December 21 marks the 135th anniversary of the birth of one of the most significant politicians in the entire history of the Russian state - Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin. According to the official version, it was on December 21, 1879 in the city of Gori that the future head of the Soviet state was born. Although there is another version: the birth of Joseph Dzhugashvili into the world took place on December 18, 1878.
A huge number of books, articles have been written about Stalin, and many films have been shot. To a lesser extent, the activities of his descendants are covered. And if they still talk about Stalin's children - Svetlana, Yakov and Vasily - then very few people know about the grandchildren. Meanwhile, among them there are very worthy and respected people. What is one Evgeny Yakovlevich Dzhugashvili, which will be discussed in this article - a military engineer and military historian, politician, candidate of the military and candidate of historical sciences, a retired colonel of the Soviet Army and even a little film actor (played the role of his own grandfather in the film Jacob is the son of Stalin”, released in 1990).
Childhood and the Suvorov School
Evgeny Yakovlevich Dzhugashvili is the son of Yakov Dzhugashvili and Olga Pavlovna Golysheva. Recall that Yakov is Stalin's eldest son, from his first marriage to Ekaterina Svanidze, who was born in 1907 and later died at the front. Evgeny Yakovlevich was born on January 10, 1936 in Uryupinsk, Stalingrad Territory (this region included the territories of the present Volgograd Region and Kalmykia) to 27-year-old Olga Golysheva. Olga Golysheva met Yakov Dzhugashvili in 1934, when she came from her native Uryupinsk to Moscow to study at an aviation technical school.
However, later the relationship did not work out, and Olga left Moscow back to her homeland, to Uryupinsk. Her son was born there. By the way, in the meantime, Yakov Dzhugashvili married Yulia Meltzer, they had a daughter, and for the first two years Olga Golysheva did not show him her son - she was afraid that he would be taken away. But then Yakov himself found his former beloved and organized the issuance of documents to his son with the name “Dzhugashvili” (Yevgeny bore the name “Golyshev” for the first two years). That is, Yakov never gave up his son, although he already lived in a different family. Before the war, Yakov graduated from the artillery academy of the Red Army and with the beginning of hostilities was sent to the army.
The story is widely known of how Stalin refused to use his position and possible leverage in order to free his eldest son from Nazi captivity. In captivity, Yakov died - he was shot while trying to escape. By the way, both Yevgeny Yakovlevich Dzhugashvili and his son Yakov, Stalin's great-grandson, are convinced that Joseph Vissarionovich did absolutely right with respect to their father and grandfather - the head of the Soviet state could not do otherwise, show that his child enjoyed some kind of privileges, while the children of ordinary Soviet citizens perish at the front. Therefore, Stalin's grandson and great-grandson repeatedly told reporters that they perfectly understand the motives behind this act of Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin.
Before the war, Olga Golysheva studied at an aviation technical school, but when the Great Patriotic War began, she, like Yevgeny Yakov's father, went to the front. She served as a nurse and was wounded several times. She went through the whole war, having met victory in Berlin. After the victory, she moved with her son to Moscow, respectively, Zhenya Dzhugashvili transferred to a Moscow school. Mother worked as a cash collector in the financial unit of the Air Force of the Moscow Military District. Of course, this family did not have any luxury, like the children and grandchildren of modern officials. And there was only one way for Stalin's grandson - to study, acquire a profession and become a specialist in order to earn his living with dignity and benefit the Soviet people. There is nothing surprising in the fact that young Yevgeny Dzhugashvili decided to become a military man. In 1947, Yevgeny Dzhugashvili entered the Kalinin Suvorov Military School.
By this time, the Suvorov School in Kalinin (now Tver) existed for four years - it was created in 1943 among the nine Suvorov schools opened in the Soviet Union for children of front-line soldiers who died during the war. As the son of Yakov who died at the front, Yevgeny had, therefore, every right to enter the school. By the way, Alexander Burdonsky, the son of Vasily Stalin and the cousin of Yevgeny, who was 5 years younger than the hero of our article, also studied at the same school - he was born in 1941.
In addition to Stalin's grandchildren, the school was attended by children and grandchildren of other iconic people of that era - Budyonny, Gastello, Khrushchev and others. By virtue of his origin, Yevgeny, by the way, personally and unfamiliar with the great grandfather, did not have any privileges in studying.
It is worth it - Stalin's grandson Alexander Stalin (Burdonsky), the son of Vasily. Sitting - Evgeny Yakovlevich Dzhugashvili.
When Yevgeny wrote a letter to his grandfather, two generals arrived at the school, talked to the boy and told him to strive to be the best in everything. On this, the intervention of the omnipotent grandfather in the upbringing of his grandson ended. Only in 1953, when Joseph Vissarionovich died, did the Council of Ministers of the USSR appointed Yevgeny a pension in the amount of 1,000 rubles, which was to be paid to him until he graduated from a higher educational institution. How striking this contrast is in comparison with the way of life of children and relatives of representatives of the later generations of the Soviet and Russian elites.
Engineer and military historian
In 1954, after graduating from college, Yevgeny Dzhugashvili entered the Air Force Engineering Academy. NOT. Zhukovsky. This was facilitated by the personal appeal of his mother Olga Golysheva to the then Minister of Defense of the USSR Bulganin. Eugene studied at the Faculty of Radio Engineering, which he graduated in 1959 with the rank of Lieutenant Engineer. After graduating from the academy, Eugene was assigned as a military representative to the designer himself, Sergei Korolev. Military representative in the Design Bureau S. P. Korolev worked in Podlipki near Moscow Dzhugashvili for 15 years, periodically leaving for launches at the Baikonur cosmodrome. Military engineer Yevgeny Yakovlevich Dzhugashvili had a chance to participate in the preparations for the launch of the first Soviet spacecraft, therefore, in the flight of Yuri Gagarin, there is, to a certain extent, his personal merit.
During this time, he joined the Communist Party and decided to continue his studies - this time in a humanitarian specialty. After all, Eugene has always been interested in military history, and having fundamental training at the Air Force Engineering Academy and having received a liberal arts education, one could become an excellent military historian in the aviation field. As it turned out, the teacher of military history from Yevgeny Yakovlevich also turned out to be excellent. He devoted twenty-five years to teaching at the military academies of the USSR Armed Forces.
According to Viktor Nikolaevich Gastello, the son of the famous pilot Nikolai Gastello, who studied three years older than Yevgeny Dzhugashvili at the Suvorov School, and then at the Air Force Engineering Academy, the reason for Yevgeny Yakovlevich's departure from the Space Control Center (TsUKOS) was his emigration aunt Svetlana Alliluyeva abroad. As if Evgeny Dzhugashvili was asked to leave TsUKOS almost immediately after emigration and find a new job (Gastello V. N. Former Suvorovite Dzhugashvili prefers to live in Tbilisi // Independent Military Review. May 18, 2007).
Yevgeny Yakovlevich entered the postgraduate course at the Military-Political Academy named after V. I. IN AND. Lenin, and in 1973 he defended his Ph. D. thesis on "US aviation in the aggressive war in Vietnam." After defending his thesis, Yevgeny Yakovlevich was sent as a teacher to the Military Academy of Armored Forces. R. Ya. Malinovsky. In parallel, he studied at the historical department of the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the USSR. K. E. Voroshilov, from which he graduated in 1976. In 1976-1986. Evgeny Yakovlevich taught at the Air Force Academy. Yu. A. Gagarin in Monino, in 1986-1987. - was a senior lecturer at the Military Academy of the General Staff, and in 1987-1991. - Associate Professor at the Military Academy. M. V. Frunze. In 1991, when the Soviet era ended, Yevgeny Yakovlevich's service in the Armed Forces came to an end. Having reached the age of fifty-five, Colonel Dzhugashvili began civilian life.
Defending the ancestor's name
Having retired, Yevgeny Yakovlevich, despite the fact that he has an apartment in Moscow, preferred to visit Tbilisi more often. Although he spent his childhood in the RSFSR, and he served on the current Russian territory, it is obvious that he has a deep mental connection with Georgia. This is understandable - in Stalin's homeland, his grandson was greatly respected. Remembers V. N. Gastello, a classmate at the Suvorov school: “Zhenya complained to me that when he came to Gagra, he could not just have a drink with friends. In the restaurant, after the next feast, Zhenya was not allowed to pay the bill. When he was trying to pay off, he always came across one answer: - Already paid! (Gastello V. N. Former Suvorovite Dzhugashvili prefers to live in Tbilisi // Independent Military Review. 18.05.2007).
The civil life of Yevgeny Yakovlevich turned out to be no less intense and in its own way worthy than the military one. After 1991, he began to take an active part in Russian and Georgian politics - as a leader of the communist movement. It should be noted that among Stalin's grandchildren, he alone was not afraid to raise the name of his grandfather and emphasize his adherence to communist ideals. You can ideologically disagree with the convictions of Yevgeny Dzhugashvili, but we should give him his due - he did not betray the name of his grandfather and continued to fight in his defense. And the times in relation to the name of Stalin in the nineties were, to put it mildly, not the most favorable. In both Russia and Georgia, the democratic authorities did not welcome positive references to the Soviet leader. Moreover, Yevgeny Yakovlevich Dzhugashvili faced another problem - his sister Galina - the daughter of his aunt Svetlana Alliluyeva - did not recognize him as the grandson of Joseph Vissarionovich. As you know, Svetlana Alliluyeva quite critically assessed the figure and activities of her father, went to emigrate to the United States of America. One can ponder for a long time about the reasons why it was Yevgeny - the son of Yakov Dzhugashvili and his common-law wife Olga Golysheva - that Galina did not recognize as her relative. Perhaps the reason lies precisely in the convictions and uncompromising attitude of Yevgeny Yakovlevich himself.
However, Yevgeny Yakovlevich himself is more convinced that there are rather personal reasons here: “Everyone knew about me. Except for Galina, my sister. She was used … Her fate is not very happy. Judge for yourself. I have sons, grandchildren. And she? She married an Algerian, gave birth to a son, deaf and dumb. An interesting story came out with this pregnancy. I knew that she was pregnant and my Nana was on her second child. And I have already decided that I will collect all male names in the Dzhugashvili family. And then the phone rings. A friend calls me and says that Galya gave birth to a boy. I was upset, I no longer listen to what he says to me, but he: "Selim, Selim." I do not understand, what is it, I say, is it? And he shouts into my phone - Selim, Selim! The name is! Arabic! I was so happy. I ran to my wife and said, well, everything, now go and give birth to Jacob! If a girl had been born, they would have been called Olga … but Jacob was born. There is already Vissarion, and my grandson was born, they called me Soso, Joseph - now there is Joseph Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili”(Quoted from Son of a Soldier: interview with Stalin's grandson).
Due to the divergence of views on the role of his grandfather in Russian history, Yevgeny Yakovlevich broke up with Alexander Burdonsky, the son of Vasily Stalin and his cousin, which he also spoke about in an interview with the Russian media. The work of life for Yevgeny Yakovlevich Dzhugashvili was the restoration of the honor and dignity of his grandfather, trampled in post-Soviet Russia, and in Georgia too. Yevgeny Dzhugashvili became a prominent activist of the communist movement in Russia and Georgia.
In 1999, he took part in the elections to the State Duma of the Russian Federation - was in the top three of the electoral list of the Stalin bloc for the USSR - along with the leader of the Labor Russia movement Viktor Anpilov and the leader of the Union of Officers of the USSR Stanislav Terekhov. However, the bloc did not enter the State Duma - it did not get the required number of votes. Nevertheless, Yevgeny Yakovlevich focused his attention on the development of the communist movement in Georgia. In 1996, he headed the Society of Ideological Heirs of Joseph Stalin, in 1999 - the People's Patriotic Union of Georgia, and in 2001 - the New Communist Party of Georgia.
In recent years, Yevgeny Yakovlevich has sued a lot with various media outlets, individual journalists and public figures, insisting that they defame the honor and dignity of his grandfather. Among the famous lawsuits, one can note the lawsuit against Novaya Gazeta and the journalist A. Yu. Yablokov in 2009, filed due to the publication of the article "Beria is appointed guilty." The article claimed that Stalin had ordered the extermination of 20,000 Polish prisoners of war. The court rejected the claim, justifying this by the fact that the author of the article expressed his own personal opinion regarding the role of Joseph Stalin.
In the same 2009, Yevgeny Yakovlevich filed a lawsuit against Echo of Moscow, demanding to punish the host M. Yu. Ganapolsky, who argued that Stalin had signed a decree on the possibility of using the death penalty for children from the age of 12. The court also refused the plaintiff Dzhugashvili. In 2011, a new lawsuit against Echo of Moscow followed - this time Yevgeny Yakovlevich wanted to punish journalist N. K. Svanidze, who said that "Stalin strangled small children." The claim was also rejected.
In addition to lawsuits against the media, Yevgeny Dzhugashvili also filed a lawsuit against the State Duma of the Russian Federation, demanding that the statement of the Russian parliament on the Katyn case be declared illegal. Recall that in this statement, the deputies argued that the crime in Katyn was committed on the orders of Joseph Stalin, and Yevgeny Dzhugashvili argued that this statement was unfounded and filed a lawsuit against the deputies for 100 million rubles. Yevgeny Yakovlevich filed another lawsuit in Georgia - there he managed to win it, since he was suing the public figure Grigol Oniani, who argued that Yevgeny Yakovlevich was actually not Dzhugashvili at all, but an impostor, and by the name of Rabinovich. The Tbilisi court officially established that Yevgeny Yakovlevich Dzhugashvili is the grandson of Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin and the son of Yakov Iosifovich Dzhugashvili.
By the way, Yevgeny Yakovlevich not only defended the honor of his grandfather, but also played his role in the film "Yakov - the son of Stalin", filmed in 1990. The portrait resemblance between Yevgeny Dzhugashvili and Joseph Dzhugashvili was noted by many, including the legendary Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov. The former Soviet People's Commissar, who was fortunate enough to live up to the 1980s, recalled: “Look at Evgeny, another offspring of Dzhugashvili, he looks like his ancestors. Those who met and talked with Stalin will certainly notice their similarities, and not only outwardly, but also in the manner of walking, in general in behavior, character. I am glad that Evgeny often visits me, brings his sons Vissarion and Yakov Dzhugashvili. Meetings with them lengthen my life, give me strength "(Quoted from: History of Russia. Stalin's grandchildren //
Family and Children
It is impossible not to say about the personal life of Yevgeny Yakovlevich Dzhugashvili, especially since it also concerns the continuation of Stalin's family. Yevgeny Yakovlevich married a Georgian girl, three years younger - Nanuli Georgievna Nozadze was born in 1939, graduated from the Faculty of Philology of Tbilisi University. They had two children in marriage. In 1965, Vissarion Evgenievich Dzhugashvili was born, and in 1972 - Yakov Evgenievich Dzhugashvili. The eldest son Vissarion graduated from the Tbilisi Agricultural Institute, and then - two-year higher courses for directors and screenwriters at VGIK. In 2000, he made a film about his grandfather, "Yakov - the son of Stalin." In 2002, Vissarion Dzhugashvili left for the United States of America. The reason for this was the attack on him in Tbilisi, at the entrance of his own house, after which Vissarion decided to become a political emigrant. Married to Nana Japaridze, Vissarion has two sons - Joseph, born in 1994, the full namesake of his great-great-grandfather, and Yakov, born in 2000.
The second son, Yakov Evgenievich Dzhugashvili, graduated from high school in Moscow, then studied at the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts, at the art school in Glasgow (Great Britain). Professional artist. Married to Nina Lomkatsi, he has a daughter, Olga-Ekaterina. Yakov Evgenievich, like his father, is jealous of the memory of his great-grandfather. He also adheres to patriotic and communist convictions, sympathizes with Russia, considering himself its patriot. Yakov Dzhugashvili is convinced that anti-Stalinism is an attempt at revenge against defeated fascism and claims that it is built on a deliberate distortion of history, fictional facts aimed at discrediting Soviet history and personally Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin.
- Evgeny Yakovlevich Dzhugashvili and his youngest son Yakov Evgenievich Dzhugashvili
Thus, the branch of Stalin's descendants, represented by Yevgeny Yakovlevich Dzhugashvili, his sons and grandchildren, is to some extent the most colorful. After all, it is these people who strive to defend to the last the memory of their grandfather, remain faithful to the communist ideals, which are very unpopular in the modern world and were rejected even by other relatives of the late Soviet leader. One can relate differently to the historical figure of Stalin, but the desire of Yevgeny Dzhugashvili to preserve the memory of his grandfather in a positive way cannot but arouse understanding and respect.
