if distance from their father or lack of blood relationship saved them from evil fate.

Artem Sergeev

Stalin's adopted son

His own father was the legendary Bolshevik “Comrade Artem”, revolutionary comrade-in-arms and close friend Stalin. When his son was three months old, he died in a train accident, and Stalin took him into his family.

Artem was the same age as Vasily Stalin; the guys were inseparable from childhood. From the age of two and a half, both were raised in a boarding school for “Kremlin” children, however, in order not to raise a “children’s elite,” exactly the same number of real street children were placed with them. Everyone was taught to work equally. The children of party members returned home only on weekends, and were obliged to invite orphans to their home.

According to Vasily’s memoirs, Stalin “loved Artyom very much and set him as an example.” However, Stalin did not give any concessions to the diligent Artyom, who, unlike Vasily, studied well and with interest. So, after the war, he had a rather difficult time at the Artillery Academy due to excessive drilling and nagging teachers. Then it turned out that Stalin personally demanded that adopted son treated more strictly.

After Stalin's death, Artem Sergeev became a great military leader and retired with the rank of major general of artillery. He is considered one of the founders of anti-aircraft missile forces THE USSR. He died in 2008 at the age of 86. Until the end of his life he remained a devoted communist.

Mistresses and illegitimate children

British specialist Soviet history Simon Seabag Montefiori, an award-winning documentary filmmaker, toured the area in the 1990s. former USSR and found a lot of unpublished documents in the archives. It turned out that young Stalin was surprisingly amorous and was fond of women of different ages and estates, and after the death of his first wife, during the years of Siberian exile, he had big number mistresses

17-year-old high school graduate Onufrieva's field he sent passionate cards (one of them is pictured). Postscript: “I have your kiss, transmitted to me through Petka. I kiss you back, and not just kiss you, but passionately (you just shouldn’t kiss!). Joseph".

He had affairs with fellow party members - Vera Schweitzer And Lyudmila Steel.

And on a noblewoman from Odessa Stefania Petrovskaya he was even planning to get married.

However, Stalin married two sons with simple peasant women from the distant wilderness.

Konstantin Stepanovich Kuzakov

Illegitimate son from his cohabitant in Solvychegodsk, Maria Kuzakova

The son of a young widow who sheltered the exiled Stalin, he graduated from a university in Leningrad and made a dizzying career - from a non-partisan university teacher to the head of cinematography at the USSR Ministry of Culture and one of the leaders of the State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company. He recalled in 1995: “My origins were not a big secret, but I always managed to avoid answering when asked about it. But I guess my promotion is also related to my abilities.”

Only in mature age he saw Stalin closely for the first time, and it happened in the Presidium buffet Supreme Council. Kuzakov, as a member of the Central Committee apparatus responsible for propaganda, was involved in political editing of speeches. “I didn’t even have time to take a step towards Stalin. The bell rang and members of the Politburo went into the hall. Stalin stopped and looked at me. I felt that he wanted to tell me something. I wanted to rush towards him, but something stopped me. Probably, subconsciously, I understood that public recognition of my relationship would bring me nothing but big troubles. Stalin waved his phone and walked slowly..."

After this, Stalin, under the pretext of a working consultation, wanted to arrange a personal reception for Kuzakov, but he did not hear phone call, fast asleep after a late meeting. Only the next morning they told him that he had missed it. Then Konstantin saw Stalin more than once, both close and from afar, but they never spoke to each other, and he never called again. “I think he didn’t want to make me a tool in the hands of intriguers.”

However, in 1947, Kuzakov almost came under repression due to Beria’s intrigues. He was expelled from the party for “loss of vigilance” and removed from all posts. Beria demanded his arrest at the Politburo. But Stalin saved his unrecognized son. As Zhdanov later told him, Stalin walked along the table for a long time, smoked and then said: “I see no reason for the arrest of Kuzakov.”

Kuzakov was reinstated in the party on the day of Beria’s arrest, and his career resumed. He retired under Gorbachev, in 1987, at the age of 75. Died in 1996.

Alexander Yakovlevich Davydov

Illegitimate son from his cohabitant in Kureika, Lidiya Pereprygina

And here there was almost a criminal story, because 34-year-old Stalin began living with Lydia when she was only 14. Under the threat of gendarmerie prosecution for seducing a minor, he promised to later marry her, but fled from exile earlier. At the time of his disappearance, she was pregnant and without him gave birth to a son, Alexander.

There is evidence that at first the runaway father corresponded with Lydia. Then, a rumor spread that Stalin had been killed at the front, and she married fisherman Yakov Davydov, who adopted her child.

There is documentary evidence that in 1946, 67-year-old Stalin suddenly wanted to find out about their fate and conveyed a laconic order to find bearers of such and such surnames. Based on the search results, Stalin was given brief information- such and such live there. And all the personal and juicy details that became clear in the process surfaced only 10 years later, already under Khrushchev, when the campaign to expose the cult of personality began.

Alexander Davydov lived simple life Soviet soldier and worker. He took part in the Great Patriotic and Korean Wars, rising to the rank of major. After leaving the army, he lived with his family in Novokuznetsk, working in low-level positions - as a foreman, head of a factory canteen. Died in 1987.

The life of Stalin’s eldest son Yakov Dzhugashvili has been poorly studied to this day; there are many contradictory facts and “blank spots” in it. Historians argue about both Jacob’s captivity and his relationship with his father.

Birth

IN official biography The year of birth of Yakov Dzhugashvili is 1907. The place where Stalin's eldest son was born was the Georgian village of Badzi. Some documents, including the protocols of camp interrogations, indicate a different year of birth - 1908 (the same year was indicated in the passport of Yakov Dzhugashvili) and a different place of birth - the capital of Azerbaijan, Baku.

The same place of birth is indicated in the autobiography written by Yakov on June 11, 1939. After the death of his mother, Ekaterina Svanidze, Yakov was raised in the house of her relatives. Daughter sister The mother explained the confusion in the date of birth this way: in 1908 the boy was baptized - this year he himself and many biographers considered the date of his birth.

Son

On January 10, 1936, Yakov Iosifovich was born long-awaited son Eugene. His mother was Olga Golysheva, Yakov’s common-law wife, whom Stalin’s son met in the early 30s. At the age of two, Evgeny Golyshev, allegedly thanks to the efforts of his father, who, however, never saw his son, received a new surname - Dzhugashvili.

Yakov’s daughter from his third marriage, Galina, spoke extremely categorically about her “brother,” referring to her father. He was sure that “he does not and cannot have any son.” Galina claimed that her mother, Yulia Meltzer, supported the woman financially out of fear that the story would reach Stalin. This money, in her opinion, could have been mistaken for alimony from her father, which helped register Evgeniy under the name Dzhugashvili.

Father

There is an opinion that Stalin was cold in his relationship with his eldest son. Their relationship was indeed not simple. It is known that Stalin did not approve of the first marriage of his 18-year-old son, and compared Yakov’s unsuccessful attempt to take his own life with the act of a hooligan and blackmailer, ordering him to convey that his son could “from now on live where he wants and with whom he wants.”

But the most striking “proof” of Stalin’s dislike for his son is considered to be the famous “I’m not changing a soldier for a field marshal!”, said according to legend in response to an offer to save his captive son. Meanwhile, there are a number of facts confirming the father’s care for his son: from material support and living in the same apartment to a donated “emka” and the provision of a separate apartment after his marriage to Yulia Meltser.

Studies

The fact that Yakov studied at the Dzerzhinsky Artillery Academy is undeniable. Only the details of this stage of the biography of Stalin’s son are different. For example, Yakov’s sister Svetlana Alliluyeva writes that he entered the Academy in 1935, when he arrived in Moscow.

If we proceed from the fact that the Academy was transferred to Moscow from Leningrad only in 1938, more convincing is the information of Stalin’s adopted son Artem Sergeev, who said that Yakov entered the academy in 1938 “immediately either in the 3rd or 4th year " A number of researchers draw attention to the fact that not a single photograph was published in which Yakov was captured in military uniform and in the company of fellow students, just as there is not a single recorded memory of him from his comrades who studied with him. The only photograph of Stalin's son in a lieutenant's uniform was presumably taken on May 10, 1941, shortly before being sent to the front.

Front

Yakov Dzhugashvili, as an artillery commander, could have been sent to the front according to various sources in the period from June 22 to June 26 - the exact date is still unknown. During the battles 14 tank division and who enters it 14 artillery regiment, one of the batteries of which was commanded by Yakov Dzhugashvili, caused significant damage to the enemy. For the battle of Senno, Yakov Dzhugashvili was nominated for the Order of the Red Banner, but for some reason his name, number 99, was deleted from the Decree on the award (according to one version, on the personal instructions of Stalin).

Captivity

In July 1941, separate units of the 20th Army were surrounded. On July 8, while trying to escape the encirclement, Yakov Dzhugashvili disappeared, and, as follows from A. Rumyantsev’s report, they stopped looking for him on July 25.

According to the widespread version, Stalin’s son was captured, where he died two years later. However, his daughter Galina stated that the story of her father’s captivity was played out by the German intelligence services. Widely circulated leaflets with the image of Stalin’s son, who surrendered, according to the Nazis’ plan, were supposed to demoralize Russian soldiers.

In most cases, the “trick” did not work: as Yuri Nikulin recalled, the soldiers understood that this was a provocation. The version that Yakov did not surrender, but died in battle, was also supported by Artem Sergeev, recalling that there was not a single reliable document confirming the fact that Stalin’s son was in captivity.

In 2002, the Defense Forensic Science Center confirmed that the photographs featured on the flyer were falsified. It was also proven that the letter allegedly written by the captive Yakov to his father was another fake. In particular, Valentin Zhilyaev in his article “Yakov Stalin was not captured” proves the version that the role of Stalin’s captive son was played by another person.

Death

If we still agree that Yakov was in captivity, then according to one version, during a walk on April 14, 1943, he threw himself onto the barbed wire, after which a sentry named Khafrich fired - a bullet hit him in the head. But why shoot at an already dead prisoner of war, who died instantly from an electrical discharge?

The conclusion of the forensic expert of the SS division testifies that death was due to “destruction of the lower part of the brain” from a shot in the head, that is, not from an electrical discharge. According to the version based on the testimony of the commandant of the Jägerdorf concentration camp, Lieutenant Zelinger, Yakov Stalin died in the infirmary at the camp from a serious illness. Another question is often asked: did Yakov really not have the opportunity to commit suicide during his two years of captivity? Some researchers explain Yakov’s “indecisiveness” by the hope of liberation, which he harbored until he learned about his father’s words. By official version The Germans cremated the body of “Stalin’s son,” and soon sent the ashes to their security department.

Stalin's son from his first marriage to Ekaterina Svanidze. Born in the village. Badji Kutaisi province (according to other sources - in Baku). Until the age of 14, he was raised by his aunt, A.S. Monasalidze in Tbilisi. In 1921, at the insistence of his uncle A. Svanidze, he came to Moscow to study. Yakov spoke only Georgian, was silent and shy.
Dzhugashvili Yakov Iosifovich (1907-1943).

Yakov and sister Svetlana

Yakov Dzhugashvili with little Galya, daughter from his marriage to Yu. Meltzer.

His father greeted him unfriendly, but his stepmother, Nadezhda Alliluyeva, tried to look after him. In Moscow, Yakov first studied at a school on Arbat, then at an electrical engineering school in Sokolniki, from which he graduated in 1925. He got married the same year.
“But the first marriage brought tragedy. My father didn’t want to hear about the marriage, didn’t want to help him... Yasha shot himself in our kitchen, next to his small room, at night. The bullet went right through, but he was sick for a long time. His father began to treat him even worse for this” (Alliluyeva S.) On April 9, 1928, N.S. Alliluyeva received the following letter from Stalin: “Tell Yasha from me that he acted like a hooligan and a blackmailer, with whom I have no relationship there can be nothing more in common. Let him live where he wants and with whom he wants."

From the first days of the war, Yakov went to the front. On July 16, 1941, senior lieutenant Yakov Dzhugashvili was captured.

Berlin radio reported “stunning news” to the population: “From the headquarters of Field Marshal Kluge, a report was received that on July 16, near Liozno, southeast of Vitebsk, German soldiers motorized corps of General Schmidt captured the son of dictator Stalin - senior lieutenant Yakov Dzhugashvili, commander artillery battery from the Seventh Rifle Corps of General Vinogradov." The place and date of Y. Dzhugashvili’s capture became known from German leaflets.

On August 7, 1941, the political department of the Northwestern Front sent to member of the Military Council A.A. Zhdanov has three such leaflets in a secret package, dropped from an enemy plane. On the leaflet, in addition to the propaganda text calling for surrender, there is a photograph with the caption: “German officers talking with Yakov Dzhugashvili.” On the back of the leaflet the manuscript of the letter was reproduced: “Dear Father! I am a prisoner, healthy, and will soon be sent to one of the officer camps in Germany. The treatment is good. I wish you good health, hello everyone, Yakov.” A.A. Zhdanov informed Stalin about what had happened.

But neither the interrogation protocol (stored in “Case No. T-176” in the Archives of the US Congress 3)), nor the German leaflets answer the question of how Ya. Dzhugashvili was captured. There were many soldiers of Georgian nationality, and if this was not betrayal, then how did the fascists know that it was Stalin’s son? Of course, there can be no talk of voluntary surrender. This is confirmed by his behavior in captivity and unsuccessful attempts fascists to recruit him. One of Jacob’s interrogations at the headquarters of Field Marshal Gunther von Kluge was conducted on July 18, 1941 by Captain Reschle. Here is an excerpt from the interrogation protocol:

How did it turn out that you are Stalin’s son if they didn’t find any documents on you?
- Some servicemen of my unit gave me away.
- What is your relationship with your father?
- Not so good. I do not share his political views in everything.
-... Do you consider captivity a disgrace?
- Yes, I think it’s a shame...

In the fall of 1941, Yakov was transferred to Berlin and placed at the disposal of Goebbels' propaganda service. He was placed in the fashionable Adlon Hotel and surrounded by former Georgian counter-revolutionaries. This is probably where the photograph of Y. Dzhugashvili with Georgy Scriabin, allegedly the son of Molotov, the then chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, was born. At the beginning of 1942, Yakov was transferred to the officer camp "Oflag XSH-D", located in Hammelburg. Here they tried to break him with mockery and hunger. In April the prisoner was transferred to Oflag HS in Lübeck. Jacob's neighbor was a prisoner of war, Captain Rene Blum, the son of the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of France, Leon Blum. By decision of the meeting, Polish officers allocated food to Jacob monthly.

However, Yakov was soon taken to the Sachsenhausen camp and placed in a department where there were prisoners who were relatives of high-ranking leaders of the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition. In this barracks, in addition to Yakov and Vasily Kokorin, four English officers were kept: William Murphy, Andrew Walsh, Patrick O'Brien and Thomas Cushing. The German high command offered Stalin to exchange him for Field Marshal Friedrich von Paulus, captured in 1942 under Stalingrad Stalin's official response, transmitted through the chairman of the Swedish Red Cross, Count Bernadotte, read: “A soldier is not exchanged for a marshal.”

In 1943, Yakov died in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. We have reached the following document, compiled by former prisoners and stored in the archives of the memorial of this concentration camp: “Yakov Dzhugashvili constantly felt the hopelessness of his situation. He often fell into depression, refused to eat, and was especially influenced by Stalin’s statement, repeatedly broadcast on the camp radio, that “we have no prisoners of war - we have traitors to the Motherland.”

Perhaps this pushed Yakov to take a reckless step. On the evening of April 14, 1943, he refused to enter the barracks and rushed into the “dead zone.” The sentry fired. Death came instantly. “An attempt to escape,” the camp authorities reported. The remains of Yakov Dzhugashvili were burned in the camp crematorium... In 1945, in the archive captured by the Allies, a report from SS guard Harfik Konrad was found, claiming that he shot Yakov Dzhugashvili when he threw himself on a barbed wire fence. This information was also confirmed by the British prisoner of war Thomas Cushing, who was in the same barracks with Jacob.

From the memories of a peer:

"... There is not a single reliable, authentic document indicating that Yakov was in captivity. Probably, on July 16, 1941, he was killed in battle. I think the Germans found his documents on him and staged such a game with our respective services. To me at that time had to be in the German rear. We saw a leaflet where supposedly Yakov and German officer who interrogates him. And in my partisan detachment he was professional photographer. When I asked him what his opinion was: whether it was fake or not, he didn’t say anything right away and only a day later he confidently stated: editing. And now forensic analysis confirms that all photographs and texts of Yakov allegedly in captivity are edited and fake. Of course, if Yakov, as the Germans claimed, had come to them, then they would have taken care of reliable evidence, and would not have presented dubious ones: sometimes blurry photographs, sometimes from the back, sometimes from the side. In the end, there were no witnesses either: either they knew Yakov only from photographs, but identified him in captivity, or the same frivolous evidence. The Germans then had enough technical means to shoot on film, take photos, and record a voice. There is none of this. Thus, it is obvious that Stalin’s eldest son died in battle." (A. Sergeev)

The one who seemed destined for the fate of the “Kremlin prince” did not know either happiness or love in his entire short life

The first-born, and even a son, and even from a beloved woman - as a rule, this is the main joy and hope of fathers. But not Yakov Dzhugashvili. Why is the eldest of the heirs Stalin He grew up as a foundling, lived as a hermit, and why his death is still surrounded by speculation - this is what the website talks about.

Orphan from birth

Eldest son Joseph Vissarionovich was born on March 18, 1907. The boy was named Yakov; he was the only one of Stalin's children to receive real name father - Dzhugashvili.

Yakov's mother is Stalin's first wife Ekaterina Svanidze. Not much is known about this leader’s marriage. But almost everyone who knew this family said that Soso And Kato loved each other very much. By the time they got married, Dzhugashvili was already carried away by revolutionary ideas, the family had to constantly hide. Kato even spent several months under arrest because of her husband's activities.

A few months after Jacob was born, Kato had to leave him with his relatives. At that time, she herself worked as a dressmaker in Tiflis, one of the most sought after in the city, so she could regularly send money to relatives looking after Yakov.

But soon Ekaterina Svanidze fell ill with consumption. Constantly on the move, Joseph still managed to say goodbye to his wife - he returned home the day before her death. At Kato's funeral, Stalin, unable to cope with the grief that befell him, threw himself into the grave.

Fathers and Sons

Jacob was only 8 months old when his mother died. His entire childhood was spent without parents. When Stalin finally took Yakov away from his wife’s relatives, the boy was already fourteen years old. This was the first time he saw his dad. The teenager had to get used not only to his father, but also to his new family- by that time Stalin had already married a second time, to Nadezhda Alliluyeva and she bore him a son Vasily.

Stalin's relationship with his first-born son never worked out. The character of both was not distinguished by gentleness; no one wanted to meet them halfway. But the stepmother managed to find an approach to Yakov. Stalin often conveyed his instructions to his eldest son through Nadezhda.

First try

Four years later, the leader's son graduated from school and married his classmate and the priest's daughter Zoya Gunina. Stalin was enraged by this news, and a quarrel with his son ended with Yakov trying to shoot himself. But the bullet went right through. Stalin will remember his failed suicide attempt for a long time to his son.

In fact, throughout the subsequent years, Yakov lived his own life. Subsequently, some historians stated that he felt like an outcast because of his father’s attitude, which perhaps explains the fact that Jacob, in fact, was a deeply unhappy person. But their opponents claim that there was no talk of any “fatherlessness”. However, the leader’s eldest son was still not happy.

Family life did not work out. The marriage to Zoya broke up after the death of their newborn child. Over the next less than 10 years, Yakov had two more marriages, one of which was civil, and two children were born from different women- son Eugene and daughter Galina.

War as salvation

In 1937, following his father's wishes, he began to receive military education. In May 1941, just before the start of the war, he became commander of an artillery battery. After his father’s dry parting words (“Go and fight”) he went to the front. In mid-July '41 he was captured. And this last segment of the life of Stalin’s eldest son is most filled with mysteries and speculation.