Yakov Dzhugashvili
Yakov Dzhugashvili | |
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Native name | |
Birth name | Iakob Iosebis dze Jughashvili |
Born | 31 March [ Kutais Governorate, Russian Empire |
Died | 14 April 1943 Sachsenhausen concentration camp, Oranienburg, Nazi Germany | (aged 36)
Allegiance | Soviet Union |
Service/ | Red Army |
Years of service | 1941–1943 |
Rank | Lieutenant |
Battles/wars |
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Awards | |
Spouse(s) |
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Children |
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Yakov Iosifovich Dzhugashvili
Dzhugashvili studied to become an engineer, then – on his father's insistence – he enrolled in training to be an artillery officer. He finished his studies weeks before Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941. Sent to the front, he was imprisoned by the Germans and died at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp in 1943 after his father refused to make a deal to secure his release.
Early life
Georgia
Dzhugashvili was born 31 March [
Moscow
In 1921, Dzhugashvili was brought to Moscow to live with his father. His half-siblings Svetlana and Vasily were born after he moved. This proved difficult for Dzhugashvili as he did not understand Russian and his father was hostile to him, even forbidding him from adopting the name "Stalin".[10][11] It is not clear why Stalin had hostility to his son, but it is believed that he reminded Stalin of Svanidze, which was one of the happier times in Stalin's life.[9][11] Living in Stalin's apartments at the Amusement Palace in the Kremlin, Dzhugashvili slept in the dining room.[12] A kind individual, Dzhughashvili was close to his half-siblings, as well as his step-mother Nadezhda Alliluyeva, who was only six years older than him.[13]
Though Dzhugashvili was interested in studying at a university, Stalin did not initially allow it, and it was not until 1930 when he was 23 that Dzhugashvili was admitted.[14] He graduated from the Institute of Transport in 1935, and for the next couple years worked as a chimney-sweep engineer at an electric plant factory named after his father.[15][16] In 1937, he entered the Artillery Academy, and graduated from there on 9 May 1941.[15]
Marriages and family
Dzhugashvili's first serious relationship was with Zoya Gunina, the daughter of an Orthodox priest and a former classmate of his. In 1928, Dzhugashvili made it known that he wanted to marry Zoya, who was then sixteen. Stalin became enraged at the idea and in response Dzhugashvili attempted suicide, shooting himself in the chest and narrowly missing his heart.
After his return to Moscow, Dzhugashvili was rumoured to be marrying Ketevan Orakhelashvili, the daughter of
Dzhugashvili married Yulia Meltzer, a well-known Jewish dancer from Odessa. After meeting Meltzer at a reception in a restaurant, Dzhugashvili fought with her second husband, an NKVD officer called Nikolai Bessarab, an aide to Stanislav Redens, the head of the Moscow Oblast NKVD and brother-in-law of Stalin.[19] They soon were married. Historian Miklós Kun has suggested that Meltzer "must have been tempted to gain entry into Stalin's court by means of her marriage," though this did not work due to the animosity between Stalin and Dzhugashvili.[16] They soon moved into an apartment together, though were only legally married on 18 February 1938, the day before their only child, daughter Galina, was born.[22]
Second World War
Capture
On 22 June 1941, Nazi Germany and its allies launched Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union. Stalin ensured that Dzughashvili and Artyom Sergeyev, his adopted son and fellow artillery officer, went to the front lines.[23] Serving as a lieutenant with a battery of the 14th Howitzer Regiment of the 14th Tank Division near Vitebsk, Dzhugashvili was captured on 16 July during the Battle of Smolensk.[24] The circumstances of his capture are disputed: Sergeyev later said that "the Germans surrounded Yakov's battery. The order was given to retreat. But Yakov did not obey the order. I tried to persuade him ... but Yakov answered: 'I am the son of Stalin and I do not permit the battery to retreat."[25] Other sources, including Soviet prisoners interrogated, claimed that they willingly gave up Dzhugashvili as they hated the Soviet system.[26] Material from the Russian archives also suggests that he surrendered willingly.[27]
The Germans announced the capture of Dzughashvili on 19 July. Stalin reacted negatively to the news: he had previously ordered that no soldiers were to surrender, so the idea that his own son had done so was seen as a disgrace.[28] He was angry that Dzughashvili had not killed himself instead of being captured, and suspected that someone had betrayed him.[24][29] Meltzer was not immediately told the news and, suspicious of her motives and the idea that Dzhugashvili surrendered, Stalin had her arrested.[30] With Meltzer imprisoned, Svetlana took care of Galina.[29]
Prisoner of war
In an attempt to conceal his identity, Dzhugashvili apparently removed his officer's insignia and tried to pass as a soldier, although he was soon recognised and given to the Abwehr (German military intelligence) for interrogation.[31] During the interrogation, Dzughashvili openly criticised his division and other units of the Red Army, saying they were unprepared for the war, and further commented that military commanders behaved poorly.[31] He felt that the United Kingdom was weak and had "never helped anyone," while praising Germany, noting it was the only major empire left and that the "whole of Europe would be nothing" without it. Although his wife and her family were ethnically Jewish, Dzughashvili was also openly anti-Semitic, claiming Jews "trade, or aspire to careers in engineering, but they do not want to be workers, technicians, or peasant laborers. That's why no one in our country respects the Jews."[32]
The Germans intended to use Dzhugashvili in their propaganda against the Soviets. He was pictured on leaflets dropped over Soviet soldiers, shown smiling with his captors. The back of the leaflet was part of a letter he wrote to Stalin shortly after his capture: "Dear Father! I have been taken prisoner. I am in good health. I will soon be sent to a camp for officers in Germany. I am being treated well. I wish you good health! Greetings to everyone. Yasha."[25] The Soviet Union responded in kind via propaganda: Krasnaya Zvezda ("Red Star"), the official newspaper of the Red Army, announced on 15 August 1941 that Dzhugashvili would be awarded the Order of the Red Banner for his actions during the Battle of Smolensk.[33] He was subsequently moved to a guarded villa in Berlin, where Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi Propaganda Minister, hoped to use him on Russian-language radio broadcasts. When that failed to materialise, Dzhugashvili was moved to Sachsenhausen concentration camp.[34]
While interned there, Dzhugashvili was constantly frequented by visitors who wanted to meet and photograph the son of Stalin, meetings which began to distress him. He also quarrelled with the British prisoners, and would frequently get in physical altercations with them.
Death
On 14 April 1943, Dzhugashvili died at the Sachsenhausen camp. Initially, the details of his death were disputed: one account had him running into the electric fence surrounding the camp.[40] However, it had also been suggested that he was shot by the Germans; Kun speculated that it is "conceivable that he committed suicide: he had suicidal tendencies in his youth".[29]
Upon hearing of his son's death, Stalin reportedly stared at his photograph; he would later soften his stance towards Dzhugashvili, saying he was "a real man" and that "fate treated him unjustly."[40] Meltzer would be released in 1946 and re-united with Galina, though the years apart had made Galina distant from her mother.[41] In 1977, Dzhugashvili was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, first class, although this was done secretly and the family was not allowed to collect the medal itself.[33]
After the war, British officers in charge of captured German archives came upon the papers depicting Dzhugashvili's death at Sachsenhausen. The German records indicated that he was shot after he ran into an electric fence attempting to flee after an argument with the British prisoners; an autopsy showed he died from electrocution before he was shot. The
See also
References
Notes
- ^
- Georgian: იაკობ იოსების ძე ჯუღაშვილი, Iakob Iosebis dze Jughashvili, [iakʼob iosebis dze dʒuɣaʃʷili]
- Russian: Яков Иосифович Джугашвили, Yakov Iosifovich Dzhugashvili
- ^ Historian Simon Sebag Montefiore suggests the name was a tribute to Yakobi Egnatashvili, who had helped Jughashvili and his mother when he was young. See Montefiore 2007, p. 174
- ^ The exact cause of Svanidze's death is uncertain. Kotkin writes it was either typhus or tuberculosis (Kotkin 2014, p. 115), while Montefiore cites a relative of Svanidze present at her death who claims it was typhus (Montefiore 2007, p. 200).
Citations
- ^ Zenkovich 2005, p. 368
- ^ Kotkin 2014, p. 753, note 81
- ^ Montefiore 2007, p. 188
- ^ Montefiore 2007, p. 194
- ^ Montefiore 2007, p. 199
- ^ Kun 2003, p. 342
- ^ Montefiore 2007, pp. 202–203
- ^ Kotkin 2014, p. 116
- ^ a b Montefiore 2007, p. 203
- ^ Kotkin 2014, p. 466
- ^ a b Kun 2003, p. 341
- ^ Kotkin 2014, p. 593
- ^ a b Kotkin 2014, p. 595
- ^ a b c Kun 2003, p. 347
- ^ a b Radzinsky 1997, p. 474
- ^ a b Kun 2003, p. 348
- ^ Allilueva 1967, p. 111
- ^ Kotkin 2014, p. 844, note 14
- ^ a b Kotkin 2017, p. 272
- ^ Kotkin 2017, p. 974, note 207
- ^ Kotkin 2017, p. 523
- ^ Kotkin 2017, p. 992, note 78
- ^ Montefiore 2003, p. 378
- ^ a b Montefiore 2003, p. 386
- ^ a b Kun 2003, p. 343
- ^ Kun 2003, pp. 343–344
- ^ Paterson 2013
- ^ Radzinsky 1997, p. 478
- ^ a b c d Kun 2003, p. 346
- ^ Montefiore 2003, pp. 386–387
- ^ a b Kun 2003, p. 344
- ^ Kun 2003, p. 345
- ^ a b Kun 2003, p. 350, note 14
- ^ Kun 2003, pp. 345–346
- ^ Montefiore 2003, p. 454
- ^ Chuev 1993, p. 209
- ^ "Historical Notes: The Death of Stalin's Son". TIME.com. 1 March 1968. Archived from the original on 4 December 2023. Retrieved 20 October 2023.
- ^ Chuev 1993.
- ^ Tolstoy 1978, p. 296
- ^ a b Montefiore 2003, p. 455
- ^ Montefiore 2003, p. 523
- ^ Eckert 2012, pp. 47–48
Bibliography
- ISBN 0-060-10099-0
- Chuev, Felix (1993), Molotov Remembers: Inside Kremlin Politics, Chicago: I.R. Dee, ISBN 1-56663-027-4
- Eckert, Astrid M. (2012), The Struggle for the Files: The Western Allies and the Return of German Archives after the Second World War, translated by Geyer, Dona, New York City: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-5218-8018-3
- ISBN 978-1-59420-379-4
- Kotkin, Stephen (2017), Stalin, Volume 2: Waiting for Hitler, 1929–1941, New York City: Penguin Press, ISBN 978-1-59420-380-0
- Kun, Miklós (2003), Stalin: An Unknown Portrait, translated by Bodóczky, Miklós; Hideg, Rachel; Higed, János; Vörös, Miklós, Budapest: Central European University Press, ISBN 963-9241-19-9
- ISBN 978-0-7538-1766-7
- Montefiore, Simon Sebag (2007), Young Stalin, London: Phoenix, ISBN 978-0-297-85068-7
- Paterson, Tony (17 February 2013), "Joseph Stalin's hated son surrendered to the Nazis, archives reveal", The Independent, London, archived from the original on 25 September 2015, retrieved 20 July 2019
- ISBN 0-385-47954-9
- ISBN 0-684-15635-0
- Zenkovich, Nikolai (2005), Самые секретные родственники [The Most Secret Families] (in Russian), Moscow: OLMA-Press, ISBN 5-94850-408-5
External links
- Media related to Yakov Dzhugashvili at Wikimedia Commons