Stalin was a lousy husband and father who failed to make any member of his family happy. Moreover, he killed his second wife, Nadezhda, and actually sentenced Yakov's son to death.
Stalin's first love was the Georgian woman Ekaterina Swanidze, with her brother the future dictator studied at the spiritual seminary in Tbilisi. Józef and his bride got married in 1906, in 1907 Ekaterina gave birth to son Yakov (Jasza) and died of typhus a few months later. The boy was brought up by the Jekatierina family living in the Kutais province.
Joseph Stalin had cruelty in his blood. Also for my family
Stalin - fully involved in revolutionary activities - was not interested in his son's life. Moreover, they have not been in contact for 13 years! He didn't see Jasha until 1921, after the Bolsheviks came to power.
Stalin a rapist?
Stalin lived in the Kremlin at that time, he was the People's Commissar, i.e. Minister for Nationality Affairs and had another partner - Nadezhda (Nadia) Alliluyeva 22 years younger. He met her in 1917 when he was hiding in the house of his fellow revolutionary Sergei Alliluyev.
Ekaterina Swanidze - Stalin's first wife
It is hard to imagine what could captivate the young Nadia in the not very pretty and incapacitated Józef, with her face marred by traces of natural smallpox. There is no information as to the circumstances that started their romance. Supposedly - as Anna, Nadezhda's sister, said many years later - their relationship began with ... a rape. In 1918, 17-year-old Nadia traveled by rail to the city of Tsaritsyn with her father, Stalin, and some party companions. At night, Sergei Alliluyev heard his daughter scream and threw himself into her compartment.
He saw the teary face of Nadezhda, who had just been raped by Stalin. The father wanted to shoot him, but the man fell at his feet and asked for his daughter's hand. Stalin did not fulfill his promise until the fall of 1920, when Nadezhda was five months pregnant with her son Vasily, who was born in March 1921. In 1926 my daughter Svetlana appeared.
House dictator
The family life of Alliluyeva and Stalin was far from ideal. Although the spouse expected the much younger woman to be obedient and humble, he was bitterly disappointed. In 1919, Nadezhda became Lenin's secretary and was granted access to top secret documents. When Stalin demanded that her disclose their content, she refused.
The woman did not clean, cook or perform other activities traditionally assigned to women. He publicly expressed his dissatisfaction to his wife with her behavior and spoke of the inferiority of women to men.
As reported by the former Stalin's secretary, Boris Bażanov, at home the politician “behaved like a despot, he remained silent for days”. He showed no affection for his sons; when the boys turned to him, he was silent. He also did not answer his wife's questions. He had love only for his daughter Svetlana, although he was not too effusive towards her either.
Over time, political differences developed between Joseph and Nadezhda. The woman did not hesitate to tell her husband that she did not support his persecution of "enemies of the people." In 1930, when a show trial began in Moscow against eight engineers allegedly involved in "sabotage and harm", Alliluyeva expressed her dissatisfaction with a court verdict. She met the accused and their family members while studying at the Industrial Academy. After the conviction, the engineers maintained relations with their relatives. No wonder the tension in Stalin's apartment was increasing.
The marriage of Stalin and Nadia was not successful
The dictator's family life ended on the night of November 8-9, 1932, when Nadezhda killed herself by shooting herself in the head. What pushed her to take such a drastic step? Well, in the late evening of November 7, on the fifteenth anniversary of the October Revolution, a party was held at the house of Kliment Voroshilov. During it, Stalin mocked his wife and threw bread balls at her. Nadezhda got angry and left, and a day later she was dead.
Stalin was devastated, but his despair was caused not by longing for his wife, but by… anger. He felt insulted because by leaving her husband Nadia had ruined his reputation! Daughter Svetlana recalled that, saying goodbye to the deceased, he sharply pushed the coffin away and left. Józef was absent from his wife's funeral. He ordered not to investigate the death of Alliluyeva. Was he afraid of being suspected of being involved?
Poor Yakov
As mentioned, in 1921, 14-year-old Jasza moved to Moscow with his father. Having spent all his life in the Georgian provinces, he hardly spoke Russian. He was shy, quiet and distrustful, which is why his father contemptuously called him "the wolf." Yakov had to catch up at school. Stalin did not seem to notice the difficulties the teenager faced. He often criticized him for showing weakness or poor academic performance (years later, Svetlana Alliluyeva recalled that Jasza "felt like an unwanted stepson"). His stepmother Nadezhda Alliluyeva showed him more.
At the age of 18, Jakow married a 16-year-old friend. Stalin did not accept their marriage, and therefore the young man tried to commit suicide. Upon learning of this, the dictator told Nadia: "This loser can't even shoot accurately!" . And then he informed his son that he can "live as he wants and with whom he wants."
In later years, Jasza graduated from the Institute of Transport Engineers, and then - at the express request of his father - the Military Artillery Academy. As a senior lieutenant, he became the commander of the artillery campaign stationed in Moscow.
After the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War, the man immediately volunteered for the front. On June 25, he was sent to Belarus, to the 20th army. At that time, the Red Army suffered further defeats, and the Wehrmacht troops advanced rapidly into the Soviet Union. On July 15, after encircling the 20th army, Yakov and his friend named Łopuridze set off in search of "their own". At one point, Jasha said he needed to rest for a while. It was probably then that he lost his vigilance and was taken prisoner. On July 20, German radio announced that one of the prisoners was senior lieutenant Yakov Dzugashvili (that was Stalin's real name).
Yakov Dzhugashvili
How did Joseph Stalin react to this event? He considered his son an enemy of the people! This is because the dictator regarded the Soviet soldiers who had been captured as traitors to the motherland. True patriots died or committed suicide. After some time, Svetlana Alliluyeva recalled, "my father decided that Jasza had ended up in a German trap because of some traitors." One of them he considered ... daughter-in-law Julia. "His wife is most likely a dishonest man," he confided to his daughter, "The matter must be investigated." In the fall of 1941, Julia was arrested. She was released only in the spring of 1943. At that time, the daughter of Jakow and Julia was with her father's relatives.
In February 1943, the Germans proposed replacing Yakov with Field Marshal Paulus, who had been captured by the Soviets after the defeat at Stalingrad. But Stalin gave up this possibility. According to popular opinion, the commander justified his decision as follows: "I will not exchange a soldier for a field marshal!". This version is confirmed in her memoirs by my daughter Svetlana:“My father told me:The Germans wanted to exchange Jaszka for one of their own. Never wait! ”.
At that time, Jakow was in the camp in Sachsenhausen. One day he refused to return to his hut and rushed towards the energized barbed wire. As soon as he touched it, a sentry fired at him. After a while the Yakov was dead.
Bibliography:
- Vasiliev Ł. Kremlin wives . Warsaw, 1998
- Волкогонов Д., Сталин.Триумф и трагедия.Москва, 2013
- Курляндский И., Сталин, в ласть, религия. Москва, 2011