"Red Prince" The rise and fall of Vasily Stalin (11 photos)

In February 1945, the 286th Fighter Aviation Division of the 16th Air Army, operating in the Berlin direction, received a new commander. Young, energetic, but not quite ordinary.

Firstly, he was very young - young even for that war, in which Ivan Chernyakhovsky in three years went from colonel to army general and front commander and which, very likely, he would have ended up as a marshal, if not for a German fragment that cut off his life in the winter of 1945.

The new commander of the 286th Fighter Aviation Division (IAD) ended this war as a colonel. However, he also started it as a colonel. This happens in war too. Especially when your last name is in a special place and under special control.

A WORTHY START

The surname of the young division commander was Stalin.

First and patronymic – Vasily Iosifovich.

Year of birth: 1921.

Place of birth: Moscow.

The last military rank was Lieutenant General of Aviation, awarded in 1947.

Vasily Stalin is most often presented today as a stupid fellow and a drunkard, with whom his father could not do anything, but still ensured some kind of career. And if, supposedly, it weren’t for his father, this “mediocre” would never have received command of a squadron...

But who really was the unusual “Berlin” division commander of 1945?

To understand this better, we will have to start from afar.

From the autumn of 1923 to the spring of 1927, Vasily Stalin lived in orphanage. They lived there adopted son Stalin Artem Sergeev, Timur and Tatyana Frunze, the son of People's Commissar of Justice Dmitry Ivanovich Kursky - Evgeny, children of People's Commissar of Food Alexander Dmitrievich Tsyurupa. In total - 25 children of party leaders. Plus – 25 street children.

Artem Sergeev has the best memories of this house. Like all his other students. Interesting example... Children were vaccinated by Dr. Nathanson. And the children decided that when they grew up, they would kill Nathanson - that’s how these vaccinations got them...

But the doctor was changed. And the new doctor said that vaccinations will not be given to everyone, but only to those who want to join the army. And here not only boys, but also girls raced to get injections. With a cry: “And I’ll get an injection!”

They are asked:

- Why do you need an injection?

- I want to join the army! I will be a Red Army soldier...

It is unlikely that not only today’s children, but also many of today’s adults will understand the essence of what is written above.

But that's how it was.

And in such an atmosphere Stalin’s son grew up.

First, the foundations of character are laid in early childhood, and Vasya had it in a smart orphanage, going through which was a blessing for the development of an extraordinary personality.

Secondly, Vasily then studied at a normal school, and he was raised by the school and teachers, and not the notorious street. There is a known case when mathematics teacher Martyshin wrote to Stalin about the shortcomings of his son, and the father responded, recommending that he be stricter with Vasily.

Thirdly, the father himself raised his son - not with lectures, but by personal example, although he could have given a severe reprimand. Stalin raised his son and his named brother Artem Sergeev and conversations along the way home life... Stalin had it too. And Stalin spoke to the boys as to adults. And he touched on a variety of topics. For example, in 1930, after Repin's death, he talked to them about Repin.

In addition, his grandson was raised by his maternal grandfather, Sergei Yakovlevich Alliluyev.

And everyone was raised well.

Here is the situation described by Artem Sergeev. After the death of Vasily’s mother, Nadezhda Alliluyeva, Artem and Vasily caught crucian carp on her birthday at the dacha in Zubalovo.

Vasily says:

“We’ll send it to my father, he loves crucian carp.”

Artem asks:

– Will you take the fish yourself?

- No, my father didn’t call me.

Doesn’t look like the capricious offspring of an all-powerful tyrant, does it? Then Vasily took a bucket with a lid, put the fish in it, sealed the bucket and said:

- This is order. It doesn't hurt to be careful.

That is, Vasily Stalin, already as a teenager, fully understood what self-discipline was when it was vitally important.

Zalessky writes that Vasily was allegedly “capricious, weak-willed, weak person" But here’s a photo of a boy jumping from the high side of a longboat. Let a weak and weak-willed person try to do this. Since childhood, Vasily was fond of horse riding and loved to jump from a parachute tower - also not an activity for the faint of heart. The main thing is - where did Konstantin Zalessky see weak-willed combat pilots?!

Before the war, after completing the Lipetsk courses, Vasily was appointed to a group of pilot inspectors; with the beginning of the war, he was a squadron commander in a fighter regiment, and then - for some time - the head of the Red Army Air Force inspection.

There is a group photograph taken near Stalingrad in the summer of 1942 of the pilots of the 434th Fighter Aviation Regiment, commanded by Hero Soviet Union Ivan Kleschev. Autumn steppe, under a haystack - 19 people, seventh from the right - Kleshchev, and left hand from him - Vasily Stalin.

The 434th Fighter Wing (IAP) was subordinate to the Air Force Inspectorate. It was commanded by Kleshchev, but was supervised by Vasily Stalin from July 13, 1942. At the end of October 1942, the 434th IAP was renamed the 32nd Guards, and on December 31, 1942, Kleshchev died in a plane crash.

Vasily became the regiment commander.

Konstantin Zalessky writes about him: “In January 1943 he was transferred to Active army and appointed commander of the 32nd Guards Fighter Regiment. On May 26, 1943, by order of his father, he was removed from the post of regiment commander “for drunkenness and riotous behavior.”

But it wasn't like that.

More precisely, not quite like that.

BOTH HEROICITY AND SILENCE

The 32nd Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment (GvIAP), commanded by Vasily Stalin, was transferred to the Kalinin Front, and in March 1943 the regiment became part of the High Command Reserve aviation group under the command of General Sergei Ignatievich Rudenko.

Officially, Guard Colonel Vasily Stalin flew 27 combat missions throughout the war, but most likely their number was greater. Although the flight book is a strict document, some flights of the regiment commander may not have been recorded.

On March 5, 1943, in a battle over Semkina Gorushka, Stalin shot down an Fw-190 fighter plane. To some this may seem like a small victory, but Stalin always flew in a group as a regiment commander, and his first task was not to shoot down enemy planes, and not to lose control of the battle. This is the first thing.

Secondly, you need to know Stalin's character. In an air battle, you don’t always understand who shot down, and pilots sometimes wrote down personal victories, pointing out who should get credit for the next one. Vasily Stalin would rather give the downed plane to his subordinates than take at least one from them for himself.

This one personally shot down plane of Vasily Stalin clearly shows and proves what kind of person he was and how he took care of the honor of his name. And his, and - even more - his father. Vasily could fall under unkind influence, but this is in everyday life, in peacetime. He could have committed a serious sin - and, as we will see, he committed it. But not in battle, not when his military honor would be called into question!

Much later, Vasily Stalin’s fellow soldier Fyodor Prokopenko recalled: “Vasily shot down four planes... In one battle, I personally saw how he set fire to a Fokker... Somehow I helped him out - they could have shot him down...”

Prokopenko flew 126 combat missions and had 9 personal victories. He is sometimes mistakenly presented as a Hero of the Soviet Union, but this is not so. Prokopenko had the Order of Lenin and two Orders of the Red Banner.

IN official document In 1945, Vasily Stalin was credited with shooting down two planes. At the same time, not all ordinary combat pilots during the war could boast of at least one personally shot down aircraft.

By the way, commanding the 32nd regiment, Stalin could have died - and with a guarantee, on the precisely designated day of March 2, 1943. That day, during a pre-flight inspection of the Yak-9 command aircraft, an aircraft technician discovered an awl stuck in the connection of the first depth control rod from the tail, which jammed the control. The last flight was on February 26, after which the plane was checked for landing gear and gas tanks. If it were not for the thoroughness of the check of senior technician-lieutenant Povarenkin, everything could have ended badly.

And this is how Stalin was removed from the regiment...

On March 23, 1943, his regiment was supposed to fly to the Malino airfield near Moscow to be supplemented with people and equipment. But when the regiment landed on the way at an intermediate airfield, an emergency occurred. Colonel Stalin, four Heroes of the Soviet Union - Lieutenant Colonel Vlasov, captains Baklan, Kotov and Garanin, as well as flight commander Shishkin and regiment weapons engineer engineer-captain Razin went to the Selizharovka River to kill fish with grenades and rockets(RS). When throwing the last RS, Captain Razin made a mistake - he hurried to turn out the chickenpox. Result: one person was killed, one was seriously wounded, one was slightly wounded. Vasily himself was seriously wounded - a large fragment of MS hit his left foot, damaging the bone. The second fragment easily touched the left cheek.

On April 4, 1943, Vasily was taken to the Kremlin hospital, he was operated on under general anesthesia by Professor Alexey Dmitrievich Ochkin - the one who three years later operated on Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin with stomach cancer, strangely “unnoticed” by the Kremlin’s therapists. But this is by the way.

What's interesting! Joseph Stalin did not immediately find out about the emergency, but upon learning, he ordered the regiment commander, Colonel V.I. Stalin. removed from office with the wording: “For drunkenness and riotous behavior.” It’s said harshly, but nothing can be done about it - that’s what the Supreme Commander ordered! He also ordered that his son not be given any command posts without his order.

After the hospital, Vasily Stalin was appointed an ordinary pilot-instructor of the 193rd air regiment. Moreover, the long break in his combat biography - from April 1943 to January 1944 - was so long because the wound turned out to be difficult, with a complex heel injury.

On January 16, 1944, he took up his duties as an inspector-pilot for piloting techniques in the same 1st Guards Fighter Aviation Corps (GvIAK), in which he fought before the emergency. That is, his former command did not try to “fend off” him.

In Vasily’s nomination for the position of division commander, the commander of the 1st Guards Fighter Air Corps, Lieutenant General Evgeniy Mikhailovich Beletsky, wrote: “In the position of pilot inspector since January 1944. During this time, he proved himself to be a very energetic, agile and proactive commander... He has excellent piloting technique, he loves flying... He is tactically competent, combat work aviation regiments and divisions can organize well. He knows how to work with people, but sometimes he shows excessive ardor and short temper...”

On May 18, 1944, Colonel Vasily Stalin took command of the 3rd Guards Fighter Aviation Bryansk Division. By that time he had 3,105 flight hours. For 23 years old - a huge amount of time. And this alone made Vasily an experienced aerobatic pilot.

They grew quickly then. Here, for example, are three photographs of Artem Sergeev: April 1943 - captain; June 1943 – major; October 1943 – lieutenant colonel, commander of an artillery regiment. And this despite the fact that Sergeev was surrounded in 1941, was captured, fled and until September 1941 commanded a partisan detachment in Belarus. Then, after being wounded, he was evacuated to " Mainland" Moreover, the participation of Stalin the father in the fate of the named son was zero - during the war, Artem fell out of sight of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, which is understandable.

Another example. The brilliant air fighter Evgeniy Yakovlevich Savitsky became division commander at the age of 28 - in 1938. In 1942, he was already a general and commander of the air corps. Vasily Stalin became a major general of aviation only in 1947 - after three performances, which Joseph Stalin turned back.

“I AM ACCURATE IN FOLLOWING ORDERS...”

It is sometimes claimed that Vasily Stalin “did not possess any abilities as a commander.” But whether Vasily Stalin was a competent division commander can be judged by his 1944 report to the corps commander about actions in the face of a threat to the division at the Slepyanka airfield from a group of German troops breaking through to the west in the Minsk region.

Vasily Stalin promptly ordered the evacuation of equipment, guards banners and secret documents headquarters to the north-eastern outskirts of Minsk, instructed the division chief of staff to organize ground defense and prepare a night launch, and he himself flew to the Dokukovo airfield in a U-2 to organize a night launch there too. Then he returned to Slepyanka and in the morning led the division to attack the breaking through Germans, and after the attack he planted the division in Dokukovo, thereby removing it from attack. He acted quite competently, and without having the skills to organize ground combat.

By the end of the summer of 1944, Stalin’s division added “Red Banner Order of Suvorov II degree” to the name “Bryansk”. And from February 1945, Vasily Stalin commanded the 286th Fighter Air Division, which was part of the corps of the above-mentioned General Savitsky.

The fact that Yevgeny Savitsky and Vasily Stalin were friends after the war was recorded in photographs where both were taken in a decidedly informal setting. Alas, in one of the books about Vasily Stalin there are “memoirs”, which are cited in the issue of Moskovskaya Pravda dated January 29, 1989 and submitted on behalf of Air Marshal E.M. Savitsky: “And then the order comes: to appoint Vasily Stalin... to my corps. I admit that I was somewhat intimidated: the son of such a father... A despot and a clown, like his father, during his lifetime he was ultimately left completely alone...”

Marshal Savitsky died, like Vasily Stalin’s commander, Marshal Sergei Ignatievich Rudenko, in 1990 - April 6, 80 years old. So I could give an interview in 1989. However, I can’t believe that twice Hero of the Soviet Union, a former street child, raised Soviet power to the marshal's height, this is how he spoke about his military friend and, most importantly, about his Supreme Commander-in-Chief.

Air Chief Marshal A.E. spoke very harshly about Vasily Stalin. Golovanov. Alexander Evgenievich is a figure I respect. But they were very much, as I understand it, different people with Vasily Stalin on psychological drawing of nature.

Golovanov, who appreciated his father with reverence and collaborated with him a lot, writes about his son as a “moral monster” who had absorbed “so much badness that it would be enough for a thousand scoundrels.” This is clearly a biased and unfair assessment, and I don’t know why it was given. During the war, Marshal Golovanov could not have known Vasily at all... And after the war, they hardly crossed paths much.

Little truth has been written about Vasily Stalin. All the more valuable is the testimony of his former army commander, Hero of the Soviet Union, Air Marshal Rudenko, who commanded the 16th Air Army at the end of the war. In his 1985 memoir “Wings of Victory,” he wrote: “The evening before the last assault we organized a radio listening to the order of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief... And again we heard the familiar names of the commanders of distinguished aviation formations and units: E.Ya. Savitsky, A.Z. Karavatsky, B.K. Tokarev, I.V. Krupsky, G.O. Komarov, E.M. Beletsky, I.P. Skok, V.V. Sukhoryabov, Yu.M. Berkal, V.I. Stalin, K.I. Rasskazov, P.A. Kalinin, G.P. Turykin, P.F. Chupikov, A.G. Tips..."

And further Sergei Ignatievich personally noted General Beletsky and Vasily Stalin: “Colonel V.I. Stalin arrived at our front a little earlier from the 1st IAK. A graduate of the Kachinsky School, Vasily Iosifovich began the war as an inspector-pilot, at Stalingrad he commanded the 32nd Guards Air Regiment, then the 3rd Guards Division. During the battles near Berlin, he led the 286th Fighter Division. For successful actions he was awarded two Orders of the Red Banner, the Orders of Alexander Nevsky and Suvorov, 1st degree (more precisely, 2nd degree - S.B.), the Polish Cross of Grunwald...”

If Rudenko had bad memories of Vasily Stalin, if he had not treated him with respect, he would hardly have remembered him like that many years after the war. Rudenko died in 1990, at the age of 86.

And on July 20, 1945, Colonel General Rudenko signed a certification for the commander of the 286th Nizhyn Red Banner Order of Suvorov Fighter Aviation Division of Colonel Stalin's Guard. The certification stated that Stalin flies Po-2, UT-1, UT-2, I-15, I-5, I-153, Li-2, I-4, MiG-3, LaGG-3, Yak-1, Yak-7 and Yak-9, Hurricane, IL-2, Boston-3, DS-3, La-5, La-7. Total flight time - 3145 hours 45 minutes, 27 official combat sorties, 2 downed aircraft.

Rudenko assessed Stalin quite adequately: “Comrade. Stalin has good organizational skills, as a trained pilot, he can pass on his combat experience to his subordinates... He is precise in carrying out orders...”

MAN IS STYLE

Vasily’s named brother, Artem Sergeev, said that Vasily was power-hungry, but in material terms he was absolutely selfless. And such a person cannot help but be internally noble. In the post-war 40s, he commanded the aviation of the Moscow Military District, and most of Vasily Stalin’s subordinates remember him kindly.

A good indicator here can be the air parades that took place annually in Tushino just when Vasily Stalin was the commander of the district’s aviation. He organized them and commanded them himself. After Vasily was removed, they faded away. But there you have to be able to take on a lot.

Vasily often appointed disabled pilots to staff positions. And when they were surprised at this, he replied that a combat pilot would master staff work, but a staff officer who did not understand the essence of flight work could make a mess.

Vasily was clearly a good organizer with a quick reaction and, as they say, “threw a hedgehog” by the scruff of many people’s necks, and hardly many liked this. After all, we have energetic people rarely loved - few bosses are like Stalin Sr., who valued energy when it was combined with competence and responsibility.

They say that Vasily drank a lot and even allegedly suffered from a chronic form of alcoholism. Anyone who writes like this doesn’t know very well what a chronic alcoholic is. Vasily Stalin spent many years in solitary confinement in prison, and this is not a camp; you can’t get alcohol here secretly. Nevertheless, Vasily did not experience alcohol withdrawal.

I think he didn’t drink that much - while he was “in the saddle.” In addition, judging by a number of memoirs, both Air Force Commander Alexander Aleksandrovich Novikov and Air Force Commander Pavel Fedorovich Zhigarev drank a lot. They are not known as alcoholics. Or here English journalist Alexander Werth recalled how Western diplomats got drunk at a reception hosted by the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs (NKID) of the USSR in 1943 on the occasion of the anniversary October Revolution. English Ambassador got so drunk that he fell face down on the table into the dishes and cut his face with the glass fragments.

Soon after the death of his father, Vasily was arrested - even at a time when the Ministry of Internal Affairs was headed by Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria. However, it is possible that by arresting Stalin’s son, Beria was simply saving Vasily’s life! This assumption is confirmed by the fact that Vasily Stalin was arrested under Beria, but he continued to sit in prison even after Beria’s arrest. If Vasily suspected Lavrenty Pavlovich as his father’s murderer, then, it would seem, what would be better - after the arrest of Beria, to release another “ innocent victim“his “arbitrariness,” and that’s the end of it. And let Vasily, having gotten tipsy, once again publicly send curses to the vile murderer. But no! Stalin's son sat under Beria and continued to sit under Khrushchev. The question is: who did Vasily Stalin blame for his father’s death?

There are memoirs of a certain Stepan S., a former warden of the Vladimir prison, about how Vasily Stalin was brought to prison in the spring of 1953. Not everything in these memories is reliable, but I am sure of one exact detail: “Vasily amazed us with his discipline and neatness. He was absolutely withdrawn, thinking about something all the time...”

They say that a person is a style. So, the style of Vasily Stalin’s letters, especially letters from prison, reveals an active, systematically thinking nature, absolutely not arrogant and... And psychologically in some ways similar to the young Stalin the father.

In any case, Vasily Stalin’s letter to his daughter Lina dated June 10, 1956, in its entire style, can be confused with letters from Joseph Stalin to his daughter Svetlana. Interesting detail: Vasily also calls his daughter “mistress” - as his father called his sister Svetlana.

And here is what Vasily wrote to his wife on October 1, 1956: “Can these scoundrels understand that a very difficult, difficult struggle is taking place for existence, for life, for love. Will the wits, the lovers of sensations, understand that not under all circumstances the form of this struggle is benign..."

Stalin's son died on March 19, 1962 in Kazan. He couldn't win his fight for life at that time. But he visited the Berlin sky and won that battle.

Just like his comrades.

“The son is not responsible for his father.” This catchphrase“Leader of the Nations” Joseph Stalin, spoken by him during the mass purges of the 1930s, saved the lives and gave hope for the future to many young people whose parents suffered from Stalin's repressions. However, the Soviet state security agencies did not stand on ceremony with his own son, Air Force General Vasily Stalin, after the death of the leader.

The dictator's youngest son, Vasily Stalin, was born on March 24, 1921 in Moscow. As you know, he had a family younger sister Svetlana Alliluyeva and older half-brother Yakov Dzhugashvili. According to eyewitnesses, Joseph Stalin loved his daughter very much, but treated his sons quite harshly. After the young man’s mother, Nadezhda Alliluyeva, committed suicide, communication between father and son was generally reduced to a minimum. Supervision over the upbringing of the secretary general's son was carried out by the head of Stalin's security, General Nikolai Vpasik, and his subordinate NKVD officers.

These circumstances left a noticeable imprint on the character of Vasily Stalin. He started smoking and drinking alcohol at an early age, as well as using strong language. The lack of maternal affection and female upbringing had obvious negative consequences in the form of increased nervous excitability and some imbalance. But in general, those around him characterized Vasily Stalin as good man, whose advantages completely covered the existing shortcomings.

In the fall of 1938, Vasily Iosifovich Stalin entered the Kachin Military Aviation School, from which he graduated in March 1940. As soon as the Great began Patriotic War, Vasily found himself at the front and took part in the fierce air battles. In the fall of 1941, for a bold attack on German bombers, he was awarded the Military Order of the Red Banner.

However, Joseph Stalin soon recalled him from the front line. He was very afraid that Vasily would either die or be captured by the Germans, as happened with his older brother Yakov Dzhugashvili. Therefore, until the end of 1942, Vasily Iosifovich Stalin served at the Main Headquarters of the Red Army Air Force in Moscow. Only the next year, when the situation on the fronts had stabilized, did the Soviet leader allow his youngest son to return to the active army.

Contrary to various rumors and gossip, Vasily Iosifovich Stalin did not immediately become commander of the air force. For almost two years he held the modest position of an instructor pilot, while in which he perfectly mastered all types of aircraft then available in Soviet fighter aviation. Only on May 18, 1944, Vasily Iosifovich Stalin was appointed commander of the 3rd Guards Fighter Aviation Division. Under his command, the division liberated Minsk, Vilnius, Lida and Grodno. At the same time, Vasily personally participated in air battles.

On February 22, 1945, he became commander of the 286th Fighter Aviation Division of the 1st Belorussian Front and in this capacity took part in the Berlin offensive operation. It is interesting that the leader’s son celebrated Victory Day with the modest rank of colonel, although his position could have already risen to the rank of general. He didn't even receive a Gold Star.
Hero of the Soviet Union. In total, during the war, Vasily Stalin made 26 combat missions and personally shot down five enemy aircraft. He was awarded three Orders of the Red Banner, the Order of Suvorov II degree and the Order of Alexander Nevsky.

After the end of the war, Vasily Stalin served in Germany, after which he was transferred to Moscow to the position of assistant commander of the Moscow Military District Air Force. Only then did he receive the rank of major general and then lieutenant general. And in 1948 he was appointed commander of the Air Force of the Moscow Military District.

Vasily Stalin after the war

From this moment, perhaps the most eventful page of his biography began. The stern father began to control his son less, giving him significant freedom of action.
At first, Vasily Stalin gave his all in the service. He organized and supervised the combat training of pilots, mastering aviation technology, built new airfields and military camps.

Vasily Stalin paid a lot of attention to the development of sports. It was then that the famous football and hockey teams of the Air Force of the Moscow Military District appeared. And Vasily himself even became the chairman of the USSR Equestrian Federation.

However, over time, his vigorous activity acquired a negative character. Vasily Stalin clearly “caught a star”, began to abuse alcohol, and was little involved in official affairs. He was surrounded by dozens of sycophants and drinking companions who weaved various intrigues and constantly dragged their boss into various scandals.

In August 1952, after the air festival in Tushino, Vasily Stalin came to a government reception very drunk and there had an argument with Air Force Commander-in-Chief Zhigarev. All this happened in front of my father's eyes. Stalin was furious.

He kicked Vasily out of the hall, and the next day he signed an order to remove him from the post of commander of the Moscow Military District Air Force. Vasily Stalin was enrolled as a student at the Military Academy General Staff. But, according to eyewitnesses, he showed no interest in studying and hardly went to classes.

Arrest of Vasily Stalin

On March 5, 1953, Joseph Stalin died. Vasily attended his father’s solemn funeral and was unpleasantly surprised by its poor organization. He was especially struck by the wild crush in the crowd, as a result of which dozens of people were injured. He expressed his complaints to members of the Politburo. Then there was a scandal with the USSR Minister of Defense Bulganin. Vasily was offered to immediately leave Moscow and go to serve in a distant garrison. He responded with a categorical refusal. There were also rumors that Vasily appeared at the Chinese embassy, ​​where he stated that his father had been poisoned and asked to be transported to Beijing.

As a result, on April 28, 1953, Vasily Stalin was arrested and accused of making slanderous statements aimed at discrediting the leaders of the USSR. Later, during the investigation, charges of abuse of official position were added. The case of Vasily Stalin was investigated for about two and a half years. All this time he was in custody
KGB internal prison at Lubyanka, and then in .

In September 1955, Vasily Stalin was sentenced to eight years in prison for “anti-Soviet propaganda” (Article 58-10 of the Criminal Code) and abuse of official position (Article 193-17 of the Criminal Code). The Khrushchev “thaw” was in the yard, but the son of the “leader of the peoples” was convicted in the best traditions of the 1930s. The trial took place without a lawyer and even without a prosecutor! The convicted person was deprived of the right to file cassation appeal and a request for pardon.

However, this was just the beginning. Vasily Stalin was not sent to a regular colony, but was imprisoned as a total repeat offender. And even there he was not listed
under your real name and surname. In prison documents, the mysterious prisoner was referred to as Vasily Pavlovich Vasiliev. And the ordinary guards did not even know that they were guarding Stalin’s son.

After serving in solitary confinement for more than a year, Vasily himself asked the prison authorities to give him a job. His request was granted by sending him to a turning workshop. There Stalin Vasily Iosifovich in short terms mastered all the machines and became a qualified turner. While serving his sentence in the Vladimir Central Prison, Vasily became seriously ill and actually became disabled. While in prison, he constantly wrote letters to Khrushchev, Voroshilov and other Soviet leaders asking them to look into his case and restore justice.

Cause of death of Vasily Stalin

On January 9, 1960, Vasily Stalin was released early from prison. From the Vladimir Central they brought him to Moscow, straight to Nikita Khrushchev’s office. They say that Nikita Sergeevich burst into tears when he saw Vasily in a prison uniform. The former prisoner was given a three-room apartment in Moscow and a good pension.

However, already on April 16, 1960, Vasily Stalin was again arrested by the KGB “for continuing anti-Soviet activities.” Allegedly, he again visited the Chinese Embassy, ​​where he made a “slanderous statement of an anti-Soviet nature.”

Today it is difficult to judge whether such a fact took place or whether it was a provocation by the special services. One way or another, Vasily Iosifovich Stalin spent a year in Lefortovo prison, and then was exiled to Kazan. He was banned from living in Moscow and Georgia, as well as from using the surname “Stalin”. In his passport he was referred to as Vasily Dzhugashvili.

On March 19, 1962, Vasily Stalin died suddenly. According to doctors, death was caused by alcohol poisoning. However, many eyewitnesses claim that in the last years of his life Vasily Iosifovich Stalin did not drink alcohol at all, as he suffered from severe stomach pain. An autopsy of the deceased was also not performed.
In this regard, a version appeared that the son of the “leader of the peoples” could well have been poisoned. After all, he was a very inconvenient figure for the then owners of the Kremlin.

15 years ago, in November 2002, the remains were reburied in Moscow youngest son Stalin. The ashes were transported from Kazan at the request of one of Vasily Dzhugashvili’s adopted daughters.

Funeral photograph on the monument to Vasily Stalin. Shortly before his death, he changed his last name. © / AiF

The body of Stalin's youngest son (the eldest Yakov died in German captivity - Author's note) has been resting on Troekurovskoye Cemetery in Moscow. However, in Kazan, at the Arskoe cemetery, there still stands a black marble monument with the inscription “Vasily Iosifovich Dzhugashvili.” There is no grave mound in the fence, but it is always carefully cleaned and decorated with flowers. The fence and monument are looked after by an assigned cemetery employee. Not for free, the workers explain. These services are paid for by relatives from Moscow.

History last year AiF-Kazan tells the life of the leader’s son.

Stalin's house

“They opened the grave very quickly,” one of the cemetery workers recalls the events of 15 years ago. “They put up a fence, removed the body, then took it away... There were more journalists than relatives.”

“My friend lived with Vasily in the same house on Gagarin Street,” adds another necropolis employee. – He said that Stalin’s son was very fond of alcohol. So much so that sometimes he couldn’t get to the apartment on his own - the janitor and neighbors helped. At the same time, they spoke well of him. Like, he was the most humane of the entire Stalinist family.”

Vasily Stalin arrived in Kazan in April 1961, accompanied by KGB officers. After eight years in prison, he was exiled to a city closed to foreigners, which was then Kazan. After Stalin's death, Vasily, at that time with the rank of lieutenant general of aviation, commanded until 1952 air force Moscow district, was arrested for anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda, as well as abuse of official position.

“Anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda are accusations against the country’s leadership, including Khrushchev, for the death of Stalin,” explains historian Alexei Litvin, who studied the case of Vasily Dzhugashvili in the archives of the KGB of Tatarstan in the 1990s. – Stalin’s son believed that his father was poisoned. It is difficult to comment on this, because the case of Stalin’s illness has not yet been fully published. In the 90s, Vasily Dzhugashvili was cleared of all political charges and was granted amnesty. But the accusations of abuse of power and embezzlement of money remain.”

With a cane and blue glasses

Kazan resident Lyudmila Kutuzova was 12 years old when she accidentally met Vasily Stalin. Her father worked as a photographer for a newspaper published by a construction trust. He had a darkroom in the basement of one of the houses on Gagarin Street. After school, Lucy often came to her father and helped him wash the photographs and polish them.

“One day a young man came to my father - thin, reddish, in civilian clothes, with a cane,” the woman recalls. - I remember his blue glasses with thin frames, I didn’t see those in Kazan - maybe it was fashionable or he had vision problems... Later I often heard that Stalin’s son was fond of alcohol, but on drinking man he didn't look like that at that moment.

His father looked at him in surprise - apparently, he also saw him for the first time. The stranger brought some films: either he wanted to retake the photo, or he decided to take up photography himself and was advised to contact his father. I didn’t know what they were talking about. Realizing who exactly had come to him, my father quickly escorted me home. Everyone knew that Vasily Stalin was under surveillance all the time. This is probably why my father never spoke about him to the family.

But after he came to the darkroom, they began to communicate. Dad went to Vasily’s house - to the “Stalinist” house on Gagarin, 105, as all the residents called it. He knew the wife of Stalin's son. Her girls, whom Vasily adopted, studied at our school (No. 99 - Author's note), also on Gagarin Street.

His wife (nurse Maria Shevargina cared for Vasily Stalin in the hospital where he was treated after he was released from prison - Author's note) came to school to pick up their daughters. A prominent woman with unusually colored eyes – green-blue. One of the daughters had the same eyes.”

“Of the 11 volumes of Vasily Dzhugashvili’s case, only three were read,” says Alexey Litvin. - The remaining eight contained wiretapping data. In his one-room apartment it was everywhere, even in the toilet.”

It is known that in Kazan Vasily met his colleague Anvar Karimov. During the war, he served in the division commanded by Vasily. Dzhugashvili and Karimov lived in the same house. During interrogation by the KGB, Karimov said that they recalled how they served together, that Vasily shouted that he was imprisoned in vain, that he was not guilty of anything, he simply doubted whether his father died by natural causes.

“What kind of life did Stalin’s son lead in Kazan? He walked around, drank, and told everyone that he was the son of a leader. He enjoyed enormous authority among Georgians in the markets, who were always ready to provide him with any assistance and were proud of him, continues Alexey Lvovich. - Moreover, there was a legend that when he was buried, a team of 10 Caucasians arrived in Kazan who wanted to rebury him in Georgia...

I do not undertake to judge how Vasily Stalin fought, in what military operations he took part. For me, the boys of the war years, absolutely all participants in the war who fought for the USSR are heroes. In my opinion he was not an outstanding person, only a representative of the golden youth."

In Kazan, he was offered to change his surname “Stalin” to “Dzhugashvili” or “Alliluyev”, as his sister did. He refused for a long time (in the end he agreed, because they promised to give him a larger apartment - author's note). Spoke:

“I was born and will die Stalin.” Although his father himself once inspired him that Stalin was the only one in the country, it was himself. Vasily stuck to this surname because he was known by this surname. Without her he would be an ordinary person, not known for any deeds. He was known only as the son of Stalin, about whom some remembered the bad, others remembered the good.”

400 rubles – for funeral

On the day of Vasily Dzhugashvili’s funeral, Alexey Litvin taught a lesson at school No. 99. I saw through the window that a hearse was approaching the “Stalinist” house, I jumped out into the street with my 10th grade class, for which I later received a scolding from the headmistress for disrupting the lesson. But the teacher and students were late - the hearse had already left.

“According to the KGB, about 300 people came to Stalin’s funeral - mostly residents of surrounding houses. “Among his relatives were his real children: son Alexander Burdonsky, who later became director of the Central academic theater Russian army and daughter Nadezhda, who later married the son of the writer Alexander Fadeev, but bore the surname “Stalin” all her life.

The funeral was held at the expense of the KGB of Tatarstan - they spent a little more than 400 rubles. And the monument was erected by relatives, including one of his first wives, the daughter of Marshal Timoshenko. Later, the inscription “from Dzhugashvili” appeared on it.

To determine the causes of Vasily Dzhugashvili’s death, a medical commission was created, headed by the director of GIDUV, Khamza Akhunzyanov. The day before, Major Sergei Kakhishvili, a teacher at the Ulyanovsk Tank School, visited the Dzhugashvili family. The commission checked all the bottles of alcohol that the guest brought him. No poison was found in them, and Kakhishvili, who was arrested after Vasily’s death, was released.

“Acute heart failure, which developed as a result of pronounced atherosclerosis against the background of alcohol intoxication,” was the cause of death of Stalin’s son.

Several years ago, representatives of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation proposed installing a memorial plaque on the house where Vasily Dzhugashvili lived in Kazan. This idea was not supported. Nevertheless, myths and legends about Stalin’s son still circulate. Alexey Litvin explains this with feelings of fear, flattery, the idea of ​​“ strong hand”, which will deal harshly with corrupt officials and swindlers. Such associations are evoked among many, especially the older generation, by the name of the “leader of the peoples,” as well as everything connected with his family.

“Although in Stalin’s times there were a lot of swindlers, they were tried – they just didn’t talk about them – they were shot, and that’s all,” says Alexey Litvin.

Olga Lyubimova

There are three versions of the death of Vasily Stalin, and all of them are connected with Kazan. The first is suicide. The second was killed in a drunken brawl, as Sergo Beria talks about in the book “My Father, Lavrenty Beria.” And finally, Svetlana Alliluyeva believes that he was involved in the death of her brother last wife Maria…

But what kind of Maria? The writer Stanislav Gribanov in his book “Hostages of Time” describes how in Kazan Vasily met his last love, whom he “affectionately called Marisha.” “We lived very modestly financially,” recalls “Marisha.” — Vasily received a pension of 300 rubles, of which he sent 150 to his first wife. And also my salary. He always got up very early, went to the kitchen, and prepared breakfast. He never left the house, he only went to the KGB to Black Lake to receive his pension, and even then he was always with me. Not for a moment did he leave the feeling that he would be taken away...”

Maria Nikolaevna is an employee of one of the Kazan universities. She asked not to use her last name, since she was not officially registered with Vasily Stalin.

Vasily had another friend named Maria - Maria Ignatievna, who came with him to Kazan, leaving her post as a nurse at Clinical Hospital No. 23 in Moscow. In the personnel department of OJSC Elekon, as one of the Kazan newspapers unearthed, “it has been stored for almost forty years personal card Vasily Dzhugashvili’s second wife, Maria.” Let us clarify: not the second wife, but the third. The disgraced general, including both “Marishas,” had four wives, but he was legally married to only one of them—the daughter of Marshal Timoshenko. Her predecessor, Kapitolina Georgievna, a 19-time national swimming champion, who, according to the writer A. Sukhomlinov, remained “faithful to Vasily until the end of her days,” alas, was considered “unmarried.”

Svetlana Alliluyeva fiercely hated one of the wives of her loving brother, namely nurse Maria Nusberg: “They knew (and warned me) that she was a paid KGB agent at the Vishnevsky Institute, where she worked and where Vasily lay for some time for examination. He had just been released from prison by Khrushchev and was suffering from stomach ulcers, constriction of the blood vessels in his legs and complete exhaustion. There he was “bewitched” by this woman, who then followed him to Kazan, where she illegally married him. It’s illegal, since my brother has not yet divorced his first wife...”

Relatives of Vasily Dzhugashvili believe that his “wife-nurse-KGB agent” was involved in his death, giving him a lethal injection. When they arrived in Kazan, they saw Vasily “in a pool of blood, with bruises on his arms and legs”...

But all these versions - suicide, drunken brawl, lethal injection - are questioned by serious researchers. Life and death famous people always surrounded by rumors and legends. “I am probably the first who saw with my own eyes the act of death and the investigation documents, from which the cause of Vasily Stalin’s death follows,” he said in live radio "Echo of Moscow" May 9, 2001 military historian, retired colonel of justice, writer Andrei Sukhomlinov. The reason, as evidenced by the medical report, is banal - overdrinking.

Vasily Iosifovich’s former neighbors tell completely opposite things about him. Some recall that many guests came to the Khrushchev building at 105 Gagarin Street, where Stalin lived. As a rule, they couldn’t do without a bottle, and there were protracted drinking bouts. Others claim that the exiled general led a solitary life, drank little and, in general, was an exemplary family man.

Vladimir Zhukhrai cites an interesting episode in his book “Stalin: Truth and Lies”: The leader, “looking sternly at Dzhuga (general - R.M.),” said:

The Generalissimo turned out to be a seer - his son was indeed killed by vodka. After the death of the “leader of all nations,” Vasily was imprisoned. As they said later, no way. The son supposedly suffered for the sins of his father and, in general, knew a lot - so he was removed so that he would not get in the way.

But there are materials from the official investigation and the arrestee’s own confessions. “Vasily Stalin, being the commander of the Air Force of the Moscow Military District,” says the criminal case, “embezzled 69 thousand rubles of public funds by issuing fictitious orders to reward employees of the Air Force of the Moscow Military District cash bonuses. He illegally spent about two million rubles from the funds of the Air Force of the Moscow Military District to equip his dacha. The total amount of funds from the Moscow Military District Air Force illegally spent by Vasily Stalin amounted to about 20 million rubles.”

Dzhugashvili himself testified during the investigation into the case:

“Using my official position, ignoring Soviet laws and deceiving the leadership of the War Ministry, I squandered large sums state funds for activities that were not caused by any need for the combat training of the military units entrusted to me. (...) By my unworthy behavior, expressed in systematic drunkenness, cohabitation with women subordinate to me in the service, various kinds scandalous incidents that received wide publicity, I actually discredited myself as a district commander. (...) Dagaev and Sokolov purchased for me in Germany for currency in large quantities various valuables, materials for dozens of suits, several sets of valuable services and many other household items, which I have lost count of.”

It is felt that the defendant made his confession under pressure, but it is unlikely that he slandered himself too much. The wild life of Vasily Stalin is also known from other sources. According to the recollections of his colleagues, the general “...did not show up for duty for months. I almost never visited the formations and units of the district, I did not read the orders of the Minister of War and the Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force, I did not sign the orders issued by the headquarters of the Air Force of the Moscow Military District, I hid from the War Ministry the facts of violations of military discipline and emergency incidents in the formations of the district.” The father guessed about his son’s “arts”, but they were afraid to tell him the whole truth. And when he died, nothing prevented him from opening a criminal case, in which, by the way, there was not a single political episode.

On September 2, 1955, Vasily Iosifovich Stalin was sentenced to 8 years. He was released early due to worsening illness. But soon he was arrested again, this time for political reasons: “For trying to contact the Chinese embassy with a request to allow him to move to live in China.”

Instead of Beijing, Vasily Stalin ended up in Kazan, where he died on March 19, 1962. He died a “natural death from acute heart failure due to alcohol intoxication.” This is stated in the document, which is stored in the criminal case file. “At the direction of KGB Chairman Semichastny, an in-depth investigation was carried out. There is an act of pathological examination,” says military historian Andrei Sukhomlinov.

Vasily Stalin was buried, according to eyewitnesses, modestly; only close relatives and several dozen curious onlookers were present. Although Svetlana Alliluyeva writes about a huge crowd, comparable almost to the gigantic crush during the funeral of her father in Moscow. But this is another myth around the name of Vasily Stalin, of which countless numbers have proliferated. For example, they also say that Stalin’s grave at the Arskoye cemetery is supposedly empty today, his body was stolen.

But it seems no one is going to carry out an exhumation on this occasion. Let the dead sleep peacefully, and the living keep their memory. Clear and undistorted.

Shelepin in the KGB had to deal with the fate of Stalin’s youngest son Vasily.

Three weeks after the death of the leader, on March twenty-sixth of fifty-three, by order of the Minister of Defense Marshal Bulganin, Aviation Lieutenant General Vasily Iosifovich Stalin was transferred to the reserve without the right to wear military uniform. And a month later, on April twenty-eighth, the son of the leader, from whom dust had previously been blown away, was arrested.

The arrest order was signed by the head of the investigative unit for special important matters Ministry of Internal Affairs, Lieutenant General Lev Emelyanovich Vlodzimirsky.

Why was Stalin's son treated so harshly?

The machinations of Lavrenty Pavlovich, who took revenge on his son for his father? But Beria himself was arrested two months later, and Vasily Stalin continued to sit in prison. He was accused of being a drunkard and “not showing up for work. He received reports from his subordinates at his apartment or dacha. He instilled servility in the apparatus subordinate to him.” But they don’t go to prison for this. Accused of squandering public funds. But this is not the most serious crime. The real charge was brought against him under the notorious fifty-eighth article - for anti-Soviet statements.

He was tried in an accelerated manner, adopted after the murder of Kirov in December thirty-four: without a lawyer and without a prosecutor. His father came up with this idea to quickly send “enemies of the people” to the next world. He probably didn’t think that it would turn against his own son.

The case of Vasily Stalin was considered by the military collegium of the Supreme Court and on September 2, 1955, it sentenced him to eight years in prison. He was supposed to be sent to a camp, but he was kept in the Vladimir prison, away from people.

Why is this severe punishment? For drunkenly promising to go to foreign correspondents and say everything he thinks about the current leaders of the country?

The verdict included: for illegal expenditure and misappropriation of state property (abuse of official position under especially aggravating circumstances, Article 193-17 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR) and for “hostile attacks and anti-Soviet slanderous fabrications against the leaders of the CPSU and the Soviet state” (and this is already a deadly threat). Article 58-10).

His sister, Svetlana, recalls that Vasily was arrested after a drinking session with some foreigners. Later, during the investigation, scams, embezzlement, and abuse of official position came to light. The investigation lasted more than two years. The security officers arrested Vasily's adjutants and his colleagues, and they quickly signed the testimony necessary for the investigation.

But the main thing is different - people who ended up in prison with the light hand of Vasily Stalin returned from places not so distant. And these were not ordinary people, but marshals and generals.

Not only the major military men, but also the party leaders really had reason to hate the younger Stalin. First of all, the all-powerful Georgy Maximilianovich Malenkov, whose career was almost ruined by Vasily Stalin.

So, it turns out that Vasily Stalin was punished for the fact that at one time he gave his father a hard time about generals and party officials? Got revenge? This is one reason. There is another - he ceased to be a celestial being, and he was no longer allowed those liberties that were forgiven to the son of a leader.

Vasily was not liked by the Minister of War, Marshal Bulganin, with whom the younger Stalin behaved familiarly, if not boorishly. After the death of the leader, everything changed, but Vasily Iosifovich continued to talk with Bulganin, and with other members of the Presidium of the Central Committee in the same way as before.

He publicly said about Bulganin:

Killing him is not enough!

And all Vasily’s words were recorded and reported to the party leadership.

Vasily Iosifovich was called by the head of the main personnel department of the Ministry of Defense, Colonel General Zheltov, who gave him a copy of the dismissal order. Vasily began to ask to be given some work.

Bulganin accepted him. Suggested:

Will you go as head of the flying club to Morshansk?

Vasily exploded:

This is a position for a first lieutenant. I won't go to her.

Bulganin said:

Then I have no place for you in the army...

Apparently there was another motive. Subconsciously, by imprisoning the younger Stalin, members of the Presidium of the Central Committee were freed from the mystical fear of this name.

In the Vladimir prison, the leader’s son was kept under the name “Vasiliev”. He, still a very young man, was already very ill - apparently due to excessive consumption of strong drinks. And the Soviet prison quickly destroys health.

Khrushchev once asked Shelepin:

How does Vasily Stalin behave? Talk to him, consult with Svetlana.

Stalin Jr. swore to Shelepin that he would behave with dignity.

Khrushchev said:

I am for his release.

Carrying out the will of the first secretary, on January 5, 1960, KGB Chairman Shelepin and Prosecutor General Rudenko reported to the Central Committee:

“Stalin V.I. imprisoned for six years and eight months. During this period of time, the administration of places of deprivation of liberty was characterized positively.

Currently, he has a number of serious diseases (heart disease, stomach disease, leg blood vessels and other ailments).

Taking into account the above, we ask the Central Committee of the CPSU to consider the following proposals: apply to Stalin V.I. a private amnesty, release him from further serving his sentence and expunge his criminal record; instruct Mossvet to provide Stalin with V.I. in Moscow, a three-room apartment; instruct the USSR Ministry of Defense to assign Stalin a pension in accordance with the law, provide him with a trip to a sanatorium for a period of three months and return the property that personally belonged to him confiscated during the arrest; extradite to Stalin V.I. thirty thousand rubles as a one-time benefit..."

On January 8, the proposals of Shelepin and Rudenko were accepted.

On January 11, Vasily Stalin was released early. But Vasily Stalin did not have time to take advantage of anything that was promised to him. He began drinking heavily again, and three months later, on April sixteenth, he was arrested again “for continuing anti-Soviet activities.”

This was reflected in his visit to the Chinese embassy, ​​where he made a “slanderous statement of an anti-Soviet nature,” as stated in KGB documents.

The Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Council, Kliment Efremovich Voroshilov, talked with Vasily Stalin in a fatherly manner. The elderly marshal reproached him for drinking:

I have known you since the day you were born, I had to babysit you. And I wish you only the best. But now I will tell you unpleasant, bad things. You must become a different person. You're still young, but you're so bald. Your father did not have one, although he lived to be seventy-four years old. It's all because you're being too much stormy life, you are not living the way you should. You bear the name of a great man, you are his son, and you should not forget this..

Vasily Stalin repented and asked to give him a job. Khrushchev did not like Voroshilov’s conversation with Stalin.

Khrushchev did not like the recording of Voroshilov’s conversation with Stalin. On the fifteenth of April he arranged a discussion of their conversation. All members of the Presidium of the Central Committee, as one, attacked Voroshilov, although Kliment Efremovich did nothing wrong.

Vasily Stalin is an anti-Soviet, an adventurer,” said Mikhail Andreevich Suslov, a member of the presidium and secretary of the Central Committee. - It is necessary to stop his activities, cancel the decree on early release and place him back in prison. The behavior of Comrade Voroshilov - there was no need to get involved. It seems that you support this scum.

Put him in prison,” Nikolai Ignatov supported Suslov. - Rebirth led him to treason.

Vasily Stalin turned out to be a vile, dirty person, said Nuritdin Akramovich Mukhitdinov, a member of the presidium and secretary of the Central Committee, recently transferred to Moscow from Uzbekistan. - Why did Comrade Voroshilov need to accept him?

Vasily Stalin is a traitor to his homeland, his place is in prison, and you caressed him,” Frol Kozlov scolded Marshal. After the conversation with Comrade Khrushchev, he did not run anywhere, but after the conversation with you he ran to the Chinese embassy.

Vasily Iosifovich wanted to ask the Chinese embassy to allow him to go to China for treatment and work. The party leadership had no intention of letting the leader’s son go to China, with whom relations were deteriorating before our eyes.

Vasily Stalin is a state criminal,” said Alexei Nikolaevich Kosygin, a member of the Presidium of the Central Committee and Khrushchev’s deputy in the government. - He needs to be isolated. But Comrade Voroshilov is behaving incorrectly.

Shelepin was present at the meeting, but did not speak.

The decision of the Presidium of the Central Committee stated:

“In connection with the criminal antisocial behavior of V. Stalin, cancel the resolution of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated January 2, 1960 on the early release of V. Stalin from further serving his sentence and the expungement of his criminal record; place V. Stalin in prison to serve his sentence according to the verdict of the Military Collegium Supreme Court USSR dated September 2, 1953."

Vasily Stalin was returned to prison to serve his sentence in full. A year later, the prison term ended. They didn’t want to let him into Moscow.

Shelepin and Rudenko proposed “as an exception to the current legislation, to send V.I. Stalin, after serving his sentence, was sent into exile for a period of five years in the city of Kazan (entry to this city is prohibited for foreigners). In case of unauthorized departure from the specified place, according to the law, he may be subject to criminal liability.”

On April twenty-eighth, sixty-first, Vasily Iosifovich was transferred to Kazan. They took him to the chairman of the KGB of Tatarstan, who explained to the leader’s son that he could not leave the city for the next five years.

Vasily Stalin, already a seriously ill man, lived free for less than a year. He was given a one-room apartment and a pension of one hundred and fifty rubles. He drank constantly. Drinking buddies, neighbors and others random people He willingly talked about himself and explained meaningfully:

They put me in prison because I know too much.

He did not receive a passport for a long time because they demanded that he change his last name to Dzhugashvili, but he flatly refused. Finally, the local KGB made a deal with him. Vasily demanded to be given a larger apartment, an increase in his pension and a car. Moscow agreed to his demands.

On January 9, 1962, he was given a passport with the last name Dzhugashvili. He immediately married nurse Maria Ignatievna Shevargina. She looked after him at the Institute of Surgery named after A.V. Vishnevsky, where he lay after prison, and followed him to Kazan.

There was listening equipment in the apartment, so the security officers knew that Vasily continued to vilify Khrushchev. He believed that they were not allowing him into Moscow because they were afraid of him.

He drank almost every day. He was very old and looked bad. Doctors had difficulty getting him out of his drinking bout. On March fourteenth, sixty-two, a teacher from the Ulyanovsk Tank School came to his home. A native of Georgia, he brought with him large number red wine. A three-day binge led to alcohol intoxication, and Vasily Stalin’s heart could not stand it.

On March 19, the new chairman of the KGB, Vladimir Semichastny, reported to Khrushchev that Vasily Iosifovich Dzhugashvili (Stalin) had died in Kazan: “According to preliminary data, the cause of death was alcohol abuse. Dzhugashvili, despite repeated warnings from doctors, systematically drank.”

The KGB chairman proposed to bury Vasily Iosifovich Dzhugashvili in Kazan without military honors. The proposal was accepted.

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