"knew" three foreign languages, Yakov Dzhugashvili failed the English exams at the academy ... And he did not pass the test on the foundations of Marxism-Leninism

YAKOV STALIN WAS NOT CAPTIVED

WITH the harsh phrase of the “father of peoples”: “I don’t change soldiers for field marshals!” - entered the flesh and blood of our native mythology. An inflexible leader who hides his father's grief in stuffing his pipe. His associates, tactfully leaving the office...

The time of pronouncing this phrase is mid-February 1943. The battle on the Volga is already over and until April 14, when a message is received that the eldest son of Joseph Stalin, Yakov Dzhugashvili, threw himself on the wire in Special Camp "A" at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp and was shot dead by sentries as if trying to escape, about two months remained. It was then that the wife of Field Marshal Paulus turned to Hitler with a request to exchange her husband for Yakov Dzhugashvili, but Hitler refused this offer.

But few people know that in reality Stalin did not say these words. Yes, Yakov Dzhugashvili’s sister Svetlana Alliluyeva recalls in the book “Twenty Letters to a Friend”: “In the winter of 1942/1943, after Stalingrad, my father suddenly told me during one of our rare encounters: “The Germans offered me to exchange Yasha for one of their own. Will I trade with them? In war as in war! However, the memory of even a person so close to Stalin is still not the most reliable thing. After all, this phrase first appeared in an English newspaper and, most likely, was the fruit of the imagination of some idle journalist. Graceful stylistic device. It is quite logical to assume that Stalin, who already knew through the TASS channels about the publication in an English newspaper, reproduced this phrase in his edition, realizing that it would still be attributed to him.

A phrase, even such a phrase, still remains a phrase, but the Lately data, forensic analysis of documents and photographs also allow us to conclude that another myth, the myth of the very fact of captivity and the further captivity of Yakov Dzhugashvili, also comes into question.

THE USUAL WAY OF THINGS

According to the established known history the capture and death of the son of Joseph Stalin, the chain of events went as follows. Yakov Dzhugashvili arrived at the front at the end of June 1941, took part in the battles from July 4, was surrounded, buried documents, changed into civilian clothes (and ordered his subordinates to do the same ...), but on July 16 he was captured, was he was transferred to the Berezina assembly camp, where he was not yet identified, but on July 18, 1941 he was interrogated for the first time already as the son of Joseph Stalin. Further, Yakov Dzhugashvili allegedly issued a statement that the struggle against the German troops was meaningless. The text of the statement was even printed on a leaflet that served to Soviet soldiers"pass" into German captivity. There was also a photograph of Yakov Dzhugashvili. In addition, there is a leaflet with the text of a note allegedly written by Yakov and addressed to his father: “19.7.41. Dear father! I am a prisoner, healthy, and will soon be sent to one of the officer camps in Germany. Handling is good. I wish you health. Hi all. Yasha. Then the trail of Yakov Dzhugashvili can be traced through several prisoner of war camps, until he ends up in the same Special Camp "A", where he dies.

In addition to the note from captivity, there is a postcard sent from Vyazma on June 26, 1941. The text addressed to the wife of Yakov Dzhugashvili has never been published before and should be given in full, if only because it contains one of the clues that make it possible to doubt the “known” version. So: “6/26/1941. Dear Julia! Everything is going well. The journey is quite interesting. The only thing that worries me is your health. Take care of Galka and yourself, tell her that Papa Yasha is fine. At the first opportunity, I will write a longer letter. Don't worry about me, I'm fine. Tomorrow or the day after tomorrow I will tell you the exact address and ask you to send me a watch with a stopwatch and a penknife. I kiss Galya, Yulia, Father, Svetlana, Vasya. Say hi to everyone. Once again, I hug you tightly and ask you not to worry about me. Greetings to V. Ivanovna and Lidochka, everything is going well with Sapegin. All your Yasha.

Yakov Dzhugashvili never sent any "lengthy letter". On July 11, the Germans broke into Vitebsk. As a result, the 16th, 19th and 20th armies were surrounded. The 14th howitzer artillery regiment was among the encircled units. Further, everything fits into the established version.

FROM THE ENVIRONMENT - WITHOUT DOCUMENTS ...

On the morning of June 22, 1941, the 14th Howitzer Artillery Regiment of the 14th Tank Division was at the Kubinka training ground and conducted practice firing. Shel pouring rain. By noon, the weather cleared up and everyone was gathered for a rally, they listened to Molotov's speech. Then there was a party meeting, and on June 23, the tank division and the entire corps, in which Yakov had served since May 9 after graduating from the academy, began to prepare to go to the front.

It should be noted right away that Yakov Dzhugashvili was a high-class artilleryman, showing very good results in shooting. So from his 152-mm gun, howitzer, he hit the tank, demonstrating the highest artillery aerobatics. It should also be borne in mind that the 14th Panzer Division, which included the 14th Artillery Regiment, inflicted quite adequate damage on the Germans during the fighting. 122 enemy tanks were destroyed, despite the fact that the division itself had 128 tanks, of which five were saved when leaving the encirclement. Compared to other parts of Western front these figures can be considered almost outstanding.

When the remnants of the division were surrounded in the area of ​​the Liozno station, east of Vitebsk, units of the 14th howitzer regiment were the first to leave the encirclement, which happened on July 19 in the evening.

Following the results of the battles on July 23, the command of the regiment presents Yakov Dzhugashvili to the Order of the Red Banner of War. On July 29, the documents came to Marshal Timoshenko, the commander of the Western direction, and were sent to the Main Personnel Department, that is, a representation was sent to a person who was physically in this moment there was no regiment in the staff. On August 5, Bulganin sent Stalin a telegram stating that the Military Council of the Front left senior lieutenant Dzhugashvili on the lists of those awarded, but when the Decree on the award was published in the Pravda newspaper on August 9, Dzhugashvili's name was no longer there: in the draft Decree Yakov Dzhugashvili wore number 99 and his last name was neatly crossed out, only his one, which, most likely, was done by tacit order Stalin.

The message that Yakov Dzhugashvili was in German captivity passed on July 21. Why did the Germans wait three days? After all, as it was indicated, the first interrogation protocol is dated July 18. But it is possible that they collected and hastily systematized the documents that came to them. Which? The fact is that on July 15, 1941, at 3 am, when leaving the encirclement in the column of the 14th howitzer artillery regiment, an emergency happened: a car with staff documents caught fire.

“... We, the undersigned commander of the staff vehicle, Lieutenant Belov, the head of the production unit of the combat unit, Sergeant Golovchak, the propaganda instructor, the senior political instructor Gorokhov, the head of the secret unit, Sergeant Bulaev, the clerk of the combat unit, Fedkov, the clerk of the artillery park, Bykov, drew up an act stating that on July 15, 41 year, the regiment retreated breaking through the encirclement through the town of Liozno, Vitebsk region. The regimental headquarters vehicles were fired upon by the enemy. From a direct hit by a shell, the vehicle of the ZIS-5 headquarters caught fire. It was not possible to take out the car, and the latter completely burned down with the following documents and property: states, personal files of juniors and rank and file, order book, correspondence with the division, intelligence and operational reports, stamp seals, accounting book of the commanding staff for 1941 , a book of outgoing documents, a book of commanding staff, a box with party and Komsomol documents, various property. The signatories of the act claimed that everything had burned down, but rather it was an attempt - however, which turned out to be successful - to evade responsibility for the fact that the headquarters car and the documents in it fell into the hands of the enemy.

And then the Germans had samples of Yakov Dzhugashvili's handwriting. As for the “lengthy letter” mentioned in the postcard, it could well have been with the Germans with personal documents after the death of Yakov Dzhugashvili. The information was quite enough to start a serious game. And not with Yakov Dzhugashvili, but with a man who looked like him, with a double, fortunately, truly unique material for their use was accumulated in German intelligence.

FALSE AS A WORK METHOD

The protocols of interrogations of Yakov Stalin are strengthened in the assumption that the history of his captivity and life in captivity is the result of the work of the German special services. And here there are obvious facts, as well as hidden ones, which become clear with careful analysis.

The apparently obvious ones include the rather crude work of falsifying the handwriting of Yakov Dzhugashvili and editing photographs that for a long time were presented as genuine photographs of Stalin's captive son on different stages his time in German captivity. So, of the four known samples of the handwriting of Yakov Iosifovich Dzhugashvili, allegedly made by him in captivity in 1941-1942, the results of a forensic examination showed that two documents were executed by another person, and two were written by the hand of Stalin's eldest son. But at the same time, specialists from the Center for Forensic and Forensic Expertise of the RF Ministry of Defense note that the lack of original notes by Ya.I. Dzhugashvili (only the text shown on the photo inserts was studied) does not exclude the possibility of a technical forgery with a combination of individual words and letter combinations from samples of the original handwritten text of Senior Lieutenant Dzhugashvili that were at the disposal of the German side. The authenticity of the photographs is also questionable. During the study of photographic images, Ya.I. Dzhugashvili, made in Germany from July 1941 to April 14, 1943, showed signs of partial forgery of photographic materials using retouching and photomontage.

Based on the peer review The specialists of the Center found that out of eleven German photographic materials, seven are photographic and typographical reproductions, the presence of image retouching was established in eight photographs, three were made by photomontage (including to give Yakov Dzhugashvili a different state of facial expressions in the image). One of the pictures also revealed the use of a mirror image in photomontage (printed from an inverted negative).

It cannot be ruled out that the Germans had photographs of Yakov Dzhugashvili obtained from agents before the war, or they - assuming that Stalin's son did not die in battle after all - used the same photographs taken immediately after the capture of Yakov Dzhugashvili .

It is also surprising that the well-oiled propaganda machine of Nazi Germany never used such materials as filming or recording the voice of Yakov Dzhugashvili. Just a few photos and a few small notes!

Not only the content of the interrogation protocols of Yakov Dzhugashvili looks strange, but also their fate. The minutes of the first interrogation of such an important prisoner, around whom the wheels of the Nazi propaganda machine turned, as the analysis of the archives in Saxony in 1947 showed, was filed in the files of the 4th Panzer Division of Guderian's corps. Another protocol of interrogation ended up in the archives of the Luftwaffe, which also casts doubt on their authenticity.

As for the content of the protocols, they contain a lot of absurdities and errors, according to which it can be assumed that everything attributed to Yakov Dzhugashvili was written by a German. So, Yakov allegedly told an Abwehr officer how, while the regiment was already standing near Liozno, west of Smolensk, he went to Smolensk and was present at the capture of a German spy in a tram.

Obvious errors in the protocols were not only absurdities with the year and place of birth of Yakov Dzhugashvili, although in the protocols the Germans continued to operate with the data contained in the documents from the allegedly burnt headquarters vehicle of the 14th artillery regiment. Also, an obvious mistake was the information that Yakov Dzhugashvili knew three foreign languages, while he could not pass the English exam at the academy. And of course he didn't know. French at such a level that allegedly already in the camp for six months "freely talk" with the interned son of the Prime Minister of France, Captain Rene Blum.

GAME FOR BIG

Here's how, according to the testimonies of other prisoners German camps, showed the captured son of Stalin to others. “We saw him several times in the camp closer. He lived in the general's barracks, and every day he was brought to the camp's wire fence to be shown to the public as Stalin's captive son. He was dressed in a simple gray overcoat with black buttonholes, a forage cap, and tarpaulin boots. He stood in front of the fence with his hands behind his back and looked above the heads of the inquisitive crowd, who, on the other side of the fence, were talking animatedly with the frequent repetition of the Stalins Sohn.

OBJECTIVE - TO BREAK STALIN?

Perhaps the falsification pursued not only propaganda, but also psychological goals. Thus, they wanted to put psychological pressure on Stalin. The paramount attention was paid to the person of Stalin not only because Hitler hated him more than any other leader of the bloc of states that opposed him. After all, Stalin was the number one figure, all the most important issues of domestic and foreign policy closed on him. Soviet Union. And that means the whole course of World War II.

Analyzing the totality of available documents, it can be assumed that very few people knew about this operation in Germany itself. If we evaluate the conditions of detention of the “prisoner”, his movement through various camps, the conclusion suggests itself that the approaches to the “son of Stalin” were tightly controlled by the German side, and all attempts by the Soviet secret services to obtain more accurate, reliable information about the “prisoner” ended in failure.

If we assume that the son of Joseph Stalin died and was not captured, then after the death of Yakov Dzhugashvili, events could develop in two directions. Senior Lieutenant Yakov Dzhugashvili was impersonated by his fellow countryman, a colleague who knew certain facts of his biography. In this regard, we will have to carefully study the list of missing servicemen of the 6th battery of the second battalion of the 14th howitzer artillery regiment. In the second direction, the German secret services could use the documents of Stalin's deceased son, finding their "prisoner" to participate in the "performance". This is a more likely development.

Turning to the question of the death of the "captive", it should be noted that, according to German sources, on April 14, 1943, a tragedy occurred and Yakov Dzhugashvili died (was shot dead) in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp "while trying to escape." Based on this information, a number of domestic and foreign researchers believe that it was a conscious act of suicide. But why did this tragedy happen in April 1943? From the end of March - the beginning of April 1943 - the time of the end of sounding through representatives of the International Red Cross of the positions of the parties on the problems of the exchange of prisoners - the fate of the "special prisoner" was a foregone conclusion. It can be assumed that his further participation in the operation could lead to the full disclosure of falsification.

Be that as it may, further research on the case of Yakov Dzhugashvili will help eliminate another "blank spot" in the history of the war years.

Valentin Zhilyaev

(The editors of Ogonyok would like to thank the Press and Public Relations Service of the FSO of the Russian Federation for their help in preparing the publication and providing photographic materials.)

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

General information

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

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

How did Jacob get captured?

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

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

Unknown pages of history

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

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

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

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

Brief biography of Jacob

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

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

Difficulties in personal life

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

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

So did Stalin love his first son?

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

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

Attempts to get out of captivity

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

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

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

Death of Stalin's son

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

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

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

Job, transfer to Sachsenhausen

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

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

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

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

According to the memoirs of Svetlana Alliluyeva, her half-brother Yakov was a deeply peaceful person. He graduated from the Moscow Institute of Transport Engineers and a short time worked at one of the capital's power plants, but Stalin, in accordance with the spirit of the times, forced him to put on a military uniform and enter the Artillery Academy.
33-year-old Yakov Dzhugashvili went to the front on the first day of the war. "Go and fight," his father told him. Of course, he could have arranged his son for a staff position, but he did not do this.

On June 24, Yakov took command of the 6th artillery battery of the 14th howitzer regiment of the 14th Panzer Division. For the battle on July 7, 1941, near the Chernogostnitsa River, Vitebsk Region, he was presented for an award, but did not manage to receive it.
The Soviet 20th Army was surrounded. On July 16, Stalin's son found himself in captivity along with many others.
According to reports, he wanted to be called someone else's last name, but was betrayed by one of his colleagues. "Are you Stalin?" the shocked German officer asked. "No," he replied, "I am Senior Lieutenant Yakov Dzhugashvili."

In Berlin, Abwehr captain Wilfried Shtrik-Shtrikfeld, who spoke Russian fluently and was subsequently assigned as a liaison officer to General Vlasov, had a long conversation with him.
"Being in your hands, I have not found a single reason to look at you from the bottom up," Yakov Dzhugashvili said during one of the interrogations.
According to the protocols discovered after the war in Berlin and stored in the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense in Podolsk, he did not hide his disappointment with the unsuccessful actions of the Red Army, but did not give out any information of interest to the Germans, referring to the fact that he was not close to his father. Basically, he was telling the truth.

According to historians, Stalin had every reason to be proud of his son's behavior. Yakov refused to cooperate with the Nazis, and the famous leaflets with his portrait and a signature saying that, they say, the son of your leader surrendered, feels great and wishes the same to everyone, which the Germans scattered over Soviet positions in the fall of 1941, were made without his participation.
Convinced of the futility of further work, the Germans sent Yakov Dzhugashvili to a prisoner of war camp in Hammelsburg, then transferred to Lübeck, and later to block "A" of Sachsenhausen, intended for "VIP prisoners".

"He said that he did not make any statements to the Germans and asked, if he did not have to see his homeland, to inform his father that he remained faithful to his military duty," lieutenant Marian Ventslevich, comrade Yakov Dzhugashvili in captivity.
In Lübeck, he became friends with the captured Poles, many of whom spoke Russian, played chess and cards with them.
Yakov Dzhugashvili was very upset by what happened to him and suffered from severe depression. Like the rest of the Soviet prisoners, he had no contact with his homeland. The Nazis, of course, did not fail to convey to him Stalin's famous phrase: "We have no prisoners of war, there are traitors."
On April 14, 1943, according to some sources, he jumped out of the window of the barracks, according to others, he refused to return to it after a walk, tore the collar and threw himself on the wire through which the current was passed, shouting: "Shoot me."

The sentry, SS-Rotenführer Konrad Hafrich, opened fire. The bullet hit the head, but, according to the autopsy, Yakov Dzhugashvili died earlier from electric shock. In fact, it was suicide.
Documents and photographs related to the stay of Stalin's son in Sachsenhausen, including Himmler's letter to Ribbentrop, which outlined the circumstances of his death, turned out to be with the Americans. The State Department was going to pass them on to Stalin through the US Ambassador to Moscow, Harriman, but changed the decision for an unknown reason. The materials were declassified in 1968.
However, the secret services of the USSR already found out everything by interrogating the former employees of the camp. The data are contained in a memorandum from the head of the security agencies in the Soviet occupation zone, Ivan Serov, dated September 14, 1946.
"He was neither ambitious, nor harsh, nor obsessed. There were no contradictory qualities in him, mutually exclusive aspirations; there were no brilliant abilities either. He was modest, simple, very hardworking and charmingly calm"

Svetlana Alliluyeva.

The body of Yakov Dzhugashvili was cremated by the Germans, and the urn with the ashes was buried in the ground. The Soviet authorities found the grave back in 1945 and reported it to Moscow, but Stalin did not respond to the telegram. However, the grave was looked after. It is not known whether the military administration acted on its own initiative or received instructions from the Kremlin.
Stalin's adopted son, General Artem Sergeev, claimed that Yakov Dzhugashvili was never captured, but died in battle. Anastas Mikoyan's son Artem said that he allegedly met him at Stalin's dacha in June 1945. Various people "saw" him in Georgia, Italy and the USA after the war.
The most delusional version says that Yakov Dzhugashvili lived incognito somewhere in the Middle East and is the father of Saddam Hussein, although he is known to have been born in 1940.

"I don't change soldiers for field marshals."

In February 1943, Lavrenty Beria suggested that Stalin try to arrange an exchange of Yakov for Field Marshal Paulus through the head of the International Red Cross, the Swedish Count Bernadotte. Stalin replied: "I don't change soldiers for field marshals."
According to Svetlana Alliluyeva, her father told her: "No! In war, as in war."
Stalin appears somewhat more humane in the memoirs of Georgy Zhukov.
"Comrade Stalin, for a long time I wanted to know about your son Yakov. Is there any information about his fate?" He did not immediately answer this question. After walking a good hundred steps, he said in some muffled voice: "Yakov will not get out of captivity. The Nazis will shoot him." Sitting at the table, I.V. Stalin was silent for a long time, not touching the food "

Georgy Zhukov, "Memories and Reflections".

Having signed on August 16, 1941, the order of the Headquarters No. 270 ("commanders and political workers who surrender, to be considered malicious deserters, whose families are subject to arrest"), the leader in the circle of associates deigned to joke that, they say, now he should be exiled, and he, if it is possible, chooses the Turukhansk region, familiar from pre-revolutionary times.
Modern admirers of Stalin consider his behavior a model of integrity and dedication.
Indeed, in the light of the well-known attitude towards prisoners of war, it would be politically inconvenient for him to save his "native blood".
However, many historians point to another possible reason. In their opinion, Stalin simply did not like his eldest son, since he practically did not see him until the age of 13.
If Vasily got into trouble, Stalin, it is possible, would have judged differently, the researchers say.
There is a version, though not confirmed by credible sources, that Stalin found Nadezhda Alliluyeva in bed with her 24-year-old stepson, killed her, and took revenge on him without rescuing him from captivity.

Life behind the Kremlin wall.

After Yakov was brought from Georgia to Moscow in 1921, his father called him exclusively Yashka, treated him like a nonentity, called him “my fool” behind his back, beat him for smoking, although he himself did not part with his pipe, and at night put him out of the apartment in corridor. The teenager periodically hid with members of the Politburo who lived in the neighborhood and told them: "My dad is crazy."

"He was a very restrained, silent and secretive young man. He looked downtrodden. He was always immersed in some kind of inner experience," recalled Stalin's personal secretary Boris Bazhanov.
In addition to Yakov, Vasily and Svetlana, two illegitimate son Stalin, who were born in the Turukhansk region and in the Arkhangelsk province, where he was exiled.

Both grew up far from their father and from the Kremlin and lived long and prosperous lives. One was the captain of a ship on the Yenisei, the other, under Brezhnev, rose to the position of deputy chairman of the State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company and was known as a highly professional, erudite and at that time a liberal person.
All three of Stalin's legitimate children were unfortunate people with broken personal lives. Parents often dislike sons-in-law and daughters-in-law. But if ordinary people had to accept the choice of children, then Stalin had an unlimited opportunity to arbitrarily interfere in their fate and decide with whom his children would marry.

“Yasha was good-looking, women really liked him. I myself was in love with him,” recalled Maxim Gorky’s granddaughter Marfa Peshkova.
"A boy with a very gentle swarthy face, on which black eyes with a golden gleam attract attention. Thin, rather miniature, similar, as I heard, to his dead mother. Very gentle in manners. His father punishes him severely, beats him"

Natalia Sedova, Trotsky's wife.

At 18, Yakov married 16-year-old Zoya Gunina, but Stalin forced him to dissolve the marriage. The son tried to shoot himself. His father did not visit him in the hospital, passing through his relatives that he had acted as a hooligan and blackmailer, and at the meeting he contemptuously threw: "He! He didn't hit."
Then Yakov became close to a student from Uryupinsk, Olga Golysheva, who studied in Moscow at an aviation technical school. Stalin again objected, as a result, Golysheva went home, where on January 10, 1936 she gave birth to a son. Two years later, Yakov insisted that the boy be given the name "Dzhugashvili" and given the appropriate documents, but his father did not allow him to go to Uryupinsk.
Now 77-year-old Yevgeny Dzhugashvili is a convinced Stalinist and is suing those who, in his opinion, undeservedly blacken the memory of his grandfather, who did not want to know him.

In 1936, Yakov married the ballerina Yulia Meltzer, having beaten her off from her husband, Nikolai Bessarab, assistant head of the NKVD department for the Moscow region.
Stalin also disliked this daughter-in-law because of her Jewish origin.
When Yakov was captured, Yulia Meltzer was arrested and released after his death. She spent about two years in solitary confinement in Lefortovo in complete isolation and, being summoned for interrogation, was taken aback when she saw "White Guard" gold shoulder straps on the officers' shoulders.
According to Meltzer, they tried to accuse her of having persuaded her husband to surrender before leaving for the front.
The director of the film "The Fall of Berlin" Mikhail Chiaureli suggested introducing Yakov Dzhugashvili into the script, making him a tragic figure of the war, but Stalin rejected the idea: either he did not want to address the subject of captivity in principle, or it was hard for him to remember this story.

Hello dear!
This is where we started talking about Yakov Dzhugashvili: today I propose to finish with him.
So...
Jacob went head over heels family problems to study. I had to learn a lot of new things, and then the practice is constant. First, at the depot of the Kavkazskaya station, then at the locomotive repair plant in the city of Kozlov (Michurinsk), where he was able to pass the qualification exam and get the position of a diesel engine driver. In the summer of 1932, Yakov received a long-awaited vacation and went to another Alliluyev relatives in Uryupinsk. There, in this very town on the Khoper River, Dzhugashvili met a girl who was able to win her heart. Her name was Olga Pavlovna Golysheva. Relations somehow immediately began to spin and continued (albeit remotely) even when Yakov left for Moscow. The following autumn, Olga moved in with him and entered the aviation technical school. The matter went to the wedding and the young people were even given an apartment, but ... .. the young people dispersed. Yakov, after graduating from high school, was hired as a diesel engineer at the thermal power plant of the Moscow Automobile Plant, and Olga returned to Uryupinsk. On January 10, 1936, her son Evgeny was born. He received his last name only a few years later, in childhood, passing by the metrics as Evgeny Golyshev. Olga claimed that this was the son of Jacob (most likely it was, although there are still disputes about his origin). In any case, not Svetlana Alliluyeva, not Galina - official daughter Jacob, never recognized him as such. Nothing is known about the reaction of the Leader of the Peoples.

Olga Golysheva

Yakov began to drink, and in some restaurant he picked up the former ballerina Yulia (Yudif) Isaakovna Meltzer. Yulia was, as they say, a “hard-boiled” woman, either twice or thrice married, and besides, a little older than Yakov. But at the same time very cute and pretty. In general, it cost nothing for her to charm and captivate him. Not even a week had passed since they met, as she moved to his apartment. And on December 11, 1935, their marriage was registered at the registry office of the Frunzensky district of Moscow. I must say that the whole family was opposed to Julia, and at best she was simply ignored. The father, however, did not interfere, being true to his word not to pay attention, although he expressed his dissatisfaction in a private conversation with Yakov's choice. On February 10, 1938, the couple had a daughter, who was named Galina

Julia Meltzer

The younger Dzhugashvili liked to work as an engineer, but the elder felt that he needed to master other areas. Yakov was ordered to prepare for exams for the evening department of the Artillery Academy. F. E. Dzerzhinsky. In the autumn of 1937, he passed these exams and was enrolled first in the evening, and then in the daytime department of the academy. He finished it just before the war - on May 9, 1941, and after receiving the rank of starley, he was assigned to Narofominsk, to the post of commander of a howitzer battery of the 14th tank division. It is easy to see that he studied for only 2.5 years, and not 4 or 5, as was customary. On June 24, his part was advanced to the Vitebsk region, where she entered into battle with the enemy. More correctly, fully and correctly, in fact, Jacob's position sounds like this: commander of the 6th artillery battery 14th howitzer regiment of the 14th tank division, 7th mechanized corps, 20th army. On July 4, a part was surrounded, but then something interesting begins ...

Yakov with his daughter Galina

It is officially believed that Yakov was taken prisoner in the Liozno region on July 16th. At first they did not miss him, but then they began to look seriously. They found a witness, a certain Red Army soldier Lopuridze, who said that the two of them left the encirclement with Yakov, but Yakov fell behind, said that the boots were tinder and ordered the fighter to move on, and he would catch up. Lopuridze did not see Yakov again.
A few days later, the Germans spread the news - Senior Lieutenant Dzhugashvili was in their captivity.
This is the official version. True, there is also an alternative, but more on that later.
After the first interrogations, Jacob was transferred to a camp in Hammelburg (Bavaria), from there in the spring of 1942 he was sent near Lübeck to the camp of prisoners of the Polish army, and then in January 1943 he ended up in the famous Sachsenhausen, in which different time quite well-known prisoners such as Stepan Bandera, for example, were kept.


The most famous "captive" photograph of Yakov Dzhugashvili

Again, according to legend, Hitler offered to exchange him for Paulus, but Stalin noted: “ I don’t change a soldier for a field marshal!"Although Svetlana Alliluyeva recalls in a slightly different way:" In the winter of 1942/1943, after Stalingrad, my father suddenly told me during one of our rare meetings: “The Germans offered me to exchange Yasha for one of their own. Will I trade with them? In war as in war!»
It is believed that Yakov died as follows: on April 14, 1943, he did not obey the order of the convoy to go to the barracks, but went to the neutral zone and rushed to the barbed wire, after which he was shot dead by a sentry. The bullet hit the head and caused instant death. The journalists of the German Magazine "Spigel" even unearthed the name of the alleged killer of Stalin's son - this is a certain SS Rottenführer Konrad Hafrich. Although the Germans opened the body of Yakov and considered that death did not even come from a shot in the head, but earlier from an electric shock.

"Work sets you free" inscription on the Sachsenhausen gate

Jacob's body was burned in the local crematorium, and the ashes were scattered to the wind. After the war, Ivan Serov himself checked these facts and seemed to agree with this version, adding that the results of the investigation revealed that Yakov behaved with dignity, did not tarnish the rank of a Soviet officer and did not cooperate with the Nazis. It seems that this can be put an end to, but there is also alternative version death of Yakov Dzhugashvili.
It was once defended by Artem Sergeev, whom we will definitely talk about in the following posts. So, Artyom, who almost knew Yakov best of all, believes that he fell in battle in July 1941. And he would not surrender in captivity, under any circumstances. Plus, he emphasizes that the photos of Yakov in captivity are of very poor quality and are always taken from some strange angle. Given the success of the Germans in the field of propaganda, and the quality of their photo and video equipment, this all looks very doubtful. Sergeev believes that instead of Stalin's son, they used a person similar to him and until 1943 they tried to play a kind of game with the leadership of the USSR. But after the bluff was revealed, the false Yakov was liquidated.

Another photo of Senior Lieutenant Dzhugashvili in captivity

And I must say that I'm more likely to incline from this version, and not to the official one. Lots of inconsistencies. For example, too late the command of his corps began his active search. Well, of course, of course - the beginning of the war, encirclement, defeat. But, nevertheless, they knew who Senior Lieutenant Dzhugashvili was. The Red Army soldier Lopuridze was constantly confused in his testimony, spoke Russian poorly, and in general did not know who was coming with him from the encirclement until he was informed by the special officers. Again, why and why did he leave Yakov alone. And whether it was Yakov or another officer of Georgian nationality is a big question. Here's another moment - the fighter said that they buried the documents, and did not destroy them. This could be verified, and then Yakov, at his first interrogation with the Germans, said that he had destroyed the documents. The interrogation is strange. So, for example, it says that Dzhugashvili spoke 3 languages ​​- German, English and French. I never met this anywhere, but on the contrary, I read that he had no inclination to learn languages. And then - French ??? Come on…
There are still many questions that arise during the interrogation ...

Ivan Serov. 1943

Further along the camps - they transferred him from camp to camp and kept him away from everyone, practically isolated. He did not make contact with anyone. All of this is suspicious...
What about Serov's investigation, you ask? Well... after reading a bit about this man, I'm sure he was ready with whatever information the management needed. Ivan Alexandrovich was a very slippery man ... very. Yes, and the dates he got confused there. Does not fight with documents from the German side.
So for now, information about how Yakov Dzhugashvili really died is hidden by a veil of secrecy.
It remains to add that after Yakov disappeared, his wife Yulia Meltzer was taken into circulation by the competent authorities and kept in dungeons right up to 1943. After prison, she was ill for a long time and died in 1968.
Daughter Galina Yakovlevna studied at Moscow State University, where they did not want to take her for health reasons initially (she had problems with pressure), became a candidate of philological sciences and a good Arabic scholar. She married Algerian citizen Hussein bin Saad, but the family was not allowed to reunite for 20 years - they saw each other in fits and starts in the USSR until the mid-80s. In 1970, their son Selim was born. Unfortunately, the child was disabled since childhood, but is still alive. Lives in Ryazan, and he is an artist.

Galina Yakovlevna Dzhugashvili

Galina herself received help from a certain Chinese company until the end of her life (the Chinese still respect Stalin very much) and died in 2007 from a heart attack.
Yevgeny Dzhugashvili, whom the relatives themselves did not recognize as the son of Yakov, is still very active. A former colonel of the Soviet army, he constantly appears on TV screens as the main defender of the personality of I.V. Stalin, always suing someone and generally promoting himself. To know the fate of a person is such. Although he may simply see this as his purpose in life.

Evgeny Golyshev (Dzhugashvili) in his youth

Eugene has 2 sons Vissarion and Yakov. The first is a builder, lives in the USA and has 2 sons - Vasily and Joseph. The second is an artist, lives in Tbilisi.
Evgeny's mother Olga Golysheva worked as a financial unit collector in the Air Force (apparently not without the patronage of Vasily Stalin) and died forty-eight years old in 1957.
That's all dear, what I wanted to tell you about Yakov Stalin.
To be continued….
Have a nice day!

The life of Stalin's eldest son, Yakov Dzhugashvili, has been poorly studied to this day, it contains many conflicting facts and "blank spots". Historians argue both about Jacob's captivity and about his relationship with his father.

Birth

IN official biography Yakov Dzhugashvili was named 1907 as the year of birth. The birthplace of Stalin's eldest son 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 another 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 brought up in the house of her relatives. Daughter sister mother explained the confusion in the date of birth in 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, the long-awaited son Evgeny was born to Yakov Iosifovich. His mother was Olga Golysheva - civil spouse Yakov, whom Stalin's son met in the early 1930s. At the age of two, Evgeny Golyshev, allegedly due to the efforts of his father, who, however, never saw his son, received a 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 have and cannot have any son." Galina claimed that her mother, Yulia Meltzer, financially supported the woman out of fear that history would reach Stalin. This money, in her opinion, could be mistaken for alimony from her father, which helped to register Yevgeny under the name Dzhugashvili.

Father

There is an opinion that Stalin was cold in relations with his eldest son. Their relationship, indeed, was not simple. It is known that Stalin did not approve of the first marriage of his 18-year-old son, but failed attempt He compared Yakov to take his own life with the act of a hooligan and a 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 “evidence” of Stalin’s dislike for his son is the famous “I don’t change a soldier for a field marshal!”, Said according to legend in response to a proposal to save a captured son. Meanwhile, there are a number of facts confirming the father's concern for his son: from material support and living in the same apartment to the donated "emka" and the provision of a separate apartment after marrying Yulia Meltzer.

Studies

The fact that Yakov studied at the Dzerzhinsky Artillery Academy is undeniable. Only the details of this stage in 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, the information of Stalin's adopted son Artem Sergeev turns out to be more convincing, who said that Yakov entered the Academy in 1938 "immediately, either for the 3rd, or for the 4th course ". A number of researchers draw attention to the fact that not a single photograph has been 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 by comrades who studied with him. The only picture of Stalin's son in a lieutenant's uniform was presumably taken on May 10, 1941, shortly before being sent to the front.

Front

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

Captivity

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

According to a widespread version, Stalin's son was taken prisoner, 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 special services. Widely circulated leaflets depicting Stalin's son, who surrendered, according to the plan of the Nazis, 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 Department of Defense Forensic Science Center confirmed that the photos posted on the flyer had been falsified. It was also proved 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 another person played the role of Stalin's captive son.

Death

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

The conclusion of the medical examiner of the SS division indicates 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 Jagerdorf 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 the two years of captivity? Some researchers explain Jacob's "indecisiveness" with the hope of liberation, which he had until he found out about his father's words. According to the official version, the body of the “son of Stalin” was cremated by the Germans, and the ashes were soon sent to their security department.