Vasily Stalin, the future lieutenant general of aviation, was born in Joseph Stalin's second marriage to Nadezhda Alliluyeva. At the age of 12, he lost his mother. She shot herself in 1932. Stalin was not involved in his upbringing, shifting this concern to the head of security. Later Vasily will write that he was raised by men “not distinguished by morality......He began to smoke and drink early.”
At the age of 19, he fell in love with his friend's fiancée Galina Burdonskaya and married her in 1940. In 1941, the first-born Sasha was born, two years later Nadezhda.
After 4 years, Galina left, unable to bear her husband’s spree. In retaliation, he refused to give her the children. For eight years they had to live with their father, despite the fact that a year later he started another family.
The new chosen one was the daughter of Marshal Tymoshenko, Ekaterina. The ambitious beauty, born on December 21, like Stalin, and who saw this as a special sign, did not like her stepsons. The hatred was manic. She locked them up, “forgot” to feed them, and beat them. Vasily did not pay attention to this. The only thing that bothered him was that the children should not see their own mother. One day Alexander met with her secretly, the father found out about it and beat his son.
Many years later, Alexander recalled those years as the most difficult time of his life.
In his second marriage, Vasily Jr. and daughter Svetlana were born. But the family broke up. Vasily, along with the children from his first marriage, Alexander and Nadezhda, went to the famous swimmer Kapitolina Vasilyeva. She accepted them as family. The children from the second marriage remained with their mother.
After Stalin's death, Vasily was arrested.
The first wife Galina immediately took the children. Nobody stopped her from doing this.
Catherine renounced Vasily, received a pension from the state and a four-room apartment on Gorky Street (now Tverskaya), where she lived with her son and daughter. Either due to severe heredity, or an equally difficult situation in the family, their further fate was tragic.
Both did poorly at school. Alone because I was sick all the time. The other one was not interested in studying at all.
After the 21st Party Congress and the exposure of the cult of personality, negativity towards all of Stalin’s relatives intensified in society. Catherine, trying to protect her son, sent him to Georgia to study. There he entered the Faculty of Law. I didn’t go to classes, spent time with new friends, and became addicted to drugs.
The problem was not immediately recognized. From the third year, his mother took him to Moscow, but could not cure him. During one of his “breakdowns,” Vasily committed suicide at the dacha of his famous grandfather, Marshal Timoshenko. He was only 23.
After the death of her son, Catherine withdrew into herself. She did not love her daughter and even refused custody of her, despite the fact that Svetlana suffered Graves' disease and progressive mental illness.
Svetlana died at 43 years old, completely alone. They learned of her death only a few weeks later.
Vasily's children from his first marriage were more successful.
Alexander graduated from the Suvorov Military School. He was not interested in a military career, and he entered the directing department of GITIS. He played in the theater and received the title of People's Artist. Worked as a theater director Soviet army. He considered his grandfather a tyrant, and his relationship with him as a “heavy cross.” He loved his mother very much, lived with her most of the time and bore her last name Burdonsky. Died in 2017.
Nadezhda, unlike her brother, remained Stalin. She always defended her grandfather, claiming that Stalin did not know much of what was happening in the country. She studied at the theater school, but she did not become an actress. She lived in Gori for some time. Upon returning to Moscow, she married her adopted son and mother-in-law, Alexander Fadeev, and gave birth to a daughter, Anastasia. Nadezhda died in 1999 at the age of 56.
Vasily had no other children.
The last wife was nurse Maria Nusberg. He adopted her two daughters, just as he had previously adopted the daughter of Kapitolina Vasilyeva.
The family tragedy of Joseph Stalin, according to researchers, was the reason that the character of an already tough and suspicious person finally turned to the dark side.
Stalin had three children, whom he treated differently. Yakov Iosifovich Dzhugashvili was the son of Ekaterina Svanidze, he was born in 1908, a month later his mother died. Yakov did not evoke any special paternal feelings in Stalin. Nadezhda Alliluyeva, Stalin's second wife, treated Yakov with warmth. Having perceived her location in his own way, he seems to have fallen in love with his stepmother, who was only 7 years older than him, and then tried to shoot himself. Joseph Vissarionovich sneered: “Ha! Missed". Stalin didn’t like literally everything about his son: his character, his wife, his studies...
In agreement with his father, Yakov graduated from the Institute of Railway Engineers, worked at the power plant named after. Stalin, then entered the Artillery Academy, where he was one of the best, joined the army when the war began, and received the rank of captain. Contemporaries remember him as modest, taciturn, smart person, a chess lover who found it extremely difficult to make friends - everyone was afraid to get involved with Stalin's son.
Yakov almost immediately found himself at the front. During the fighting, his unit was surrounded three times. For the third time, Yakov, the battery commander, was unable to lead his soldiers out of encirclement and was captured. Before this, he tried to break through to his people, burned his documents, and changed into peasant clothes, but this did not save him. During interrogation, he honestly admitted that “the division in which he was enrolled and which was considered good, in reality turned out to be completely unprepared for war, complete confusion, the command was no good (stupid actions - units were directly sent under fire).” He did not want the Germans to use even his photographs for their own purposes, since he perfectly understood that his captivity could be used in agitation against the Soviet regime. During interrogations, he never said anything bad about the Soviet system or his homeland. He even admitted: “I am ashamed of my father that I survived.”
Yakov was placed in a concentration camp for officers. There he worked as a bone carver, carved chess pieces, tobacco pipes... Svetlana Alliluyeva, Stalin’s daughter, says that the Germans offered Stalin to exchange Yakov for one of the major German officials, but he refused. “I don’t exchange field marshals for privates,” Stalin snapped regarding the German side’s proposal to exchange his son Yakov, who was captured, for Field Marshal Paulus.
However, according to Dolores Ibarruri, in 1942 a special group was sent across the front line with the task of freeing Yakov Dzhugashvili from the concentration camp. Obviously, main role It was not paternal feelings that were at play here, but considerations of a different nature. In the hands of the Germans, Stalin's son turned into a strong propaganda trump card. The sent group died.
During the years of captivity, Yakov went through the camps of Hammelburg, Lübeck, and Sachsenhausen. The Germans tried to disguise the fact of the execution of Yakov Stalin as a nervous attack: supposedly he himself threw himself at the high-voltage wires, and they shot at him only later. At the end of 1943, Yakov was shot in the head. Perhaps he was trying to escape, or accidentally wandered beyond the fence line. He hung on the wire for a day until Himmler ordered the body to be taken to the crematorium.
Vasily, the son of Joseph Stalin and Nadezhda Alliluyeva, was born on March 21, 1921. He grew up as a mischievous boy, for him there was only one authority - his father, who, however, had little time for raising and communicating with children. He wrote to teachers more than once: “Don’t give free rein to Vasya and be strict with him. If Vasya does not obey the nanny or offends her, put him in blinders.”
He gave the following description of his son (not every father would dare to admit this): “Vasily is a spoiled young man of average abilities, a savage (like a Scythian!), not always truthful, loves to blackmail weak “leaders”, is often impudent, with a weak, or rather - unorganized will. He was spoiled by all sorts of “godfathers” and “gossips”, who continually emphasized that he was “Stalin’s son.”
The habits of childhood were firmly entrenched in the character of Vasily, whom even his father called “barchuk.” In 1938, he entered the Kachin aviation school (he wanted to become an artilleryman, but his father said that one was enough in the family), there they immediately began to make concessions for him: they put him up not in a dormitory, but in a hotel, they prepared food separately (Vasily took advantage of this and ordered such dishes that the local chef had no idea about).
Vasily Stalin received good characterization, in which it was emphasized that he enjoys authority among the cadets, is easy-going, loves to fly, but argued with the foreman, and is restless.
At the age of twenty he went to the front with the rank of captain. During the war he made 27 combat missions; shot down 1 plane and was awarded three Orders of the Red Banner, the Order of Suvorov II degree and the Order of Alexander Nevsky. In 1942 he was awarded the rank of colonel, in 1946 - major general, in 1947 - lieutenant general. Stalin “taught” his son more than once: he removed him from the post of regiment commander for drunkenness. He ended the war as commander of a fighter aviation division. In 1947, Vasily Stalin was appointed commander of the Air Force of the Moscow Military District. By that time he was already suffering from alcoholism and did not participate in flights himself. Vasily developed a new hobby: he established teams of “pilots” in football and hockey, and provided generous financial assistance to Air Force athletes. In the early 50s, on his orders, construction of a sports center began in the Leningrad district of Moscow. He was removed from his post by Stalin himself after on May 1, 1952, by order of Vasily, planes flew over Red Square and several of them crashed.
After the death of the “leader of the peoples,” he was summoned to the then Minister of Defense Bulganin and offered to leave Moscow to command one of the districts. Vasily Stalin disobeyed the order and took off his shoulder straps. He was arrested on April 28, 1953 after a stormy feast with the British, to whom he allegedly told a lot of interesting Kremlin secrets. The son of the former leader was accused of making slanderous statements aimed at discrediting party leaders. In addition, during the investigation, facts of abuse of official position, assault, and intrigue surfaced, as a result of which people died. Vasily Stalin was sentenced to eight years in prison for anti-Soviet propaganda and abuse of office.
Vasily agreed with the accusation in the part that concerned abuse and waste, but not for the purpose of personal enrichment. He did not include maintaining two horses and a barnyard at state expense and building a road to his dacha. But he admitted that he spent several million rubles on converting the building of the Central Airport into headquarters premises, in November 1951 he planned to build a 50-meter swimming pool on the same territory, he supported the sports teams he created (football, hockey, equestrian, speed skating and cycling, basketball , gymnastics, swimming, etc.) The number of all teams was more than 300 people, and their maintenance cost more than 5 million rubles a year. The recreation park on Leningradskoye Shosse was transferred to the Air Force, gyms and an arena were built there, now it is the CSKA sports complex. At the trial, Vasily Stalin himself denied any opposition, while statements of a terrorist nature consisted of the fact that Stalin’s son once said in his hearts: “Killing Bulganin is not enough.”
From memories former employees Vladimir Central: “He was kept with us as Vasily Pavlovich Vasilyev. His registration card does not indicate the time, place of birth, profession, article, or term. Only the date of arrest is April 28, 1953. He appeared in the Vladimir prison in January 1956, accompanied by two colonels. He was wearing a fur-lined leather flight jacket. He walked with a beautiful wooden cane. His arrival was formalized by the head of the prison himself, which was completely out of character. Of course they created for him special conditions content.
For example, a plank floor was laid in his solitary cell, a radio was installed there, and flowers were placed there. The health of the newly arrived prisoner turned out to be poor; he even moved around the cell with his stick, complaining of his eyes and liver. And that’s why the head of the prison medical unit often came to see him...
Vasily Stalin was sure that he owed his arrest to Lavrentiy Beria, whom he openly hated. As for Khrushchev, he only supported him, since he believed that Beria was guilty of all crimes (“This was not revenge for something, someone, but was a great act of political significance...” (From a letter to Khrushchev). "Prison," wrote Vasily Stalin, "forced me to understand my own sins, knocked down my arrogance. I was able to soberly evaluate my past life and think about the future. After all, I am only 35 years old. 17 years in the army, 16 years in the party, and I have sunk to this position ... Most of all, I am guilty before my father and the party." He acquitted Khrushchev, but could not forgive his sister, who “abandoned her father.” Vasily swore to renounce his father. Khrushchev was informed about his critical health condition “ iron mask” and hinted that his death in prison could receive unwanted political resonance. Nikita Sergeevich invited the descendant of the leader he had debunked to a reception, returned his title, awards, and pension. At the meeting, they say, both cried.
But Vasily did not have a chance to be free for long. Behavior former general Someone at the top didn’t like it when he was free, and they decided to let him sit for a while longer. His daughter Nadezhda Vasilyevna said in connection with her father’s new arrest: “Two and a half months after prison on Arbat, Vasily Stalin was in a road accident. She was a pushover. Only cars were damaged. But he was taken to Lefortovo. And then they exiled me to Kazan.”
After his release, Vasily was banned from living in Moscow and Georgia. He chose Kazan as his place of residence, where he died on March 19, 1962, according to doctors, from alcohol poisoning. He suffered from stomach ulcers, narrowing of the blood vessels in his legs and complete exhaustion.
In 1999, the Main Military Prosecutor's Office sent a protest to the Supreme Court of Russia against the verdict handed down in 1955 to Vasily Stalin. Having studied the judicial and investigative materials, the Main Military Prosecutor's Office came to the conclusion that the verdict of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR should be changed, removing all political charges against Vasily Stalin under the “anti-Soviet” article.
Military Collegium, having rehabilitated Stalin’s son for a political crime, nevertheless found him guilty of a military crime, reclassifying Art. 193-17 from point “b” to point “a”, that is, recognizing it as less serious. The military board ruled that Vasily Stalin's accusations of negligence and abuse of office were not without foundation. This, as well as the fact that Stalin himself removed Vasily from his post three times and put him in the guardhouse, is confirmed by many witnesses.
“Stop throwing mud at our family. All charges must be dropped,” said Joseph Stalin’s grandson Yevgeny Dzhugashvili. In his opinion, Vasily Stalin is absolutely innocent. However, the son of Anastas Mikoyan did not agree with him and expressed the idea that today they are trying to present Vasily Stalin in exclusively rosy colors, while in life he was far from an impeccable person and committed many vile acts.
Stalin's favorite was his daughter, Svetlana Alliluyeva. In her letters, she called her father nothing more than “dear daddy.” She was the only one who initially met her father’s expectations - she always studied well and received an excellent certificate. But he was annoyed by the way she dressed, he forbade her to wear socks and short skirts.
Svetlana had her first romance while still at school - with Alexei Kapler, who was then 40 years old. He nurtured her artistic taste and introduced her to good poetry and literature. Stalin did not approve of this novel. Soon Kapler left as a special correspondent for Stalingrad (this was 1942). His article was published in Pravda entitled “Letter from Lieutenant L. from Stalingrad,” in which the hero addresses his beloved girl. When he returned to Moscow, Svetlana asked him not to seek meetings with her anymore. However, it was the first one who called him, and they started dating again: going to the movies, theaters. In the end, on the orders of Vlasik, Kapler was arrested and accused of having connections with foreigners. Stalin tried to convince Svetlana that Alexei Yakovlevich was an English spy, which she, of course, did not believe. Then he said that it was impossible to love her because of her high origin.
A year later, Svetlana married a friend of Vasily’s brother, Grigory Morozov. Stalin allowed this marriage to take place, although he also did not approve of it, and it soon broke up. But out of eight grandchildren, Stalin knew and saw only three - Svetlana’s children and Yakov’s daughter (his granddaughter Gul aroused tenderness in him, and Svetlana’s first son, half-Jew, aroused love).
Svetlana’s second husband was Andrei Zhdanov’s son, Yuri. Svetlana ended up in a house where “formal, sanctimonious party spirit was combined with the most complete womanish philistinism.” Soon, as she put it, she couldn’t breathe, and she left with two children in her arms. Then she had an affair with her second cousin Dzhonik Svanidze.
Svetlana's third husband was an elderly Indian, aristocrat Raj Brij Singh. They met in a Kremlin hospital, and he soon died in Russia. Alliluyeva began to fight to be allowed to take her husband’s ashes home, then asked permission to stay in India for a longer period, and then asked for asylum at the British embassy. In the West, she published several books of memoirs about her father. Having settled in the USA, she married the architect Peters, gave birth to a daughter, Olga, divorced him and left for England, and then returned to the USSR, but was not forgiven by either close or distant relatives, did not feel the gratitude of her former compatriots and again went to live in England , but already in a municipal nursing home.
Konstantin Stepanovich Kuzakov was the most modest and, probably, the happiest son of Stalin, because he never sought to take advantage of his position. He grew up without the participation of his father and learned about his relationship with the leader only when he matured. His mother was a bourgeois Maria Prokopievna, with whom Stalin lodged in Solvychegodsk in tsarist exile. The father hardly remembered his illegitimate son, but Kuzakov was always lucky in his career. His modest behavior and reluctance to draw attention to himself as Stalin's son probably helped him live to an old age without poverty.
Kuzakov graduated from the Leningrad Financial and Economic Institute, worked there as a teacher, lecturer at the Leningrad Regional Party Committee, then in Moscow, and after joining the CPSU in 1939, he rose to head of the propaganda and agitation department of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. Kuzakov was treated well by Stalin’s assistant Poskrebyshev, who passed on his father’s personal instructions to him. One day he literally slept through a meeting with Stalin organized by Poskrebyshev. Kuzakov was tired, fell asleep after work, and did not hear either the turntable or the phone. Stalin no longer had a need to meet his son. As Kuzakov himself believed, Joseph Vissarionovich did not want to make his son a tool in the hands of intriguers.
In 1947, Kuzakov was expelled from the party: it was a punishment for the fact that he had once vouched for his deputy Boris Suchkov, who was declared a spy. Suchkov was subsequently rehabilitated. Kuzakov escaped with little loss of life - he was removed from all posts. This was an episode of Beria’s struggle with Zhdanov, who was in charge of Agitprop. It turns out that Stalin himself stood up for Kuzakov, Beria sought his arrest in the case of atomic espionage.
The crowning achievement of Konstantin Stepanovich’s career was the position of Deputy Minister of Cinematography of the USSR, followed by work in senior positions on television. Under him, the Main Editorial Board of the Central Television's literary and dramatic programs became elitist, his subordinates loved him, he was a smart and intelligent leader.
There is also a rumor about a certain teacher from Turukhansk who wrote a letter to Lenin’s secretariat demanding payment of benefits for her son born from Stalin. Perhaps this is confirmation of the existence of another child of the exiled Dzhugashvili, or this letter was sent by Kuzakova.
Artem Fedorovich Sergeev - the son of the famous revolutionary Artyom - after the death of his father, he was adopted by Stalin. In fact, his father’s name was Fedor Andreevich Sergeev, Artem was his party nickname. In 1905, he led an armed uprising of workers in Kharkov, was in hard labor in Siberia, from where he fled to Australia, and returned to Russia in 1917. He headed the Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Republic, the Moscow party organization. He died the year his son was born (1921) in a train accident.
Artem became an artilleryman, graduated from the Mikhailovsky Artillery School in 1940, and ended the war as a brigade commander. Was in captivity (1941), from where he managed to escape. In 1954 he graduated from the General Staff Academy, became a major general, and has been retired since 1981.
Joseph Vissarionovich treated Artem very warmly. For example, in 1928, on the book “Robinson Crusoe” he wrote: “To my friend Tomik. With the wish for him to grow up to be a Conscious, Steadfast and fearless Bolshevik. I. Stalin."
Perhaps Stalin still had children. A Moscow correspondent for the Sunday Times was able to find three people who claim that their father is Joseph Stalin. However, this information needs to be verified and proven.
, production director of the Russian Army Theater Alexander Burdonsky died at the age of 76. “The fate of the royal child passed me by,” Burdonsky once said in an interview, hinting at the lack of increased interest in his person because of his pedigree. But not all descendants of the Soviet leader were so lucky. How did being related to Stalin affect their lives?Yakov Dzhugashvili
Yakov was born in 1907. He saw his father only in 1921 - Joseph Vissarionovich had new family. Relations were tense. The conflict escalated when Yakov announced his intention to marry 16-year-old Zoya Gunina. Stalin did not approve of the marriage, and regarded his son’s disobedience as a personal insult. The young man attempted suicide. After this, communication between father and son ceased. Yakov still married Zoya, however family life didn't work out from the very beginning. In 1936, he married for the second time - to the beautiful ballerina Julia Meltzer. A year later he entered the Artillery Academy of the Red Army.
At the very beginning of the war, Yakov Dzhugashvili went to the front. In July 1941, he was surrounded near Vitebsk, after which he spent two years in concentration camps. Stalin's daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva recalled: the Germans offered the Soviet leader to exchange his son for prisoners German officers, however, he refused. “Many people have heard that Yasha was captured - the Germans used this fact for propaganda purposes. But it was known that he behaved with dignity, without succumbing to any provocations, and, accordingly, experienced cruel treatment... Perhaps it was too late, when Yasha had already died, his father felt some kind of warmth towards him and realized the injustice of his attitude towards him “,” Alliluyeva wrote in her memoirs.
Yakov Dzhugashvili with his daughter Galina, photo RIA Novosti
On April 14, 1943, Yakov Dzhugashvili rushed against the wire fences of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, through which high voltage current passed. He died on the spot.
Svetlana Alliluyeva
Stalin's daughter from his second marriage became an orphan at the age of 6 - her mother committed suicide. The girl studied well and showed the greatest interest in literature. The father did not approve of his daughter's choice and recommended that she study the natural sciences. Svetlana graduated from the Faculty of History of Moscow State University and worked as a translator. After her father's death, she continued to work at the Institute of World Literature.
Alliluyeva had two divorces behind her. Her new chosen one was the Indian communist Raja Bradesh Singh. In the fall of 1966, he died after a serious illness, and Svetlana turned to Brezhnev with a request to allow her to travel to the homeland of her common-law husband. Instead of one week, she spent several months in India. On the eve of her expected return to Russia, Alliluyeva asked for political asylum at the US Embassy in Delhi. She moved to the States, thus abandoning her son and daughter. In the USA she published her memoirs “Twenty Letters to a Friend.” This book brought her huge profits. In 1970, the daughter of the Soviet leader married the American architect William Peters and took a new name - Lana.
In 1984, she returned to Russia, but was unable to establish relationships with her son and daughter. Then Stalin's daughter moved to Tbilisi. Two years later, she again asked for permission to travel to the United States. Svetlana Alliluyeva died on November 22, 2011 in Wisconsin.
Evgeny Dzhugashvili
The son of Yakov Dzhugashvili and Olga Golysheva graduated from the Air Force Engineering Academy named after N.E. Zhukovsky, defended his dissertation in 1973. At the Military Academy General Staff The Armed Forces of the USSR named after K. E. Voroshilov taught the history of wars. In 1996, he became chairman of the Georgian Society of Ideological Heirs of Joseph Stalin. The society was created with funds from one of the local businessmen. Five years later, Evgeniy Dzhugashvili announced the creation of a New communist party, however, he did not achieve success in the political field.
Several lawsuits are associated with his name. For example, in 2009, he filed a claim for protection of honor and dignity and compensation for moral damage against Novaya Gazeta and journalist Anatoly Yablokov. The reason for the lawsuit was the following phrase published in the article “ Novaya Gazeta": "Stalin and the security officers are tied big blood, grave crimes, primarily against own people" In 2010, Dzhugashvili filed a lawsuit against Rosarkhiv; he demanded to admit the fact of falsification of documents confirming Stalin’s involvement in the execution of Poles in Katyn.
Evgeny Dzhugashvili died in December 2016. He was 80 years old.
Yakov Evgenievich Dzhugashvili
The great-grandson of the Soviet leader became an artist. He studied at art school in Glasgow and had his first exhibition in London. “I am proud of my origins and proud of my surname. I can’t say that the surname helps sell paintings, rather the opposite. If I helped, I would probably sell every day at work, and so - two or three a month,” Yakov said in an interview with Snob magazine.
In 1999, his works were exhibited at the art museum in Batumi. Another descendant of Stalin, the grandson of Yakov Dzhugashvili named Selim, also became an artist. Today Selim lives in Ryazan and paints.
Chris Evans
Svetlana Alliluyeva's daughter lives in Portland. She works in a vintage store and refuses to talk to reporters or discuss her relationship with her mother.
Ekaterina Zhdanova
Stalin's granddaughter lives in Kamchatka and works as a volcanologist. She was born in 1950 from the marriage of Svetlana Alliluyeva and professor Yuri Zhdanov. As a child, she traveled a lot around Russia with her father. When Svetlana left Russia, she wrote her a farewell letter, in which she advised her daughter to continue her studies in science. Catherine stopped communicating with her, although telegrams from her mother periodically arrived in Kamchatka. After Alliluyeva’s death, Chris Evans contacted her, but Ekaterina Zhdanova left her letter unanswered.
P.S. Well, at least, except for Svetlana and her daughter now living in America, no one else fled abroad, unlike the descendants of Khrushchev or Gorbachev. And where are these “patriots” now?
During his lifetime, Stalin was a grandfather eight times. The last granddaughter, Olga Peters, was born in America almost 18 years after his death.
The fates of his grandchildren are different: happy and tragic, and the attitude of the descendants towards their grandfather is as ambiguous as the assessment of his activities.
On March 10, 1989, in a conversation with the author, the former People's Commissar for Construction in the leadership of J.V. Stalin, Semyon Zakharovich Ginzburg, said: “I knew J.V. Stalin well in everyday life. I met him many times at S.M. Kirov’s house, at G. Ordzhonikidze, and at the dacha of the “owner” himself. He must be understood correctly, as he was, and not as he is now, many journalists, writers, historians, who never had the opportunity to see him at work, in everyday life, depicted. He was the antipode of V.I. Lenin in politics, a cruel husband, father and even more cruel grandfather. Children, and especially grandchildren, never occupied him... When Svetlana Alliluyeva writes about Stalin’s love for his granddaughter Galina (daughter of Yakov from his second marriage), then this is not true. I, who have repeatedly seen his attitude towards her, refute this statement.
Not everything in Stalin’s character was uniquely negative. Stalin, as you know, loved Vasily more than Yakov... But, paradoxically, I.V. Stalin was even further from the children of Vasily than from the children of Yakov. “Many times before my eyes he behaved unevenly towards Svetlana, his beloved daughter, and sometimes ignored her children.”
Stalin had three children. Two have passed away. Only Svetlana is alive. Let's try to get acquainted with the fate of his grandchildren in the order of seniority of their parents.
Yakov Dzhugashvili, Stalin's eldest son from his first marriage to Ekaterina Svanidze, was married twice and had three children from three women. For the first time, he married his former classmate Zina, and even the fact that she was the daughter of a priest, which was not encouraged at that time, did not stop him. On this basis, he had a conflict with his father, which almost ended in death for Yakov due to a suicide attempt. After that, he went to Leningrad to visit relatives along the Alliluyev line, where he had a daughter, Lena, who died in infancy. This marriage did not last long and broke up shortly after the death of her daughter.
After some time in Uryupinsk, in the apartment of the relatives of Stalin’s second wife Nadezhda Sergeevna Alliluyeva, he met Olga Golysheva. From her, Yakov left a son, today the only career military man in the family, which Stalin dreamed of so much.
The age difference between the young people was very small. Yakov born in 1907, Olga born in 1909. It is difficult to say whether this was great mutual love. But the relationship continued in Moscow. Olga Golysheva went to Uryupinsk to give birth, parents' house, where on January 10, 1936 she gave birth to a son, Evgeniy, and on January 11, in the registration book of newborns at the registry office, an entry for number 49 appeared. The name of the newborn is Evgeniy Dzhugashvili. Father - Dzhugashvili Yakov Iosifovich, Georgian, 27 years old, student, mother - Golysheva Olga Pavlovna, Russian, 25 years old, technician.
The boy grew up lively and smart. A year later, he was already running around the yard with all his might, looking like a nimble gypsy child, and endlessly repeating his childish “ta-ta-ta-ta.” For this patter, the mother and her sister Nadezhda Pavlovna, who mostly raised the baby, jokingly nicknamed him Tatko.
Soon Olga left for the capital, leaving the child with relatives. Her relationship with Yakov was not going well. And after some time they separated.
In 1939, Yakov married dancer Yulia Meltzer, and they had a daughter, Galina. Yakov Dzhugashvili treated Yu. Meltzer and his daughter with great love. This is evidenced by his letter written on June 26, 1941 from the Vyazma region, in which he tries to reassure his wife:
"Dear Julia!
Everything is going well. The journey is quite interesting. The only thing that worries me is your health. Take care of Galka and yourself, tell her that dad Yasha is fine. Don't worry about me, I'm doing great. Tomorrow or the day after tomorrow I will tell you the exact address and ask you to send me a watch with a stopwatch and a pocket knife. I kiss Galya, Yulia, father, Svetlanka, Vasya deeply. Say hello to everyone, once again I hug you tightly and ask you not to worry about me. Hello V. Ivanovna and Lidochka. Everything is going well with Sapegin. All yours Yasha."
The fate of Yulia Meltzer was far from cloudless, although at that time she lived in Stalin’s family. After Stalin became aware of Yakov’s captivity and became suspicious of treason, he ordered the arrest of his son’s wife.
However, let's return to the fate of Evgeniy Dzhugashvili. Olga Golysheva, his mother, was at the front, and after the Victory she worked as a cash collector at the financial unit in the department of Vasily Stalin, who at that time commanded the Air Force of the Moscow District. She lived with her aunt, maintaining the closest relationship with the sister of I.V. Stalin’s wife, Anna Sergeevna Alliluyeva. Olga Golysheva died at the age of 48 in 1957. She was buried in Moscow at the Golovinsky cemetery. Anna Sergeevna Alliluyeva came to the funeral and presented Evgeniy Yakovlevich Dzhugashvili with her father’s book “The Path Traveled” with a dedicatory inscription: “I give as a souvenir to Zhenya Dzhugashvili, the son of Yasha Dzhugashvili-Stalin, the book of memoirs of my father Sergei Yakovlevich Alliluyev “The Path Traveled.” Sergei Yakovlevich loved Yasha, lived with him in Petrograd-Leningrad, and also outside the city in Zubalovo. He knew about his son, his wife through Yasha and Alexander Yakovlevich Egnatashvili. And he and I, Anna - his daughter, knew about Zhenya through the Uryupinsky relatives of the Alliluyevs: Matryona Fedorovna Alliluyeva, Augustina Mikhailovna Dutova-Alliluyeva, Maya - her daughter and Irina - the daughter of Serafim Alliluyev. Through Vasya’s children - Sasha and Nadya. At the moment I met him for a sad reason, on the occasion of the death of his mother, with whom I saw several times during my life. I mourn her untimely death. Yasha also told me that he has a son who lives next door to my and my father’s relatives in the city of Uryupinsk. I wish him good luck in life, a happy and noble life and activity, as well a good family life, which, unfortunately, his mother did not have."
Until recently, very little was known about Evgeniy Dzhugashvili as the grandson of I. Stalin. On November 24, 1986, the magazine "Der Spiegel" wrote: "After the death of Stalin's closest ally, who was Prime Minister for 10 years and Foreign Minister of the USSR for 13 years (Molotova V.M. - A.K.), a sensation was born - the Moscow Press Agency" News" (APN) distributed... a photograph of farewell at the coffin in Moscow Novodevichy Cemetery: "Colonel of the General Staff of the USSR Armed Forces.
Officer Ev. Yak. Dzhugashvili, the son of Stalin's son Yakov, who died in a German prisoner of war camp. Until Molotov's death, this grandson of the Dictator was never publicly introduced. In the notes of Stalin’s daughter Svetlana, a hunter of writings, he was also not mentioned.”
As for Molotov, he said about E. Ya. Dzhugashvili: “I remember that in the Kremlin at Stalin’s I first met his son, Evgeniy’s father, Yakov Dzhugashvili. He was a true knight. Take a closer look at Evgeniy, another Dzhugashvili scion, he is the spitting image looks like his ancestors. Those who met and talked with Stalin will definitely notice their similarity, and not only in appearance, but also in the manner of walking, in general in behavior, character. I am glad that Evgeniy often visits me, brings his sons Vissarion and Yakova Dzhugashvili. Meetings with them prolong my life and give me strength. Yakova’s daughter, Galina, lives in Moscow. And although I do not maintain close relations with her, I know that she is a pleasant person in all respects, a great scientist. It’s wonderful when a worthy worthy children remain.
I remember well that during the war years, Stalin, wholly absorbed in state affairs, could meet with his loved ones no more than twice a year and was very worried.”
While collecting materials about Stalin’s family, the author met with E. Ya. Dzhugashvili, who answered a number of questions:
A.K.: Evgeniy Yakovlevich, did Stalin know about your existence?
E.D.: The daughter of Joseph Vissarionovich, Svetlana Alliluyeva (now Peters), on her last visit to the Union, being at my home, answered this question positively. However, Stalin did not find the time or desire to ever look at me. According to Svetlana Alliluyeva, her father saw only three of his eight grandchildren.
A.K.: Tell us about yourself.
E.D.: Born in 1936. Graduated from Kalinin Suvorov military school, then the Air Force Engineering Academy named after N. E. Zhukovsky. For more than 10 years he worked in the system of military representations at various factories in Moscow and the region, participated in the preparation and launches of space objects. Since 1973, after defending his Ph.D. dissertation, he began teaching. Currently I have the rank of colonel and work at the M.V. Frunze Military Academy. Married to Nana Georgievna Nanadze, we have two sons with her - Vissarion, born in 1965, and Yakov, born in 1972. The eldest graduated from the Moscow 23rd Special School, served in the army (he joined the party there) and is now a 4th year student at the Tbilisi Agricultural Institute (Faculty of Mechanization and Electrification). The youngest is a 10th grade student at the 23rd Moscow special school. The family lives in a nice 3-room apartment on Frunzenskaya Embankment. However, the address will apparently have to be changed, since after graduation Yakov plans to change his place of residence to Tbilisi. It seems to me that I have been preparing for this move all my life.
A.K.: Won’t the children experience difficulties in Georgia - after all, they grew up in Moscow?
E.D.: They won’t. Both sons were born in Tbilisi, and each lived with my wife’s parents until they were 5 years old. It was my will to keep my children away from me for such a period of time in Georgia, from which my wife suffered the most. She often made cruel scenes for me, accusing me of not loving children. I answered: “You must be able to love!” - and continued to insist on his point. Ultimately, the deed was done - and one and then the other spoke Georgian and grew up on Georgian grub. Before school, I took them to Moscow two years ago, and this time was enough for them to master the Russian language to the level of 1st grade. Then they constantly went on holidays, where they made a circle of friends.
A.K.: Today, therefore, children speak Georgian and Russian, but how did you communicate with children at the age of 3-5, you didn’t speak Georgian fluently?
E.D.: My stock of Georgian words, by the way, allowed me to play with children. But when a translator was needed, it was either the wife, or her relatives, or just passers-by. Sometimes things got ridiculous - the father could not communicate with his son. Some of my relatives in Moscow were annoyed by this. But I knew that these were temporary difficulties, and I pursued my line. Today we can safely say that they are ready to live and work in the republic where their grandfather, Yakov Dzhugashvili, came from.
A.K.: How do the children themselves feel about this idea of yours?
E.D.: The eldest son, Vissarion, has been in Georgia for a long time, and according to reviews from the leadership of the Tbilisi Agricultural Institute, he behaves and studies well. The youngest son, Yakov, also wants to enter Tbilisi University after school. This desire became even stronger when he was refused to go to the USA along with other schoolchildren. The path is closed because he is “a representative of an atypical Soviet family.” He and we all hope that in Georgia he will be a full-fledged citizen of his country.
A.K.: What is your attitude towards Stalin?
E.D.: I bow to him and raised my children in the same spirit.
A.K.: Recent publications give grounds for something else...
E.D.: I don’t accept criticism of J.V. Stalin, or more precisely, his defamation. The denunciation of Stalin's activities is carried out "unilaterally." All media are closed to those who could say something in defense of I.V. Stalin; they have been labeled anti-perestroika. Militant amateurs often do not hide their hostility towards socialism, savor the “achievements of stagnation” and blame everything on I.V. Stalin. Curious pluralism!
On J.V. Stalin’s birthday, December 21, my children and some of my determined friends usually lay flowers on his grave on Red Square. The security of the Mausoleum never caused any obstacles and even allowed us to take several memorable photographs. Often the Mausoleum is closed for visitors on this day - a sanitary day, or repairs, or something else, but no one disturbed our small company. This year the Mausoleum was opened, and we laid flowers after the visitors had passed, somewhere around 13:30.
Vasily Stalin was officially married three times. Relations with K.G. Vasilyeva were not registered at all, although they actually lived together. His first wife was Galina Aleksandrovna Burdonskaya. Her surname comes from her great-great-grandfather, the Frenchman Bourdone. He came to Russia with Napoleon's army and was wounded. In Volokolamsk he married a Russian.
Vasily Iosifovich Stalin married Burdonskaya in 1940.
At first, the newlyweds lived in Stalin’s apartment in the Kremlin, in a former barracks building. It was furnished with old government furniture with inventory numbers. There are no amenities. Stalin never communicated with his daughter-in-law. I didn’t want to see my grandchildren. Vasily’s life together with Burdonskaya lasted only 4 years. By breaking off the relationship, Vasily deprived her of the right to communicate with her children.
Vasily married for the second time in 1944 to Ekaterina Semenovna, daughter of Marshal of the Soviet Union S.K. Timoshenko, without divorcing his marriage with his first wife. From this marriage Vasily had two children. Son Vasily Vasilyevich lived only 19 years and died tragically while a student in Tbilisi. He was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow. Daughter Svetlana died in 1989. Ekaterina Semyonovna herself passed away in the fall of 1988. This is what Tsilya Samoilovna Palchik, a teacher at School No. 122 in Moscow, where Vasily and Svetlana Stalin studied in the eighth, ninth and tenth grades, testified to the author:
“Timoshenko Ekaterina Semyonovna was friends with Svetlana Alliluyeva. Her daughter was named Svetlana in honor of Stalin’s daughter, and she, in turn, named her daughter Katya in honor of Tymoshenko.
Several times Ekaterina Semyonovna herself complained to me about her father, saying that he often noted his attention to her with money rather than attention, and she did not need money.
Her children did poorly at school. Vasya was a good-natured boy. The program was difficult for him. Due to his lack of preparation in the tenth grade, he was exempted from the final exams. In Tbilisi he entered the Faculty of Law. After the first year, he came to Moscow and came to school. Came already drunk, with a bottle of wine. He was barely allowed into school. He walked with us even after High school prom to Red Square. This was a completely different person than a year ago. He lost weight and let his hair grow. Then he told me: “I mostly travel with friends. They accept me well in Georgia.” Apparently, that’s when he turned to drugs, which is why he died.
Svetlana was a sickly girl at school. I often missed classes. The class teacher, Tamara Aleksandrovna Tsvetkova, complained that she could never reach her by phone during her absences. To my question: "Why?" - Svetlana replied that her mother was picking up the phone because there were a lot of threatening calls from people who were released from camps and prisons after the repressions, and their loved ones. She was very worried about the revelations Stalin's repressions. But at school, her classmates treated her with understanding. But Vasily did not react to this in any way.
The Central Museum of the USSR Revolution sponsored us. Once we were there on an excursion, and the lecturer based almost the entire speech on exposing the personality cult of J.V. Stalin. I thought things would be bad with Svetlana. She was a very sick girl, and this, apparently, did not allow her to study at the Faculty of Biology in Moscow after graduating from school."
This is how E. S. Timoshenko was described by Vasily Stalin’s son A. Burdonsky:
“We got a stepmother, Ekaterina Semyonovna, the daughter of Marshal Timoshenko, a powerful and cruel woman. We, other people’s children, apparently irritated her. Perhaps that period of life was the most difficult. We lacked not only warmth, but also basic care. They forgot to feed for three or four days, some of them were locked in the room. I remember this episode. We lived in the dacha in winter. It was night, dark. My sister and I quietly descended from the second floor, went into the yard, into the cellar, behind raw potatoes and carrots. The cook Isaevna had a great time when she brought us something. And then my father had a third wife - Kapitolina Georgievna Vasilyeva, a famous swimmer at that time. I remember her with gratitude, and now we keep in touch. She was the only one at that time who humanly tried to help her father."
Today, Vasily’s son Alexander Burdonsky, director of the Central Academic Theater of the Soviet Army, where he has been working for almost seventeen years, Honored Artist of the RSFSR, graduated from the directing department of GITIS. He staged "Vassa Zheleznova" by Gorky, "The Snows Have Fallen" by Fedenev, "Orpheus Descends into Hell" by Williams, "The Last Passionate Lover" by Simon, "The Lady of the Camellias" by Dumas. Not long ago, he gave an interview to the television program “Vzglyad” and to a correspondent of the newspaper “Evening Moscow” shortly after the production of the play “Mandate”. Alexander Burdonsky expressed his life principles in answers to questions from journalist M. Belostotskaya: \
M.B.: Alexander Vasilyevich, why did you choose this particular play for the production?
A.B.: Because Nikolai Robertovich Erdman’s drama “The Mandate,” written in the 20s, has not lost its relevance today. Born of a very young playwright, she contains the gift of foresight. At one time it was staged by Meyerhold. This play is about people who, according to the author, “under any regime want to be immortal”, about the ominous repetition, “unsinkability” of such a phenomenon as spiritual philistinism. This is the breeding ground for the flourishing of bureaucracy, the emergence of leaderism, the cult of personality - a monstrous alloy of revolutionary and monarchical ideas.
The design of the performance also “works” on the main theme: in the foreground against the background of the Kremlin wall there is a mannequin in a well-recognized cap, from the belly of which all the characters appear... However, it’s difficult for me to talk about this. There are people who consider my views on Stalinism to be a desire to disown their grandfather.
M.B.: Do you remember him well, did you meet often?
A.B.: I’ve never seen him up close, only at parades from the guest stands. Stalin was not interested in grandchildren, and, perhaps, in children either. So I don’t associate the name Stalin with the generally accepted family concept of “grandfather.” An ethereal symbol, unattainable and inaccessible. The dominant feeling was fear associated with the name of my grandfather. It was born from many little things, snatches of phrases, conversations in the family, in the very atmosphere, which was influenced by Stalin’s character - closed, domineering, without mercy.
M.B.: What happened?
A.B.: The parents’ life together did not work out. I was four years old when my mother left my father. She was not allowed to take her children with her. We were separated for eight years.
M.B.: In your family album, I noticed one interesting photograph. The girl Galya Burdonskaya in white shorts, smiling, stands next to her dad, and behind her is a huge portrait of Stalin with the inscription: “Thank you to Comrade Stalin for our happy childhood!”
A.B.: Mom, separated from her children, rushed about in search of a way out, but ran into a wall. One day she managed to meet me secretly. This was when I was studying at school No. 59 on Starokonyushenny Lane. An unfamiliar woman came up during recess and said that my mother was waiting at the entrance of the neighboring house... Apparently, someone told my father, and I was immediately sent to the Suvorov Military School. I think another reason for this decision was my character, which was too soft in my father’s opinion. At this time my mother was trying to get a job. But as soon as the personnel department saw a passport with a stamp about registering a marriage with Vasily Stalin, they refused under any pretext. Chance helped. I found out her story about the house manager, a rude woman, a smoker and a foul-mouthed woman. She committed a bold act at that time - she burned her mother’s passport in the stove and tried to get a new one, without a “stamp”.
When Stalin died, my mother sent a letter to Beria asking her to return the children. Thank God that it did not have time to find the addressee - he was arrested. Otherwise it could have ended badly. I wrote to Voroshilov, and only after that we were returned to my mother. We still live together - me and my mother. Sister Nadezhda has her own family. Sometimes they ask: why do I like to stage plays about difficult women's destinies? Because of mom.
M.B.: How do you feel about your father now, from the height of your life experience?
A.B.: I didn’t forget anything. But I can’t be his judge. Sometimes, thinking about the fate of my father, I think that his surroundings are largely to blame for his death - flatterers, hangers-on, drinking buddies, who inspired him that everything was allowed to him. By nature he was a kind person. He loved to do tinkering and plumbing at home. Those who knew him well spoke of him as “golden hands.” He was an excellent pilot, brave and desperate. Participated in the Battle of Stalingrad and the Battle of Berlin. His life ended mysteriously and tragically. In 1953, after Stalin’s death, Vasily Iosifovich was arrested and served in prison for eight years, first in Vladimir, then in Moscow, in Lefortovo. On Khrushchev's orders he was released. Khrushchev invited him to his place and apologized for his unfair arrest. My father was returned to the rank of lieutenant general and given an apartment on Frunzenskaya Embankment. But then they suggested leaving Moscow, choosing any place to live except Moscow and Georgia. My father chose Kazan, where fellow pilots served. And soon a telegram arrived with a message about the death of his father. Together with Kapitolina Georgievna and Nadya, we went to bury him. No one could clearly explain to us how and why my father died...
M.B.: So, the chain of tragic events in the family has closed, which began with the suicide of Stalin’s wife, your grandmother Nadezhda Sergeevna Alliluyeva.
A. B.: My aunt Svetlana Alliluyeva wrote about everything in detail in the book “Twenty Letters to a Friend.” It seems to me that it could have been published here too. Stalin did not forgive his wife for deciding to die. And the family still has a good memory of Nadezhda Sergeevna, everyone loved her...
M.B.: When the 20th Congress took place, you were already fifteen years old, quite a conscious age. Was what was discussed at the congress a revelation?
A.B.: Probably not. Many of my mother’s friends were in camps. She herself lived under constant threat of arrest. Many of the Alliluyev family spent seven or eight years in solitary confinement. I knew about it. And he treated everything like all normal people. But to those around us, we were Stalin’s relatives. The telephone went silent for many years. The zealous headmistress at school began to find fault with my sister and me on every occasion, we became persona non grata. I had to move to another school.
M.B.: And then, did the fact that you are Stalin’s grandson hinder or help?
A.B.: It helped once. And that was it. I studied acting from Oleg Efremov. But I really wanted to become a director. And Efremov recommended me to a wonderful teacher, GITIS professor Maria Osipovna Knebel. What a joy it was to meet her, what a gift of fate! She became my mentor, friend, second mother. With her kind hand, she removed from me this “Stalin’s grandson” complex that constantly tormented me. (I later found the book “Poetry of Pedagogy.” M. Knebel. She wrote about her student Sasha Burdonsky: “Coming to GITIS, he was uptight, unsure of himself... He was afraid of offending someone. But still, breaking his timidity, always spoke correctly, sincerely... How does the most timid first-year student become a person to whom the entire course agrees to obey? A lot of things decide here - abilities, and human qualities. And sensitivity, and manner of communication, and endurance, and will." - Author's note) Maria Osipovna later told me what she was thinking about at our first meeting: “Here sits in front of me the descendant of a terrible man who caused me a lot of pain - my brother was repressed. And I have his fate in my hands. So, take revenge him? But what is he to blame for, so thin, defenseless? And I wanted to caress, stroke, protect." This little woman had a big heart.
Unfortunately, not everyone thinks so. Someone at the poster wonders - what did I want to say with this or that performance? Against whom and in whose defense? Everything you've experienced in the past? No. And it’s probably impossible to get rid of the complex completely. In Arbuzov’s “Years of Wandering,” where I played Vedernikov at GITIS, he asks the sergeant: “Where do all the days go?” And he answers: “Where should they go, they are all with us...” I think that theater can change a lot in life, it helps a person to know himself, to fight against violence, physical and moral. As for everything that we today call Stalinism and the “phenomenon” of Stalin, we need to understand this phenomenon as an artist, without taking on the role of a judge.
My dream is to stage classics. It touches on eternal themes, explores the depths of the human soul, problems of power. I love the actors of my theater, especially Lyudmila Kasatkina, Vladimir Zeldin, Nina Sazonova, and my young friends. When choosing plays, I would like to take into account their interests, this is what I live by now. After all, my native home- theater.
Many people who know him closely do not agree with all of A. Burdonsky’s answers.
Let's return to the conversation with E. Ya. Dzhugashvili.
A.K.: Evgeny Yakovlevich! Recently, in the television program "Vzglyad" and the newspaper "Evening Moscow", the son of Vasily Stalin, Alexander Burdonsky, stated that during the life of I.V. Stalin he constantly felt fear and, when his formidable grandfather died, he felt "relief" and he did not cry because he didn't like Stalin.
E.D.: In 1953, Sasha and I were at the Kalinin Suvorov Military School. In graduation and elementary grades, respectively. I was 17 years old, he was 11. Everyone was in tears - the school command, the teachers, and all of us, like the entire Soviet people. Therefore, it was strange for me to hear such a statement from him. As for “relief,” it is difficult to believe that a boy of 11 years old understood so subtly and in such a modern way, much less discussed the activities of I.V. Stalin.
Vasily’s daughter, Nadezhda Vasilievna Stalina, lives in Moscow. Her fate was as follows. After graduating from high school, she entered drama school. But I didn’t finish. Moved to Georgia, to Gori. I got an apartment there. After the third year I left the institute and returned to Moscow. She married the son of the writer Fadeev. Has a thirteen year old daughter. He values his family very much. Like his father, he loves animals, especially dogs. Maybe, if you encounter a stray dog abandoned on the street, take it into your home.
Short, thin. She believes that her grandfather, Stalin, did not know about many of the crimes committed during the period of the cult of personality, that the environment, and above all L.P. Beria, was largely to blame.
“The appearance in print of a number of articles about I.V. Stalin and his son,” says Nadezhda Vasilyevna, “had a very strong impact on my daughter. She experienced a real shock. There were times when because of this she refused to go to school. Teachers and schoolchildren sometimes try to blame the children of those who are mentioned in the press. I believe that truly deep, analytical works on this problem are still ahead. Now we are experiencing a great emotional period, reflected in materials, which are most often based on speculation, and not on understanding the documents of time."
Referring to the publication in the press about her father, and above all in the Ogonyok magazine, she said: “It is impossible to get through to Korotich as the editor-in-chief. But if it were possible, I would ask him these rhetorical questions:
1. In what year did Uvarova come to work at school? From the publication it follows that in 1938 or 1939.
In May 1938, my father was no longer at school, but in September he was at the school.
2. Since when was father a stocky boy?
He had a puny build. It's strange that she calls him that. In 1938, he was a seventeen-year-old boy, just like Uvarova was a nineteen-year-old girl.
3. How can we understand these statements that my father had arrogant lips, frowning eyebrows shifted towards the bridge of his nose, dull eyes, and raised lower eyelids?
Until the end of his days, my father’s lips were swollen like a child. The eyebrows never converged on the bridge of the nose, and as for the expression of the eyes, they were very lively, perky, a little funny.
4. How can you confuse the color of your eyes and hair?
The eyes were not greenish, but truly brown, and the hair was reddish, copper-red.
5. Is it possible to confuse a rounded chin with the completely opposite one, or an open high forehead with a cut one?”
Well, your daughter’s emotions can be understood. But for the sake of objectivity, it should be said that Uvarova actually taught at the school where Vasily studied, and there really could have been some changes in her entire appearance with age, and it is quite clear that her description of Vasily’s appearance does not coincide with the opinion of Nadezhda Vasilievna.
Nadezhda Vasilievna condemns S. Alliluyeva’s departure from the USSR and considers A. Burdonsky’s brother too soft-spoken. She willingly makes contacts with journalists if she sees objectivity in their work.
Vasily’s surname - Dzhugashvili, and not Stalin, today is borne by three more women - the daughter of K. G. Vasilyeva and two daughters of M. I. Dzhugashvili (née Nusberg), his last wife whom he adopted.
Svetlana Alliluyeva gave birth to three children. Her eldest son Joseph is a well-known cardiologist in the country. According to the testimony of his father G.I. Morozov, after Svetlana married Yu.A. Zhdanov, the documents for his son were reissued to Joseph Yuryevich Zhdanov. They were restored only in the mid-fifties. Joseph's first marriage failed. From this marriage he has a son. I'm happy with my second family. Has an academic degree of Doctor of Medical Sciences. Enjoys authority among his work colleagues. Many patients idolize him. Memories of his mother give him complex feelings.
This is what his mother wrote about him: “My son, half-Jewish, the son of my first husband (whom my father never even wanted to meet), aroused his tender love. I remember how afraid I was of my father’s first meeting with my Oska. The boy was about 3 years old, he was a very pretty child - either Greek or Georgian, with large Semitic eyes in long eyelashes. It seemed inevitable to me that the child should cause an unpleasant feeling in my grandfather, but I did not understand anything about the logic of the heart. The father melted when he saw the boy. This was on one of his rare visits after the war to the deserted, unrecognizably quiet Zubalovo, where only my son and two nannies lived then - his and mine, already old and sick. I was finishing my last year at university and living in Moscow, and the boy grew up under "my" traditional pine tree and under the tutelage of two gentle old women. The father played with him for half an hour, wandered around the house (or rather, ran around it, because until the last day he walked with a quick, light gait) and left. I was left to “experience” and “digest” what had happened - I was in seventh heaven. Given his laconicism, the words: “Your son is good! He has good eyes,” were equivalent to a long ode of praise in the mouth of another person. I realized that I had little understanding of life, which is full of surprises. Father saw Oska two more times - last time four months before his death, when the baby was seven years old and going to school. “What thoughtful eyes,” said the father, “smart boy!” - I remember I was happy. It is strange that Oska apparently remembered this last meeting and retained in his memory the feeling of the heartfelt contact that arose between him and his grandfather. With all the apoliticality of his young mind, typical of modern youth, he should have hated everything connected with the “cult of personality,” the entire range of phenomena attributed to one person, and this person himself.
Yes, he hates this circle of phenomena, but he did not connect them in his soul with the name of his grandfather. He placed the portrait of his grandfather on his desk. It's been like this for several years now. I do not interfere with his affections and do not control his feelings. Children need to be trusted more, And again I see that I still poorly understand life, full of surprises...” Here S. Alliluyeva forgets to add that by this time the father of her first husband, the boy’s grandfather, had spent almost six years in prison and For this reason, he did not see his grandson, and the boy’s father was unemployed for three years.
Svetlana’s second child, daughter Katya, was raised in her grandmother’s house after her mother’s failure to return to the USSR. Graduated from college. Volcanologist. Has a daughter. She suffered a life tragedy - the passing of her husband. After that, she left for Kamchatka, where she works to this day.
Svetlana’s youngest daughter, Olga, was raised by her mother without a husband, just like her first two children. She herself characterizes her as follows: “My daughter lived in America for 11 years, went to American school and didn’t speak Russian. And indeed, when I brought her to England, she was a typical American child. During the two years she lived in England, she grew and changed. The school she went to was a Quaker international school where great emphasis was placed on developing a sense of internationalism in the children. And I must say that she has made great progress in this direction. There were children at school from all over the world, all nationalities, black, white, yellow. And she felt in a much more international environment, she really liked it, and it played a big role in her development compared to her life in America. When she grows up, it will be up to her to decide what path she chooses for herself and what she wants to do. We don't force anyone. I have never forced any of my adult children to do what I want. But as long as she is a schoolgirl, she will live according to what her mother thinks is right."
After leaving the USSR, Olga continued her studies in England. Today she is a nineteen-year-old girl entering an independent life.
At one time I asked E. Ya. Dzhugashvili several questions.
A.K. What benefits did you enjoy as the grandson of I. Stalin?
E.D.: After the death of I.V. Stalin, the Council of Ministers of the USSR passed resolution number 15022-r dated November 14, 1953. According to this decree, all grandchildren of I.V. Stalin (and there were 8 of us at that time) were assigned a personal pension in the amount of 1000 rubles until they graduated from a higher educational institution. There was a condition that after 10th grade the student entered college. I received this pension until I graduated from the academy. In addition, once a year a free voucher was issued during the summer holidays. My mother took her first trip to the Caucasus, to Gagra, to the Chelyuskintsev sanatorium. Since then, I have always gone on vacation only to the Caucasus, and in 1962 in Tbilisi I met my destiny - Nana Nanadze.
Somewhere in the 60s, Alliluyeva said that she was instructed to divide the money (the amount of 30 thousand rubles) from I.V. Stalin’s savings book - apparently, some kind of fee. She proposed dividing this amount into three shares (according to the number of children of I.V. Stalin), then each part is divided among the grandchildren. Vasily's part was divided between his children (into four parts), Jacob's part - into two. I received 5,000 rubles, S. Alliluyeva took her 10,000 rubles for herself.
A.K.: What is the relationship between the grandchildren of I.V. Stalin, do you often get together, and how do you support each other?
E.D.: I wouldn’t like to answer for everyone. But, according to my data, only a negative answer can be given to your question. Everyone lives and works independently and has no desire to get together. I personally only have good relations with Joseph Alliluyev, whom I am happy to congratulate on defending his doctoral dissertation.
A.K.: How can one explain such alienation from each other?
E.D.: In my opinion, the grandchildren of I.V. Stalin received a bad inheritance in this matter. Vasily and Svetlana, as you know, did not have brotherly feelings for each other. What united them separated them even more. I myself witnessed Vasily’s obscene language about his sister. As for Svetlana, she is a real demon in a monastic cassock. Bringing suffering to people seemed to her the main goal in life. She did not change herself even after a 17-year absence. A sigh of relief escaped from many grandchildren and especially from her own children when she left the USSR again. Finally, we cannot ignore polyandry, which primarily affects children. All this could not help but leave a cold and sometimes even hostile imprint on the grandchildren’s relationships. For their part, the grandchildren themselves were also not up to par. However, this does not bother anyone, and the principle: “I don’t care about anyone” triumphs even in the older generation. Unfortunately, of course.
As is known, according to official data, Stalin had 3 children: 2 sons (Yakov and Vasily) and a daughter (Svetlana). It is clear that all of them are no longer alive, just as some of Stalin’s grandchildren are no longer alive. How did the fate of the descendants of Joseph Dzhugashvili turn out? Where did they live and what did they do?
Children of Jacob
Yakov Dzhugashvili, who died in a German concentration camp in 1943, managed to leave behind two children: son Evgeniy and daughter Galina. Evgeniy Yakovlevich was initially registered under the surname of his mother Olga Pavlovna Golysheva, but soon, at the insistence of his father, he became Dzhugashvili. Stalin's grandson was a military man. At one time, he graduated from 2 military academies (named after Zhukovsky and named after Lenin). In the early 1990s, being in the rank of colonel, he retired. In addition, Evgeniy Yakovlevich was involved in history, politics and social activities, both in Georgia and in Russia. He passed away 2 years ago, in 2016. He left two sons: Yakov and Vissarion. Yakov became an artist and lives in Tbilisi, and Vissarion is a director and lives in the USA.
Galina Dzhugashvili, the daughter of Stalin's eldest son, graduated from Moscow State University and became a philologist. She worked at the Institute of World Literature. At the age of 32, Galina Yakovlevna married the Algerian Hussein bin Saad. The couple had a son, Selim. In 2007, at the age of 69, the granddaughter of Joseph Dzhugashvili died.
Children of Vasily
Vasily Stalin, who died in 1962, was the father of 2 daughters (Svetlana and Nadezhda) and 2 sons (Vasily and Alexander). The eldest of his children, Alexander, bore his mother’s surname – Burdonsky. He was a director and served in the theater Russian Army. He died in 2017. Burdonsky had no children.
Another son of Vasily, his namesake, lived in Tbilisi. There he became addicted to drugs and shot himself at the age of 23.
Svetlana Stalina suffered from mental illness and died a few weeks before her 43rd birthday.
Nadezhda Stalina wanted to become an actress and even studied at a theater school, but she never managed to become a star. She was the wife of the adopted son of the writer A. Fadeev. In marriage, Nadezhda Vasilievna gave birth to a daughter. The granddaughter of Joseph Dzhugashvili died in 1999.
Svetlana's children
Svetlana Alliluyeva was married several times and gave birth to 3 children. Her eldest child Joseph was the son of the scientist and lawyer Grigory Morozov. Joseph Grigorievich himself became a cardiologist. He died at the age of 63, in Moscow.
Alliluyeva had a daughter, Ekaterina, married to Professor Yuri Zhdanov. Unable to bear the close attention to her life, Stalin’s granddaughter left for Kamchatka. There she got married. However, the union was short-lived: Catherine’s husband committed suicide. Zhdanova was left alone with her daughter. Ekaterina Yuryevna lives in Kamchatka to this day.
Having emigrated to the USA, Svetlana Alliluyeva met the American architect William Peters. In 1971, Svetlana gave birth to a daughter, Olga. Olga lives in the United States, now under a different name, Chris Evans, and does not speak Russian at all.