Yakov Dzhugashvili

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Yakov Dzhugashvili

Yakov Iosifovich Dzhugashvili (Russian: Яков Иосифович Джугашвили) (March 1907 – April 14, 1943) was one of Joseph Stalin's three known children, along with Svetlana Stalin and Vasily Stalin. Dzhugashvili was the son of Stalin's first wife, Ekaterina Svanidze.

Dzhugashvili and Stalin never got along. Once Stalin referred to Yakov as a "mere cobbler." Later according to Yakov's stepmother Nadezhda Alliluyeva she saw a young girl running away from their Moscow dacha in tears. When she entered she saw a despairing Yakov looking near faint in the room. He ran immediately to his bedroom. It turned out that the girl was Yakov's fiancee and when they told Stalin of their engagement he became enraged, especially since the girl was Jewish (Stalin was known to be quite anti-Jewish).

While Stalin and his wife were arguing about this a shot was heard from Yakov's room. He tried to kill himself with a shot in the head but his aim due to frayed nerves from his father's tirade only managed in wounding himself. While she tended to his wounds and sent for a doctor all his father said was, "He can't even do that right."

Dzhugashvili did marry and was survived by two children. His son, Yevgeni, gave many interviews about his grandfather. He also has a daughter, Galina.

Dzhugashvili served in the Red Army during the Great Patriotic War. He was captured by Nazi Germany during the war. The Germans offered to exchange Yakov for Friedrich Paulus, the German Field Marshal captured by the Soviets after the Battle of Stalingrad.

Stalin's son, Yakov Dzhugashvili captured by the Germans

Stalin believed that Yakov had surrendered intentionally, and was therefore a coward and an embarrassment. In response to the offer to trade Yakov for Field Marshal Paulus, Stalin purportedly told the Germans that "I have no son named Yakov." Other variations on Stalin's reaction to the German offer are, "I have only one son", "I have no son", and "A lieutenant is not worth a general!" It is unknown which, if any, of these statements are correct. Yakov died in captivity, aged 36, but it is not clear when and how he died. The Germans stated officially that Yakov died by running into an electric fence. Some have contended that Yakov committed suicide at the camp while others have suggested that he was murdered.

Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being suggests Dzhugashvili took his own life: "Crying out to heaven in the most terrifying of Russian curses, he took a running jump into the electrified barbed-wire fence that surrounded the camp."