Life tragedies of Stalin's children. Why Yakov Dzhugashvili sought death

The fate of Joseph Stalin's eldest son, Yakov, is still shrouded in mystery. According to the most common version, he was captured in July 1941 in Belarus and died in a German concentration camp in 1943. However, there is still no consensus both on the circumstances of his captivity and on the reasons that led the son of the “leader of the peoples” to death.

There is no way out

At the initial stage of the war, the Wehrmacht rapidly advanced deep into the USSR. In the first half of July, the Nazis broke into Vitebsk, encircling three of our armies. One of them included the 14th Howitzer Artillery Regiment of the 14th Tank Division. It was there that Senior Lieutenant Yakov Dzhugashvili commanded the battery.

The division carried big losses. Divisional Commander Vasiliev decided to break through to his own people at all costs. On the night of July 16-17, the division was able to escape from the encirclement, but Stalin’s son was not among those who broke through. According to the official version, he disappeared on July 16 near the city of Liozno. They stopped searching for Yakov after nine days.

There are several interpretations of the circumstances of what happened. One of the Red Army soldiers, who broke out of the encirclement along with Dzhugashvili, stated that the starley voluntarily surrendered to the Germans. According to the serviceman, Yakov ordered him to move forward, and he sat down to rest. The soldiers never saw their commander again. The daughter of the “leader of the peoples,” Svetlana Alliluyeva, later recalled that her father admitted that his eldest son could be cowardly, blaming Yakov’s wife, Julia, for everything.

In the interpretation of the events of those days, inconsistencies are revealed, contained in the interrogation reports of Senior Lieutenant Dzhugashvili. In an entry dated July 18, Yakov claimed that he was captured by force, seized when he broke away from his unit after an enemy air raid. However, the interrogation protocol dated July 19 says the opposite: supposedly Dzhugashvili, seeing the futility of resistance, surrendered voluntarily.

There is also a version that Yakov, knowing his origin, was deliberately handed over to the Germans. Allegedly, in this way they wanted to take revenge on his powerful father for their own troubles.

I am the son of Stalin

How did the Germans recognize Jacob as the son of the “leader of the peoples”? Military journalist Ivan Stadnyuk described this scene as follows. The Nazis lined up the prisoners in several lines, and then brought in a wounded Red Army soldier. He carefully examined all the prisoners, stopped at a short officer with the shoulder straps of a senior leader and pointed his finger at him.

Then a man without insignia who accompanied the Germans approached Yakov and asked if he was Stalin’s son. Dzhugashvili answered in the affirmative.

Another description of Yakov’s identification is given by Sergo Beria in his book “My Father - Lavrenty Beria”. According to him, the Nazis identified the “high-ranking” prisoner by chance. Allegedly, a fellow soldier recognized the son of the “leader of the peoples” and rushed to him, simultaneously pronouncing his name. There was a German informant nearby. It was he who reported everything to the command.

Failed exchange

Yakov wandered around the camps for almost two years. First he was sent to Hammelburg, then to Lubeck, and his last refuge was Sachsenhausen. According to some reports, the Germans tried to persuade him to cooperate and resorted to threats, but they could not break the will of the son of the “leader of the peoples.” According to the memoirs of Marshal Georgy Zhukov, Stalin once said that his son was being kept in the camp in isolation from other prisoners.

One of the common versions says that after the defeat at Stalingrad the Germans offered to exchange Jacob for Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus, to which Stalin responded with the famous “I don’t exchange a soldier for a field marshal.”

In reality, the leader did not utter this phrase. Svetlana Alliluyeva recalled that there were indeed offers from the Nazis to exchange Yakov “for one of their own,” but her father responded with a firm refusal. The phrase about the field marshal appeared in one of the English newspapers through the efforts of a local scribbler.

The mystery of death

According to the official version, during a walk in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp on April 14, 1943, Yakov threw himself onto a live barbed wire, after which a sentry shot at him. Medical examination showed that death was caused by a bullet to the head, and not by an electrical discharge. The body of the son of the “leader of the peoples” was cremated, and the ashes were sent to Berlin.

There are those who believe that Yakov’s death was caused by electric shock. Thus, journalist T. Drambyan is sure: Senior Lieutenant Dzhugashvili committed suicide in this way, and the reason was allegedly his “protracted depression.”

A rather exotic version is given by Corporal Fischer, who was guarding Sachsenhausen. According to him, Jacob was kept in the same barracks with English officers, among whom was Thomas Cushing, a relative of Winston Churchill himself. The Germans, wanting to destroy the alliance between Great Britain and the USSR, provoked the British to kill Stalin's son. The captured officers attacked Yakov with knives at night, he jumped out of the barracks and, screaming for help, ran to the fence, where he was overtaken by a sentry's bullet.

Other indications after the war

The commandant of the Jägerdorf concentration camp, Lieutenant Zelinger, stated that Senior Lieutenant Dzhugashvili last days life was in his camp. And he died from some serious illness.

Some researchers do not rule out that Yakov was released from prison by the Allies and taken to one of the Western countries. According to another version, Dzhugashvili escaped from a concentration camp, after which he ended up in the ranks of the Italian partisans. There he allegedly quickly got used to it, and then even married local girl, deciding to make a complete break with the past.

“I don’t exchange soldiers for generals!” After these words from Stalin, Yakov Dzhugashvili was forgotten about his son. But on October 28, 1977, a secret government decree was issued: to award Senior Lieutenant Dzhugashvili with the Order Patriotic War I degree posthumously.

Yakov was Stalin's son from his first marriage. He was raised in Georgia by relatives of his early deceased mother. I met my father at the age of 14, when I arrived in Moscow. The relationship didn't work out. After one of the quarrels, Yakov tried to shoot himself - this became the subject of Stalin’s ridicule of his son.

© RIA Novosti /// Yakov Dzhugashvili with his daughter

In June 1941, after the Artillery Academy, Yakov went to the front. He commanded an artillery battery of the 20th Army. At the beginning of July he took part in the battle for the Belarusian city of Senno. It was tank battle, in which the enemy suffered significant losses. In August, for the battle of Senno, he was presented with the Order of the Red Banner. But by order of Stalin, Dzhugashvili’s name was crossed out from the lists for awards.

Where Yakov Dzhugashvili was at this time is not known for certain.

The official version is that he is in captivity. On July 8, units of the 20th Army were surrounded. Yakov, along with his colleagues, buried the documents, changed into civilian clothes and tried to get out. Ten days later he was already interrogated. And two years later, in 1943, in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp they were shot “while trying to escape.” As if before this, Stalin was offered to exchange his son for the German Field Marshal Paulus, who had surrendered.

According to another version, Yakov Dzhugashvili died while escaping from encirclement. There is a report from one of the commanders of his unit, A. Rumyantsev. It follows from it that on July 8 Yakov disappeared, that then they searched for him - for a long time and, of course, carefully, since we were talking about Stalin’s son. And that the search was stopped only on July 25.

© RIA Novosti /// Belorusskaya offensive"Bagration" from June 23 to August 29, 1944. Column of captured Germans

The photographs distributed by the fascists - Yakov with his hands raised surrendering, were already recognized as a fake in 1941. As well as letters with forged “his” handwriting. It is strange that Yakov was taken for a walk in the camp at a considerable distance from the rest of the prisoners of war, so that he could not be seen clearly. And they shot him after it became clear: there would be no prisoner exchanges.

Only one thing is known for sure: Yakov Dzhugashvili was an excellent artilleryman and showed himself heroically in the battle of Senno. The 1977 decree on his award restored justice. Even if only partially, the order is not the same, and it is classified as “secret”.

Name: Yakov Dzhugashvili

Age: 36 years old

Place of birth: Badji, Kutaisi province

Place of death: Sachsenhausen

Activity: Stalin's son who died in German captivity

Marital status: was married

Yakov Dzhugashvili - biography

In August 1941, Stalin was delivered from the front a German leaflet with a photograph of a young Caucasian man. “Dear father! I am a prisoner, healthy, and will soon be sent to one of the officer camps in Germany. The treatment is good. I wish you good health, greetings to everyone, Yakov,” it was written on the back.

The life of Joseph Stalin was full of tragic pages. One of them was the death of his first, most beloved wife, Catherine. After her death, Koba plunged headlong into revolutionary activities. There was no longer a place for his newborn son Yakov in his new life...

Stalin remembered his firstborn when he became a member of the Revolutionary Military Council. In his new marriage with Nadezhda Alliluyeva, a son, Vasily, was born. In addition, Koba decided to adopt the newborn son of a deceased comrade. Stalin simply could not help but take his natural child into the family.

14-year-old Yakov came to Moscow from the Georgian village of Badzhi. He did not understand Russian. His stepmother, 20-year-old Nadezhda Alliluyeva, helped the teenager get used to the new conditions. From the memoirs of Boris Bazhenov, personal secretary Stalin: “For some reason he was never called anything other than Yashka. He was a very reserved, silent and secretive young man; he was four years younger than me.

Yakov went to a regular school on Arbat, where at first, of course, he didn’t understand anything in class. The relationship with my father also did not work out. Yakov’s character was not easy, and his youthful maximalism was doing its job. Irritated by his son’s angularity and sometimes obstinacy, Joseph Vissarionovich disparagingly called him a wolf cub.

After graduating from school, the young man entered the electrical engineering school in Sokolniki. But he couldn’t forget his classmate Zoya Gunina and started dating her. After completing his studies in electrical engineering, 18-year-old Yakov came to his father for a blessing for marriage. He turned out to be adamant: “No!” In despair, the son decided to commit suicide. As Svetlana Alliluyeva recalled, “Yasha shot himself in our kitchen, next to his small room, at night.

The bullet went right through, but he was sick for a long time.” Yakov spent three months in the hospital with the wound. And when he came out, the father just grinned: “Ha, I didn’t hit it!” And this was almost a greater insult than the refusal to recognize his marriage. Like, you can’t even shoot yourself, let alone have a family.

In his own way, my father was right. In fact, he was still almost a child, Yakov was completely dependent on his parents and would not be able to fully provide for his family. But love blinded him, and he went against Stalin's will. A compassionate stepmother helped the young people avoid their father’s wrath: she took Yakov and Zoya to her relatives in Leningrad.

Zoya entered the Mining Institute, and Yakov graduated from electrician courses and got a job as an assistant to the electrician on duty at Lenenergo. He didn’t tell anyone that he was the son of Stalin himself, he didn’t even mention his middle name. He usually answered phone calls: “Yakov Zhuk is listening!”

The young family had difficulty making ends meet. His father called Yakov several times, demanding that he return to Moscow, but he didn’t seem to hear... And three years later, Joseph Vissarionovich wrote to his wife: “Tell Yasha from me that he acted like a hooligan and a blackmailer, with whom I have there is and cannot be anything more in common. Let him live where he wants and with whomever he wants.”

Allowing to the prodigal son convinced that he was right, Stalin changed his anger to mercy. Yakov returned to Moscow and entered the Moscow Institute of Transport Engineers. Already before his graduation, in 1935, he met 25-year-old Olga Golysheva. Love flared again in the ardent heart of the Georgian. This time, his father did not object to his affair: Yakov was given a two-room apartment and even a service “Emka”. But the relationship didn't work out. In the heat of a quarrel, pregnant Olga packed her bags and went home to Uryupinsk, where she gave birth to her son Evgeniy.

She turned out to be the ballerina Julia (Judith) Meltzer. Stalin was not happy with his Jewish daughter-in-law, but the obstinate son again acted in his own way. Three years later, the couple had a daughter, Galina.

The question of “to go to the front or not” did not arise before Yakov. In parting, the father said dryly: “Go and fight!” After three weeks of the war, the army where Yakov fought was surrounded, but put up fierce resistance. For heroism shown in the battle of Senno (Vitebsk region), Yakov was presented with a reward. He did not have time to receive it - he ended up in German captivity.

On July 16, 1941, Berlin radio reported “stunning news”: “On July 16, near Liozno, German soldiers of the motorized corps of General Schmidt captured the son of dictator Stalin, senior lieutenant Yakov Dzhugashvili...”. Almost immediately, the Germans began using Jacob's photographs for propaganda. In August, leaflets with a photograph of Yakov Dzhugashvili surrounded by Wehrmacht officers rained down on the Soviet trenches. The text on them called for, following the example of Stalin’s son, to surrender. The worst thing is that the leader himself did not know how true this information was. “Just in case,” the NKVD arrested Yakov’s wife.

Meanwhile, after several concentration camps, Yakov, unpromising from the point of view of recruitment, was placed in Sachsenhausen. In the archives of the memorial of this concentration camp there is a document in which an eyewitness to those events reports: “Yakov Dzhugashvili constantly felt the hopelessness of his situation. He often fell into depression, refused to eat, and was especially influenced by Stalin’s statement, repeatedly broadcast on the camp radio, that “we have no prisoners of war - we have traitors to the Motherland.” On the evening of April 14, 1943, Yakov refused to enter the barracks and rushed to the barbed wire fence. The sentry immediately fired. Death came instantly. “Killed while trying to escape,” the camp authorities reported. The prisoner's body was burned in the camp crematorium...

In March 1945, Marshal Zhukov cautiously asked Stalin about Yakov. He didn’t answer right away, gathering his thoughts. But he didn’t leave the conversation: “Yakov won’t get out of captivity. The Nazis will shoot him.” It was not yet known that the prisoner had been dead for a long time.

Stalin learned the whole truth about the death of his son only after the Victory. He finally allowed himself to show parental feelings. He did not interfere with the perpetuation of Yasha’s memory, and his wife and daughter were treated kindly by the authorities. It is a pity that reconciliation between father and son never occurred during their lifetime.

The life of Stalin's eldest son Yakov Dzhugashvili has been poorly studied to this day; there is a lot of contradictory facts and "white spots". Historians argue about both Jacob’s captivity and his relationship with his father.

Birth

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

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

Son

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

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

Father

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

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

Studies

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

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

Front

Yakov Dzhugashvili as an artillery commander could have been sent to the front according to various sources in the period from June 22 to 26 - exact date still unknown. During the battles, the 14th Tank Division and its 14th Artillery Regiment, one of whose batteries was commanded by Yakov Dzhugashvili, inflicted significant damage on the enemy. For the battle of Senno, Yakov Dzhugashvili was nominated for the Order of the Red Banner, but for some reason his name, number 99, was deleted from the Decree on the award (according to one version, on the personal instructions of Stalin).

Captivity

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

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

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

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

Death

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

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

In German captivity.

Biography

Yakov Dzhugashvili was born in the village of Badzhi (now Ambrolauri district, region of Racha-Lechkhumi and Lower Svaneti, northern Georgia), Georgia in the family of Joseph Stalin and Ekaterina Svanidze. Georgian. He spent his childhood years in Tbilisi. In Moscow, Yakov studied first in high school on Arbat, then at the electrical engineering school in Sokolniki, from which he graduated in 1925.

In the same year, he married 16-year-old Zoya Gunina for the first time, but Stalin was categorically against this marriage. As a result, Yakov shot himself, but the bullet went right through, and he was treated for a long time. Stalin then told him to tell him: “ Tell Yasha from me that he acted like a bully and a blackmailer, with whom I have and cannot have anything else in common. Let him live where he wants and with whom he wants» .

By the early thirties, Yakov met Olga Pavlovna Golysheva, who came to Moscow from Uryupinsk to enroll in an aviation technical school. The future spouses were even allocated an apartment, but the marriage was not registered, as they were upset before the wedding. Golysheva left for Uryupinsk and on January 10, 1936, her son Evgeniy was born. Yakov did not come to Uryupinsk and the boy initially bore the surname Golyshev, but two years later Yakov turned to the Uryupinsk district party committee and Olga Golysheva was given a new birth certificate for his son - he became Evgeny Yakovlevich Dzhugashvili. However, Yakov’s daughter Galina Yakovlevna Dzhugashvili rejected this version, not considering Evgeniy to be her brother:

I have no reason to consider this man a brother... My mother told me that one day she came across a letter from a certain woman from the city of Uryupinsk. She reported that she had given birth to a son and that this child was from his father. Mom was afraid that this story would reach her father-in-law, and decided to help this woman. She began sending her money for the child. When my father accidentally found out about this, he was terribly angry. He shouted that he didn’t have any son and couldn’t have one. Probably, these postal orders from my mother were regarded by the registry office as alimony. This is how Evgeniy got our last name.

- Nechaev V.// Arguments and Facts. - 1999, November 3. - No. 44.

In 1936 he married ballerina Julia Meltzer. Yakov met Yulia in a restaurant, where a fight then occurred between him and her second husband, assistant chief of the NKVD for the Moscow region Nikolai Bessarab. Yakov became Yulia's third husband and on February 19, 1938, their daughter Galina was born.

During the Great Patriotic War

On July 16, 1941, while leaving encirclement near the city of Liozno, Yakov Dzhugashvili disappeared. According to the three-page report of brigade commissar Alexei Rumyantsev, his unsuccessful search continued until July 25.

The first interrogation of the captured Yakov Dzhugashvili took place on July 18, 1941. The original protocol was found after the war in the archives of the Ministry of Aviation in Berlin and is today in the Central Archives of the Ministry of Defense in Podolsk. During interrogation, Yakov stated that he proudly defended his country and its political system, but at the same time he did not hide his disappointment with the actions of the Red Army.

Yakov Dzhugashvili’s wanderings through German camps lasted almost two years. At first it was located in Hammelburg. In the spring of 1942 he was transferred to Lübeck and then to Sachsenhausen.

There is a version that after the defeat at Stalingrad, the German command allegedly wanted to exchange him for Field Marshal Paulus, who was taken prisoner by the Red Army, and Stalin responded to this: “I am not exchanging a soldier for a field marshal!” However, no documentary evidence of this has been found.

In the winter of 1943-44, after Stalingrad, my father suddenly told me during one of our rare meetings at that time: “The Germans offered to exchange Yasha for one of their own... I’ll bargain with them! No, in war it’s like in war.”

On the evening of April 14, 1943, Yakov Dzhugashvili jumped out of the window of barracks No. 3 of special camp “A” at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp and shouting “non-commissioned officer, non-commissioned officer, shoot me!” threw himself onto the wire. The sentry, SS Rottenführer Konrad Hafrich, opened fire to kill. The next day an autopsy took place. According to the protocol, the bullet hit the head four centimeters from the right ear and crushed the skull. But death came earlier - from defeat electric shock high voltage. The corpse was burned in the camp crematorium. Shortly thereafter, the urn, along with the results of the investigation and the death certificate, was sent to the headquarters of the Reich Security.

Stalin's son, senior lieutenant, ended up in German captivity in 1941. He threw himself onto a barbed wire fence in the camp and was shot by a guard. My mother then called this incident a “terrible nuisance” to me; my father (Joachim von Ribbentrop), according to her, was furious! She blamed Himmler for what happened, not in the sense that Himmler wanted the prisoner of war to die, but that he did not take sufficient care of the “hostage’s” safety! Of course, my father thought about the possibilities of possible subsequent contact with the Soviets. Himmler placed Stalin's son with captured British officers, who deliberately hounded him in captivity. Out of desperation, he finally rushed to the “wire”.