The tragedy of the Stalin family. What happened to the children and wives of the leader

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It is unlikely that any of the adults in Russia, and indeed in the world, need to be told about Stalin the politician. Much less is known about Stalin as a person, and yet he was a husband, father and, as it turns out, a great hunter of women, at least during his stormy revolutionary youth. True, the fate of the people closest to him always developed tragically. Sweeping aside fiction, myths and gossip, Anews talks about the wives and children of the leader.

Ekaterina (Kato) Svanidze

First wife

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

The marriage, made out of 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 said to a friend at the funeral: "My last warm feelings for people died with her."

Even if these words are fiction, here is a real fact: years later, Stalinist repressions destroyed almost all of Catherine's relatives. The same brother and wife were shot, elder sister. And the 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 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 misconduct, 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 finally deteriorated. In desperation, Yakov tried to shoot himself, but the bullet went right through, he was saved, and Stalin moved even further away from the “hooligan and blackmailer” and poisoned him with mockery: “Ha, he didn’t hit!”

In June of the 41st, Yakov Dzhugashvili went to the front, and to the most difficult sector - near Vitebsk. His battery excelled in one of the largest tank battles, and Stalin's son, along with other fighters, was presented for the award.

But soon Jacob 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 commander Paulus, saying: “I don’t change a soldier for a field marshal!” Historians doubt that the Germans even offered such an exchange, and the phrase itself sounds in the Soviet epic film "Liberation" and, apparently, is an invention of the screenwriters.

German photo: Stalin's son in captivity

And the next picture of the captured Yakov Dzhugashvili is published for the first time: only recently it was found in the photo archive of the commander of the Third Reich, Wolfram von Richthofen.

Yakov spent two years in captivity, under no pressure did not cooperate with the Germans. He died in the camp in April 1943: he provoked a sentry to a fatal shot by rushing to a barbed wire fence. According to a widespread version, Yakov was in despair when he heard 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, the relatives of Yakov Dzhugashvili, in particular, his daughter and half-brother Artem Sergeyev, were convinced all their lives that he died in battle in June 41, and his stay in captivity, including photos and interrogation protocols, was from beginning to end played out by the Germans for propaganda purposes. However, in 2007, the FSB confirmed the fact of his capture.

Nadezhda Alliluyeva

Second and last wife

The second time Stalin married at the age of 40, his wife was 23 years younger - a fresh graduate of the gymnasium, who looked with admiration at the seasoned revolutionary, who had just returned from 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, at first happy, eventually became unbearable for both. The memories of their family are very contradictory: some said that Stalin was gentle at home, and she imposed strict discipline and flared up easily, others said that he was constantly rude, and she endured and accumulated resentment until a tragedy happened ...

In November 1932, after another public skirmish 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.

Different things were also told about Stalin's reaction. According to some, he was shocked, sobbed at the funeral. Others remember that he was furious and over the coffin of his wife said: "I did not know that you were my enemy." One way or another, with family relationships was forever finished. Subsequently, numerous novels were attributed to Stalin, including with the first beauty of the Soviet screen, Lyubov Orlova, but mostly these are unconfirmed rumors and myths.

Vasily Dzhugashvili (Stalin)

Second son

Nadezhda bore Stalin two children. When she committed suicide, the 12-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter were looked after not only by nannies and housekeepers, but also by male guards, led by General Vlasik. It was them that Vasily later blamed for the fact that with young years addicted to smoking and alcohol.

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

Or after the war, a year before Stalin's death, he lost his post as commander of the Air Force of the Moscow Military District, when he showed up drunk at a festive reception of the government and was rude to the commander in chief of the Air Force.

Immediately after the death of the leader, the life of Lieutenant General of Aviation Vasily Stalin went downhill. It began to spread right and left that his father was poisoned, and when the Minister of Defense decided to appoint a troubled son to a position away from Moscow, he disobeyed his order. He was transferred to the reserve without the right to wear a uniform, and then he did the irreparable - he reported his version of Stalin's poisoning to foreigners, hoping to get protection from them.

But instead of abroad younger son Stalin, an order-bearing 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 hung a lot of accusations on him, including frankly ridiculous ones, but during interrogations Vasily confessed to everything without exception. At the end of his term, he was “exiled” to Kazan, but he did not live a year at liberty: he died in March 1962, 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, but the only one of the children in whom Stalin did not look for a soul gave him nothing but trouble during her lifetime, and after his death she fled abroad and in the end completely abandoned her homeland, where she was threatened with a fate until the end of her days to bear moral punishment for father's sins.

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

Only Svetlana had five official husbands, 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 to the USSR. They did not forgive such a betrayal. The son is no longer in the world, and the daughter, who is now under 70, abruptly cuts off inquisitive journalists: “You are mistaken, she is not my mother.”

In America, Svetlana, who became Lana Peters by her husband, had a third daughter, Olga. With her, in the mid-80s, she suddenly returned to the USSR, but did not take root either in Moscow or in Georgia, and as a result, she finally left for the United States, renouncing her native citizenship. Her personal life did not work 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 to some lonely island, I will always be a political prisoner of my father's name."

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 remoteness 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", a revolutionary ally and close friend Stalin. When his son was three months old, he died in a railway accident, and Stalin took him into his family.

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

According to the memoirs of Vasily, Stalin "loved Artyom very much, set him as an example." However, the diligent Artyom, who, unlike Vasily, studied well and with interest, Stalin did not give concessions. So, after the war, he had a pretty hard time at the Artillery Academy because of the excessive drill and nitpicking of teachers. Later it turned out that Stalin personally demanded that adopted son managed more rigorously.

Already after the death of Stalin, Artem Sergeev became a great military leader, retired with the rank of Major General of Artillery. He is considered one of the founders of anti-aircraft missile troops 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 in Soviet history Simon Seabag Montefiori, who has many awards in documentary films, traveled around the territory of the former USSR in the 90s and found a lot of unpublished documents in the archives. It turned out that young Stalin was surprisingly amorous, was fond of women different ages and estates, and after the death of his first wife, during the years of Siberian exile, he had a large number of mistresses.

17 year old high school graduate Field of Onufrieva he sent passionate postcards (one of them is in the photo). Postscript: “I have your kiss, passed on to me through Petka. I kiss you in return, and not just a kiss, but gorrrryacho (just kissing is not worth it!). Joseph".

He had affairs with party comrades - Vera Schweitzer and Lyudmila Stal.

And on a noblewoman from Odessa Stephanie Petrovskaya he even considered getting married.

However, Stalin lived two sons with simple peasant women from a distant wilderness.

Konstantin Stepanovich Kuzakov

An illegitimate son from a cohabitant in Solvychegodsk Maria Kuzakova

The son of a young widow who sheltered the exiled Stalin graduated from a university in Leningrad and made a dizzying career - from a non-party 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 origin was not a big secret, but I always managed to evade the answer when they asked me about it. But I suppose my promotion is also related to my abilities.

Only in adulthood for the first time he saw Stalin up close, and it happened in the cafeteria of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet. Kuzakov, as a member of the apparatus of the Central Committee responsible for propaganda, was engaged in political editing of speeches. “I didn’t even have time to take a step towards Stalin. The bell rang, and the members of the Politburo went into the hall. Stalin stopped and looked at me. I felt that he wanted to say something to me. I wanted to run towards him, but something stopped me. Probably, subconsciously, I understood that public recognition of kinship would bring me nothing but big trouble. Stalin waved the receiver and walked slowly ... "

After that, Stalin, under the pretext of a working consultation, wanted to arrange a personal reception for Kuzakov, but he did not hear phone call falling asleep soundly after a late meeting. Only the next morning he was informed that he had missed. Then Konstantin saw Stalin more than once, both close and from a distance, but they never spoke to each other, and he did not call to himself again. "I think he did not want to make me an instrument in the hands of intriguers."

However, in the 47th Kuzakov almost fell under repression due to the intrigues of Beria. He was expelled from the party for "loss of vigilance", removed from all posts. Beria at the Politburo demanded his arrest. But Stalin saved the unrecognized son. As Zhdanov later told him, Stalin walked along the table for a long time, smoked, and then said: "I see no reason to arrest Kuzakov."

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

Alexander Yakovlevich Davydov

An illegitimate son from a cohabitant in Kureika Lidia Pereprygina

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

There is evidence that at first the runaway father corresponded with Lydia. Then, there was a rumor that Stalin was killed at the front, and she married the 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 gave a laconic order to find the bearers of such and such surnames. According to the results of the search, Stalin was given a brief reference - such and such live there. And all the personal and piquant details that came to light 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. Participated in the Great Patriotic and Korean Wars, rose to the rank of major. After his discharge from the army, he lived with his family in Novokuznetsk, worked in low positions - as a foreman, head of the factory canteen. Died in 1987.

Experts from the FSO and the Ministry of Defense at the beginning of the 2000s proved that Yakov Dzhugashvili's letters from captivity to his father, Joseph Stalin, were fake. As well as the German propaganda photographs of Yakov, under which there was an appeal to Soviet soldiers to surrender, "like the son of Stalin." Some Western versions say that Yakov was alive after the war.

Yakov Dzhugashvili was not the favorite son of Joseph Stalin.

Stalin did not see his eldest son for 13 years. Last time before long separation he saw him in 1907, when Yakov's mother, Ekaterina Svanidze, died. Their son was not even a year old then.

Ekaterina Svanidze's sister, Alexandra, and brother Alyosha, together with his wife Mariko, took care of the child. He raised his grandson and grandfather, Semyon Svanidze. All of them lived in the village of Badzi near Kutaisi. The boy grew up in love and affection, as often happens when the closest relatives try to compensate for the absence of his father and mother.

Joseph Stalin saw his first child again only in 1921, when Yakov was already fourteen.

Stalin was not up to his son, and then a new marriage with Nadezhda Alliluyeva and children from him. Yakov fought his way through life on his own, only occasionally did his father help him with money.

On the advice of his father, Yakov enters the artillery academy.

From the attestation of a fourth-year student of the command faculty of the artillery academy, Lieutenant Dzhugashvili Yakov Iosifovich:

“He is loyal to the party of Lenin, Stalin and the socialist Motherland, sociable, his academic performance is good, but in the last session he had an unsatisfactory grade in a foreign language.

The foreman of the group is Captain Ivanov.

Let us pay attention to this unsatisfactory mark in a foreign language received in 1940. A year later, in the 41st, the Germans, drawing up a protocol for the interrogation of the captured Yakov Dzhugashvili, would write literally the following:

Dzhugashvili speaks English, German and French and gives the impression of a quite intelligent person.

This is where the mismatch comes in. From the house on Granovsky Street on June 23, 1941, Yakov Dzhugashvili went to the front. He did not get to see his father. He just called him on the phone and heard the blessing:

Go and fight.

Yakov Dzhugashvili did not have time to send a single message from the front. The daughter of Galina Dzhugashvili keeps the only postcard sent by her father to his wife Yulia from Vyazma on her way to the front. It is dated June 26, 1941:

“Dear Julia. Take care of Galka and yourself. Tell her that Papa Yasha is fine. At the first opportunity, I will write a longer letter. Don't worry about me, I'm fine.

All your Yasha.

Much has been written about what happened in mid-July near Vitebsk. According to the generally accepted version, on July 16, 1941, such a trump card fell into the hands of the Germans, which they could not even dream of. The news that the son of Stalin himself had surrendered to them instantly spread through all the units and formations on both sides.

So, on July 11, 1941, the Germans broke into Vitebsk. As a result, three of our armies were immediately surrounded. Among them is the 14th howitzer-artillery regiment of the 14th tank division, in which senior lieutenant Dzhugashvili served as battery commander.

The command did not forget about Yakov Dzhugashvili. It understood what could happen to a commander of any rank in the event of the death or capture of Stalin's son. Therefore, the order of the division commander, Colonel Vasiliev, to the head of the special department to take Yakov into his car during the retreat was tough. But Jacob would not be himself if he had not refused this offer. Upon learning of this, Divisional Commander Vasiliev again orders, in spite of any objections from Yakov, to take him to the Lioznovo station. As follows from the report of the chief of artillery, the order was carried out, but on the night of July 16-17, when the remnants of the division broke out of the encirclement, Yakov Dzhugashvili was not among them.

Where did the son of Stalin disappear to?

Here comes the first oddity. If at the moment of leaving the encirclement, despite the chaos, they so stubbornly tried to take him out, then why after the disappearance they did not search for four days and only on July 20 did an intensive search begin, when an encryption was received from Headquarters. Zhukov ordered to immediately find out and report to the front headquarters where Senior Lieutenant Dzhugashvili Yakov Iosifovich was.

The order - to report on the results of the search for Yakov Dzhugashvili - was executed only on July 24. Four more days later.

The story of the motorcyclists sent in search of Yakov looks like an attempt to completely confuse the situation. So, the motorcyclists, led by the senior political officer Gorokhov, meet the Red Army soldier Lapuridze at Kasplya Lake. He said that he was leaving the encirclement with Yakov. On July 15, they changed into civilian clothes and buried their documents. After making sure that there are no Germans nearby, Yakov decides to take a break, and Lapuridze goes further and meets the same group of motorcyclists. The senior political instructor Gorokhov, as if not understanding who he is looking for, comes back, deciding that Dzhugashvili has already gone to his own.

Doesn't sound very convincing.

The situation becomes clearer from a letter from a close friend of Yakov Dzhugashvili, Ivan Sapegin. The letter was sent to Yakov's brother Vasily Stalin on August 2, 1941.

“Dear Vasily Osipovich! I am a colonel who was at your dacha with Yakov Iosifovich on the day of departure for the front. The regiment was surrounded. The division commander abandoned them and left the battle in a tank. Passing by Yakov Iosifovich, he did not even ask about his fate, but he himself broke out of the encirclement in a tank along with the head of artillery of the division.

Ivan Sapegin.

Until August 13, 1941, there was no information about what really happened to Stalin's son. In addition to the Red Army soldier Lapuridze, the special officers of the Western Front did not find a single witness capable of shedding light on the mysterious disappearance of Yakov.

Information received on 13 August. A German leaflet was delivered to the political department of the Sixth Army of the Southern Front. It has a resolution:

Head of the Political Department, Brigadier Commissar Gerasimenko.

There was a photograph on the flyer. On it is an unshaven man, in a Red Army overcoat, surrounded German soldiers and below was the text:

“This is Yakov Dzhugashvili, Stalin's eldest son, battery commander of the 14th howitzer artillery regiment 14th Armored Division, which surrendered on July 16 near Vitebsk along with thousands of other commanders and fighters. Follow the example of the son of Stalin, and you too!”

The fact that Yakov was in captivity was immediately reported to Stalin. For him it was very swipe. To all the troubles of the beginning of the war, this personal one was added.

And the Germans continued their propaganda attack. In August, another leaflet appeared, which reproduced a note from Yakov to his father, delivered to Stalin by diplomatic means:

Dear father, I am in captivity, healthy. Soon I will be sent to one of the officer camps in Germany. Handling is good. I wish you health. Hi all.

On the Soviet troops and the front-line territories continued to drop tons of leaflets, on which the son of Stalin was depicted next to senior officers of the Wehrmacht and the German special services. Under the photographs are calls to lay down arms. No one then noticed that in some photographs the light falls on one side, and the shadow on the other, that Yakov's tunic is buttoned on the left side, like a woman. That in hot July, for some reason, Jacob is in an overcoat. That he doesn't look at the camera in any of the pictures.

On May 31, 1948, in German Saxony, while dismantling archives, the Soviet military translator Prokhorova found two sheets of paper. This was the record of the first interrogation of Yakov Dzhugashvili on July 18, 1941.

“Since no documents were found on the prisoner of war, and Dzhugashvili pretends to be the son of the chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, Joseph Stalin-Dzhugashvili, he was asked to sign the attached application in two copies. Dzhugashvili speaks English, German and French.”

What kind of person was this, whose interrogation protocol was found by a military translator? Was it really Yakov Stalin or someone who pretended to be the leader's son and thus hoped to mitigate the fate of German captivity?

The interrogation protocols are full of clichés. It follows from them that Yakov refused to cooperate with the Germans. He is sent to Berlin at the disposal of the Goebbels department. The supervision of the captured son of Stalin is carried out by the Gestapo. After several unsuccessful attempts to force Yakov Dzhugashvili to participate in propaganda campaigns, he was transferred first to the Lubeck officer camp, and then to the Homelburg concentration camp.

But this looks strange. Was there really no place in Berlin for Stalin's son? Did the Germans really refuse to use such a trump card in the game, which, undoubtedly, was the son of the Supreme Commander of the opposing country? Hard to believe.

Joseph Stalin did not cease to be interested in the fate of his son. Therefore, Soviet foreign intelligence tracked all the movements of Yakov Dzhugashvili. Or a man posing as Stalin's eldest son.

For some reason, during the two years of captivity, the German secret services and propagandists did not take a single frame of newsreel, even from around the corner, even with the help of a hidden camera. As, however, there is not a single recording of the voice of Yakov Dzhugashvili. It is strange that the Germans missed such an opportunity to say hello to Stalin.

Several recollections of those who lived with Yakov in the same barracks and in "Lübeck", and in "Homelburg", and in the last place of Dzhugashvili's stay - in special camp "A" in Sachsenhausen, have been preserved. But the fact is that none of these people knew or saw Yakov before the war.

It seems that we are dealing with one of the most sophisticated operations of the German secret services. With one blow, they killed two birds with one stone: they kept Stalin in suspense and waited for the enemy in their rear. It is known about several groups that received the task from the Soviet leadership to release Yakov from captivity. All these attempts ended in failure. But the Germans got the opportunity to trace the connections and contacts of the underground workers operating in their rear.

The circumstances of Jacob's death became known after the war from a discovered letter from Reichsführer SS Himmler to Foreign Minister Ribbentrop, and then from the published testimony of Konrad Harfik, a guard at Special Camp A in Sachsenhausen.

It follows from Harfik's testimony that at about 20:00 on April 14, 1943, he was ordered to lock the door in the wire fence that separated the barracks from prisoners of war. Suddenly, Yakov Dzhugashvili, shouting "Sentry, shoot!" rushed past Harfik to the wire through which the high voltage current passed. Harfik tried to reason with Yakov for some time, but when he nevertheless grabbed the wire, he shot him in the head from a distance of 6-7 meters. Dzhugashvili unclenched his hands and leaned back, left hanging on the wire.

Imagine the contact of a person with a wire carrying a voltage of 500 volts. Death from paralysis should be instantaneous. Why else was it necessary to shoot, and not at the legs, not at the back, but immediately at the back of the head? Doesn't this mean that Yakov, or the person posing as Yakov, was first shot and then thrown onto the wire?

Why did the unexpected death of Yakov coincide with the moment when negotiations on the exchange of Field Marshal Paulus for Yakov Dzhugashvili intensified through the Red Cross? Is this a coincidence? And finally, why is the photograph of Yakov hanging on a wire, presented in the criminal case file of the Imperial Criminal Police Department of Nazi Germany, so fuzzy?

In the spring of 2002, after an official appeal to the Federal Security Service, several examinations of photographs, leaflets and notes by Yakov Dzhugashvili were carried out.

First of all, it was necessary to establish the authorship of a note allegedly written by Yakov Dzhugashvili in captivity on July 19, 1941 and addressed to Stalin. Experts from the Center for Forensic and Forensic Examinations of the Ministry of Defense had authentic texts written by the hand of Stalin's eldest son shortly before the start and in the first days of the war. In a comparative analysis, in particular, it turned out that there is no inclination when writing the letter “z” in the disputed text - Yakov always wrote this letter with an inclination to the left; the letter "d" in a note sent from captivity has a loop-shaped curl in the upper part, which is absolutely not typical for the handwriting of Stalin's son; Yakov always seemed to flatten the upper part of the letter "v" - in a note addressed to Stalin, it is spelled out classically correctly.

Experts have identified 11 more inconsistencies!

The forensic medical expert Sergey Zosimov then said:

Having a sufficient amount of handwritten material performed by Dzhugashvili, it is not difficult to combine such a note from separate alphabetic and digital characters.

Consultation reference number 7-4/02 from the expert opinion:

“A letter on behalf of Yakov Iosifovich Dzhugashvili dated July 19, 1941, beginning with the words “dear father”, was executed not by Yakov Iosifovich Dzhugashvili, but by another person.

Specialists Victor Kolkutin, Sergey Zosimov.

So, Yakov Dzhugashvili did not write to his father from captivity, did not call for laying down arms, it was done for him by another or others.

The second question: who is depicted in the photographs taken by the Germans in the period from July 1941 to April 1943 during the possible stay in captivity of Senior Lieutenant Yakov Dzhugashvili?

In the photographs obtained from the German archives, after research by the method of comparison and scanning, traces of photomontage and retouching were clearly recorded.

Forensic medical expert Sergei Abramov in the film "Golgotha" said:

The image of the face was cut out, transferred to the picture instead of the head of another person, this head was transferred.

They just forgot to change the shape of the tousled hair, and the length of the shadows from the two figures shown in the picture does not correspond to the location of the light source, they are painted on.

German propagandists also made a mistake by editing a photograph where Stalin's son was allegedly captured during interrogation. If the image of the two German officers is beyond any doubt, they are real, then the photo of the man posing as Yakov Dzhugashvili is not perfect. There are traces of retouching, and the man is dressed very strangely: his tunic is buttoned on the left side, in a feminine way. It turns out that when making this picture, a mirror image of another picture of Yakov Dzhugashvili was used, but the German specialists forgot to turn it back.

Help-consultation number 194/02 from the expert opinion:

“The pictures were made by photomontage. The image of the head of the subject under study was transferred from other images and retouched.

Forensic medical expert Sergei Abramov.

The chief forensic expert of the Ministry of Defense Viktor Kalkutin in the film "Golgotha" said:

So far, only one thing can be stated with absolute certainty: Stalin's eldest son, Yakov Dzhugashvili, who went to the front on June 23, 1941, did not return home. Whether he was killed immediately after his capture, taken to the West, or simply died in battle - now it is unlikely that it will ever be known.

Relatives did not believe in Jacob's death for a very long time. For many years it seemed to Svetlana Stalin that her brother, whom she loved more than Vasily, did not die. Between them there was some invisible connection; as she wrote, an inner voice told her that Jacob was alive, that he was somewhere in America or Canada.

In the West, after the end of the war, many were sure that Yakov Dzhugashvili was alive. And they gave proof of this version.

1. So, in the TASS report for the beginning of 1945, only Stalin and Molotov were reported:

"Broadcast. London, broadcast Polish government, Polish language, February 6, protocol entry. A special correspondent of the Daily Mail newspaper reports: The German authorities have allocated 50-60 thousand Allied prisoners of war as hostages, among them is King Leopold, Churchill's nephew, Schuschnigg, Stalin's son and General Boer. General Boer is imprisoned in Berchtesgaden, and the Germans are trying in every possible way to get General Boer to speak out against Russia. However, all their attempts were in vain.

2. “Radio broadcast. Rome, Italian, May 23, 7:30 p.m., transcript. Zurich. Major Yakov Dzhugashvili, the son of Marshal Stalin, who was released from one of the concentration camps, arrived in Switzerland.”

3. In August 1949, an article about Stalin's children was published in the Danish newspaper Informashon. There was also a paragraph about Jacob.

“About the eldest son of Stalin - Yakov, who was taken prisoner by the Germans during the war, they say that he is in exile in Switzerland. The Swedish newspaper "Arbetaren" published an article by Ostrange, who allegedly knew Yakov Stalin personally. It is alleged that Yakov, in his youth, was in opposition to his father.

In the West, the topic of the life and death of Yakov Dzhugashvili in captivity is still of interest to many historians and the media. Proof of this is the intensity of the discussion between the German journalist and historian Christian Neef, who believes that Stalin's son deliberately surrendered himself as a prisoner, and the Russian-French artist and publicist Maxim Kantor. This discussion.

According to the memoirs of Svetlana Alliluyeva, her half-brother Yakov was a deeply peaceful person. He graduated from the Moscow Institute of Transport Engineers and worked for a short time at one of the capital's power plants, but Stalin, in accordance with the spirit of the times, forced him to put on a military uniform and enter the Artillery Academy.
33-year-old Yakov Dzhugashvili went to the front on the first day of the war. "Go and fight," his father told him. Of course, he could have arranged his son for a staff position, but he did not do this.

On June 24, Yakov took command of the 6th artillery battery 14th howitzer regiment of the 14th tank division. For the battle on July 7, 1941, near the Chernogostnitsa River, Vitebsk Region, he was presented for an award, but did not manage to receive it.
The Soviet 20th Army was surrounded. On July 16, Stalin's son found himself in captivity along with many others.
According to reports, he wanted to be called someone else's last name, but was betrayed by one of his colleagues. "Are you Stalin?" the shocked German officer asked. "No," he replied, "I am Senior Lieutenant Yakov Dzhugashvili."

In Berlin, Abwehr captain Wilfried Shtrik-Shtrikfeld, who spoke Russian fluently and was subsequently assigned as a liaison officer to General Vlasov, had a long conversation with him.
"Being in your hands, I have not found a single reason to look at you from the bottom up," Yakov Dzhugashvili said during one of the interrogations.
According to the protocols discovered after the war in Berlin and stored in the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense in Podolsk, he did not hide his disappointment with the unsuccessful actions of the Red Army, but did not give out any information of interest to the Germans, referring to the fact that he was not close to his father. Basically, he was telling the truth.

According to historians, Stalin had every reason to be proud of his son's behavior. Yakov refused to cooperate with the Nazis, and the well-known leaflets with his portrait and a signature saying that, they say, the son of your leader surrendered, feels great and wishes the same to everyone, which the Germans scattered over Soviet positions in the fall of 1941, were made without his participation.
Convinced of the futility of further work, the Germans sent Yakov Dzhugashvili to a prisoner of war camp in Hammelsburg, then transferred to Lübeck, and later to block "A" of Sachsenhausen, intended for "VIP prisoners".

"He said that he did not make any statements to the Germans and asked, if he did not have to see his homeland, to inform his father that he remained faithful to his military duty," lieutenant Marian Ventslevich, comrade Yakov Dzhugashvili in captivity.
In Lübeck, he became friends with the captured Poles, many of whom spoke Russian, played chess and cards with them.
Yakov Dzhugashvili was very upset by what happened to him and suffered from severe depression. Like the rest of the Soviet prisoners, he had no contact with his homeland. The Nazis, of course, did not fail to convey to him Stalin's famous phrase: "We have no prisoners of war, there are traitors."
On April 14, 1943, according to some sources, he jumped out of the window of the barracks, according to others, he refused to return to it after a walk, tore the collar and threw himself on the wire through which the current was passed, shouting: "Shoot me."

The sentry, SS-Rotenführer Konrad Hafrich, opened fire. The bullet hit the head, but, according to the autopsy, Yakov Dzhugashvili died earlier from electric shock. In fact, it was suicide.
Documents and photographs related to the stay of Stalin's son in Sachsenhausen, including Himmler's letter to Ribbentrop, which outlined the circumstances of his death, turned out to be with the Americans. The State Department was going to pass them on to Stalin through the US Ambassador to Moscow, Harriman, but changed the decision for an unknown reason. The materials were declassified in 1968.
However, the secret services of the USSR already found out everything by interrogating the former employees of the camp. The data are contained in a memorandum from the head of the security agencies in the Soviet occupation zone, Ivan Serov, dated September 14, 1946.
"He was neither ambitious, nor harsh, nor obsessed. There were no contradictory qualities in him, mutually exclusive aspirations; there were no brilliant abilities either. He was modest, simple, very hardworking and charmingly calm"

Svetlana Alliluyeva.

The body of Yakov Dzhugashvili was cremated by the Germans, and the urn with the ashes was buried in the ground. The Soviet authorities found the grave back in 1945 and reported it to Moscow, but Stalin did not respond to the telegram. However, the grave was looked after. It is not known whether the military administration acted on its own initiative or received instructions from the Kremlin.
Stalin's adopted son, General Artem Sergeev, claimed that Yakov Dzhugashvili was never captured, but died in battle. Anastas Mikoyan's son Artem said that he allegedly met him at Stalin's dacha in June 1945. Various people "saw" him in Georgia, Italy and the USA after the war.
The most delusional version says that Yakov Dzhugashvili lived incognito somewhere in the Middle East and is the father of Saddam Hussein, although he is known to have been born in 1940.

"I don't change soldiers for field marshals."

In February 1943, Lavrenty Beria suggested that Stalin try to arrange an exchange of Yakov for Field Marshal Paulus through the head of the International Red Cross, the Swedish Count Bernadotte. Stalin replied: "I don't change soldiers for field marshals."
According to Svetlana Alliluyeva, her father told her: "No! In war, as in war."
Stalin appears somewhat more humane in the memoirs of Georgy Zhukov.
"Comrade Stalin, for a long time I wanted to know about your son Yakov. Is there any information about his fate?" He did not immediately answer this question. After walking a good hundred steps, he said in some muffled voice: "Yakov will not get out of captivity. The Nazis will shoot him." Sitting at the table, I.V. Stalin was silent for a long time, not touching the food "

Georgy Zhukov, "Memories and Reflections".

Having signed on August 16, 1941, the order of the Headquarters No. 270 ("commanders and political workers who surrender, to be considered malicious deserters, whose families are subject to arrest"), the leader in the circle of associates deigned to joke that, they say, now he should be exiled, and he, if it is possible, chooses the Turukhansk region, familiar from pre-revolutionary times.
Modern admirers of Stalin consider his behavior a model of integrity and dedication.
Indeed, in the light of the well-known attitude towards prisoners of war, it would be politically inconvenient for him to save his "native blood".
However, many historians point to another possible cause. In their opinion, Stalin simply did not like his eldest son, since he practically did not see him until the age of 13.
If Vasily got into trouble, Stalin, it is possible, would have judged differently, the researchers say.
There is a version, though not confirmed by credible sources, that Stalin found Nadezhda Alliluyeva in bed with her 24-year-old stepson, killed her, and took revenge on him without rescuing him from captivity.

Life behind the Kremlin wall.

After Yakov was brought from Georgia to Moscow in 1921, his father called him exclusively Yashka, treated him like a nonentity, called him “my fool” behind his back, beat him for smoking, although he himself did not part with his pipe, and at night put him out of the apartment in the corridor. The teenager periodically hid with members of the Politburo who lived in the neighborhood and told them: "My dad is crazy."

"He was a very restrained, silent and secretive young man. He looked downtrodden. He was always immersed in some kind of inner experience," recalled Stalin's personal secretary Boris Bazhanov.
In addition to Yakov, Vasily and Svetlana, two illegitimate sons of Stalin are known, who were born in the Turukhansk region and in the Arkhangelsk province, where he was exiled.

Both grew up far from their father and from the Kremlin and lived long and prosperous lives. One was the captain of a ship on the Yenisei, the other, under Brezhnev, rose to the position of deputy chairman of the State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company and was known as a highly professional, erudite and at that time a liberal person.
All three of Stalin's legitimate children were unfortunate people with broken personal lives. Parents often dislike sons-in-law and daughters-in-law. But if ordinary people have to accept the choice of children, then Stalin had unlimited opportunity arbitrarily intervene in their destinies and decide with whom his children will marry.

“Yasha was good-looking, women really liked him. I myself was in love with him,” recalled Maxim Gorky’s granddaughter Marfa Peshkova.
"A boy with a very gentle swarthy face, on which black eyes with a golden gleam attract attention. Thin, rather miniature, similar, as I heard, to my dead mother. Very gentle in manner. His father punishes him severely, beats him

Natalia Sedova, Trotsky's wife.

At 18, Yakov married 16-year-old Zoya Gunina, but Stalin forced him to dissolve the marriage. The son tried to shoot himself. His father did not visit him in the hospital, passing through his relatives that he had acted as a hooligan and blackmailer, and at the meeting he contemptuously threw: "He! He didn't hit."
Then Yakov became close to a student from Uryupinsk, Olga Golysheva, who studied in Moscow at an aviation technical school. Stalin again objected, as a result, Golysheva went home, where on January 10, 1936 she gave birth to a son. Two years later, Yakov insisted that the boy be given the name "Dzhugashvili" and given the appropriate documents, but his father did not allow him to go to Uryupinsk.
Now 77-year-old Yevgeny Dzhugashvili is a convinced Stalinist and is suing those who, in his opinion, undeservedly blacken the memory of his grandfather, who did not want to know him.

In 1936, Yakov married the ballerina Yulia Meltzer, having beaten her off from her husband, Nikolai Bessarab, assistant head of the NKVD department for the Moscow region.
Stalin also disliked this daughter-in-law because of her Jewish origin.
When Yakov was captured, Yulia Meltzer was arrested and released after his death. She spent about two years in solitary confinement in Lefortovo in complete isolation and, being summoned for interrogation, was taken aback when she saw "White Guard" gold shoulder straps on the officers' shoulders.
According to Meltzer, they tried to accuse her of having persuaded her husband to surrender before leaving for the front.
The director of the film "The Fall of Berlin" Mikhail Chiaureli suggested introducing Yakov Dzhugashvili into the script, making him a tragic figure of the war, but Stalin rejected the idea: either he did not want to address the subject of captivity in principle, or it was hard for him to remember this story.

Sons of Stalin

Between the elder Yakov and the younger Vasily - the sons of Stalin - there are thirteen years, but they belong to different generations. Each of them had difficult fate, woven from different threads of time.

Jacob was born in 1907. His mother Ekaterina Semyonovna Svanidze - Stalin's first wife - died early, when his son was only a few months old. She was slain by typhoid fever. The baby boy was taken in by Alexandra Semyonovna Svanidze, Catherine's sister. Yasha first lived in Tiflis for a long time, and then, at the insistence of his uncle Alexander Semenovich Svanidze (known as "Alyosha" in the Bolshevik underground), he went to Moscow to study. He entered the Institute of Transport Engineers (MIIT). The Alliluyev family warmly accepted Yakov, loving him for his sincerity, kindness, calm and balanced character.

Even during his studies, Jacob decided to get married, the Father did not approve of this marriage, but Jacob acted in his own way, which caused a quarrel between them. A. S. Svanidze did not approve of a hasty marriage either. He wrote to Yasha that you can build your family only when you become an independent person and can provide for your family, and he does not have any moral right to marry based on parents, although they occupy a high position.

Yakov and his wife leave for Leningrad, settling in the apartment of his grandfather, Sergei Yakovlevich Alliluyev. Decided to work at the thermal power plant. A daughter was born, but she lived very little and soon died. The marriage broke up. Yasha returned to Moscow, finished his studies at the institute and began working as an engineer at one of the Moscow factories.

In December 1935, he marries a second time and again against the will of his father, who did not approve of his son's choice. It is clear that relations between them could only worsen. In 1938, Yakov's daughter Galina was born.

During these years, the impending breath of war was already felt. In one of his conversations with his son, Stalin spoke bluntly about this and added that the Red Army needed good commanders. On the advice of his father, Yakov entered the Military Artillery Academy, from which he graduated just before the war in the summer of 1941. Senior Lieutenant Yakov Iosifovich Dzhugashvili, a graduate of the academy, was then 34 years old.

The last time father and son saw each other was on June 22, 1941. “Go and fight,” Stalin said in parting to Yakov. The very next day, Senior Lieutenant Ya. Dzhugashvili, along with other graduates of the academy, was sent to the front, which turned out to be too short for him. July 16, near Vitebsk, he is captured.

In his book "Memories and Reflections" G.K. Zhukov says that at the beginning of March 1945 he was at Stalin's Near Dacha.

“During a walk, I.V. Stalin suddenly began to tell me about his childhood.

So the conversation went on for at least an hour. Then he said:

Let's go have some tea, we need to talk about something.

On the way back I asked:

Comrade Stalin, I have long wanted to know about your son Yakov. Is there any information about his fate?

He did not immediately answer this question. After walking a good hundred paces, he said in a muffled voice:

Do not get out of Yakov from captivity. The Nazis will shoot him. According to inquiries, they keep him isolated from other prisoners of war and agitate for treason.

No, Jacob would prefer any death to treason. He seemed to care deeply for his son. Sitting at the table, I. V. Stalin was silent for a long time, not touching the food. Then, as if continuing his reflections, he said bitterly:

What a tough war! How many lives it took of our people. Apparently, we will have few families left whose loved ones have not died."

At that time, Stalin did not yet know that two years had already passed since his eldest son was no longer alive. He learned about this shortly after the war from V. Peak, who came to Moscow.

Now the name of this camp where he was shot is known - Sachsenhausen. There are other concentration camps that Yakov had to go through. "Case No. T-176" with German pedantry recorded everything, down to the names of the killers. In 1978, in "Literary Georgia" in No. 4 in the essay "The Prisoner of Sachsenhausen" I. Andronov told about the story of the death of Y. Dzhugashvili.

In "Case No. T-176" there is one curious document - a telegram from Acting US Secretary of State Grew, sent to US Ambassador to the USSR Harriman dated June 30, 1945.

“Now in Germany, a joint group of experts from the State Department and the British Foreign Office is studying important German secret documents about how Stalin’s son was shot dead, who allegedly tried to escape from a concentration camp. photographs, several pages of documentation.The British Foreign Office recommended that the British and American governments hand over the originals of these documents to Stalin, and to do this, instruct the British ambassador to the USSR Clark Kerr to inform about the Molotov documents found and ask Molotov for advice on how best to give the documents to Stalin. Kerr could claim that this is a joint Anglo-American find and present it on behalf of the British Ministry and the US Embassy.There is an opinion, however, that the transfer of documents should be made not on behalf of our embassy, ​​but the State Department. handing over documents to Stalin, it would be desirable to know in the State Department. You can refer to Molotov if you find it useful. Work with Clark Kerr if he has similar instructions. Gru."

However, none of this happened. The ambassador soon received instructions of a completely different content, and the documents themselves were delivered from Frankfurt am Main to Washington on July 5, 1945 and were classified in the archives of the US State Department for many years. Only in 1968, when the statute of limitations for the secrecy of wartime documents expired, did the archivists of the State Department prepare a certificate of the following content to justify the concealment from the Soviet leadership of "Case No. T-176":

“After a thorough study of this case and its substance, the British Foreign Office proposed to reject the original idea of ​​handing over the documents, which, due to their unpleasant content, could upset Stalin. The Soviet officials were not told anything, and State Department informed Ambassador Harriman in a telegram dated August 23, 1945, that an agreement had been reached not to hand over the documents to Stalin."

Of course, it was not the fear of "disappointing" Stalin, as Iona Andronov rightly notes, that forced Truman's and Churchill's inner circle to hide "Case No. T-176" in a secret archive. Most likely, they themselves were very upset, having learned from the case about courageous behavior in the captivity of Yakov. They, who stood at the origins of the Cold War, were much more satisfied with rumors discrediting the son of the commander-in-chief, launched by Goebbels' propaganda.

It is no coincidence that after the war, many versions appeared about the fate of Yakov Dzhugashvili, who was allegedly seen either in Italy or in Latin America. A host of "eyewitnesses" and clever impostors appeared to the world. Fantasies continue to walk through the pages of the press in our days, do not hesitate to retell them or compose new and domestic journalists. One of the "fresh" versions is the tale that Jacob naturalized in Iraq, and Saddam Hussein is his son.

However, the documents of Case No. T-176 leave no room for speculation. They record that Yakov was captured on July 16, 1941, did not reveal his name, but the Nazis learned about him on July 18 through some prisoner of war.

At first, Jacob was dealt with by the major of the German army intelligence, Walter Holters from the headquarters of Field Marshal von Kluge. He recorded in his interrogation protocols that Yakov Dzhugashvili considers captivity a disgrace and if he had discovered in time that he had remained isolated from his own, he would have shot himself. He is convinced that the new arrangement in Soviet Russia is more in line with the interests of the workers and peasants than in former times, and advised the Abwehr officer to ask the Soviet people about it himself. Dzhugashvili said that he did not believe in the possibility of the capture of Moscow by the Germans. On the offer to write to the family, Yakov refused. He resolutely rejected the proposal to broadcast his appeal home on the radio. When they hinted to him that they could build an agitation here on his behalf and appeal to Soviet soldiers to surrender, he laughed mockingly. "No one will believe this!"

Realizing that cooperation with J. Dzhugashvili would not take place, he was transferred to the headquarters of the group of troops of Field Marshal von Bock. Here he was interrogated by Captain V. Shtrik-Shtrikfeld, a professional intelligence officer who was fluent in Russian. His secret super-task included the recruitment of captured military leaders into the service of the occupation authorities. V. Shtrik-Shtrikfeld, who lived happily in the FRG until his death in 1977, left memories of how he unsuccessfully tried to recruit Yakov to the position subsequently occupied by General Vlasov. In particular, he talked about Jacob's resolute rejection of his arguments about the spiritual and racial superiority of the German nation. "You look at us as if we were primitive islanders of the southern seas," Dzhugashvili retorted, "but I, being in your hands, did not find any reason to look up at you." Yakov did not get tired of repeating that he did not believe in the victory of Germany.

Now Ya. Dzhugashvili is being transferred to the Goebbels department. To begin with, he is settled in luxury hotel"Adlon" under the vigilant protection of the Gestapo and conduct a new round of processing, but again fail and transfer him to the officer concentration camp Lübeck, and then to the concentration camp Hammelburg. Captain A.K. Uzhinsky, a Muscovite, was then in this camp. Once, in front of his eyes, the guard began to draw the letters SU (Soviet Union) on Yakov's clothes, he outlined it all, right down to the cap. While the "artist" was working, Yasha turned to the captured officers crowding nearby and shouted loudly: "Let him paint! "Soviet Union" - such an inscription does me honor. I am proud of it!".

There are eyewitnesses to such words of General D.M. Karbyshev, which he said about Yakov (in April 1942, the general was taken to Hammelburg): “Yakov Iosifovich should be treated as an unshakable Soviet patriot. He is a very honest and modest comrade. He is laconic and keeps to himself, because he is constantly being watched. He is afraid to let down those who will communicate with him.

And here is the testimony from the camp of the enemies. SS man I. Kaufman, a former guard in Hammelburg, wrote in 1967 in the West German newspaper Wild am Esntag: "Stalin's son spoke out in defense of his country whenever the opportunity presented itself. He was firmly convinced that the Russians would win the war" .

As you know, Stalin rejected the Nazi offer to exchange his son for Paulus. To the chairman of the Swedish Red Cross, Count Berndot, he answered succinctly: "I do not change a soldier for a field marshal." I think this phrase cost him a deep notch in his heart. Such wounds do not heal.

Realizing that they could not break Ya. Dzhugashvili, they cooled off for further psychological game and transferred him to Sachsenhausen, where they kept him in a special unit guarded by SS men from the "Dead Head" division.

It is recorded in "Case No. T-176" that shortly before his death, the prisoner said: "Soon the German invaders will be dressed in our rags and each of them, able to work, will go to Russia to restore stone by stone everything that they destroyed."

He was shot in the head on April 14, 1943. Allegedly, when trying to escape - this formula was well worked out by the Nazis. Jacob was killed by SS guard Konrad Harfisch in the presence of SS guard chief Karl Jungling.

When Iona Andronov was preparing his documentary essay "The Prisoner of Sachsenhausen" for publication, these SS executioners lived quietly in the FRG, and Harfish openly declared at a meeting with journalists: "It's for sure that I shot him."

On April 22, 1943, Himmler sent an SS report and a personal dispatch to the Foreign Ministry in the name of Ribbentrop under the heading "Top Secret": "Dear Ribbentrop! I am sending you a report on the circumstances under which the prisoner of war Yakov Dzhugashvili, Stalin's son, was shot while trying to escape from a special block "A" in Sachsenhausen near Oranienburg. Heil Hitler! Your Heinrich Himmler."

Thirty-four years later, by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of October 28, 1977, Ya.I. Dzhugashvili was posthumously awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, I degree, on February 1, 1985, the order was transferred to the custody of his daughter Galina Yakovlevna.

Nadezhda's suicide hit her children twice: it deprived them of their mother early and extremely hardened their father. This blow hit the hardest on Vasily, who in 1932 was 12 years old. This age is complex, brittle, given that Vasily was from childhood " difficult child". Such children are especially in dire need of a loved one who is able to understand a teenager and direct his indefatigable energy in the right direction, prevent him from "losing his tongue", gaining internal control over his actions, and preventing permissiveness.

But fate decreed otherwise, he grew up almost homeless. Nadezhda, whom Vasily loved very much, was obliged to sacrifice even her "I" for the sake of her son. But. But she entrusted the upbringing of her son, and her daughter, too, to a person who was not at all close to children - Muravyov Alexander Ivanovich, although, perhaps, very good. In the end, such an attitude towards children turned against her, she did not find support and joy in them. In Twenty Letters to a Friend, one dialogue is reproduced, heard by Alexandra Andreevna Bychkova (Svetlana's nanny), which took place between Nadezhda and her school friend shortly before her suicide. To the question of a friend: "Does nothing please you in life?" - she answered: "Nothing pleases. Everything is tired! Everything is disgusted!" - "Well, children, children?" - "Everything, and children." Hearing this, the nanny realized that Nadezhda was really tired of life.

Vasily grew up as a hooligan, studied unevenly and often carelessly. In April 1991, Teacher's Newspaper published a letter from Stalin V.V. Martyshin, a teacher of history at the Moscow special school No. 2, where Vasily studied. Here is his text:

“I received your letter about the art of Vasily Stalin. I am answering very late due to overload with work. I apologize.

Vasily is a spoiled young man of average ability, a savage (like a Scythian!), not always truthful, likes to blackmail weak "leaders", often impudent, with a weak, or rather, unorganized will.

He was spoiled by all sorts of "gossips" and "gossips", constantly emphasizing that he was "Stalin's son".

I am glad that in your person there was at least one self-respecting teacher who treats Vasily like everyone else and demands that the impudent person obey the general regime at school. Vasily is spoiled by a director like the one you mentioned, rag people who have no place in school, and if the insolent Vasily did not have time to ruin himself, it is because there are some teachers in our country who do not give up to the capricious barchuk.

My advice: demand stricter from Vasily and not be afraid of false, blackmailing threats of a capricious about "suicide".

You will have my support in this.

Unfortunately, I myself do not have the opportunity to mess with Vasily. But I promise to take him by the collar from time to time.

As you can see, the father understood the nature of his son, he did not encourage "arts" and demanded the same from his mentors, educators and commanders. This is confirmed by the following facts: for example, the head of the Myasnikov Red Banner Kachinskaya Aviation School was removed from his post for creating privileged conditions for cadet Vasily Stalin, and from the leaders of the 16th Air Army, to which Vasily was sent during the war, Stalin demanded "not to do any or exceptions for the son."

Of course, this eternal work overload did not add attention to his son, and he, oh, how much he needed him! His father was engaged in his upbringing in fits and starts, suffered from this, but could not change anything. Time was lost, Vasily grew up pedagogically as a neglected child. It is possible that compassionate relatives did a disservice to the guy - grandparents, my mother and Pavel, who transferred all their love for his mother to him. They pampered Vasily, forgiving him a lot and protecting him from the righteous wrath of his father.

Be that as it may, Vasily's studies continued in half, finally he moved to the Artillery School, and then in 1939 he entered the Kachin Aviation School, which he graduated from before the war.

Most of all, Vasily loved fast driving and company. He loved to ride everything - from horses to airplanes. He mastered the technique flawlessly, rode a motorcycle well, drove a car of any brand perfectly, and flew cool. I preferred to ride with him in a car, which in his hands was light and submissive, like creature. I also rode a motorcycle with him, but it was scary, it was painfully dashing he was on bends.

He was always surrounded by a bunch of friends. He played football with them, went fishing, took a steam bath. These guys were funny, disinterested. But, growing up, these companies increasingly attracted people who needed something from their "son". By the way, the father could not stand this and always inspired Vasily and Svetlana to be more selective with their friends and not to welcome those who are not averse to using them for their own selfish interests. Unfortunately, these admonitions were of little help.

While studying at the aviation school, Vasily married Galina Burdonskaya. This sweet, pretty girl easily entered our family, she was loved.

At the beginning of the war, when Yakov was taken prisoner, the obliging entourage came up with some kind of inspector position for Vasily in order to keep him away from the front. Perhaps there was some political reason for this, but this did not benefit Vasily. He toiled from idleness and became addicted to alcohol. At the dacha in Zubalovo, where our family lived, noisy feasts began. Once Vasily brought here a famous film figure A.Ya. Kapler, and he met Svetlana.

Rumors about these parties reached Stalin, and in the end there was a grandiose scandal, Zubalovo was closed, everyone - both grandfather and grandmother, and my mother - received "brains". And Vasily again "threw the number", he decided to use a rocket projectile to kill the fish. Fishing ended in tragedy, Vasily's companion died, and he, badly wounded in the leg, was admitted to the hospital.

Of course, Stalin was informed about this, and he was furious. Vasily was expelled from everywhere, and, having left the hospital with his leg still bandaged, he lived with us for some time, often complaining to my mother that they did not want to send him to the front: “These hands only strangle devils,” Vasily was indignant, “and I I'm sitting here in the rear!"

But he achieved his goal and went to the front, where he made twenty-seven sorties and shot down one fascist plane.

The son reconciled with his father only in 1945 during the Potsdam Conference. By this time, the certification written for Vasily, which was published in his book by A. Kolesnik, dates back:

"V.I. Stalin has been serving as division commander since May 1944. Personally, Comrade Stalin has good organizational skills and strong-willed qualities. He is tactically prepared well, competently understands the operational situation, quickly and correctly orients himself in matters of conducting combat work. In work he is energetic, very initiative, from his subordinates he always requires the exact implementation of orders given.He can organize the combat work of the regiment and division.

Along with the positive qualities of the guards personally, Colonel Stalin V.I. has a number big flaws. By nature, he is hot and quick-tempered, allows intemperance, there were cases of assault on subordinates. Insufficiently deep study of people, as well as a not always serious approach to the selection of personnel, especially staff workers, led to frequent relocations officers in positions. This did not sufficiently contribute to the formation of staffs.

In his personal life, he allows actions that are incompatible with his position as division commander, there were cases of tactless behavior at the evenings of the flight crew, rudeness towards individual officers, there was a case of frivolous behavior - driving a tractor from the airfield in Siauliai with a conflict and a fight with a control post NKVD.

The state of health is poor, especially nervous system, extremely irritable: this had an impact on what recent times in flight work, he did little personal training, which leads to poor development of individual issues of flight training (orientation).

All these listed shortcomings significantly reduce his authority as a commander and are incompatible with his position as division commander.

He can command a division under the obligatory condition of eliminating the indicated shortcomings.

This attestation was written on December 25, 1945 by Lieutenant General of Aviation Beletsky and approved by the commander of the 3rd Air Army, Colonel General of Aviation Papivin.

A. Kolesnik admires the courage and boldness of the people who made the certification. I think otherwise, the document is objective among many. Then there was a time of tough personal responsibility and deviations in any other direction could cost more than the truth. We lost this sense of responsibility so long ago that few people can understand the people of those years.

I often talked with Vasily, and in my memory he was and remains a decent person. He was much simpler and, I would say, softer than Svetlana. He was distinguished by exceptional kindness and disinterestedness, he could calmly give his last shirt to a comrade. In front of my eyes, he presented a beautiful "Tatra" to one of his friends, who simply could not hide his admiration for the car. Knowing well these qualities of his, I will never believe that he could embezzle some government money, speculate in foreign clothes. He was very simple and democratic with people, but he could not stand lackeys and did not miss an opportunity to mock them.

His aviation service continued more or less successfully even after the war, as evidenced by the certification given to him by Lieutenant General E.Ya. Savitsky, commander of the 3rd Aviation Corps in 1946.

The characteristic, as the reader will notice, echoes the one given earlier:

"Major General of Aviation Stalin flies on planes: Po-2, Ut-1, Ut-2, I-15, I-153, MiG-3, LAGG-3, Yak-1, Yak-7, Yak-9, IL-2, "Boston", "Siebel", La-5, La-7, "Hurricane" - total flight time 3174 hours 15 minutes.

He has been in command of the 286th division since February 1945, under his leadership, units of the division to implement the UBP plan in 1946 made a total of 14,111 sorties with a flight time of 8376 hours 12 minutes, of which 5091 flights were made on Po-2 during the day with a flight time of 2996 hours 27 minutes and at night 3392 flights with a flight time of 1357 hours 47 minutes. The flight personnel of the division's units practiced takeoffs in figure eights and landings in pairs and fours. The pilots were good at firing at air and ground targets. Much attention in the division is given to shooting from photo-camera guns. A total of 7635 shootings were carried out from photo-cinema machine guns. Training with the flight and technical staff of the division is well organized and carried out systematically in classroom division, which consists of 16 well-equipped classes. The technical and operational service of the division is well organized, as evidenced by the fact that during the certification period there were no cases of equipment failure due to the fault of the technical staff. The headquarters of the division is put together and works well: during the mentioned period, the division conducted 3 bilateral tactical flight regimental exercises covering the flight personnel of 4 regiments for interaction with bombers.

During the first half of 1946, 22 tactical flight exercises were carried out, all of them were organized, without incident. In general, the division ranks first in the corps in fulfilling the plan for all types of combat training. During the time that has passed since the war, the 286th division has grown noticeably and become more organized. The flight crew is fully trained to perform combat missions at medium altitudes. 40 percent of pilots can fly at high altitudes and in difficult weather conditions. Major General of Aviation Stalin himself has good organizational skills, operational-tactical training is good. He skillfully transfers his combat experience to the flight crew. Energetic and initiative, he achieves the same qualities from his subordinates. In his work, he pays great attention to new technology, often gives innovative ideas and persistently puts them into practice. He organizes flight work boldly and methodically correctly.

The state of health is poor. Quick-tempered and irritable, not always able to restrain himself. In communication with subordinates, he allows rudeness, sometimes he trusts subordinates too much, even at a time when they are not prepared and are not able to fulfill the decision of the commander. These shortcomings of a personal nature reduce his authority as a commander-in-chief. Personally disciplined, ideologically sustained, morally stable.

Conclusion: the position is quite consistent, it can be promoted, it would be advisable to use it in the inspectorate of the Main Directorate of the Red Army Air Forces.

The commander of the 16th Air Army, Colonel-General of Aviation S.I., also agreed with the certification of the corps commander. Rudenko. At the same time, he noted that "the combat training division occupies a leading position in the army. It is worthy of promotion to the post of corps commander. To overcome the shortcomings indicated in the certification, although there is a sharp and noticeable improvement compared to the past."

The army is a specific institution, another title assigned according to position. Well, and if it is "quite appropriate" and "worthy of promotion", then the terms of the increase are reduced. Vasily ended the war with the rank of colonel, assigned to him in 1942 (he received it immediately after the rank of "major", which did him a disservice), now he is a major general.

However, Mrs. Vodka carried out her destructive work steadily. Vasily became more and more illegible in people, connections, felt less and less his responsibility to his family. He leaves his wife with two children and marries the daughter of Marshal S.K. Timoshenko, a beautiful young woman with jet-black hair and blue whites of her eyes. From his second marriage, he had a son and a daughter, but his father's alcohol had a detrimental effect on the health of the children, today they are no longer alive, his second wife also died. As for the children from the first marriage, the son Alexander became the director of the theater Soviet army, daughter Nadezhda (born in 1943) married the son of the actress of the Moscow Art Theater A.I. Stepanova, lives in Moscow. Galina Burdonskaya herself died in 1990.

After the death of his father, Vasily's life went downhill and turned out tragically. He ended up behind bars. It is interesting to note that after the arrest of Vasily, a commission of the Ministry of Defense was created to check the Air Force of the Moscow District, which he commanded recently.

According to Colonel I.P. Travnikov, cited by A. Kolesnik, "he received a good mark in combat and political training, but nevertheless, everything bad was blamed on Vasily, and he was arrested. A legitimate question arises - for what? We became aware, allegedly for illegal use Money not for the intended purpose (built water basin, and the first closed skating rink in Moscow, where thousands of children were and are learning to swim, started building an indoor skating rink in Chapaevsky Lane: they quickly made a foundation, put in a metal frame brought from Koenigsberg, ordered equipment from the GDR) ".

The same Travnikov believes that "Vasily was removed due to the malicious intent of Khrushchev. Vasily knew a lot about him and his entourage, about their shortcomings. In the struggle, all means are good, even taken from a long history, how to deal with objectionable ones."

After some time, Vasily is released on the condition that he change his lifestyle and behavior. Vasily promised, but soon broke loose, his "friends" again stuck to him, there were drunken parties, threats, etc., etc. Again a prison, he had to sit out the sentence given to him for eight years. In 1960, by order of N.S. Khrushchev, he was released ahead of schedule. The same Travnikov believes that "Khrushchev was informed about the critical state of Vasily's health, and if he dies in prison, it will take a political assessment. That is why Khrushchev decided to release Vasily and invited him to a reception. During the meeting and conversation, Khrushchev, prevaricating, spoke positively about Vasily's father, even saying that there was a mistake during Vasily's arrest (this is about the verdict of the Military Collegium Supreme Court USSR, which sentenced Vasily Stalin to 8 years). Vasily told this to his former deputy E.M. Gorbatyuk".

Everything is returned to him - from the title to the membership card - on the condition that he will show his will and pull himself together. But everything was already too late, the alcoholic disease had taken root so deeply in his body that there was no longer any will and could not be. Again a prison, from which Vasily was released for health reasons in the spring of 1961. He leaves for Kazan. On March 19, 1962, he died, shortly before that he registered his third marriage - with the nurse Masha - Maria Nuzborg.

Our family applied to N.S. Khrushchev to bury Vasily next to his mother, in a family grave, but did not find any understanding. Vasily Stalin is buried in Kazan. I am still convinced that this is unfair and Vasily's ashes should lie not in Kazan, but in Moscow, on Novodevichy near his mother, Nadezhda Sergeevna Alliluyeva-Stalina. The dead are not punished.

Sons On New Year's morning I get up late. I visit the Wang family estate, which looks even more impressive than the Chang family estate, and along with the Qiao family estate. Then I order big dinner and go to sleep. For the next two days, the road leads me through the coal

Daughters and sons "All happy families similar to each other unhappy family unhappy in its own way." It would seem that a comprehensive formula that will suit any family. But in Tolstoy's family, everything was fantastically mixed up and "mixed" - happy and

Sons and sons of Joseph Stalin Stalin was for us the father of nations. My generation thanked him for a happy childhood - it was like thanking God for daily bread. Then he was declared a tyrant, a murderer, a ghoul. It seemed to me for a long time that he did not foresee such

Chertkov and sons One can have different attitudes towards the complex personality of Chertkov. But here is a fact that is incomprehensible from a normal human point of view. Knowing the reaction that he causes in S.A., since the end of June 1910, he has been coming to her house every day (sometimes twice a day), in front of her eyes

Father and sons However, it only seemed so. Yes, and for a very short time. This was not the end of the struggle - passions flared up and it was not possible to appease them. The unfortunate father found adherents. True, many of them had to be bought, and the imperial treasury

Father and sons When the flurry of general rejoicing caused by the rescue of the Chelyuskinites passed, rallies, meetings, banquets ended, for the pilots - the first Heroes Soviet Union was given the opportunity to study at the Zhukovsky Air Force Academy.

Prologue: "Sons of the Sun" On July 10, 1873, in Brussels, Paul Verlaine shot his friend Arthur Rimbaud twice, lightly wounding him in the arm. Both poets were thus connected by blood. But fate connected Verlaine and Rimbaud not only in life: their names are inextricably intertwined in

[Sons] Adults are very fond of asking little children: tell me, who do you love more, dad or mom? Children always frown at this question, sniffle and break out of the hands that try to hold them. The most lymphatic respond with a frown: “I don’t know!” And how would they know? But this

16. Their sons I have two. In childhood, they are very similar to each other, and different in life. Andrey grew up, comparatively, sickly. Our parental inexperience is to blame for this. He was still 3 months old, Irina and I took with us to the meadow to collect sorrel. Wrapped up in a light blanket, day

Sons Arkady and Nikita ... In the photographs, film and video chronicles of Vysotsky's funeral, two young men with bowed heads stand next to the coffin. Taller is the younger Nikita, next to Arkady. On that day, Arkady was almost 18 years old, Nikita - 16. Then they had not yet come to

Sons And yet I was happy in marriage. Almost from the first months. Because I have my boys, two of my favorite people in the world - William and Harry. My sons are the best thing in my life. If I had even the slightest opportunity (other than the frank

Part IV. Father's Sons Chapter 1. The Tipping Point Chapter 2. Raising the Rich Chapter 3. An Offer He Could Refuse Chapter 4. The Francesca Question Interview: Stanley Tucker - October 2 and 11, 2011; Carol Wells Doheny - March 8 and 12, June 15, 2012; Noreen Nash Seagle - April 3, 2012; Mark Young

The life of Stalin's eldest son, Yakov Dzhugashvili, has been poorly studied to this day, it contains many conflicting facts and "blank spots". Historians argue both about Jacob's captivity and about his relationship with his father.

Birth

In the official biography of Yakov Dzhugashvili, the year of birth is 1907. The birthplace of Stalin's eldest son 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 another 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 brought up in the house of her relatives. The daughter of her mother's sister explained the confusion in the date of birth in 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, the long-awaited son Evgeny was born to Yakov Iosifovich. His mother was Olga Golysheva - civil spouse Yakov, whom Stalin's son met in the early 1930s. At the age of two, Evgeny Golyshev, allegedly due 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 have and cannot have any son." Galina claimed that her mother, Yulia Meltzer, financially supported the woman out of fear that history would reach Stalin. This money, in her opinion, could be mistaken for alimony from her father, which helped to register Yevgeny under the name Dzhugashvili.

Father

There is an opinion that Stalin was cold in relations with his eldest son. Their relationship, indeed, was 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 the son can “from now on live where he wants and with whom he wants.”

But the most striking “evidence” of Stalin’s dislike for his son is the famous “I don’t change a soldier for a field marshal!”, Said according to legend in response to a proposal to save a captive son. Meanwhile, there are a number of facts confirming the father's concern for his son: from material support and living in the same apartment to the donated "emka" and the provision of a separate apartment after marrying Yulia Meltzer.

Studies

The fact that Yakov studied at the Dzerzhinsky Artillery Academy is undeniable. Only the details of this stage in 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, the information of Stalin’s adopted son Artem Sergeev turns out to be more convincing, who said that Yakov entered the Academy in 1938 “immediately, either in the 3rd, or in the 4th year ". A number of researchers draw attention to the fact that not a single photograph has been 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 his comrades who studied with him. The only picture 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 be sent to the front, according to various sources, from June 22 to June 26 - exact date is still unknown. During the fights 14 tank division and the 14th artillery regiment included in it, one of the batteries of which was commanded by Yakov Dzhugashvili, inflicted significant damage on the enemy. For the battle of Senno, Yakov Dzhugashvili was presented to the Order of the Red Banner, but for some reason his name at number 99 was deleted from the Decree on the award (according to one of the versions, on the personal instructions of Stalin).

Captivity

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

According to a widespread version, Stalin's son was taken prisoner, 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 special services. Widely circulated leaflets depicting Stalin's son, who surrendered, according to the plan of the Nazis, 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 Department of Defense Forensic Science Center confirmed that the photos posted on the flyer had been falsified. It was also proved 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 another person played the role of Stalin's captive son.

Death

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

The conclusion of the medical examiner of the SS division indicates 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 Jagerdorf 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 the two years of captivity? Some researchers explain Jacob's "indecisiveness" with the hope of liberation, which he had until he found out about his father's words. According to the official version, the body of the “son of Stalin” was cremated by the Germans, and the ashes were soon sent to their security department.