Ekaterina Svanidze

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Ekaterina Svanidze (April 2, 1880 - November 25, 1907) was the Georgian first wife of Joseph Stalin, they were married in 1903. She died in 1907 from tuberculosis

Ekaterina Svanidze, nicknamed Kato, was a tailor who worked for the ladies of the russian army. On the only photograph of her, she makes an elegant impression.

Her name sounds Georgian, but she had two sisters with Japanese^{[citation needed]} sounding names: Sachiko and Moriko. She had at least one brother, but some sources claim she had more than one brother. Because her only known brother Alexander Semjonowich Svanidze spoke German and French and studied in Germany, it's unlikely that her family was poor. Alexander Semjonowich Svanidze was married to Maria Anissimowna Korona, a singer at the Tiflis Opera.

The Svanidze family is said to be related to the family of Stalin's mother Keke Geladze. Stalin was born in Gori and spoke Georgian, but he was not of Georgian descent but of Ossetian background from both sides of his family. So if the Svanidzes were related to the Geladses, neither would have been Georgian. Semjonovich is untypical for a Georgian name, but might be possible for an Ossetian person.

Svanidze married Joseph Stalin in 1903 in a church, and gave him a son, Yakov Dzhugashvili.