Is it possible now to clarify the fate of the eldest son of I.V. Stalin, who, according to one version, died in battle, and according to another - in German captivity?

Yes, you can. Currently declassified archival documents that clarify this issue.

So, from the protocol of interrogation by the Germans of a prisoner of war, senior lieutenant Yakov Iosifovich Dzhugashvili, it follows that on July 16, 1941, in the Lyasnovo area, he was captured as a battery commander of the 14th howitzer regiment attached to the 14th tank division. It also follows from the documents that Dzhugashvili was held in a prisoner of war camp near the city of Hammelburg in Northern Bavaria from April to June 1942. He behaved courageously and with dignity. Finally, the archive contains a memorandum from the Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR Ivan Aleksandrovich Serov to the Minister of Internal Affairs Sergei Nikiforovich Kruglov dated September 14, 1946, which states that, based on interrogations of the commandant and commander of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp guard battalion, it was found out that in March 1943 Dzhugashvili was transferred to this concentration camp and kept in a special camp "A". He behaved independently and closed, even with some contempt for the administration of the camp, did not talk to anyone. At the end of 1943, while on a walk near the barracks, Dzhugashvili refused to comply with the demand to enter the barracks and headed through a neutral path to the wire. After the sentry shouted, Yakov began to swear, tore the collar of his tunic and shouted to the sentry: “Shoot!”. The sentry shot Dzhugashvili in the head and killed him.

Alternative version: killed in action

Stalin's adopted son, General Artyom Sergeev (son of Artyom), believes that Yakov was never in German captivity, but died in battle on July 16, 1941:

Yasha was considered missing for a long time, then allegedly captured. But there is not a single reliable authentic document proving that Yakov was in captivity. He was probably killed in action on July 16, 1941. I think the Germans found his documents with him and arranged such a game with our respective services. At that time I had to be in the German rear. We saw a leaflet where supposedly Yakov is with a German officer who is interrogating him. And in my partisan detachment there was a professional photographer. When I asked him what his opinion was, he did not say anything right away, and only a day later, after reflection, he confidently declared: installation. And now the forensic examination confirms that all the photographs and texts of Yakov are allegedly in captivity - editing and fake. Of course, if Yakov, as the Germans claimed, had got to them, then they would have taken care of reliable evidence, and would not have presented dubious ones: either blurry photographs, then from the back, then from the side. As a result, there were no witnesses either: either they knew Yakov only from photographs, but they recognized him in captivity, or the same frivolous evidence. The Germans then had enough technical means to film and photograph, and record the voice. There is none of this. Thus, it is obvious that Stalin's eldest son died in battle.

Supporters of this version believe that instead of Yakov, the Germans used some other person for propaganda purposes.

Awards

• Order of the Patriotic War, 1st class (, posthumously)

see also

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Notes

1. Der Spiegel. - 2013. - N. 7. - S. 86.
2. See the scan of Y. Dzhugashvili's passport in the article Gamov A.// TVNZ. - 2007, June 20.
3. Zhikharev V.. Commune: Informational portal Voronezh and the Voronezh region (January 22, 2005). Retrieved October 24, 2013.
4. APRF. f. 45. On. 1. D. 1550. L. 5. Joseph Stalin in the arms of his family. From a personal archive. - M .: Motherland, 1993. - C. 22. - ISBN 5-7330-0043-0
5. . Chronos. Retrieved October 24, 2013.
6. . Chronos. Retrieved October 24, 2013.
7. . Chronos. Retrieved October 24, 2013.
8. In the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense of Russia in the city of Podolsk there is a document (Fund No. 3014, Inventory No. 1, Inventory Case No. 11) entitled ""
9. Der Spiegel. - 2013. - N. 7. - S. 88-89.
10. "Chronicle of the life of the Stalin family", historian Alexander Nikolayevich Kolesnik: "Yakov was taken prisoner by the 4th Panzer Division of Army Group Center".
11. Der Spiegel. - 2013. - N. 7. - S. 89.
12. Khlevnyuk O. Stalin. The life of one rein. - M.: AST, 2015, p. 352.
13. Alliluyeva S. Twenty letters to a friend. - M.: Book, 1989.
14. .
15. Sergeev A.. Chronos. Retrieved October 24, 2013.

Links

• Sergeev A., Glushik E. Conversations about Stalin. - M .: "Crimean bridge-9D", 2006.
• Sopelnyak B.// Moscow's comsomolets. - 2006, June 6. - No. 2213 .
• Gray A.// Tomorrow. - 1998, December 22. - No. 51 (264) .
• . Vesti.ru (May 8, 2011). Retrieved 24 October 2013.
• at Rodovod. Tree of ancestors and descendants
• (from the cycle of programs “The Dark Matter”, NTV, May 12, 2011)
• . RIA Novosti (May 8, 2012). Retrieved 24 October 2013.

An excerpt characterizing Dzhugashvili, Yakov Iosifovich

On the same evening, Pierre went to the Rostovs to fulfill his assignment. Natasha was in bed, the count was in the club, and Pierre, after handing over the letters to Sonya, went to Marya Dmitrievna, who was interested in finding out how Prince Andrei received the news. Ten minutes later Sonya came in to Marya Dmitrievna.
“Natasha certainly wants to see Count Pyotr Kirillovich,” she said.
- Yes, how can I bring him to her? It’s not tidied up there,” said Marya Dmitrievna.
“No, she got dressed and went out into the living room,” said Sonya.
Marya Dmitrievna only shrugged her shoulders.
- When this Countess arrives, she completely exhausted me. Look, don’t tell her everything, ”she turned to Pierre. - And scolding her spirit is not enough, so pitiful, so pitiful!
Natasha, emaciated, with a pale and stern face (not at all ashamed as Pierre expected her), stood in the middle of the living room. When Pierre appeared at the door, she hurried, obviously undecided whether to approach him or wait for him.
Pierre hastily approached her. He thought that she, as always, would give him a hand; but, coming close to him, she stopped, breathing heavily and dropping her hands lifelessly, in exactly the same position in which she went out into the middle of the hall to sing, but with a completely different expression.
“Pyotr Kirilych,” she began to say quickly, “Prince Bolkonsky was your friend, he is your friend,” she corrected herself (it seemed to her that everything had just happened, and that now everything is different). - He told me then to turn to you ...
Pierre sniffed silently, looking at her. He still reproached her in his soul and tried to despise her; but now he felt so sorry for her that there was no room for reproach in his soul.
"He's here now, tell him... to just... forgive me." She stopped and began to breathe even faster, but did not cry.
“Yes ... I will tell him,” Pierre said, but ... “He did not know what to say.
Natasha was apparently frightened by the thought that could come to Pierre.
"No, I know it's over," she said hastily. No, it can never be. I am tormented only by the evil that I did to him. Just tell him that I ask him to forgive, forgive, forgive me for everything ... - She shook all over and sat down on a chair.
A never-before-experienced feeling of pity overwhelmed Pierre's soul.
“I will tell him, I will tell him again,” said Pierre; - but ... I would like to know one thing ...
"What to know?" asked Natasha's gaze.
- I would like to know if you loved ... - Pierre did not know what to call Anatole and blushed at the thought of him - did you love this bad man?
“Don’t call him bad,” said Natasha. “But I don’t know anything…” She began to cry again.
And an even greater feeling of pity, tenderness and love swept over Pierre. He heard tears flowing under his glasses and hoped that they would not be noticed.
“Let's not talk anymore, my friend,” said Pierre.
So strange suddenly for Natasha this meek, gentle, sincere voice seemed.
- Let's not talk, my friend, I'll tell him everything; but I ask you one thing - consider me your friend, and if you need help, advice, you just need to pour out your soul to someone - not now, but when it will be clear in your soul - remember me. He took and kissed her hand. “I will be happy if I am able to ...” Pierre was embarrassed.
Don't talk to me like that, I'm not worth it! Natasha screamed and wanted to leave the room, but Pierre held her by the hand. He knew he needed something else to tell her. But when he said this, he was surprised at his own words.
“Stop, stop, your whole life is ahead of you,” he told her.
- For me? Not! Everything is gone for me,” she said with shame and self-abasement.
- Everything is lost? he repeated. - If I were not me, but the most beautiful, smartest and best person in the world, and if I were free, I would this minute on my knees ask for your hand and your love.
Natasha, for the first time after many days, wept with tears of gratitude and tenderness, and looking at Pierre left the room.
Pierre, too, after her, almost ran out into the anteroom, holding back the tears of emotion and happiness that were crushing his throat, put on a fur coat without falling into the sleeves and got into the sleigh.
“Now where are you going?” asked the coachman.
"Where? Pierre asked himself. Where can you go now? Really in a club or guests? All people seemed so pathetic, so poor in comparison with the feeling of tenderness and love that he experienced; in comparison with that softened, grateful look with which she last looked at him through tears.
“Home,” said Pierre, despite ten degrees of frost, opening a bearskin coat on his wide, joyfully breathing chest.
It was cold and clear. Above the dirty, half-dark streets, above the black roofs stood a dark, starry sky. Pierre, only looking at the sky, did not feel the insulting baseness of everything earthly in comparison with the height at which his soul was. At the entrance to the Arbat Square, a huge expanse of starry dark sky opened up to Pierre's eyes. Almost in the middle of this sky above Prechistensky Boulevard, surrounded, sprinkled on all sides with stars, but differing from all in proximity to the ground, white light, and a long tail raised upwards, stood a huge bright comet 1812, the same comet that, as they said, foreshadowed all sorts of horrors and the end of the world. But in Pierre, this bright star with a long radiant tail did not arouse any terrible feeling. Opposite, Pierre joyfully, with eyes wet with tears, looked at this bright star, which, as if, having flown immeasurable spaces along a parabolic line with inexpressible speed, suddenly, like an arrow piercing the ground, slammed here into one place it had chosen, in the black sky, and stopped, vigorously lifting her tail up, shining and playing with her white light among countless other twinkling stars. It seemed to Pierre that this star fully corresponded to what was in his blossoming towards a new life, softened and encouraged soul.

From the end of 1811, increased armament and concentration of forces in Western Europe began, and in 1812 these forces - millions of people (including those who transported and fed the army) moved from West to East, to the borders of Russia, to which in exactly the same way since 1811 th year, the forces of Russia were drawn together. On June 12, the forces of Western Europe crossed the borders of Russia, and the war began, that is, the opposite happened human mind and all human nature an event. Millions of people have committed against each other such countless atrocities, deceptions, treason, theft, forgery and issuance of false banknotes, robberies, arson and murders, which for centuries will not be collected by the chronicle of all the courts of the world and which, in this period of time, people those who committed them were not looked upon as crimes.

1277

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, then here real fact: after years Stalinist repressions destroyed almost all of Catherine's relatives. The same brother with his wife and older sister were shot. 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 a new family. It is believed that Stalin never fell in love with the "wolf cub", as he himself called him, and was even jealous of his wife, who was only five and a half years older than Yasha. He severely punished the teenager for the slightest 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 from a young age he was 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 going abroad, Stalin's youngest son, an decorated participant in the Great Patriotic War, ended up in prison, where he spent 8 years, from April 1953 to April 1961. The angry Soviet leadership 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 of 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. Then it turned out that Stalin personally demanded that his adopted son be treated more strictly.

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 the young Stalin was surprisingly amorous, was fond of women of different ages and classes, and after the death of his first wife, during the years of Siberian exile, had big number 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 did he first see Stalin up close, and this happened in the canteen 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, under the pretext of a working consultation, Stalin wanted to arrange a personal reception for Kuzakov, but he did not hear the phone call, having fallen 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 a 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.

Perhaps, in the history of our country there are so many great odious personalities that it can be difficult to understand the intricacies of the myths and legends surrounding them. An ideal example from the recent past is Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin. Many believe that he was an extremely insensitive and callous person. Even his son, Yakov Dzhugashvili, died in a German concentration camp. His father, according to many historians, did nothing to save him. Is it really?

General information

More than 70 years ago, on April 14, 1943, Stalin's eldest son died in a concentration camp. It is known that shortly before that, he refused to exchange his son for Field Marshal Paulus. The phrase of Joseph Vissarionovich is known, which struck the whole world then: “I don’t change soldiers for generals!” But after the war, foreign media circulated rumors with might and main that Stalin still saved his son and sent him to America. Among Western researchers and domestic liberals, there was a rumor that there was some kind of “diplomatic mission” of Yakov Dzhugashvili.

Allegedly, he was captured not just like that, but to establish contacts with the German commanders in chief. A sort of "Soviet Hess". However, this version does not withstand any criticism: in this case, it would be easier to throw Yakov directly into the German rear, and not engage in dubious manipulations with his captivity. In addition, what kind of agreements with the Germans in 1941? They irresistibly rushed to Moscow, and it seemed to everyone that the USSR would fall before winter. Why should they negotiate? So the veracity of such rumors is close to zero.

How did Jacob get captured?

Yakov Dzhugashvili, who at that time was 34 years old, was captured by the Germans at the very beginning of the war, on July 16, 1941. This happened during the confusion that reigned during the retreat from Vitebsk. At that time, Yakov was a senior lieutenant who had barely managed to graduate from the artillery academy, who received the only parting word from his father: "Go, fight." He served in the 14th tank regiment, commanded an artillery battery of anti-tank guns. He, like hundreds of other fighters, was not counted after the lost battle. At that time, he was listed as missing.

But a few days later, the Nazis presented an extremely unpleasant surprise by scattering leaflets over the Soviet territory, which depicted Yakov Dzhugashvili in captivity. The Germans had excellent propagandists: “The son of Stalin, like thousands of your soldiers, surrendered to the troops of the Wehrmacht. That is why they feel great, they are fed, full.” It was an undisguised allusion to mass surrender: “Soviet soldiers, why should you die, even if the son of your supreme boss has already surrendered himself ...?”

Unknown pages of history

After he saw the ill-fated leaflet, Stalin said: "I have no son." What did he mean? Maybe he was suggesting disinformation? Or did he decide not to have anything to do with the traitor? Until now, nothing is known about this. But we have recorded documents of Yakov's interrogations. Contrary to the widespread "expert opinions" about the betrayal of Stalin's son, there is nothing compromising in them: the younger Dzhugashvili behaved quite decently during interrogations, did not give out any military secrets.

In general, at that time, Yakov Dzhugashvili really could not know any serious secrets, since his father did not tell anything like him ... What could an ordinary lieutenant say about the plans for the global movement of our troops? It is known in which concentration camp Yakov Dzhugashvili was kept. First, he and several especially valuable prisoners were kept in Hammelburg, then Lübeck, and only then transferred to Sachsenhausen. One can imagine how seriously the protection of such a “bird” was put. Hitler intended to play this "trump card" if one of his especially valuable generals was captured by the USSR.

Such an opportunity presented itself to them in the winter of 1942-43. After the grandiose defeat at Stalingrad, when not only Paulus, but also other high-ranking officers of the Wehrmacht fell into the hands of the Soviet command, Hitler decided to bargain. Now it is believed that he tried to contact Stalin through the Red Cross. The refusal must have surprised him. Be that as it may, Dzhugashvili Yakov Iosifovich remained in captivity.

Svetlana Allilluyeva, Stalin's daughter, later recalled this time in her memoirs. Her book contains the following lines: “Father came home late at night and said that the Germans offered to exchange Yasha for one of their own. He was then angry: “I will not bargain! War is always hard work. Just a couple of months after this conversation, Dzhugashvili Yakov Iosifovich died. There is an opinion that Stalin could not stand his eldest son, considered him a rare loser and neurotic. But is it really so?

Brief biography of Jacob

It must be said that there are certain grounds for such an opinion. So, Stalin, in fact, practically did not participate in the process of raising his eldest offspring. He was born in 1907, at only six months old he remained an orphan. The first Kato Svanidze, died during a raging typhus epidemic, and therefore his grandmother was engaged in raising Jacob.

My father practically did not visit the house, wandering around the country, carrying out the instructions of the party. Yasha moved to Moscow only in 1921, and Stalin at that time was already a prominent person in political life countries. At this time, he already had two children from his second wife: Vasily and Svetlana. Yakov, who at that time was only 14 years old, grew up in a remote mountain village, spoke Russian very poorly. No wonder it was very difficult for him to study. As his contemporaries testify, the father was constantly dissatisfied with the results of his son's studies.

Difficulties in personal life

He also did not like Jacob's personal life. At the age of eighteen he wanted to marry a girl of sixteen years old, but his father forbade him to do so. Yakov was in despair, he tried to shoot himself, but he was lucky - the bullet went right through. Stalin said that he was a "hooligan and blackmailer", after which he completely removed him from himself: "Live where you want, live with whom you want!" By that time, Yakov had a relationship with student Olga Golysheva. The father took this story even more seriously, since the offspring himself became a dad, but he did not recognize the child, he refused to marry the girl.

In 1936, Yakov Dzhugashvili, whose photo is in the article, signs with the dancer Yulia Meltzer. At that time, she was already married, and her husband was an NKVD officer. However, for obvious reasons, Jacob did not care. When Stalin's granddaughter Galya appeared, he thawed a little and gave the newlyweds a separate apartment on Granovsky Street. The further fate of Yulia was still difficult: when it turned out that Yakov Dzhugashvili was in captivity, she was arrested on suspicion of having links with German intelligence. Stalin wrote to his daughter Svetlana that: “Apparently, this woman is dishonest. We'll have to hold her until we figure it out completely. Let Yasha's daughter live with you for now ... ". The proceedings lasted less than two years, at the end Yulia was nevertheless released.

So did Stalin love his first son?

Marshal after the war in his memoirs said that in fact Stalin was deeply worried about the captivity of Yakov Dzhugashvili. He spoke about an informal conversation that he had with the commander in chief.

"Comrade Stalin, I would like to know about Yakov. Is there any information about his fate?" Stalin paused, after which he said in a strangely muffled and hoarse voice: “It will not work to rescue Yakov from captivity. The Germans will definitely shoot him. There is evidence that the Nazis keep him isolated from other prisoners, campaigning for treason.” Zhukov noted that Joseph Vissarionovich was deeply worried and suffered from the inability to help at a time when his son was suffering. They really loved Yakov Dzhugashvili, but there was such a time ... What would all the citizens of a belligerent country think if their commander-in-chief came into contact with the enemy about the release of his son? Be sure that the same Goebbels certainly would not have missed such an opportunity!

Attempts to get out of captivity

Currently, there is evidence that he repeatedly tried to free Jacob from German captivity. Several sabotage groups were sent directly to Germany, before which this task was set. Ivan Kotnev, who was in one of these teams, spoke about this after the war. His group flew to Germany late at night. The operation was prepared by the best analysts of the USSR, all the weather and other terrain features were taken into account, which allowed the aircraft to fly unnoticed into the German rear. And this is 1941, when the Germans felt themselves the sole masters of the sky!

They landed very well in the rear, hid their parachutes and prepared to set out. Since the group jumped out over a large area, they gathered together before dawn. We left in a group, then there were two dozen kilometers to the concentration camp. And then the residency in Germany handed over a cipher, which spoke about the transfer of Yakov to another concentration camp: the saboteurs were literally a day late. As the front-line soldier recalled, they were immediately ordered to return. The return journey was difficult, the group lost several people.

The notorious Spanish communist Dolores Ibarruri also wrote about a similar group in her memoirs. To make it easier to penetrate the German rear, they obtained documents in the name of one of the officers of the Blue Division. These saboteurs were abandoned already in 1942 to try to save Yakov from the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. This time everything ended much sadder - all the abandoned saboteurs were captured and shot. There is information about the existence of several more similar groups, but there is no specific information about them. It is possible that this data is still stored in some secret archives.

Death of Stalin's son

So how did Yakov Dzhugashvili die? On April 14, 1943, he simply ran out of his barracks and ran to the camp fence with the words: “Shoot me!” Yakov rushed straight to the barbed wire. The sentry shot him in the head... That's how Yakov Dzhugashvili died. The Sachsenhausen concentration camp, where he was kept, became his last refuge. Many "specialists" say that he was kept there in "tsarist" conditions, which were "inaccessible to millions of Soviet prisoners of war." This is a blatant lie, which is refuted by the German archives.

At first, they really tried to talk him into conversation and persuade him to cooperate, but nothing came of it. Moreover, several "brood hens" (decoy "prisoners") managed to find out only that "Dzhugashvili sincerely believes in the victory of the USSR and regrets that he will no longer see the triumph of his country." The Gestapo did not like the stubbornness of the prisoner so much that he was immediately transferred to the Central Prison. There he was not only interrogated, but also tortured. The materials of the investigation contain information that Yakov tried to commit suicide twice. The captive captain Uzhinsky, who was in the same camp and was friends with Yakov, spent long hours after the war writing down his testimony. The military was interested in Stalin's son: how he behaved, how he looked, what he did. Here is an excerpt from his memoirs.

“When Yakov was brought to the camp, he looked terrible. Before the war, seeing him on the street, I would say that this man had just suffered a serious illness. He had a gray earthy complexion, terribly sunken cheeks. The soldier's overcoat simply dangled from his shoulders. Everything was old and worn out. His food did not differ in frills, they ate from a common cauldron: a loaf of bread for six people a day, a little bit of soup from rutabaga and tea, the color of which resembled tinted water. The holidays were the days when we got some potatoes in their uniforms. Yakov suffered greatly from the lack of tobacco, often changing his portion of bread for shag. Unlike other prisoners, he was constantly searched, and several spies were placed nearby.

Job, transfer to Sachsenhausen

Prisoner Yakov Dzhugashvili, whose biography is given on the pages of this article, worked in a local workshop along with other captives. They made mouthpieces, boxes, toys. If the camp authorities ordered a bone product, they had a holiday: for this purpose, the prisoners received boned bones, completely cleaned of meat. They were boiled for a long time, making "soup" for themselves. By the way, Yakov showed himself in the field of "artisan" just fine. Once he made a magnificent set of chess out of bone, which he exchanged for several kilograms of potatoes from the guard. On that day, all the inhabitants of the barracks had a good meal for the first time in their captivity. Later, some German officer bought the chess from the camp authorities. Surely this set now occupies an important place in some private collection.

But even this "resort" was soon closed. Having not achieved anything from Yakov, the Germans again threw him into the Central Prison. Again torture, again many hours of interrogation and beatings ... After that, the prisoner Dzhugashvili is sent to the infamous Sachsenhausen concentration camp.

Isn't it difficult to consider such conditions "royal"? Moreover, Soviet historians learned about the true circumstances of his death much later, when the military managed to capture the necessary German archives, saving them from destruction. Surely for this reason, until the end of the war, there were rumors about the miraculous salvation of Yakov ... Stalin took care of his son's wife Yulia and their daughter Galina until the end of his life. Galina Dzhugashvili herself subsequently recalled that her grandfather loved her very much and constantly compared her with her dead son: “It looks like it is similar!” So Yakov Dzhugashvili, the son of Stalin, showed himself to be a true patriot and son of his country, not betraying it and not agreeing to cooperate with the Germans, which could save his life.

Historians cannot understand only one thing. German archives claim that, at the time of his capture, Yakov immediately told the enemy soldiers about who he was. Such a stupid act is puzzling, if it ever took place. After all, he could not understand what the exposure would lead to? If an ordinary prisoner of war still had a chance to escape, then Stalin's son would be expected to be guarded "on the highest level"! One can only assume that Jacob was simply handed over. In a word, there are still enough questions in this story, but we obviously won’t be able to get all the answers.

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 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 of the 14th howitzer regiment of the 14th Panzer 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. Soviet authorities back in 1945 they found a grave 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. Different people after the war "saw" him in Georgia, Italy and the United States.
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 reason. 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 an unlimited opportunity to arbitrarily interfere in their destinies and decide with whom his children would 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 his dead mother. Very gentle in manners. 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.