Joseph Stalin is considered today a brutal man who was responsible for the deaths of
millions of people.
He was a man who ordered his NKVD to purge the Soviet Union of anyone who was considered
a possible dissenter.
The great purges resulted in the executions of millions, and many were also sent to gulags
and concentration camps.
But Stalin was a man who could turn on his closest friends and advisors, and his government
would also not be exempt from any possible action.
He was a man even who would practically condemn his own son to death, and this is what he
did during World War 2 as he refused an offer from Hitler that resulted in his son being
killed inside of a German concentration camp.
Stalin and his son did not get along, but Yakov Dzhugashvili was in the eyes of his
powerful father, a traitor.
Join us today as we look at, ‘The HORRIFIC Execution Of Stalin’s Son.’
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Yakov Dzhugashvili was born on the 31st March 1907 in Baji a village in what is now Georgia.
His mother was Kato Svanidze and his father was Joseph Dzhugashvili, or Joseph Stalin.
A number of months after Yakov’s birth, his father was involved in a bank robbery
and they then fled to Baku to avoid being arrested.
They returned a number of months later, however Yakov’s mother by this time was rather ill,
and she died in December that year having contracted typhus.
Joseph Stalin then at this time left Yakov and he abandoned him to be raised by his mother’s
relatives and Stalin shunned him and he would not come back to visit his son for a number
of years.
Yakov was raised by his aunts and live with them for the next 14 years whilst his father
became incredibly powerful in the Soviet Union.
In 1921, he was taken to Moscow to live with his father, and this was difficult as the
father and son could not understand each other well, as Yakov could not understand Russian.
Stalin also prevented his boy from taking the surname Stalin, and he banned this and
the two did not get on.
It’s believed that Yakov reminded his father of his mother, and that this led to him having
some resentment for him, as Yakov’s mother represented a happy time for the future dictator
of the Soviet Union.
Yakov lived in Stalin’s apartments in the Kremlin and he slept in the dining room.
He was a boy who was kind and friendly to his half siblings and also his step mother
who was just 6 years older than he was.
Yakov was interested in going to university, but his father would not let to happen to
begin with.
He was 23 when he was admitted, and he then worked as a chimney sweep engineer at a electric
plant factory.
He had in 1928 fallen in love with Zoya Gunina, and he wanted to marry her.
Stalin was furious at the and it’s believed that Yakov even tried to take his own life
by shooting himself in the chest, but he did miss.
His father made fun of him for this, and he took a number of months in hospital to recover.
The couple did marry and had a daughter, but she died and this forced the couple to break
up.
When he got back to Moscow, he was linked to marrying another woman.
He did have a son that was born in 1938, and he took his surname.
Dzhugashvili then married Yulia Meltzer, a Jewish dancer from Odessa.
The pair met at a restaurant, and Yakov fought with her husband but the pair were soon married.
They moved into an apartment, and they married a day before their child was born.
However as the Second World War broke out, Yakov Dzhugashvili took to the battlefield.
Initially to begin with, Stalin and Hitler had signed a non aggression pact, but Hitler
would rip this up.
On the 22nd June 1941, he ordered his Wehrmacht to invade the Soviet Union as the Nazis launched
Operation Barbarossa.
Stalin wanted his son to fight on the front lines.
He served as a leftenant in the battery of the 14th Howitzer Regiment of the 14th Tank
Division, and he saw action near Vitebsk.
He was captured though on the 16th July during the battle of Smolensk.
He fought valiantly, however it was said that he was captured as, ‘The Germans surrounded
Yakov’s battery.
The order was given to retreat, but Yakov did not obey the order.
I tried to persuade him, but Yakov answered I am the son of Stalin, I do not permit the
battery to retreat.’
Others said that he willingly was given up by other soldiers as they disliked Stalin
and his government, so was given over as sacrifice.
For the Germans it was a major coup and victory, as the propaganda value of capturing Stalin’s
son was seen for Hitler as a huge boost.
Stalin had issued a no surrender order which was well publicised, and he ordered every
soldier to not take on step back.
But Stalin’s own son had surrendered, and Stalin was furious with this and he saw his
son as a disgrace.
He believed his son should have taken his own life instead of being captured, and he
believed he had been betrayed.
But to begin with Yakov removed his officers signs and badges and he tried to pass as a
normal soldier, but he was recognised and was interrogated by the Abwehr.
He during this was critical of the division he was part of and the Red Army and said they
were poorly trained.
He believed the Red Army was not ready for war.
He criticised military commanders and said that the UK were weak and didn’t help.
He made comments that praised Hitler and the Germans, and he was openly anti-semitic.
The Germans wanted to use Stalin’s sun in propaganda, and leaflets were dropped over
the Red Army that showed him smiling with the captors.
The back of the leaflet was a letter that said, ‘Dear Father, I have been taken prisoner.
I am in good health.
I will soon be sent to a camp for officers in Germany.
I am in good health.
I will soon be sent to a camp for officers in Germany.
I am being treated well I wish you good healthy.
Greetings to everyone.’
The soviets tried to make him a hero saying he was captured during heroic actions, but
he was then imprisoned inside of Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp.
Whilst he was here, Dzhugashvili was visited by people who wanted to meet Stalin’s son.
But he was confrontational to the British prisoners, and he often fought them.
There were offers made for a prisoner swap for him, and with this Stalin would sentence
his ow son to death.
When German Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus surrendered at Stalingrad, the Germans offered
to swap Stalin’s son for Paulus, but this was seen by Stalin as a poor deal.
Stalin said, ‘Just think how many sons ended in camps.
Who would swap them for Paulus?’
It’s believed that another offer was also made to swap Yakov for Leo Raubal, Hitler’s
nephew but this was not accepted either.
However on the 14th April 1943, Yakov Dzhugashvili died inside of Sachsenhausen.
There are different accounts of his death, but his father in refusing the prisoner swaps
would be condemning him to death.
One account says that he ran intentionally into an electric fence that surrounded the
site.
Others speculated that he was actually shot by the Germans.
The German records said he ran into an electric fence after trying to flee British soldiers
he was arguing with.
But an autopsy said that he had been shot before.
So there were different accounts as to whether he was executed by gunshot before, or whether
he was in fact a man who took his own life.
Stalin after hearing of his death would regret how he treated his son and also the fact he
didn’t spare him, and he claimed he was a real man and he spent a number of days mourning
him.
Yakov Dzhugashvili was the son of Stalin who spent his final days inside of a concentration
camp in Germany.
He was captured by Hitler’s forces and was sent back to Germany to be used as a propaganda
piece.
But the events of his last few days are rather sketchy, and it’s not known if he was executed
or whether he died under different circumstances.
But the fact his father refused to accept a prisoner swap for him, ultimately condemned
him to death.
If he had not have died before hand, it’s possible that the Germans would have executed
him, and it’s likely that he would never have been sent back to the Soviet Union.
The son of Stalin who never saw eye to eye with his father was ultimately condemned by
him.
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