Vasily Iosifovich Stalin (from January 1962 - Dzhugashvili ; 1921-1962) - Soviet military pilot, lieutenant general of aviation. Commander of the Air Force of the Moscow Military District (1948-1952). The youngest son of Joseph Stalin.
There are many interesting facts in the biography of Vasily Stalin, which we will discuss in this article.
So, here is a short biography of Vasily Stalin.
Biography of Vasily Stalin
Vasily Stalin was born on March 24, 1921 in Moscow. He grew up in the family of the future head of the USSR Joseph Stalin and his wife Nadezhda Alliluyeva.
At the time of his birth, his father was the People's Commissar of the RSFSR Inspectorate for National Affairs.
Childhood and youth
Vasily had a younger sister, Svetlana Alliluyeva, and a half-brother, Yakov, his father’s son from his first marriage. He was raised and studied together with Stalin’s adopted son, Artem Sergeev.
Since Vasily’s parents were busy with government affairs (his mother edited material in a communist newspaper), the child experienced a lack of paternal and maternal affection. The first tragedy in his biography occurred at the age of 11, when he learned about his mother’s suicide.
After this tragedy, Stalin very rarely saw his father, who had a hard time with the death of his wife and had seriously changed in character. At that time, Vasily’s upbringing was carried out by the head of Joseph Vissarionovich’s security, General Nikolai Vlasik, as well as his subordinates.
Vasily Stalin with his father and sister
According to Vasily, he grew up surrounded by people who were not distinguished by highly moral manners. For this reason, he began to smoke and abuse alcohol early.
When Stalin was about 17 years old, he entered the Kachin aviation school. Although the young man did not like theoretical studies, in reality he turned out to be an excellent pilot. On the eve of the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945), he served in the fighter regiment of the Air Force of the Moscow Military District, where he regularly flew sorties.
Immediately after the start of the war, Vasily Stalin volunteered for the front. It is worth noting that the father did not want to let his beloved son go to war, because he valued him. This led to the guy going to the front only a year later.
Stalin Vasily Iosifovich
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 a good person, whose merits completely covered his existing shortcomings.
Vasily Stalin in childhood
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 Patriotic War began, Vasily found himself at the front and took part in 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.
Joseph Stalin and Vasily
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.
Vasily Stalin
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, Stalin Vasily Iosifovich 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 did not receive the Gold Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union either. 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.
Military exploits
Vasily was a brave and desperate soldier who was constantly eager to fight. Over time, he was appointed commander of a fighter aviation regiment, and later was entrusted with commanding an entire division, which took part in operations to liberate Belarusian, Latvian and Lithuanian cities.
Stalin's subordinates said many positive things about him. However, they criticized him for taking unnecessary risks. There were many cases when, due to Vasily’s rash actions, officers were forced to save their commander.
Nevertheless, Vasily himself repeatedly rescued his comrades in battles, helping them escape from their opponents. In one of the battles he was wounded in the leg.
Stalin ended his service in 1943, when he was involved in an explosion while killing fish. The explosion led to the death of people. The pilot received a disciplinary sanction, after which he was assigned as an instructor to the 193rd Aviation Regiment.
Over the years of his military biography, Vasily Stalin received over 10 awards, including 3 Orders of the Red Banner. An interesting fact is that in Vitebsk they even erected a memorial sign to him in honor of his military merits.
Pilot career, marriage
After finishing 9th grade, Vasily entered the Kachin Red Banner Aviation Military School named after. Myasnikov. Taking into account the status of Stalin's son, they created special conditions for him with concessions. However, the head of the school soon paid for this with his post, and Vasily had to study on a general basis. During his studies, he met Galina Burdonskaya, a student at the Printing Institute. The young couple soon got married and moved to Lipetsk. Vasily’s entourage did not know that the son’s relationship with his father was tense and difficult, and therefore they tried to please him, and did not report to his father about his tricks (sometimes not harmless). In 1940, Vasily became a pilot of the 16th Fighter Aviation Regiment of the 24th Fighter Aviation Division, studied to become a commander at the Air Force Academy, and took advanced training courses. By the time the war ended, he had already become division commander. During his studies, his addiction to alcoholic beverages became fully apparent, which would spoil his future life. For some time, everything was fine in the marriage; from Galina Burdonskaya, Vasily had two children - daughter Nadezhda and son Alexander.
Air Force service
At the end of the war, Vasily Stalin commanded the Air Force of the central district. Thanks to him, pilots were able to improve their skills and become more disciplined. By his order, the construction of a sports complex began, which became a subordinate institution of the Air Force.
Vasily paid great attention to physical culture and was the chairman of the USSR Equestrian Federation. According to veterans, it was with his initiative that about 500 Finnish houses were built for pilots and their families.
Vasily Stalin at war
In addition, Stalin issued a decree according to which all officers who did not have a 10th grade education were obliged to attend evening schools. He founded football and hockey teams that showed a high level of play.
In 1950, a notorious tragedy occurred: the best football team of the Air Force crashed during a flight to the Urals. According to the memoirs of the pilot’s friends and relatives, Wolf Messing himself warned Joseph Stalin about this plane crash.
Vasily survived only because he listened to Messing’s advice. A couple of years later, another tragedy occurred in the biography of Vasily Stalin. At the May Day demonstration, he ordered a demonstration flight of fighters, despite poor weather conditions.
During landing, 2 jet bombers crashed. The cause of the plane crash was low clouds. Vasily increasingly began to attend headquarters meetings while intoxicated, as a result of which he was deprived of all positions and powers.
Stalin justified his wild life by the fact that he could supposedly live only as long as his father was in good health.
Arrest
In part, Vasily’s words turned out to be prophetic. After Joseph Stalin passed away, a case of embezzlement from the state budget began to be fabricated against the pilot.
This led to the arrest of the man in the Vladimir Central Prison, where he was serving his sentence under the name Vasily Vasiliev. He spent 8 long years in prison. Initially, he was able to improve his health because he did not have the opportunity to abuse alcohol.
Stalin also worked hard, mastering turning. Later he became seriously ill and actually became disabled.
Personal life
Over the years of his personal biography, Vasily Stalin was married 4 times. His first wife was Galina Burdonskaya, with whom he lived for about 4 years. From this union a boy, Alexander, and a girl, Nadezhda, were born.
After this, Stalin married Ekaterina Timoshenko, who was the daughter of USSR Marshal Semyon Timoshenko. Soon the couple had a son, Vasily, and a daughter, Svetlana. The couple lived together for only 3 years. It is worth noting that in the future the pilot’s son became seriously interested in drugs, committing suicide.
Stalin's third wife was USSR swimming champion Kapitolina Vasilyeva. However, this union lasted less than 4 years. It is curious that after his arrest, Stalin was visited by all 3 wives, who obviously continued to love him.
Vasily Stalin and Maria Nusberg
The man's fourth and last wife was Maria Nusberg, who worked as a simple nurse. Vasily adopted her two children, who, like his adopted daughter from Vasilyeva, took the surname Dzhugashvili.
It is fair to note that Stalin cheated on all his wives, as a result of which it was extremely difficult to call the pilot an exemplary family man.
Children of Vasily Stalin - their fate
Vasily Stalin
, future lieutenant general of aviation, was born
in the second marriage of Joseph Stalin with Nadezhda Alliluyeva.
At
12
, he lost his mother.
She shot herself in 1932
. Stalin was not involved in his upbringing, shifting this concern to the head of security. Later, Vasily will write that he was raised by men “who were not distinguished by morality...... He began to smoke and drink early.”
IN 19
years old, he fell in love with his friend's fiancée
Galina Burdonskaya
and
married her
1940 In 1941
, the first-born Sasha was born
, two years later Nadezhda.
In 4
Galina left
, unable to bear her husband's spree. In retaliation, he refused to give her the children. For eight years they had to live with their father, despite the fact that a year later he started another family.
The new chosen one is the daughter of Marshal Tymoshenko Ekaterina
.
The ambitious beauty, born December
21 , like Stalin, and who saw this as a special sign, did not like her stepsons.
The hatred was manic. She locked them up, “forgot” to feed them, and beat them
.
Vasily did not pay attention to this. The only thing that bothered him was that the children should not see their own mother. One day Alexander met with her secretly, the father found out about it and beat his son.
Many years later, Alexander recalled those years as the most difficult time of his life.
In his second marriage, Vasily Jr. and daughter Svetlana were born.
But the family broke up.
Vasily, along with the children from his first marriage, Alexander and Nadezhda, went
to the famous swimmer
Kapitolina Vasilyeva.
She accepted them as family.
The children from the second marriage remained with their mother.
After Stalin's death, Vasily was arrested.
The first wife Galina immediately took the children. Nobody stopped her from doing this.
Catherine renounced Vasily, received a pension from the state and a four-room apartment on Gorky Street (now Tverskaya), where she lived with her son and daughter. Either due to severe heredity, or an equally difficult situation in the family, their further fate was tragic.
Both did poorly at school. Alone because I was sick all the time. The other one was not interested in studying at all.
After the 21st Party Congress and the exposure of the cult of personality, negativity towards all of Stalin’s relatives intensified in society.
Catherine, trying to protect her son, sent him to Georgia to study.
There he entered the Faculty of Law. I didn’t go to classes, spent time with new friends, and became addicted to drugs.
The problem was not immediately recognized. From the third year, his mother took him to Moscow, but could not cure him. During one of the withdrawal symptoms, Vasily committed suicide
at the dacha of his famous grandfather, Marshal Timoshenko.
He was only 23.
After the death of her son, Catherine withdrew into herself. She did not love her daughter and even refused custody of her, despite the fact that Svetlana suffered from Graves' disease and progressive mental illness.
Svetlana died at
43 years old, completely alone.
They learned of her death only a few weeks later.
Vasily's children from his first marriage were more successful.
Alexander
graduated from the Suvorov Military School.
He was not interested in a military career, and he entered the directing department of GITIS. He played in the theater and received the title of People's Artist.
He worked as a director at the Soviet Army Theater.
He considered his grandfather a tyrant, and his relationship with him as a “heavy cross.” He loved his mother very much, lived with her most of the time and bore her last name Burdonsky.
Passed away in 2020. Nadezhda, unlike her brother, remained Stalin
.
She always defended her grandfather, claiming that Stalin did not know much of what was happening in the country. She studied at the theater school, but she did not become an actress. She lived in Gori for some time. Upon returning to Moscow, she married her adopted son and mother-in-law, Alexander Fadeev, and gave birth to a daughter, Anastasia.
Nadezhda died in
1999
at the age of
56
.
Vasily had no other children.
The last wife was nurse Maria Nusberg. He adopted her two daughters, just as he had previously adopted the daughter of Kapitolina Vasilyeva.
Death
After his release, Vasily Stalin was forced to settle in Kazan, which was closed to foreigners, where he was given a one-room apartment at the beginning of 1961. However, he never really had time to live here.
Vasily Stalin died on March 19, 1962 due to alcohol poisoning. A couple of months before his death, KGB officers forced him to take the surname Dzhugashvili. At the end of the last century, the Russian prosecutor's office posthumously dropped all charges against the pilot.
