Vasily Stalin is the beloved son of the leader of the peoples. Aviation Lieutenant General Vasily Iosifovich Stalin

Father of Russian theater director Burdonsky A.V.

Biography

Like many other children of the Soviet elite, he became a pilot. At the age of twenty he went to the front in the rank captain . During the war he made 26 sorties; knocked down 2 aircraft and was awarded twoOrders of the Red Banner , Orders of Suvorov II degree And Alexander Nevsky .

THE TRAGEDY OF VASILY STALIN

“You are to blame for the fact that I want to eat ...”
I.A. Krylov. Wolf and lamb.

Children of Big Parents are a special article of public interest: if they are alive and can add something - even some insignificant touch to what would seem to be good famous portrait his outstanding parent - it is always valuable. True, there is a danger here, which I.V. knew very well. Stalin, when he noted that the worst witnesses are eyewitnesses. As a rule, after the death of Big Parents, some kind of myth-making arises in society to one degree or another, and here it is very important that native children do not end up in the role of the most ordinary myth-makers, so that, first of all, they carefully and reverently treat the memory of the person closest to them , observing at least elementary principles of historicism and a sense of proportion, without giving vent to personal grievances, ambitions or fantasies.

Here is an example. About the Biggest Parent - I.V. His daughter, Svetlana Stalin-Alliluyeva, wrote a lot to Stalin, who at one time, contrary to the will of her brother Vasily, refused (perhaps under pressure from Khrushchev, or the moral and psychological atmosphere of intolerance towards the very name of I.V. Stalin created by him) from her father's surname in favor of the surname mother. Unfortunately, along with valuable memoirs, there are many moments in them that cannot be considered reliable, are in the nature of deep subjectivism, although for many, and, above all, foreign bourgeois Sovietologists-Stalinologists, S. Alliluyev is considered an indisputable authority - how, own daughter I.V. Stalin, she herself saw (or spied on), she herself heard (or overheard), she thought of something or rethought after the fact, often after many years. Even such an extraordinary moment as the death of Joseph Vissarionovich, when, it would seem, every little thing should have stuck in my memory, has several versions, including the daughter’s version - it’s truly said: the worst witnesses are eyewitnesses.

The moral persecution of Svetlana herself, organized by Khrushchev, began in February 1956, that is, immediately after the 20th Congress, when, on his Jesuit order, Mikoyan sent a car for Stalin's daughter, which delivered Svetlana to Anastas Ivanovich's house, where she was given a "secret report" by Khrushchev and where she spent several hours reading this, as we now absolutely know, slanderous "document".

And a couple of days later, with Jesuitical sadism, she was forced to attend a meeting at the Institute of World Literature, where they discussed this most notorious “document” at a gathering of people and vilified her father. Of course, those present knew that the daughter of I.V. Stalin was in the hall, they whispered, pointed at her with their eyes, but nevertheless they did not moderate their passions.

And yet, it is hardly possible to compare her stormy, full of extraordinary events, fate with the tragic fate of her brother Vasily, a thirty-two-year-old lieutenant general, former aviation commander of the Moscow Military District, who was arrested just a month and a half after his father’s death, stripped of all ranks and awards, kept under investigation for more than two years in solitary confinement and, in the end, on a fabricated false charge, was sent to Vladimir prison for a long eight years.

That the reprisal against the son of I.V. Stalin was the work of Khrushchev exclusively, is evidenced by the fact that after the execution of Beria, all “his” victims were released from prisons and camps. However, Vasily Stalin continued to sit, whom (well, why not a Jesuit reception?) He was interrogated on Victory Day on May 9, 1953, by order of Khrushchev, Lieutenant General Vlodzimirsky, who was shot in connection with the “Beria case” on December 23 of the same year on charges of abuse of office and falsification of criminal cases. In the interrogation protocol of May 9, Vasily categorically rejects the accusation: “I did not commit theft of state funds and state property for the purpose of personal enrichment and I cannot plead guilty.”

But after the arrest of Vlodzimirsky, the new Khrushchev Minister of the Interior S.N. Kruglov, in a letter to the Kremlin, repeats word for word nonsense that during the investigation Stalin V.I. “he pleaded guilty to the fact that he systematically allowed illegal spending, squandering state property and public funds. He also used his official position for personal enrichment.

True, below he gives the real reason for the arrest of Vasily Stalin: “He made hostile attacks and anti-Soviet slanderous statements against the leaders of the CPSU and Soviet state, and also expressed his intention to establish contact with foreign correspondents in order to give an interview about his situation after the death of Stalin I.V. .

In Letters to a Friend, Stalin's daughter writes that when he saw his father dead, Vasily immediately expressed his guess, a rumor about which swept through Moscow: his father was poisoned. He repeated this statement later, in a variety of companies. It is clear that the accomplices of the anti-Stalinist conspiracy had no choice but to isolate the dangerous Vasily for many years, and, in the end, when Khrushchev managed to knock out all his political competitors from the game, eliminate Stalin's son, Vasily.

Former employee Vladimir prison A.S. Malinin recalled how Vasily Stalin appeared in this institution: “He was brought late at night, I was on duty then. He was dressed in a summer leather jacket, thin, with a mustache. We already knew that he would be listed in the prison case as "Vasilyev Vasily Petrovich": this was the wish of the Kremlin (read - Khrushchev).

A month later he was transferred to the third building on the third floor, in a corner cell. There he served the entire term - until the autumn of 1959, when he was again taken to Lefortovo. Officially, they concealed from everyone that this was Stalin's son, but almost all of us knew this and called him simply Vasily. He was sick twice, his leg was dry, he walked with a cane, he lay in our infirmary ... I can’t say anything bad about him. He behaved calmly, correctly, and we treated him the same way. I remember the head of the prison calling me: “It’s your wife’s birthday today, take it and pass on congratulations.” They give me a basket, and there are 35 scarlet roses in it.

At first I did not understand why it was such a concern for my wife. And then it turned out: on March 24, Vasily turned 35 years old in prison, they handed him a basket of flowers, but he refused to carry them to the cell. “They will wither quickly,” he says, “without light. Give it to one of the women." My wife still cannot forget this bouquet. No one had ever given her such flowers in her life.”

Vasily Stalin repeatedly wrote to the top leadership of the country, and, in particular, Khrushchev. But none of them received an answer. Here are excerpts from a letter dated April 10, 1958: “Nikita Sergeevich! Today I listened to you on the radio from the Sports Palace and I am writing to you again. I know that I'm tired, but what should I do, but what should I do, Nikita Sergeevich?!

I look at real enemies - they easily endure imprisonment, they are proud of it. Their hatred gives them strength. But what kind of hatred can I have and to whom? I will be frank to the end, Nikita Sergeevich! There have been and are moments when I scold you in my soul. Because it is impossible not to swear, looking at the four walls, the peephole and the hopelessness of one's existence with all these tests, work, maintenance, etc. Indeed, according to all laws, on February 4, 1958, I should have been at home ... He takes anger, wild anger, Nikita Sergeevich, at the one who introduced me to you in such a form that you agree, even beyond the term, to keep me in prison, because I " enemy".

Well, how can I convince you otherwise?!”

Having cited this letter in full, N. Zenkovich asks: “Did you readN.S. Khrushchev is this message? Read. No one knows how he felt at the same time. Gloat? Satisfaction? If the version is true that Stalin did not spare his son Leonid, asking for whom Khrushchev almost crawled on his knees in front of him, then, probably, a sense of revenge can also be assumed.

How new owner The Kremlin dealt with the son of I.V. Stalin, two documents sent in the name of Khrushchev by the Prosecutor General of the USSR Rudenko and the chairman of the State Security Committee Shelepin on April 7, 1961 and almost a year later, on March 19, 1962, by the new chairman of the KGB - Semichastny. Both messages are labeled "Top Secret".

Document #1

On April 28, 1961, Stalin V.I. is to be released from prison in connection with the completion of his sentence.

During the period of stay in places of detention V.I. Stalin has not reformed, behaves defiantly, spitefully, demands for himself the special privileges that he enjoyed during his father's lifetime.

To the proposal made to him that, after his release from prison, to leave for permanent residence in the years. Kazan or Kuibyshev, V.I. Stalin declared that he would not go anywhere from Moscow voluntarily. On the proposal to change his surname, he also categorically refused and stated that if the appropriate conditions were not created for him (dacha, apartment, pension, etc.), then he would not be silent, but would tell everyone that he had been convicted in due time unreasonable and that arbitrariness is being committed against him.

In repeated conversations with him, he constantly emphasized that after leaving prison he would seek an appointment with Comrade Khrushchev and other members of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU, as well as write letters and applications to various authorities.

At the same time, he expressed the idea that he might again turn to the Chinese embassy with a request to send him to China, where he would be treated and work.

The USSR Prosecutor's Office and the State Security Committee are convinced that V.I. Stalin, having been released, will again behave as before incorrectly. In this regard, we consider it expedient to send V.I. Stalin after serving his sentence in exile for a period of 5 years in Kazan (foreigners are prohibited from entering this city). In case of unauthorized departure from the specified place, according to the law, he can be held criminally liable. (So, we will exile in violation of socialist legality, in the order, so to speak, of exception, and punish for resistance to arbitrariness - in full accordance with the law ... - LB). In the city of Kazan, provide him with a separate one-room apartment. (And brought to disability ("his leg was dry ... he walked with a stick" - L.B.) to the son of I.V. Stalin, she was provided: in a block five-story building No. 105 on Gagarin Street ... on the top floor. - L. B.).

According to the conclusion of the doctors, the state of health of V.I. Stalin is bad and he needs long-term treatment and pensions. As V.I., who served in the army for over 25 years on a preferential basis. Stalin was given a pension of 300 rubles (new money). However, considering that by his actions he discredited the high rank of the Soviet general, it is proposed to establish for him a pension in the amount of 150 rubles per month through the Ministry of Defense of the USSR.

As his health improves, he could be employed at one of the aircraft factories in Kazan. We also consider it expedient when issuing V.I. Stalin of the passport indicate a different surname. Before being released from prison, vols. Rudenko and Shelepin to have an appropriate conversation with him.

Document #2

Comrade Khrushchev N.S.

The State Security Committee under the Council of Ministers of the USSR reports that on March 19, 1962, at 1 pm, Dzhugashvili (Stalin) Vasily Iosifovich died in Kazan.

According to preliminary data, the cause of death was alcohol abuse. Dzhugashvili V.I., despite repeated warnings from doctors, systematically drank.

We consider it expedient to bury V.I. Dzhugashvili in Kazan without military honors. About the death of V.I. Dzhugashvili inform his next of kin. We ask for consent.

Chairman of the State Security Committee - V. Semichastny.

The opinion of Nadezhda Vasilievna, daughter of Vasily Stalin: “The death of my father before today is a mystery to me. There was no confirmation of his death."

The opinion of a retired colonel, a veteran of two wars I.P. Travnikova: “Vasily was removed due to the malicious intent of Khrushchev. Vasily knew a lot about him and his environment, about their shortcomings.

Until now, members of the family of Vasily Iosifovich Stalin are convinced that he was "helped" to die by his last, "Kazan" wife, who managed to illegally register a marriage with him, an agent of the Khrushchev KGB, nurse Masha, Maria Nuzberg.

Dzhugashvili (Nusberg) Maria Ignatievna. The last wife of Vasily Stalin. Nurse, Estonian by nationality. I met him in Moscow at the Vishnevsky Institute, where Vasily was placed for treatment (a diseased liver, a stomach ulcer) after being released from prison in 1960. Maria was assigned as a nurse in Vasily's separate ward. Having learned who her patient was, that he had been rehabilitated and was again receiving a lieutenant general's pension (4,950 rubles a month, even before the monetary reform), she began to look after him with redoubled diligence. Later she lived with him in Kazan, where she assured everyone that she was his only wife.

Indeed, she somehow managed to put a stamp in her marriage registration passport, although Vasily was never divorced from Galina Burdonskaya. Maria's three daughters from a previous marriage were adopted by Vasily and, like their mother, bear the surname Dzhugashvili.

Maria Nusberg attended Vasily's funeral. On her behalf, a tombstone was erected on his grave. Svetlana Alliluyeva did not come to her brother’s funeral, however, she noted in her memoirs: “Almost all of Kazan gathered for the funeral ... They looked at the children and Kapitolina (Vasilyeva. - Comp.) with surprise - nurse Masha, who managed to register marriage with him, assured everyone that she had been his “faithful friend” all her life, although she probably had no reason for that statement. She barely allowed children to the grave ”(Alliluyeva S. Twenty Letters to a Friend. M ., 1990).

Better to be a mere mortal than the son of a leader! You come to this conclusion when you find out the terrible intricacies of the fate of Stalin's son Vasily.

ALREADY at his father's funeral, he said that he did not die a natural death. The shadow of his revelations more and more fell on Beria, Malenkov, Khrushchev. When Vasily announced that he was ready to meet with foreign correspondents, he was arrested. On April 28, 1953, two months after the death of his father, a long prison term began, and then exile to Kazan, which ended in death on March 19, 1962. This is the most common, almost official version. But is she true?

According to the testimony of the daughters of V. Stalin's last wife, he was taken into custody much earlier. This happened in the hospital, where he ended up after his father's funeral on March 9. Having lost consciousness during parting with the body of the deceased, Vasily fell, broke two ribs and ended up in a hospital bed.

On April 28, the "official" day of the arrest, a search took place at the place of residence. However, the warrant was with an open date: "May ... day 1953", without indicating the date! In the department of Beria, this was then in the order of things. They imprisoned without trial, all the cases were formalized, as it were, by the way. So Vasily Iosifovich became an "enemy of the people." And he died.

For more than a third of a century, the last wife fought for his rehabilitation. But what the wife did not succeed, friends did. At the end of 1999, Vasily Iosifovich Dzhugashvili (Stalin), who had been an "enemy of the people" all this time, was again recognized as a normal Soviet person. Rehabilitation facilitated his reburial. This is confirmed by two-time Hero of the Soviet Union, combat pilot of the Great Patriotic War, Vitaly Ivanovich Popkov. He had to write more than one petition in order to rehabilitate his childhood friend and his front-line comrade Vasily Stalin.

"... During the war," Popkov said, "I served with Vasya in the 32nd Guards Aviation Regiment as a squadron commander. I did not serve long. That unfortunate" fishing " happened there, about which there are still many rumors. fishing", unfortunately, I was. There were nine of us avid fishermen. Including Vasya. I agreed with the engineer of the regiment to equip some kind of explosive device that can be lowered into the lake, blow up and thereby silence the fish. I also asked: "What will we jam with - tola or a grenade?" He answered: "What kind of grenade? "Eres", a rocket projectile, we will lower it. It contains almost 100 kilos of explosives. It will explode - there will be fish ... a wagon !!! "Well, they rushed ... It was near Ostashkov in 1943. The engineer turned out to be right: not only the fish, but we also got it - out of 9 people, 6 were injured, the engineer was killed "I was not hooked, but Vasya's heel was almost torn off. The pain was such that he moaned incessantly. They were frightened - after all, what happened happened to Stalin himself."

I call the commander of our air army, M. Gromov. I report: "Here, an emergency happened on a fishing trip. There are wounded. In particular, Stalin ... Vasily." Gromov, probably almost lost consciousness: "Who organized this fishing?" Few people in such a situation will dare to answer - they say, it's me ... In general, I say: "He organized it." Because I understand that the commander will not be able to ask Vasya the same way as with me. Gromov says: "I'm flying out ..." In 15 minutes, he arrives on his "Douglas". He enters the infirmary. There Vasya lies groaning. They give him injections. Gromov immediately took him on his plane to Moscow. Worried - be healthy. I thought that a hat would fly from him. Nothing. It worked out.

A commission arrives from the commander-in-chief and from the Central Committee. They released me from my commanding post under remarks - they say, "completely decomposed", "you are drunk", etc. In general, we were dispersed, although in fact we drank no more than usual. Well, what was supposed to be ... in combat work - 100 grams each. This is Svetlana (Alliluyeva, daughter of I.V. Stalin. - Ed.) Painted that her brother drank a lot. And I wouldn't say so. Vasya drank, like almost all pilots. And I said this directly to Svetlana when, after her return from abroad, I read these "Letters to a Friend" of hers. I also told her: “You write that he had not friends, but toadies ... What kind of toadies? Let's say Vsevolod Bobrov is a world-famous hockey player and football player. without Vasya, it was enough. If you don’t have real friends, then don’t think that Vasya didn’t have them either ... "

The first time Vasily was buried in Kazan, where he died in Khrushchev's exile. Five years ago I was there last time. I bought flowers in front of the cemetery. I come to the grave. Inscription: "Vasily Iosifovich Dzhugashvili". good monument, and the photo is all broken, the eyes gouged out. Nearby, the grave of a Tatar, Hero of the Soviet Union, is also mangled...

I am meeting with President of Tatarstan Shaimiev. I say: “I was at Vasya’s grave. By birth and according to his passport, he was always Stalin, and for some reason it says Dzhugashvili (the surname was changed at the direction of Khrushchev. - Ed.). And then, this is happening there ... "

Shaimiev grew gloomy: “Tomorrow,” he says, “we will go there together. On behalf of our people, I will bow to both of them as heroes who, at the cost of own life they saved us all from the fascist plague." They bowed. Shaimiev laid a wreath. I am a bouquet of roses.

Vasya was secretly buried for the second time in November 2003 in Moscow. But not next to her mother at Novodevichy, but on the westernmost outskirts of the capital, at the Troekurovsky cemetery. According to the stories knowledgeable people, this was achieved by Vasily's "adopted daughters" - the children of his last wife Maria Ignatievna Shevergina (after her previous husband - Nuzberg), who adopted the surname Dzhugashvili in her last marriage. They often visit the grave of their stepfather, keep it in exemplary condition. However, they call Vasily Iosifovich affectionately - "father", and not "stepfather".

"The protocols of 1953 are incorrect. Investigator Kozlov drew up protocols that I refused to sign. I was driven to seizures ... I signed these statements without reading them."

(From the testimony of V. Stalin)

“How many people were suppressed, it’s terrible! I even had a fight with Khrushchev. creepy case at the House of Unions. An old woman comes with a stick. Malenkov, Beria, Molotov, Bulganin stand in the guard of honor at the coffin. And suddenly the old woman says to them: "They killed you bastards, rejoice! Damn you!"

(From the transcript telephone conversation V. Stalin with a driver)

“To the question “What was he sitting for?” V. Stalin answered: “For my language. In front of everyone, he reminded Beria that he was a rapist, and Bulganin was a big womanizer: he gave an apartment in Moscow with expensive furniture to his mistress ... They killed my father and now they are torturing me, but my father’s legs are not cold yet.

(From the memories of friends)

Vasily Stalin was actually married 4 times, had four children of his own, not counting the adopted children of his wives from previous marriages. There were also many unofficial novels in his life. A young handsome pilot, the son of "himself" Stalin, enjoyed great success with women ...

Vasily's first wife was Galina Burdonskaya. When Vasily informed his father about his first marriage, Joseph Vissarionovich blessed his son with government dispatches: “Why are you asking me for permission? Married - to hell with you! I pity her for marrying such a fool." Probably, Vasily, knowing his father’s tough temper and heavy hand, was delighted with such a congratulation.

From the memoirs of G. Burdonskaya: “I met Vasily at the rink. He drove up to me, somehow desperately, cheerfully met, fooled around on the ice, fell picturesquely, rose and fell again. He took me home ...
Vasily by nature was a man of crazy courage. While caring for me, he repeatedly flew over the Kirovskaya metro station in a small plane. For such liberties he was punished. But they punished timidly and did not report to Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich.

"Galina Alexandrovna Burdonskaya, studied at the Polygraphic Institute. Her surname comes from her great-grandfather, the Frenchman Bourdon. He came to Russia) along with Napoleon's army, was wounded. In Volokolamsk he married a Russian.

In the winter of 1940-1941, at the Dynamo skating rink at 26 Petrovka, hockey player Vladimir Menshikov recklessly introduced his fiancee to a friend, a junior pilot of the 16th air regiment. The girl's name was Galya - Galina Burdonskaya, a student at the Polygraphic Institute. Beautiful. Soon, a light aircraft loitered over her house near the Kirovskaya metro station.

At night, a motorcycle crashed into the yard. Galina's apartment was full of flowers. In addition to the most prestigious profession in the pre-war USSR, the junior pilot also had the most prestigious surname - Stalin. Galya gave in. They signed on December 30th. The bride was in a red dress. Didn't know it was bad luck...

“With Vasily Iosifovich Stalin, they got married in 1940. I was born in forty-one, and a year and a half later, my sister Nadezhda was born ... Mom was cheerful people. She loved red. Wedding Dress, it is not known why, she sewed herself red. It turned out to be a bad omen...” From the memoirs of A. Burdonsky, son of V. Stalin.)

“He was a little, you know, such Paratov from the “Dowry”. That's when he looked after his mother, here are all his flights over Kirovskaya, the Kirovskaya metro station, where she lived ... So, that's what he knew how to do.
Pretty Galya had plenty to choose from. After the break with Vasily, she was married twice more, besides this, she had many novels, but ...“Vaska,” she said, “this is love!”

My mother was an amazingly rare person who could not be someone, you know, so she could not pretend to be someone and could not, and she was never a crafty person. Maybe that was her problem too. And for such a person to love his father ... but it seems to me that she loved him until the end of her days.

Valya Serov, with whom her mother was friends, and Konstantin Simonov, Lyudmila Tselikovskaya and Voitekhov, Kozlovsky with Sergeeva, Roman Karmen with the famous Moscow beauty Nina Orlova, Kapler, Bernes, Nikolai Kryuchkov often visited their parents. Plisetskaya does not write in her book how, late for a rehearsal, she called from her father: - I will not come ... I am calling from Stalin's dacha ...

My father flew in all the time, and my mother flew to him. But they had to part. Mom didn't know how to make friends in this circle. Vlasik, the eternal intriguer, told her:
- Checkmark, you have to tell me what Vasya's friends are talking about.
His mother is a mother! He hissed:
- You will pay for this.

Quite possibly, the divorce from his father was the price. Vlasik could start an intrigue - so that Vasily would take a wife from his circle. And he slipped Katya Timoshenko, the marshal's daughter ... "(From the memoirs of A. Burdonsky.)

Vasily with Galina Burdonskaya and their children - Alexander and Nadezhda

A year later, she, pregnant, will be evacuated; her husband will fly to Kuibyshev. One day he will barge in with drunken friends, demand that she tell a joke, Galina will refuse.

« Then he approached her and hit her with force, - Svetlana Alliluyeva's friend Martha Peshkova will remember. - Thank God that there was a sofa nearby, she was already on demolition and she fell on this sofa ... Svetlana, I remember, said: "Get out immediately." He then, embarrassed, took the whole team, and they all left.».

In 1960, Vasily, returning from prison, decides to return to his first family. Galina will tell the children: “ Better to have a caged tiger than a day or an hour with your father.”…

About Vasily's romance with a former classmate Nina Orlova tell everything. For example, her son claims that there was no romance. But we will believe Stepan Mikoyan, who met the girl in the fall of 1941 in a village near Saratov.

Galya Burdonskaya and Nina Orlova (right)

There were two more pilots in the company - Timur Frunze and Vasily Stalin. " Vasily, by right of the eldest in age, rank and experience, seized the initiative and no longer left the girl", Stepan recalled.

With jealousy, Vasily learned that she had married the "old man", the famous documentary filmmaker Roman Karmen. A year later, the couple were among those invited to the Stalinist dacha in Zubalov, Vasily and Nina danced ...

Then they met at the apartment of the pilot Pavel Fedrovi. Experienced Carmen, a veteran of Spain, was going to "shoot Vasya" and even loaded the Mauser. But he changed his mind and through his former father-in-law, historian Emelyan Yaroslavsky, complained to Stalin Sr. So the winged resolution was born: “Return this fool to Carmen. Colonel Stalin to be imprisoned for 15 days "...

In June 1945, Marshal Timoshenko learned that his daughter Katya was dating the son of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, Vasily Stalin. Tymoshenko was frightened in earnest. Stalin did not stand on ceremony with his relatives - almost all the relatives of his wife Nadezhda Alliluyeva were repressed.

In addition, the marshal knew: Stalin's son was already married, had two children and was famous for his penchant for drunkenness and a dissolute lifestyle. Despite her father's prohibition, in August 1945 Katya ran away from home with Vasily and married him, and soon gave birth to a daughter and a son. To emphasize her belonging to the Stalin family, she named her children the same as the names of the leader's children - Svetlana and Vasily.

She cut off contact with her own mother in order to be worthy of her new position. And she tried in every possible way to get close to Stalin's daughter, Svetlana Alliluyeva. Catherine wanted more than just being a wife, a mother. She was excited at the thought of how close she was to those who played with other people's destinies.

Catherine realized late how right her father was. She imagined that she would get at least a modicum of the same power over people. After all, she was born on the same day as Stalin. But she was cruelly deceived. Stalin, who himself chose her as his wife for his son, did not let her close to him.

Catherine's brilliant marriage also cracked. Vasily preferred the company of famous athletes and secular beauties to his beautiful wife. Soon there was no trace of her husband's love, and there were only spies around who wrote denunciations about her every step. She realized late that she was not in the palace, but in prison. And there is not a single truly close person nearby.

Katya fell into depression, did not leave the house for days on end, and took out all her resentment against her husband on his children from her first marriage. The children remembered her as a real stepmother, gloomy and domineering.

Alexander Burdonsky:

“This was one such side of life where we could ... there for a week they didn’t feed us, didn’t give us water, they locked us in a room. The father did not see it, but it was so.

Yekaterina Timoshenko treated us terribly. She beat her sister in the most cruel way, her kidneys are still beaten off. In a luxurious dacha, we were dying of hunger. Somehow they got out, it was before Germany, small children crept to where the vegetables were, stuffed them into their pants and cleaned the beets with their teeth, gnawed unwashed in the dark. Just a scene from a horror movie. It's in the royal house!

The nanny, whom Ekaterina caught feeding us, kicked out ... Ekaterina's life with her father is full of scandals. I don't think he loved her. Most likely, there were no special feelings on both sides. Very prudent, she, like everything else in her life, simply calculated this marriage.

You need to know what she was up to. If well-being, then the goal can be said to have been achieved. Catherine brought them a huge amount of junk from Germany. All this was kept in a shed at our dacha, where Nadya and I were starving. When Ekaterina's father put her out in 1949, it took her several cars to take this stuff out. Nadya and I heard a noise in the yard and rushed to the window. We see - the "Studebakers" are walking in a chain". (From the memoirs of A. Burdonsky.)

My father was not distracted by such trifles, he developed the sport. He managed to get the stars of that time into the Air Force teams: Vsevolod Bobrov, Konstantin Reva, Anatoly Tarasov. He fought off the footballer Nikolai Starostin, who was serving time in the camps, from Beria, but retreated after a short struggle.

And here is what one of his pilots remembered about Vasily's second wife:

"…In the territory runway a black Packard appeared - everyone recognized the car of Vasily Stalin. He came with a girl. He called Kasnerik: "Misha, give her a good ride." It was not the eyes that were looking at Misha, but the fire. The girl smiled all the time, addressed Stalin as you, was not afraid of anything ... “Who is she?” Kasnerik puzzled while he and the beautiful Katya walked to the plane. They took off.

When they landed, Vasily Stalin approached the cockpit: “What, punish you? Show her air figures - a turn, a corkscrew, a bell, so that the spirit is engaged ... Come on again! “Mikhail Kasnerik took off again. I made several "harmless" figures in the sky and went to land: come what may... Earth...

The girl told Kasnerik: “Although you are a pilot, you are a decent gentleman!” She was the daughter of Marshal of the Soviet Union Semyon Timoshenko, the second wife of Vasily Stalin. As the commander-in-chief later said, his young wife Ekaterina Semyonovna often reproached at dinner: “They say, a pilot ... I also have a job. And why should I feed you?

Vasily and Ekaterina Timoshenko. This one was somehow unlucky short marriage…

Contemporaries recognized her as beautiful: a burning brunette, eyes with bluish whites - and no one left a single positive word about her. Ekaterina's driver told how he sold a truck of trophy fur coats, carpets, and porcelain on her behalf. Having given the proceeds, he was shocked by the question: “Is this a lot or a little?”. “I didn’t have any idea about prices at all, I lived on everything ready,” the driver recalled.

third wife Vasily became a famous athlete and record holder, swimmer Kapitolina Vasilyeva. This, perhaps, was his only wife, who managed to please I.V. Stalin.

After Vasily announced to Stalin that he was marrying a young swimmer, the young people received 10 thousand rubles as a gift from their father, for which Kapitolina bought her husband his only civilian suit and shoes for all this time. We can say that the period of the late forties - early fifties was the best in the life of Vasily Stalin.

Kapitolina Vasilyeva

They settled in a mansion on Gogolevsky Boulevard at number seven.
Kapitolina Vasilyeva told a lot about Vasily. Sometimes he came home and asked her:

“Could you live without my salary this month if I don’t give you a salary?” I knew what it means, someone is in trouble, that his salary is needed as a help to someone. I say okay, I'll do it. I'll manage, don't worry, just please, you have less gatherings.

Conflicts in connection with this very front-line charm ... I was very against it, because I knew that this disease was very serious, it was progressing, and I needed to somehow ... But nothing worked out for me.

In the Moscow Saga series based on the novel by Vasily Aksenov, she circulates around the pool, a vigorous girl with a kindergarten smile, and the sober Vasily, performed by Sergei Bezrukov, tenderly says: “Swim, Capa, swim” - that is, break records, shake the world.

Kapitolina and Vasily

And in fact? Vasily first encountered a self-sufficient woman who, by and large, does not care what his dad's name is. The nineteen-time champion of the USSR - here, with the name of Stalin, nothing could be added, nor ... No, it was possible to take away, and Vasya, furiously complexing because of her independence, called the sports committee, ordered not to award Kapitolina "honored master of sports." And the title had already been awarded, she had to get a badge. Nothing, played back. She threw her medals in his face...

When the relationship rolled to the finale, he hit her so hard that he injured his eye. In old age, the injury will respond with progressive blindness.

Checking the dates, one wonders how much he managed to do. Winter at the end of 1949 is the time when the break with Catherine has not yet been completed, and the affair with Kapitolina has not lost its freshness. Rushing from family to family, Vasily found himself, using the aviation term, a jump airfield. The writer Boris Voitekhov told the investigator about this in 1953:

“... Arriving at the apartment of my ex-wife, actress Lyudmila Tselikovskaya, I found her torn to pieces. She said that Vasily Stalin had just visited her and tried to force her into cohabitation. I went to his apartment, where he was drinking in the company of pilots. Vasily knelt down, called himself a scoundrel and a scoundrel and declared that he was cohabiting with my wife.

In 1951, I had financial difficulties, and he got me a job as an assistant at the headquarters. I didn’t do any work, but I received a salary as an Air Force athlete". Who paid who?

Viktor Polyansky, Vasily Stalin's adjutant, in the book "10 Years with Vasily Stalin", published in Tver in 1995, wrote:

« Despite their nondescript appearance (small stature, thinness, reddishness and freckling) - youth, carelessness, dashing and wit, and the main fact - the pilot, and besides Stalin, took their toll ... All kinds of sycophants and, especially, girls clung to him like flies to honey»...

The children were summoned to the dying Stalin on March 2, when he had already lost his speech and could not say anything to his son. Nevertheless, according to Svetlana's memoirs, Vasily, while his father was still alive, began to shout that he was “killed”, “killed”: “He was horrified. He was sure that his father had been "poisoned", "killed"; he saw that the world was collapsing, without which he could not exist... On the days of the funeral, he was in a terrible state... he rushed at everyone with reproaches, blamed the government, doctors, everyone who was possible - that they treated him wrong, buried him wrong ..."

And in the Politburo, meanwhile, there was a struggle for power. The inadequate son of the leader confused the cards for everyone. He was offered a choice of service in any military district, except for Moscow - Vasily refused. On March 26, he was dismissed from the army - humiliatingly, without the right to wear a uniform.

He, showing off in front of drinking companions, began to threaten: I will give interviews to foreign correspondents about his situation after Stalin's death (apartment-car-dacha, a lump sum allowance of six salaries, a pension of 4950 rubles. To get an idea of ​​the scale of prices: the Pobeda car cost 16,000, “ Moskvich” 9000).

A month later, Vasily was arrested, and he began to hand over his wives. He was accused of embezzlement - he said that Kapitolina had persuaded him to build a sports center: the champion had to train. They showed “the intention to meet with foreign correspondents in order to betray the Motherland” (it was such a difficult time) - he said that it was Tymoshenko who slandered him: “ I wasn't the first to fall into her web. And she threw everyone in a difficult moment, created by her, but she herself remained with nothing.

The women are forgiven. All three visited him in the Vladimir Central. Paradoxically, eight years in prison most likely extended Vasily's life. He didn't drink there...

From a letter from Vasily Stalin to Kapitolina Vasilyeva:

April 22, 1958.
Hello Capa! On the 27th of this month it will be exactly five years since I have been away from home. Are you asking who visits you? I have no secrets from you, I really love you. Now neither one nor the other visits. Katerina does not visit or write, because every visit ended in swearing because of you. I did not hide from her and from anyone my attitude towards you. Galina came twice with Nadia. One didn't come.».

He was released on January 11, 1960. By decision of the Central Committee of the CPSU, Vasily was given a 3-room apartment on Frunzenskaya Embankment in Moscow, a pension was determined and he was allowed to wear a general's uniform. In addition, he received 30 thousand rubles in compensation at a time (old money) and a free trip to Kislovodsk for three months.

“To the question “What was he sitting for?” V. Stalin answered: “ For my tongue. In front of everyone, he reminded Beria that he was a rapist, and Bulganin was a big womanizer: he gave an apartment in Moscow with expensive furniture to his mistress ... They killed my father and now they are bullying me, but my father’s legs are still warm».
(From the memories of friends)

Stalin kept waiting for official apologies, but they did not follow. And he broke. In Kislovodsk, he drank vodka instead of mineral water. His behavior became known in Moscow.

On April 9, 1960, a conversation between Kliment Voroshilov and Vasily Stalin took place in the Kremlin. The FSB archives have his record. Voroshilov demanded that Vasily give up alcohol: “Drop the vodka! Look at you. You are not yet forty, but look, what a bald head you have! Stalin asked for one thing: give me a job. He believed that he would plunge headlong into the work, and everything would work out. Voroshilov promised to talk to Khrushchev. His report went through the Kremlin corridors ... 20 days!

Vasily did not wait. He ran out of patience. On April 15, Stalin's son applied to the Chinese Embassy with a request to allow him to move to this country for medical treatment. Relations between the Soviet Union and the PRC in these years were aggravated to the limit. Already on April 16, the Presidium of the Supreme Council "appreciated" Vasily's act. The previous decision on early release was immediately canceled. The son of Stalin was ordered to be taken into custody and deprived of all ranks and privileges. He was sent to Kazan exile ...

About his fourth wife- Maria Ignatievna Nusberg was not written about anything.

Svetlana Alliluyeva:

« The fact that she was a paid KGB agent was known (and warned me) at the Vishnevsky Institute, where she worked and where Vasily lay for some time on examination ... There he was "fascinated" by this woman, who then followed him to Kazan, where she illegally married him. Illegal because my brother was not divorced from his first wife».

Well, it’s not for Svetlana to talk about legality. She herself married Yuri Zhdanov, without divorcing her first husband and father of her child, Grigory Morozov ...

The main thing is the last name of the KGB officer - Nusberg. With such a surname, only poison the son of Stalin. The version of the violent death of Vasily was launched in a race: both children and ex-wife, and anti-Semitic enthusiasts. Indeed, the version lies on the surface. Was the leader poisoned? It is possible that he died just in time.

Vasily shouted that the leader was poisoned? Screamed. So, he knew something. That's what they killed for. They assigned to him “a nurse-wife, a KGB agent Marina Nusberg, after whose injections he died,” as one well-known news agency once categorically stated ...

Personal card of Maria Nusberg (Dzhugashvili)

In fact, not Marina, but Maria Ignatievna. And she is Nusberg by her first husband, and nee Shevargina, originally from the village of Mazanovka, Kursk Region.

She worked at the Vishnevsky Institute, yes. And there is no information about her involvement in the KGB. But there is a simple consideration: a thirty-year-old nurse with two daughters has nothing to catch, and Vasily, although disgraced, is Stalin's son. And Kursk women are no strangers to living with drunks ...

Vasily arrived at the place of his exile - in Kazan, which was closed to foreigners, on April 29, 1961. He was given a one-room apartment No. 82 in house 105 on Gagarin Street. They did not issue passports, demanding that he change his last name to at least Dzhugashvili, at least to Alliluyev, like Svetlana. (The chairman of the KGB of Tatarstan, General Abdulla Bichurin, spoke with him).

Vasily, in response, asked to register his marriage with Maria and issue compensation for the confiscated dacha near Moscow. It looks like they hit their hands. But at home, the concubine made a scene for him, like an old woman to an old man who let go goldfish. She called the KGB herself and put forward conditions: Moscow, an apartment, a car, an increase in pension - then Vasily will change his last name. Bargained, the KGB of Tatarstan coordinated every concession at the top. Maria Ignatievna, meanwhile, went to Moscow to have an abortion ...

Returning before the new year 1962, she found another Maria, Nikolaevna, with Vasya. The scene "did not wait", Vasily, babbling "later, later", put new Mary. And the old one, realizing that the trade was dragging on, that way you can lose everything, drove Vasya to the registry office.

On January 9, he received a passport with the surname Dzhugashvili, two days later he registered a marriage with Shevargina and adopted her children.

And the deceived Maria II will seek meetings, asking why he didn’t call. “I was taken away,” Vasily will answer (later we will see where he was taken on January 30), and at the next meeting, Maria II will hear from him the sacramental “do not believe anything you hear about me.”

Already in our time, she will begin to give out interviews, talking about the warm autumn feeling of Vasya and about the KGB agent who brought him to the grave. Inadvertently, Vasino will give out another lie: explaining why his pension is small, he said that he sends half to his first wife (in fact, the pension was halved at the suggestion of KGB Chairman Alexander Shelepin and Prosecutor General Roman Rudenko.

Alexander Malinin, a former assistant to the head of the Vladimir Central, said on Channel One on January 30, 2004: “He had three wives: Burdonskaya, Timoshenko and Vasilyeva. Previously, there were no long dates when they were allowed to live with their wife. He was allowed: with all the wives "....

Then he died

The same pragmatic considerations that made Maria babysit the drunken Vassily clear all charges against her.

He died on the eve of moving into a three-room apartment, leaving his wife in a one-room apartment. Did Mary need it? Or I couldn’t resist - I don’t care about the apartment, it’s better to finish with Vasya as soon as possible? No, she had already saved him on January 30, when, after drinking "ruff" (a liter of vodka per liter of wine), Vasily ended up in intensive care. Alas, he did not hear this call either. On March 14, a fellow countryman, a tank school teacher, Major Sergei Kakhishvili, brought wine, and Vasily did not dry out until the 19th. Then he died...

But the children do not want their father to die like a drunk. Better let him be killed by KGB officer Nusberg. And daughter Nadia, arriving at the funeral, will see her father lying on some kind of board "in bloody sheets." Alexander will remember that his father's nose was broken, there were bruises on his wrists, bruises on his legs, and there was a lot of sleeping pills in bed.

And Kapitolina, entering with Nadia and Alexander, will find him in a coffin, swollen, dressed in a tunic. And in his own way he will expose the KGB officer. Maria will tell her that an autopsy has already been performed, Kapitolina will not find a seam on her body (which Alexander “remembers very well”) ...

Would they agree that it was bloody sheets or a tunic, beat him up, poisoned him with sleeping pills, or - a later version of Nadezhda - set up an accident by firing from sniper rifle on my dad's bike...

An impartial look at Vasily Stalin will be possible not earlier than new generations will replace his last contemporaries. But when all the contemporaries are gone, who will tell the truth?

The record of the death act number 812 reads: "Dzhugashvili Vasily Iosifovich ... Date of death March 19, 1962 ... Cause of death: general atherosclerosis, against the background of chronic alcohol intoxication, acute cardiovascular failure, emphysema of the lungs."

Reference

STALIN Vasily Iosifovich, (since January 1962 Dzhugashvili) 1921-1962. Air Lieutenant General. Until 1952 he commanded the Air Force of the Moscow District. In April 1953, he was arrested for "anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda, as well as abuse of office." According to the verdict of the military collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR, he spent about 8 years in prison, then exiled to Kazan, where he died and was buried. In 2002, at the request of his younger (adopted) daughter Tatyana, Vasily's remains were reburied at the Troekurovsky cemetery in Moscow next to the grave of his last wife.

BURDONSKAYA Galina Alexandrovna, (1921-1990). First wife (married in 1940, divorce not registered). The daughter of an engineer in the Kremlin garage (according to other sources - a Chekist). Great-great-granddaughter of a captured Napoleonic officer.

Children: BURDONSKY Alexander, was born in 1941. Theater director, Honored Art Worker of the RSFSR. In one of his interviews, he said: “I am happy that I have no children, and the Stalinist branch will be “chopped off” on me” ...

Grandson of Vasily Stalin - Alexander Burdonsky

STALIN Hope, (1943-2002). She studied at the Moscow Art Theater School with Oleg Efremov. Dismissed "for professional incompetence". According to her, the real reason was the political caution of the rector Veniamin Radomyslensky. She lived in Georgia (Gori), then in Moscow. Husband (since 1966) FADEEV Mikhail Alexandrovich, 1941-1993. Actor of the Moscow Art Theater, the son of a famous Soviet writer, Secretary of the Writers' Union of the USSR.

Granddaughter Anastasia, was born in 1977. Bears the surname of his grandfather and great-grandfather - STALIN.

TYMOSHENKO Ekaterina Semyonovna, (1923-1988). Second wife (marriage in 1946 registered in violation of the law). Daughter of the Marshal of the Soviet Union, a participant in the civil, Soviet-Finnish and Great Patriotic Wars Semyon Timoshenko. Children: Vasily, (1945-1964), died of a drug overdose while a law student at Tbilisi University. Svetlana, (1952-1989).

VASILIEVA Kapitolina Georgievna, (1923-1999). Third wife (civil marriage 1949-1953). Swimming champion of the USSR. Kapitolina's daughter from VASIL'EV's first marriage, Lina, was adopted by Vasily Stalin and bears the surname DZHUGASHVILI.

SHEVARGINA (NUSBERG) Maria Ignatievna, (1930-2002). Fourth wife (marriage registered on January 9, 1962) Maria's daughters from her first marriage - Lyudmila and Tatyana were adopted by Vasily Stalin; having married, they kept the surname DZHUGASHVILI.

EPILOGUE

Vasily Stalin... The son of the "leader of the peoples" and Nadezhda Alliluyeva. It seemed that his whole life was woven from contradictions: a skilled fighter pilot and a reckless drunken reveler, a lover of women and a philanthropist who tenderly cared for athletes and artists, an arrogant rude person who could insult and humiliate anyone ...

His biography could convincingly illustrate the saying that life is like a zebra: it consists of white and black stripes. Toadies promoted Stalin's son in ranks and positions, and his father severely punished him: he arrested him, removed him from office.

If you think about it, there are no contradictions here. It is unlikely that the life of the son of the “great leader” could have turned out differently. And it's not about his personal qualities - they could be better or worse. The main thing: he turned out to be a hostage of time and his surname. Until the end of his life, he was destined to remain the son of Stalin ...

Related article:

Three sons of the “father of all nations”

Stalin (Dzhugashvili) Vasily Iosifovich (born March 24, 1920 - death March 19, 1962) - military pilot, Lieutenant General of the Air Force, the youngest son of I.V. Stalin.

Early years. Studies

At the age of 11, Vasily was left without a mother. For I. Stalin, this was a huge tragedy, who not only changed his former apartment in the Kremlin, but also stopped visiting Zubalovo, where his children lived in the country house. They were under the supervision of the housekeeper Carolina Thiel and the head of the security of the "father of the peoples" Nikolai Vlasik. As Vasily himself said, he grew up in an environment that was not distinguished by abstinence and morality. As a result of such upbringing, he became addicted to smoking and alcohol, which appeared in him quite early age.

1938, autumn - Vasily enters the Kachin Aviation School, which trained fighter pilots. He graduated in March 1940. As his teachers later recalled, despite his poor knowledge of theory, he was a good pilot. Until the very beginning of the war, he served in a combat aviation regiment, combining this with training at advanced courses in Lipetsk and at the Air Force Academy in Moscow.

Military service

At the age of twenty he went to the front with the rank of captain. During the Great Patriotic War (WWII) he made 27 sorties; shot down one plane; He had awards: three Orders of the Red Banner, the Order of Suvorov II degree and Alexander Nevsky.

1942 - promoted to the rank of colonel. 1946 - Major General. 1947 - lieutenant general. Vasily Stalin - became one of the youngest generals Soviet army. He graduated from the Second World War as the commander of a fighter aviation division. During the war, he received official reprimands from Stalin several times in his service. 1947 - V.I. Stalin is appointed commander of the Air Force of the Moscow Military District.

post-war period

Vasily is well known as a patron of sports, he created the football and hockey teams of the Air Force. Stalin removed him from his post, according to one version, after on May 1, 1952, during an air parade over Red Square, one of the Il-28 bombers crashed due to the fact that weather reconnaissance was not carried out.

According to another version, in the evening, after the parade, Vasily got very drunk, and just at that time his father ordered him to be brought to Kuntsevo, to the dacha, where he gathered members of the Politburo. Vasya entered the hall, swaying. Stalin, seeing in what state he was, said: “What is this?” Vasily replied that he was tired. Iosif Vissarionovich asked if his son often gets so “tired”. Vasily replied that no, not often. Then the commander of the Air Force Zhigarev reported: "Often." Vasya was rude to Zhigarev. Father loudly said: "Sit down!". There was dead silence, then Joseph Vissarionovich drove his son out. By the morning, Vasily was removed from his post and sent to study at the Academy of the General Staff. However, he did not appear there. For six months he sat in the country and, according to eyewitnesses, did nothing but drink.

After the death of I.V. Stalin

The death of Joseph Vissarionovich had a negative impact on the life of his reckless son. Vasily Stalin received an order to leave Moscow to command one of the districts, but refused to leave Moscow. After that, he was fired from the army, and then he committed another rash act - he was sent to the Chinese embassy with a message about the poisoning of his father and a request to move to China. The government did not leave such audacity unpunished.

Vasily was arrested on charges of embezzlement and abuse of power. He was sentenced to 8 years in prison. In prison, the former pilot was also deprived of his real name. He was also forced to change his profession - to become a turner. Life in prison had a bad effect on Vasily's state of health. Chronic diseases began to progress, new ones appeared.

Death

At the age of 41, Vasily was released. He was also forbidden to bear his father's surname and live in Moscow.

1962, March 19 - Vasily Iosifovich Stalin (Dzhugashvili) died. According to the official medical report, from alcohol poisoning. 1998 - Kapitolina Vasilyeva, his third wife, who attended his funeral, questioned the diagnosis of alcohol poisoning and stated that there was no autopsy.

2002, November 20 - his body was reburied at the Troekurovsky cemetery in Moscow, near last wife Maria Nusberg.

Personal life

Vasily Stalin was married four times and had four children of his own. His first chosen one is Galina Burdonskaya, the daughter of an engineer in the Kremlin garage. They registered their marriage in 1940, divorced in 1944. In this marriage, a son, Alexander Burdonsky, who later became a theater director, and a daughter, Nadezhda, were born.

The second wife of Vasily Stalin is Yekaterina Timoshenko, daughter of Marshal Semyon Timoshenko. Living together they only lasted three years. But there was a son - Vasily Stalin, who in 1972, while intoxicated, and daughter Svetlana. Stalin's third wife was Kapitolina Vasilyeva, a swimming champion. This marriage also lasted 4 years. The fourth wife of Vasily was Maria Nusbeg, a nurse. The marriage was registered shortly before the death of Stalin's son.

In the early 1950s, on the orders of the son of the “leader of the peoples,” the construction of the Sovetskaya Hotel began in the capital, where he lived. This hotel has apartments that are named after him.

Stalin became one of the youngest Soviet generals. However, my father only signed the order to confer the rank of general on him only 12 times.

He created the football, hockey and other teams of the Air Force. The strongest athletes from other teams were transferred to their squads, therefore a comic decoding of the Air Force appeared: “Vasily Stalin’s gang” or “They took all the athletes.” Vasily was the head of the Equestrian Federation.

Somehow, Vasily organized the construction of 500 houses, in which the families of pilots and technicians, who had previously huddled in barracks and barracks, were settled. It was he who was able to force the officers to attend evening schools.

During the Second World War, he flew on a plane with the inscription: For Volodya! (in memory of the death of his friend Volodya Mikoyan);

Vasily had four adopted children. These were the children of his wives from previous marriages.

Vasily Stalin, the youngest son of Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin, was born on March 19, 1921. He graduated from the Kachinsk Military Aviation Pilot School in 1940.

Great Patriotic War Captain V. I. Stalin began as a squadron commander of the 42nd Fighter Aviation Regiment. Then he served in the Red Army Air Force Inspectorate.

From January 1943 he commanded the 32nd Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment (until November 1942 - the 434th IAP), which he oversaw during the battles for Stalingrad. In 1944 he commanded the 3rd Guards Fighter Aviation Division. Colonel V. I. Stalin ended the war in Berlin, commanding the 286th Fighter Aviation Division. He made 26 sorties, shot down 3 enemy aircraft in air battles (according to other sources, 2 personally and 3 in a group).

Since 1946 he was the commander of the aviation corps, then the deputy commander for the combat unit. In 1948 - 1952 - Commander of the Air Force of the Moscow Military District. General - Air Lieutenant. Organized the Air Force football team.

Convicted of embezzlement of public funds. On March 19, 1962 he died in Kazan. He was buried in Moscow, at the Troekurovsky cemetery.

Awarded with the Orders of: Red Banner (twice), Alexander Nevsky, Suvorov 2nd degree; medals.

* * *

In total, the youngest son of I.V. Stalin lived for 42 years - Vasily Iosifovich, a front-line soldier, Lieutenant General of Aviation ... And for almost half a century there have been disputes about this short life, about a brilliant career rise under the power of his father and about an instant fall immediately after him of death.

High-ranking people from the generation of Joseph Vissarionovich, who, together and next to him, were at the helm of the state or were closely involved in this, led Vasily Stalin to imprisonment. Vasily's peers, who fought and served with him, his relatives and friends disagree with this. Long years they fought for the posthumous rehabilitation of a person who was not easy in character, complex in habits, and yet, in their deep conviction, convicted unlawfully.

It should be noted that, by and large, nothing good, unfortunately, has yet been written about Vasily. Most of the authors, shamelessly "ripping off" from Svetlana Alliluyeva's book "Twenty Letters to a Friend", rearranging life episodes and adding facts that can no longer be verified, write almost the same thing: in childhood he lived without maternal affection (N. S. Alliluyeva - his mother - passed away when he was 11 years old), during the war he undeservedly and excessively quickly received positions, titles and awards, after the war, commanding the Air Force of the Moscow Military District, instead of serving he was fond of the development of sports and the construction of sports facilities, drank and in 1953 he was arrested for abuse of service, and then sentenced to 8 years. In 1960, he was released from the Vladimir prison, went to live in Kazan, where he died suddenly on March 19, 1962.

True, the books of the military journalist S. Gribanov and V. Alliluev, the son of A. S. Alliluyeva and S. Fredis, Vasily's cousin, were published in small editions. These authors partially refuted the data that there is nothing good in Vasily's personality. So, V. Alliluev writes in his book:

“He was distinguished by exceptional kindness and disinterestedness, he could calmly give his last shirt to a friend. In front of my eyes, he gave a beautiful Tatra to one of his friends, who simply could not hide his admiration for the car. Knowing these qualities well, I will never believe that he could embezzle some government money, speculated on foreign clothes. He was very simple and democratic with people ... "

Until 1942, Vasily served at the Air Force Headquarters in Moscow (in the Air Force Flight Inspectorate). This period was best described by Vladimir Alliluyev:

“He could not be kept in the rear. He was an active, motor, courageous person. He flew beautifully, rushed to the front, and his place was, of course, there. He was burdened by his rear position and suffered from the fact that people think that he is good settled behind his father's back.

He arrived at the front in the summer of 1942, and took up the post of commander of the 32nd Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment in February 1943 and immediately went into the thick of it. Hero of the Soviet Union S. F. Dolgushin was then a squadron commander in this regiment. He recalls:

"Vasily Stalin commanded the regiment diligently, he listened to us, more experienced pilots. As a regiment commander, he could, at his own discretion, make sorties as part of any squadron, but most often for some reason he flew as part of mine. During February - March 1943, we shot down from a dozen enemy planes. With the participation of Vasily - three. Moreover, it should be noted that, as a rule, Vasily attacked them first, after these attacks the planes lost control, and we then finished them off. According to our flight laws, they could be counted as Vasily, as shot down personally, but he considered them shot down in a group.I once told him about it, but he waved his hand and said shortly: "Don't!.."

Fighter Yak-9 Colonel V. I. Stalin. Kalinin front. February 1943.

On March 5, 1943, as part of another squadron, he personally shot down an FW-190. And the next day he made a mistake that almost became fatal. He chased the Fokker, in a fever broke away from the slave Volodya Orekhov and was attacked by six Messers. With the whole squadron, we then rescued him, returned him to the airfield. Vasily was a Colonel, a regimental commander, and I was a Captain - a commander. But in our aviation respect for rank is not very developed. I took him aside, arranged my "debriefing" and cursed him properly. Then he asked: "Do you understand everything?" He replied with a disarming smile: "All right. Let's go to dinner." Actually, he was a good guy. We loved him and were even a little proud that Stalin was in charge of us."

In the combat log of the 32nd GvIAP, which reflects the combat successes of the regiment's pilots (who shot down 501 enemy aircraft by the end of the war), for March 5, 1943 there is the following entry:

"In the area of ​​​​the village of Semkina Gorushka, at an altitude of 200 meters and below, they met 6 FW-190s. They fought an air battle. 10 attacks were made. As a result of the Guards, Colonel Stalin shot down one FW-190, which fell burning in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe village of Semkina Gorushka. Junior Lieutenant Vishnyakov shot down another FW-190, which crashed in the same area. The downed planes are confirmed by the pilots Kholodov, Baklan, Lepin. The radio "Baikal" kept good communication. The fall of all the downed planes was observed from the "Baikal-3".

A few days later, Vasily Stalin again falls into the "binding". On March 8 and 9, he flies out on a "free hunt" alone. Fedor Fedorovich Prokopenko recalls:

“There was an air battle. The regimental commander with his plane “disappeared.” I shout on the radio to my wingman Shulzhenko: “Kolya! Where is the commander?". He replies: "Dick knows." Vasily allowed swearing in the air. I look to my right such a picture. "Messer" flies, Vasily follows him on his "Yak", and behind him is another "Messer". And a sea of ​​​​fire. Vasily from 150 meters hits the first Me-109, and the second from the same distance - at Vasily. The first "Messer" staggers, apparently, Vasily hit him. And the second one hits empty for the time being. Well, I think it's a matter of kranta. The speed of the "Messer" is greater than that of the "Yak". It will come from above and shoot in the air. They killed Volodya Mikoyan in exactly the same way. I shout Shulzhenko: "The commander was squeezed. Let's go up to 70". Kolya understands me perfectly, takes on the first fascist. I go over the second and give him a short burst, in the cockpit. A fascist, but still a man, so as not to suffer ... This plane crashed, not grief. And Kolya Shulzhenko hit the gas tank. His "ward" burned up in the air. "

After the war, Vasily Stalin presented Fedor Prokopenko with a photograph with the inscription: "Life is the Motherland. Thank you for life. I owe you for life." F. F. Prokopenko himself recalls:

“Why did he sign a portrait for me? Because we flew together, and I twice knocked enemy planes out from under his tail. They didn’t let him fly much - they persuaded him, they say, don’t, Vasily Iosifovich; your father’s eldest son has already died ... He agreed, but he was self-willed - he continued to fly. He had three downed aircraft. I saw two Me-109s personally."

When the Hero of the Soviet Union A. Borovykh was still alive twice, he said that after the death of the pilots - the son of Mikoyan Vladimir, the son of Frunze Timur and the son of Khrushchev Leonid, Vasily Stalin was forbidden to make sorties. He called his father about this. Resented. He answered him: "One prisoner is enough for me!" - hinted at the capture of Jacob. But Vasily continued to fly and did not listen to anyone.

He, of course, understood that he had no right to be captured. And so he did combat sorties without a parachute! If he was killed, he did not leave himself any chance to stay alive. And this fact from his front-line biography has never been published anywhere ...

From the award sheet dated March 10, 1943, signed by the commander of the 210th Fighter Aviation Division, Colonel V.P. Ukhov:

"In February 1943, Guards Colonel V. I. Stalin took command of the 32nd GvIAP. Under his leadership, the regiment, participating in the Demyansk operation, made 566 sorties, of which 225 were combat. 28 air battles were conducted, as a result of which they shot down 42 enemy aircraft.

Guards Colonel V. I. Stalin personally led his subordinates on combat missions and fought air battles ... Worthy of a government award - the Order of the Red Banner.

Since May 1943, Vasily has been vegetating as a pilot-instructor of the 193rd air regiment. He is strictly forbidden to fly. And only in December he gets the opportunity to lift the car into the air. He's back at the forefront.

On January 16, 1944, Vasily took up the duties of an inspector - pilot in piloting technique in the 1st Guards Fighter Aviation Corps (3rd Air Army, 1st Baltic Front). The next step on his path was the command of the 3rd Guards Fighter Aviation Division (since May 18, 1944) as part of the 1st Guards Corps, Lieutenant General E. M. Beletsky.

The division under his command takes part in the fighting to liberate Minsk, Vilna, Lida, Grodno, Panevezys, Siauliai and Jelgava. From the award sheet dated July 1, 1944, signed by the commander of the 1st Guards Fighter Aviation Corps, Lieutenant General of Aviation E. M. Beletsky:

"The division in this area conducted 22 air battles, in which the pilots destroyed 29 enemy aircraft (their losses were 3 pilots and 5 aircraft). Guards Colonel V. I. Stalin has excellent piloting technique, loves flying. He flies on all types of fighter aircraft. Personally participates in battles. He is tactically literate. He has good commanding qualities. He is worthy of a government award - the Order of the Red Banner."

On February 22, 1945, Guards Colonel V. I. Stalin took command of the 286th Fighter Aviation Division of the 16th Air Army of the 1st Belorussian Front, which "went" to Berlin.

On May 2, 1945, among those who distinguished themselves during the assault on the capital of the fascist Reich, the name of the Guards Colonel V.I. Stalin was first named in the order of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief next to the names of Marshals Novikov and Golovanov and such air combat aces as Pokryshkin and Kozhedub.

From the award sheet dated May 11, 1945, signed by the commander of the 16th Air Army, Colonel General of Aviation S. I. Rudenko:

"During the period of the Berlin offensive operation, parts of the division under the direct supervision of the Guards Colonel V. I. Stalin conducted 949 sorties. 15 air battles were conducted, during which 17 enemy aircraft were shot down, and on the very first day of the operation - 11, only one crew was lost .

Personally, Comrade Stalin, during his participation on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War, made 26 sorties and personally shot down 2 enemy aircraft. Worthy of being awarded the Order of Suvorov 2nd degree.

Thus, for the entire period of the war, Colonel V.I. Stalin was promoted only once - he was appointed commander of a division from the post of regiment commander. According to various sources, he has on his account from 3 to 5 downed enemy aircraft. And 4 orders received quite deservedly. They did not bypass him with awards, but they did not indulge him either. IN personal file it is also written about the shortcomings that any officer has: "He is hot, quick-tempered, the nervous system is weak, there have been cases of assault on subordinates."

What can you say? Assault is a disgusting thing, but, unfortunately, it was not uncommon at the front, as was execution on the spot. One word - war...

In 1946, Vasily Stalin was already appointed commander of the 1st Guards Fighter Air Corps. March 1, 1946 he was awarded the rank of Major General of Aviation. Until 1947 he served in defeated Germany (the headquarters of the corps was in Wittstock, a small quiet town in the north of the country). In 1947 he was transferred to Moscow for service. First, as an assistant to the commander of the Air Force of the Moscow Military District (now this position is called "deputy"), and since 1948 he became its commander.

Vasily began his service in a new position by "breaking through" in Moscow a new building for the headquarters of the Air Force of the Moscow Military District and moving from the general headquarters of the Moscow Military District, which was and is now located in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe Novokuznetskaya metro station, to a building in the area of ​​the Aeroport metro station , next to the then Central Airfield (Khodynskoye field). Over the years of his service, this headquarters has turned into a work of art, which Vasily himself and all his officers and generals were proud of. Subsequently, the General Headquarters of the United Armed Forces member countries of the Warsaw Pact (SHOVS).

The Air Force of the Moscow Military District under V. I. Stalin, judging by the documents of those years, firmly occupied the 1st place, the Serpukhov Aviation School of the Air Force of the Moscow Military District, according to the results of training cadets, was the 1st place among the technical universities of the Air Force. And let's not forget that it was a time of devastation, that it was necessary to create airfields, "plant" aviation units on them, supply communications and communications, deploy support, repair and rear services, provide for the life of camps, personnel, families and, most the main thing is to ensure flight work - "raid", as they say in aviation ... Vasily Stalin managed to do not only all this, but also much more.

By directive of the General Staff in 1948, an Air Force unit was created - " sport Club army" with subordination to the Air Force Main Headquarters. The life support of the club was "hung" on the Air Force of the Moscow Military District, knowing how V. I. Stalin loved sports. Then this club and this love will go sideways for Vasily.

V. I. Stalin served all these years normally, organized and supervised combat training, the development of aviation technology, retraining of flight and technical personnel, conducted military councils and inspections, supervised construction, and was engaged in the arrangement of the life of subordinates. He paid much attention to the development of physical culture and was himself the chairman of the USSR Equestrian Federation.

Veterans remember that it was he who "pierced" somewhere in 500 Finnish houses, in which the families of pilots and technicians settled in 3 garrisons, who had previously huddled in barracks and barracks. It was Vasily who, by his written order, forced the officers to go to evening schools so that everyone would have a 10-grade education.

When in 1950 he was given the task of preparing one division to assist Korea in the war against known aggression, Vasily Stalin lived in Kubinka throughout November and personally trained pilots for combat operations.

This division, led by Colonel I.N. Kozhedub, coped with the task. They returned almost without loss, and the pilot Evgeny Pepelyaev shot down 23 enemy jets there and became a Hero of the Soviet Union. Under V. I. Stalin, the flight crew began to retrain to fly jet technology. For success in service, the commander of the troops of the Moscow Military District Marshal of the Soviet Union K. A. Meretskov presented V. I. Stalin to be awarded the Order of Lenin; the higher authorities approved him the Order of the Red Banner. Vasily Stalin February 18 was elected to the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR. He was awarded the qualification "Military Pilot 1st Class". It would seem that nothing foreshadowed trouble. But...

In 1952, for an unsuccessful parade in which 2 planes (Il-28 jet bombers) crashed on landing, Vasily, at the direction of his father, was placed at the disposal of the Air Force Commander-in-Chief, surrendered his position to Colonel General of Aviation S. Krasovsky, and in August 1952 was enrolled as a student of the Military Academy of the General Staff. Here, indeed, an addiction to alcohol is noticed behind him, he does not go to classes. Trouble was approaching.

On March 5, 1953, I. V. Stalin dies, and on March 26 (21 days after the death of his father), Vasily Stalin, without a single penalty, by order of the Minister of Defense N. Bulganin, was transferred to the reserve without the right to wear a military uniform. Then it was called dismissal under item "e" - "for moral and domestic decay." But for Vasily, this was only the beginning. On April 28, 1953, he was arrested...

For what? In all sources, approximately the same thing is written: for some kind of abuse in the service, but for what exactly and what he did, it is not reported ...

The case of Vasily Stalin was investigated for about 2.5 years. All this time he was in custody. They created a special commission of the USSR Ministry of Defense, whose members, not knowing what was required of them, "established" everything in a row, and this "everything in a row" then automatically moved to an indictment and a verdict:

"Angry at his well-deserved dismissal from the ranks of the Soviet Army, V. I. Stalin repeatedly expressed his sharp dissatisfaction with certain events carried out by the party and the Soviet government, and even went as far as direct anti-Soviet statements ...

Lieutenant General of Aviation V. I. Stalin from the moral - political and educational work retired. He drank, often did not show up for work. He received the reports of his subordinates at his apartment or dacha... Morally decomposed, he often behaved unworthily: rowdy in public places and repaired arbitrariness...

Instead of daily engaging in combat and political training, V. I. Stalin took up the construction of various kinds of sports facilities ... "

We will not comment on all this nonsense and give it a purely legal qualification. The verdict does not stand up to scrutiny. It has no conclusive evidence. There are no motivations. There are no substantiated allegations. It has many mistakes. Even the year of the defendant's birth was indicated incorrectly, there is no legal argumentation of the court's conclusions, the medal "For the Defense of Stalingrad" was omitted from the list of awards ...

The verdict did not resolve the issue of compensation for damage (if we assume that it exists, then it was necessary to file a civil suit) and the issue of the seized property was not resolved. Only on March 5, 1962 (2 weeks before the death of Vasily), the Military Collegium, according to the conclusion of the Chief Military Prosecutor's Office, "after" the verdict, after 8 years, turns part of his property into state revenue as obtained "illegally and at public expense." Among this property are 9 guns donated by the father, 17 checkers and knives donated by Voroshilov, Budyonny's saddle and so on. All this was transferred to the Ministry of Defense Khozu. Later, Marshal A. Grechko, a great hunter, became interested in the collection confiscated from Vasily.

No one can explain why Vasily was serving his sentence in prison, although, according to the verdict, he was supposed to be in a corrective labor camp. Anyone who is at least a little familiar with this issue knows that a "covered" prison and a camp are far from the same thing. A day of prison goes for 3 days of camp...

While in custody, Vasily and his aunt A. S. Alliluyeva sent several letters to Khrushchev, Voroshilov, Bulganin and others with a request to look into his case. These letters were clearly out of place: the 20th Congress of the CPSU took place, and then the 22nd with their historic decisions on JV Stalin. No replies were given, individual letters were not even registered.

But on January 9, 1960, fearing for the possible death of a seriously ill Vasily in prison, the authorities release him ahead of schedule. He goes to an appointment with Khrushchev and this helped: on January 21, 1960, by order of the Minister of Defense, the order of March 26, 1953 was changed, and Vasily is now "retired" to the reserve under clause "b" of Article 59 of the Regulations on Service with the right to wear a military uniform and pension provision. The issue of allocating him a 3-room apartment in Moscow, a pension in accordance with the law, and the return of personal property confiscated during the arrest was also raised for consideration.

It would seem that all problems will be solved soon, but... On April 16, 1960, Vasily Stalin was again arrested by the KGB "for continuing anti-Soviet activities." This was expressed in his visit to the PRC embassy, ​​where he allegedly made "a slanderous statement of an anti-Soviet nature." Vasily, in the language of lawyers, was returned to places of deprivation of liberty "to serve the rest of the sentence." whole year he was in Lefortovo, although the new "Chinese" case was soon dismissed...

On April 28, 1961, Vasily Stalin was released from prison in connection with the completion of his sentence, and, as stated in the note of the Central Committee of the CPSU dated April 7, 1961, as an exception to the current legislation, he was sent into exile for a period of 5 years in Kazan (in this city then foreigners were banned from entering). From this exile he was never destined to return.

On January 5, 1962, A. S. Alliluyeva sends another letter to Khrushchev in which she begs to return Vasily from Kazan. She writes that he is seriously ill, his leg is affected, blood poisoning, exhaustion, and he may die. But ... the XXII Congress of the CPSU has passed, the body of I.V. Stalin has already been taken out of the Mausoleum and, of course, there is no reaction from the authorities to the letter about the leader's son. After 2.5 months he dies ...