Remembered for his bloody purges that resulted in the deaths and executions of hundreds of
thousands, Joseph Stalin was the leader of the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death
in 1953.
During his time as the Dictator, he oversaw the victory over Nazism during the Second
World War and after initially signing a treaty with Hitler things turned sour between the
Germans and the Soviets.
As Hitler sought to expand his empire, he would look East and launch Operation Barbarossa.
But during fighting on the Eastern Front, there was a close relative of Adolf Hitler
captured, and also a very close relative of Stalin that fell into enemy hands.
There was a deal to swap the pair, however Stalin ultimately rejected it, and with this
signed his own sons death warrant.
Join us today as we look at how Stalin sentenced his own son to death, remember to support
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Yakov Dzhugashvilli was the son of Joseph Stalin, and home life was not good for the
young boy.
Shortly after his birth, his father was involved in a bank robbery and they then left to avoid
capture.
Yakov’s mother died in December 1907, leaving him in the hands of his father, but then Stalin
abandoned his son to be raised by his wife’s family and he was very distant.
He spent 14 years being raised by his aunts before he was sent to Moscow to life with
his Dad.
He didn’t understand Russian and his father refused to allow him to adopt the surname
Stalin.
Yakov despite this was known for being kind, and began to train as an engineer.
But in 1937 he was pushed into training in the Artillery Academy.
Things were not good between father and son, as Stalin rejected Yakov’s idea to marry
a daughter of a priest.
Yakov even in the fallout from this tried to take his own life by shooting himself,
and was very fortunate that he did not die.
He did get married, but as the Second World War broke out, the war would eventually come
to the Soviet Union’s doorstep.
Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa in June 1941 and the German tanks and Blitzkrieg flew
into Soviet territory.
At first the Germans made significant advancements, and Stalin could not believe what had happened.
More men were pushed into the Red Army to help defend the Union against the Wehrmacht
advances, and there was huge amounts of slaughter in the lands as the Einsatzgruppen carried
out scores of massacres.
The Nazis hated the Communists, and Hitler sought it as his plan to smash the ideology.
Yakov Dzhugashvilli, Stalin’s son remained inside of the artillery division of the 14th
Howitzer Regiment of the 14th Tank Division, and he was then deployed into action.
However things went very badly for him, and it was not long before he was captured and
taken as a Prisoner of War.
Within one month of the Nazis invading the Soviet Union, during the Battle of Smolensk,
Yakov was seized by the enemy.
The German forces outnumbered his group, and they surrounded the artillery battery where
he was, and despite the order being given to retreat, Yakov disobeyed.
He claimed to try and rally the soldiers and said, ‘I am the Son of Stalin, and I do
not allow the battery to retreat.’
There were allegations that his specific fighting group were betrayed by other members of the
Red Army who dissented against Stalin and had turned again it, but some believe that
he surrendered to the Germans of his own free will.
However capturing Stalin’s son was seen as a huge coup for the Germans, and it was
printed in newspapers to show the huge capture of someone regarded as highly significant.
They didn’t initially know the relationship Yakov Dzhugashvilli had with his father, and
that there was hardly one there, with the two not seeing eye to eye.
Stalin could even be seen as resenting his son at times, but he would be furious with
his capture.
The Leader of the Soviet Union had ordered a no surrender order, and a no retreat order,
saying that every man and woman of the Red Army was to fight to the death and not take
a step back.
With the fact his son had surrendered to the enemy, he saw this as the ultimate betrayal
and with this practically disowned his son.
He wished that his son had killed himself instead of becoming a Prisoner of War, and
this put Stalin in the position of him having to make a decision as to try and save him.
He would not do this.
The Germans confirmed his identity, and images were shown in newspapers of him smiling with
enemy soldiers almost as if he was a celebrity.
In a leaflet that was dropped over Soviet Soldiers it was said that Yakov wrote, ‘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 being treated well, I wish you good health.’
Yakov Dzhugashvilli was awarded the Order of the Red Banner by the Red Army, but then
Stalin’s son was taken into the Nazi Third Reich and was transported to Berlin.
Goebbels the Head of Propaganda was wanting him to make a demoralising radio broadcast
however this never materialised and he was then sent to Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp.
This camp was where 200,000 prisoners would pas through the fences, and thousands would
be killed there by the conditions and the gas chambers.
Inside the camp the prisoners were forced to work very hard and were given hardly any
food, and executions took place everywhere inside the camp.
Whilst Yakov was at the camp, he was seen as a star prisoner however he was far from
this.
He was argumentative, and he often fought with British prisoners.
But he would never make it out of Sachsenhausen alive.
His death sentence was virtually signed by his father who rejected a number of prison
swaps for him.
First of all offered in exchange for Stalin’s son was Heinz Hitler.
Heinz was the nephew of Hitler and was his favourite.
The Fuhrer had big plans for Heinz, who had been captured fighting on the Eastern Front.
He aspired to be an officer, but on the 10th January 1942 was captured after trying to
retrieve radio equipment.
He was the captured by the Soviets, but there was an offer made by Hitler to Stalin.
Hitler clearly valued his nephew more than Stalin valued his son, and he offered to swap
Yakov for Heinz Hitler through the Swedish Red Cross to guarantee safety.
However Stalin was still furious with his son’s surrender and he rejected the offer.
With this, it hammered the first nail in his son’s coffin and Heinz Hitler was later
tortured to death inside of a Moscow prison.
Following the battle of Stalingrad, German General Paulus was seized and Hitler and the
Germans wanted him back.
An offer was made to swap Paulus with Stalin’s son, however Yakov himself would admit that
he would not like to be swapped for a field marshal.
In terms of the value of Paulus for Dzhugashvilli, militarily there was no question it would
have been a bad move to accept it.
Stalin was furious with the proposal and said, ‘Just how many sons ended in camps.
Who would swap them for Paulus?
Were they worse than Yakov?’
Stalin with this rejected it and there was allegedly one more proposal made.
Hitler approached Stalin again according to a Historian, with a proposal to swap Yakov
for Hitler’s nephew Leo Raubal.
Raubal was injured in the Battle of Stalingrad and Paulus himself asked for a plane to evacuate
Raubal but this was refused and he fell into Soviet hands.
Stalin would refuse yet again this third prison swap and with this virtually sentenced his
son to death.
Yakov inside of Sachsenhausen was of no worth, and it was looking likely that he would be
executed or killed as he was also causing a significant degree of trouble.
But the fact his father refused to get him safely back how shows how little Stalin valued
his life and also how he resented the fact he had surrendered.
This drove Stalin incredibly mad, but Yakov Dzhugasvilli would die inside of the concentration
camp.
His father wanted nothing to do with him, and there are different accounts as to how
he died.
One account states how he ran into an electric fence after arguing with British prisoners,
and another states that he possibly accidentally did this.
But a German officer after then went up to the lifeless body of Stalin’s son and shot
him four times to make sure he was dead.
Joseph Stalin ultimately sentenced his own son to death with the fact he was so gutted
by his son’s surrender.
The anger he had for this caused him to be stuck inside of Sachsenhausen, and after finding
out about his death it was said Stalin regretted deeply his actions.
If he had been more caring at any point towards his son, then chances are their relationship
would have been more positive, and he would have seen it as necessary to swap him.
A fair deal for Yakov Dzhugashvilli would have been swapping him for one of Hitler’s
nephews who had similar ranks in the military as him.
But ultimately it was Stalin’s rejection that led to the death of his son.
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