Vasily Stalin, the future lieutenant general of aviation, was born in Joseph Stalin's second marriage to Nadezhda Alliluyeva. At the age of 12, he lost his mother. She shot herself in 1932. Stalin was not involved in his upbringing, shifting this concern to the head of security. Later Vasily will write that he was raised by men “not distinguished by morality......He began to smoke and drink early.”
At the age of 19, he fell in love with his friend's fiancée Galina Burdonskaya and married her in 1940. In 1941, the first-born Sasha was born, two years later Nadezhda.
After 4 years, Galina left, unable to bear her husband’s spree. In retaliation, he refused to give her the children. For eight years they had to live with their father, despite the fact that a year later he started another family.
The new chosen one was the daughter of Marshal Tymoshenko, Ekaterina. The ambitious beauty, born on December 21, like Stalin, and who saw this as a special sign, did not like her stepsons. The hatred was manic. She locked them up, “forgot” to feed them, and beat them. Vasily did not pay attention to this. The only thing that bothered him was that the children should not see their own mother. One day Alexander met with her secretly, the father found out about it and beat his son.
Many years later, Alexander recalled those years as the most difficult time of his life.
In his second marriage, Vasily Jr. and daughter Svetlana were born. But the family broke up. Vasily, along with the children from his first marriage, Alexander and Nadezhda, went to the famous swimmer Kapitolina Vasilyeva. She accepted them as family. The children from the second marriage remained with their mother.
After Stalin's death, Vasily was arrested.
The first wife Galina immediately took the children. Nobody stopped her from doing this.
Catherine renounced Vasily, received a pension from the state and a four-room apartment on Gorky Street (now Tverskaya), where she lived with her son and daughter. Either due to severe heredity, or an equally difficult situation in the family, their further fate was tragic.
Both did poorly at school. Alone because I was sick all the time. The other one was not interested in studying at all.
After the 21st Party Congress and the exposure of the cult of personality, negativity towards all of Stalin’s relatives intensified in society. Catherine, trying to protect her son, sent him to Georgia to study. There he entered the Faculty of Law. I didn’t go to classes, spent time with new friends, and became addicted to drugs.
The problem was not immediately recognized. From the third year, his mother took him to Moscow, but could not cure him. During one of his “breakdowns,” Vasily committed suicide at the dacha of his famous grandfather, Marshal Timoshenko. He was only 23.
After the death of her son, Catherine withdrew into herself. She did not love her daughter and even refused custody of her, despite the fact that Svetlana suffered from Graves' disease and progressive mental illness.
Svetlana died at 43 years old, completely alone. They learned of her death only a few weeks later.
Vasily's children from his first marriage were more successful.
Alexander graduated from the Suvorov Military School. He was not interested in a military career, and he entered the directing department of GITIS. He played in the theater and received the title of People's Artist. He worked as a director at the Soviet Army Theater. He considered his grandfather a tyrant, and his relationship with him as a “heavy cross.” He loved his mother very much, lived with her most of the time and bore her last name Burdonsky. Died in 2017.
Nadezhda, unlike her brother, remained Stalin. She always defended her grandfather, claiming that Stalin did not know much of what was happening in the country. She studied at the theater school, but she did not become an actress. She lived in Gori for some time. Upon returning to Moscow, she married her adopted son and mother-in-law, Alexander Fadeev, and gave birth to a daughter, Anastasia. Nadezhda died in 1999 at the age of 56.
Vasily had no other children.
The last wife was nurse Maria Nusberg. He adopted her two daughters, just as he had previously adopted the daughter of Kapitolina Vasilyeva.
Theater director.
Honored Artist of the RSFSR (07/29/1985).
People's Artist of Russia (02/21/1996).
Direct grandson of I.V. Stalin, eldest son of Vasily Iosifovich Stalin (1921-1962) from his first wife Galina Burdonskaya (1921-1990).
He recalled: “The parents’ life together did not work out. I was four years old when my mother left my father. She was not allowed to take her children with her. We were separated for eight years."
In 1951-1953 he studied at the Kalinin Suvorov Military School.
Later he entered the acting course at the studio at the Sovremennik Theater with Oleg Nikolaevich Efremov. In 1966, he entered GITIS (now RATI) in the directing department of Maria Osipovna Knebel's course, while simultaneously graduating from school as an external student and receiving a matriculation certificate.
After graduating from GITIS in 1971, he was invited to play Shakespeare's Romeo by Anatoly Efros at the theater on Malaya Bronnaya. Three months later, Maria Knebel invites her student to the Army Theater to stage the play “The One Who Gets Slaps” by Leonid Andreev, in which Andrei Popov and Vladimir Zeldin played. After the implementation of this production, in 1972, the chief director of the CTSA, Andrei Alekseevich Popov, proposed to A.V. Burdonsky to stay at the Army Theater.
Director of the Central Academic Theater of the Soviet (Russian) Army.
Staged two performances at the Maly Theater and in Japan. The Land of the Rising Sun saw "The Seagull" by A. Chekhov, "Vassa Zheleznova" by M. Gorky and "Orpheus Descends to Hell" by T. Williams.
He taught at GITIS (RATI).
He was married to his classmate Dala Tamulevichiute (1940-2006), director of the State Youth Theater of Lithuania.
theatrical works
Performances staged at CATRA:
“The one who gets slapped” by L. Andreev
“Lady with Camellias” by A. Dumas the Son
“The snows have fallen” by R. Fedenev
“The Garden” by V. Arro
"Orpheus Descends into Hell" by T. Williams
“Vassa to Zheleznov” by M. Gorky
“Your sister and captive” by L. Razumovskaya
“Mandate” by N. Erdman
“The Lady Dictates the Terms” by E. Alice and R. Reese
“The Last Passionate Lover” by N. Simon
"Britannicus" by J. Racine
“Trees Die Standing” by A. Kasona
“Duet for Soloist” by T. Kempinski
"Broadway Charades" by M. Orr and R. Denham
“Harp of greeting” by M. Bogomolny
“Invitation to the Castle” by J. Anouilh
“The Queen’s Duel with Death” based on the play “The Laughter of the Lobster” by D. Murrell
“She who is not expected...” based on the play “The Morning Fairy” by A. Kasona
“The Seagull” by A.P. Chekhov
"Elinor and Her Men" by J. Goldman
40 days have passed since People's Artist of the Russian Federation Alexander Burdonsky passed away.
For 45 years he faithfully served the Russian Army Theater. In an interview he admitted that he wanted to leave at the peak. And so it happened... they remembered Alexander Vasilyevich along with his colleagues on stage.
Since the sad event happened very recently, I first asked under what circumstances it happened.
“When Burdonsky got to the hospital, I called and asked him: “Are you staying late?” He replied that he would not be discharged for now. It was completely unlike him,” People’s Artist of Russia Olga Bogdanova, leading actress of the Russian Army Theater, told me. – Alexander Vasilyevich did not seem healthy: pale, thin, but he had incredible fortitude. During rehearsals, he literally got a second wind and all his illnesses went away. It seemed that he would survive on this strength of spirit.
However, after some time, on May 9, she called the actor to congratulate him on Victory Day and asked how he would feel about the visit. Burdonsky said: “Be sure to come.” The word “necessarily” alarmed her. And two days later the actress decided to visit him.
“To be honest, I was a little afraid of this meeting,” she admitted to me. “I decided to prepare myself mentally and asked the nurse to meet me. But it so happened that Burdonsky and I ran into each other in the corridor. And he said very simply: “You know, I have cancer.” Then everything went cold inside me. He began to tell me that chemotherapy was coming. It was important for him to know how much time he had left and whether he would be able to return home to work after the procedures. I encouraged him, said that we, the actors, were really looking forward to him and were ready to run to him at rehearsals...
Farewell to Alexander Burdonsky / YouTube still frame
Why didn't you take the leader's surname?
Despite the fact that Alexander Burdonsky was the grandson of Joseph Stalin, he saw his famous grandfather only at the funeral. From birth, Burdonsky bore the surname of his father Vasily, was Stalin, but then decided to take the surname of his mother Galina. As a boy, he already understood that his grandfather was the executioner of many innocent souls, and called him a tyrant.
“On the day of Stalin’s death, I was terribly ashamed that everyone around was crying, but I wasn’t,” Alexander Burdonsky admitted in an interview. “I sat near the coffin and saw crowds of sobbing people. I was rather scared and shocked by this. What good could I have for him? What to be grateful for? For the crippled childhood I had? Being Stalin's grandson is a heavy cross.
From infancy it was hammered into his head that he had to be an excellent student at school and behave exemplarily. Then they said that he had to be a warrior, they sent him to the Suvorov Military School, even though Alexander resisted this.
Burdonsky's mother broke up with Vasily Stalin, unable to withstand his drinking, betrayal and scandals. It was rumored that Vasily was literally addicted to alcohol from the cradle by his father: he teased his wife Nadezhda Alliluyeva by pouring a glass for the one-year-old boy. Vasily deprived Galina of the opportunity to communicate with children. Her place was taken by her stepmother Ekaterina Timoshenko.
“She was a powerful and cruel woman,” Burdonsky recalled. “We, other people’s children, apparently irritated her.” We lacked not only warmth, but also basic care. They forgot to feed us for three or four days, some were locked in the room. Our stepmother treated us terribly. She beat her sister Nadya most severely - her kidneys were broken off.
He didn't have children
After such trials, Burdonsky was still able not to lose faith in love. The director lived in a happy marriage for 40 years with his wife Dalia Tumalyavichute (she died in 2006), but they had no children. As he believed, because his childhood was too difficult. He gave his unrealized fatherly love to GITIS students.
According to Alexander Vasilyevich, he had three crazy loves - mother, wife and theater.
“He was skeptical, sarcastic. Sometimes he was both despotic and menacing: he could shout at the actors if they didn’t hear him, didn’t feel him, or didn’t go in the same direction with him,” actress of the Russian Army Theater Anastasia Busygina shared her memories. “He loved us more than his own life.” All our gifts and photographs of us were kept at his house. He wasn't alone. And when he passed away, his loved ones were nearby.
On the day when Alexander Vasilyevich passed away, his favorite play “The Seagull” by A.P. Chekhov was on stage.
“He was in a good private clinic,” says actress Olga Bogdanova. – The actors promised to visit him after the performance. Alexander Vasilyevich waited. They told how the performance went. And after that, before their eyes, he fell into oblivion and left this world.
45 years ago - March 19, 1962 - the youngest son of the “Father of Nations” Vasily Stalin died
Alexander Burdonsky met his grandfather the only time - at the funeral. And before that, I saw him, like other pioneers, only at demonstrations: on Victory Day and on the October anniversary.
"STEPMOTHER TREATED US TERRIBLY. FORGOT TO FEED US FOR THREE OR FOUR DAYS, MY SISTER'S KIDNEYS WERE KNOCKED OFF"
- Is it true that your father - “a man of crazy courage” - took your mother away from the famous former hockey player Vladimir Menshikov?
Yes, they were 19 years old at the time. When my father was caring for my mother, he was like Paratov from “Dowry.” What were his flights on a small plane over the Kirovskaya metro station, near which she lived, worth... He knew how to show off! In 1940, the parents got married.
My mother was cheerful and loved the color red. I even made myself a red wedding dress. It turned out that this was a bad omen...
In the book "Around Stalin" it is written that your grandfather did not come to this wedding. In a letter to his son, he sharply wrote: “If you got married, to hell with you. I feel sorry for her that she married such a fool.” But your parents looked like an ideal couple, they were even so similar in appearance that they were mistaken for brother and sister...
It seems to me that my mother loved him until the end of her days, but they had to part... She was simply a rare person - she could not pretend to be someone and never lied (maybe that was her problem)...
According to the official version, Galina Aleksandrovna left, unable to withstand the constant drinking, assault and betrayal. For example, the fleeting connection between Vasily Stalin and the wife of the famous cameraman Roman Carmen Nina...
Among other things, my mother did not know how to make friends in this circle. Head of Security Nikolai Vlasik (who raised Vasily after the death of his mother in 1932.- Auth. ), an eternal intriguer, tried to use her: “Galochka, you have to tell me what Vasya’s friends are talking about.” His mother - swearing! He hissed, "You'll pay for this."
It is quite possible that the divorce from my father was the price to pay. In order for the leader’s son to take a wife from his circle, Vlasik started an intrigue and slipped him Katya Timoshenko, the daughter of Marshal Semyon Konstantinovich Timoshenko.
Is it true that your stepmother, who grew up in an orphanage after her mother ran away from her husband, abused you and almost starved you?
Ekaterina Semyonovna was a powerful and cruel woman. We, other people's children, apparently irritated her. Perhaps that period of life was the most difficult. We lacked not only warmth, but also basic care. They forgot to feed us for three or four days, some were locked in the room. Our stepmother treated us terribly. She beat her sister Nadya most severely - her kidneys were broken off.
Before leaving for Germany, our family lived in the country in the winter. I remember how we, small children, sneaked into the cellar at night in the dark, stuffed beets and carrots into our pants, peeled unwashed vegetables with our teeth and gnawed on them. Just a scene from a horror movie. The cook Isaevna had a great time when she brought us something....
Catherine's life with her father is full of scandals. I think he didn't love her. Most likely, there were no special feelings on both sides. Very calculating, she, like everyone else in her life, simply calculated this marriage. We need to know what she was trying to achieve. If there is prosperity, then the goal can be said to have been achieved. Catherine brought a huge amount of junk from Germany. All this was stored in a barn at our dacha, where Nadya and I were starving... And when my father threw my stepmother out in 1949, she needed several cars to take out the trophy goods. Nadya and I heard a noise in the yard and rushed to the window. We see: Studebakers are coming in a chain...
From the Gordon Boulevard dossier.
Ekaterina Timoshenko lived with Vasily Stalin in a legal marriage, although his divorce from Galina Burdonskaya was not formalized. And this family fell apart because of Vasily’s betrayals and binges. Drunk, he rushed to fight. The first time Catherine left her husband was because of his new affair. And when Vasily Stalin, the commander of the Moscow District Air Force, performed a bad air parade, his father removed him from his post and forced him to get together with his wife. At least at the mourning events in connection with the death of the leader, Vasily and Catherine were nearby.
They had two children together - daughter Svetlana appeared in 1947, and son Vasily appeared in 1949. Svetlana Vasilievna, who was born sickly, died at 43; Vasily Vasilyevich - he studied at Tbilisi University at the Faculty of Law - became a drug addict and died at the age of 21 from a heroin overdose.
Ekaterina Tymoshenko died in 1988. She is buried in the same grave with her son at the Novodevichy cemetery.
"FATHER WAS A DESPERATE PILOT, TOOK INTO THE BATTLE OF STALINGRAD AND THE CAPTURE OF BERLIN
- If I’m not mistaken, your second stepmother was the USSR swimming champion Kapitolina Vasilyeva.
Yes. I remember Kapitolina Georgievna with gratitude - she was the only one at that time who humanly tried to help my father.
He wrote to her from prison: “I was very much in love. And this is no coincidence, for all my best days - family days - were with you, the Vasilyevs”...
By nature, my father was a kind man. He loved to do tinkering and plumbing at home. Those who knew him well spoke of him as “golden hands.” He was an excellent pilot, brave and desperate. Participated in the Battle of Stalingrad and the capture of Berlin.
Although I love my father less than my mother: I can’t forgive him that he took my sister and me to live with our stepmothers. My dad's last name was Stalin, but I changed it. By the way, everyone is interested in whether he left me a legacy of a penchant for alcoholism. But you see, I didn’t get drunk and I’m sitting in front of you...
I read that Vasily Stalin came from Lefortovo not to Kapitolina Vasilyeva, but to your mother. But she did not accept him - she already had her own life.
Mom said: “It’s better to be in a tiger’s cage than to be with your father for even a day, even for an hour.” This despite all the sympathy for him... She remembered how, separated from us, she rushed about in search of a way out and ran into a wall. I tried to get a job, but as soon as the personnel department saw a passport with a stamp about registering a marriage with Vasily Stalin, they refused under any pretext. After Stalin's death, my mother sent a letter to Beria asking her to return the children. Thank God, it did not have time to find the addressee - Beria was arrested. Otherwise it could have ended badly. She wrote to Voroshilov, and only after that we were returned.
Then we moved in together - me and my mother, my sister Nadezhda already had her own family (For 15 years, Nadezhda Burdonskaya lived with Alexander Fadeev Jr., the natural son of actress Angelina Stepanova and the adopted son of a Soviet classic writer. Fadeev Jr., who suffered from alcoholism and tried to commit suicide several times, was married to Lyudmila Gurchenko before Nadezhda.- Auth. ).
Sometimes people ask me: why do I like to stage plays about the difficult lives of women? Because of my mother...
Last May, you showed the premiere of "The Queen's Duel with Death" - your interpretation of John Murrell's play "The Laugh of the Lobster", dedicated to the great actress Sarah Bernhardt...
I have had this play for a long time. More than 20 years ago, Elina Bystritskaya brought it to me: she really wanted to play Sarah Bernhardt. I had already decided to stage a play with her and Vladimir Zeldin on our stage, but the theater did not want Bystritskaya to “tour”, and the play left my hands.
Sarah Bernhardt lived a long life. Balzac and Zola admired her, Rostand and Wilde wrote plays for her. Jean Cocteau said that she did not need a theater, she could arrange a theater anywhere... As a theater person, I cannot help but be excited by the most legendary actress in the history of world theater, who had no equal. But, of course, she was also worried about the human phenomenon. At the end of her life, already with an amputated leg, she played the scene of the death of Marguerite Gautier without getting out of bed. I was shocked by this thirst for life, this irrepressible love of life.
From the Gordon Boulevard dossier.
Galina Burdonskaya, a heavy drinker, was diagnosed with smoker's veins in 1977 and had her leg amputated. She lived as a disabled person for another 13 years and died in the corridor of the Sklifosovsky hospital in 1990.
"WE WERE NOT GIVEN A CLEAR ANSWER ABOUT THE REASONS FOR THE FATHER'S DEATH (AT 41 YEARS OF AGE!)"
- Stalin’s adopted son Artem Sergeev recalled that when he saw your father pouring himself another portion of alcohol, he told him: “Vasya, that’s enough.” He answered: “I have only two options: a bullet or a glass. After all, I’m alive while my father is alive. And as soon as he closes his eyes, Beria will tear me to pieces the next day, and Khrushchev and Malenkov will help him, and Bulganin will go there.” same. They won’t tolerate such a witness. Do you know what it’s like to live under an ax? So I’m moving away from these thoughts."
I visited my father both in Vladimir prison and in Lefortovo. I saw a man driven into a corner who could not stand up for himself and justify himself. And his conversation was mainly, of course, about how to get free. He understood that neither I nor my sister could help with this (she died eight years ago). He was tormented by a sense of injustice of what had been done to him.
From the Gordon Boulevard dossier .
Vasily loved animals since childhood. He brought a wounded horse from Germany and went out, keeping stray dogs. He had a hamster, a rabbit. Once at the dacha, Artem Sergeev saw him sitting next to a formidable dog, stroking him, kissing his nose, giving him food from his plate: “This one will not deceive, will not change.”...
On July 27, 1952, a parade dedicated to Air Force Day was held in Tushino. Contrary to the prevailing myth that the plane crashed because of Vasily, he coped with the organization brilliantly. After watching the parade, the Politburo in full force went to Kuntsevo, to Joseph Stalin’s dacha. The leader ordered that his son also be at the banquet... Vasily was found drunk in Zubalovo. Kapitolina Vasilyeva recalls: “Vasya went to his father. He came in, and the entire Politburo was sitting at the table. He swayed to one side, then to the other. His father said to him: “You’re drunk, get out!” And he: “No, father, I'm not drunk." Stalin frowned: "No, you're drunk!" After this, Vasily was removed from his post..."
At the coffin, he cried bitterly and stubbornly insisted that his father was poisoned. I was not myself, I felt trouble was approaching. The patience of “Uncle Lavrenty,” “Uncle Yegor” (Malenkov) and “Uncle Nikita,” who had known Vasily since childhood, ran out very quickly. 53 days after his father's death, on April 27, 1953, Vasily Stalin was arrested.
The writer Voitekhov wrote in his testimony: “In the winter at the end of 1949, when I arrived at the apartment of my ex-wife, actress Lyudmila Tselikovskaya, I found her in disarray. She said that Vasily Stalin had just visited her and tried to force her to cohabitation. I went to his apartment, where he was drinking in the company of pilots. Vasily knelt down, called himself a scoundrel and a scoundrel and declared that he was cohabiting with my wife. In 1951 I had financial difficulties, and he gave me a job at the headquarters "I was an assistant. I didn't do any work, but received my salary as an Air Force athlete."
The documents indicated that it was not Vasily Iosifovich Stalin who was taken to prison, but Vasily Pavlovich Vasilyev (the son of the leader should not be in prison).
In 1958, when Vasily Stalin’s health deteriorated sharply, as reported by KGB chief Shelepin, the leader’s son was again transferred to the Lefortovo detention center in the capital, and once he was taken to Khrushchev for a few minutes. Shelepin recalled how Vasily then fell to his knees in Nikita Sergeevich’s office and began to beg for his release. Khrushchev was very touched, called him “dear Vasenka,” and asked: “What did they do to you?” He shed tears, and then kept Vasily in Lefortovo for another whole year...
They say that a taxi driver who heard a message on the Voice of America told you about the death of Vasily Iosifovich...
Then the third wife of Father Kapitolin Vasiliev, me and sister Nadya flew to Kazan. We saw him already under the sheet - dead. Capitolina lifted the sheet - I remember very well that he had stitches. It must have been opened. Although there is no clear answer about the reasons for his death - at the age of 41! - no one gave us then...
But Vasilyeva writes that she did not see any seams from the opening, that the coffin stood on two stools. No flowers, in a miserable room. And that her ex-husband was buried like a homeless person, there were few people. According to other sources, several monuments even fell in the cemetery due to the crowd of people...
People walked for quite a long time. Several people, as they passed, pulled aside the sides of their coats, underneath which were military uniforms and medals. Apparently, this is how the pilots arranged their farewell - it was impossible otherwise.
I remember that my sister, who was then, I think, 17 years old, came from this funeral completely gray-haired. It was a shock...
From the Gordon Boulevard dossier.
Kapitolina Vasilyeva recalls: “I planned to come to Kazan for Vasily’s birthday. I thought I’d stay at a hotel and bring something tasty. And suddenly I got a call: come to bury Vasily Iosifovich Stalin...
I came with Sasha and Nadya. Nuzberg asked how he died. He says that the Georgians arrived and brought a barrel of wine. It was, they say, bad - they gave an injection, then a second one. It twisted and twisted... But this happens when blood clots. Toxicosis is not corrected with injections, but by washing the stomach. The man lay and suffered for 12 hours - they didn’t even call an ambulance. I ask why is this? Nuzberg says that the doctor herself gave him the injection.
I furtively looked around the kitchen, looked under the tables, in the trash can - I didn’t find any ampoule. She asked if there was an autopsy and what it showed. Yes, he says, it was. Poisoned from wine. Then I told Sasha to hold the door - I decided to check for myself whether there had been an opening. She approached the coffin. Vasily was in a tunic, swollen. I began to unbutton the buttons, and my hands were shaking...
There are no signs of an autopsy. Suddenly the door swung open, and two mugs who had been following me as soon as we arrived in Kazan burst in. They threw Sasha away, Nadya was almost knocked off her feet, and I flew... And the security officers shouted: “You are not allowed to! You have no right!”
Five years ago, the ashes of Vasily Stalin were reburied in Moscow, which you almost read about in the newspapers. But why at the Troyekurovskoye cemetery, if his mother, grandparents, aunt and uncle are buried at Novodevichy? Is this what your half-sister Tatyana, who has been trying to achieve this for 40 years, decided and wrote to the Kremlin?
Let me remind you that Tatyana Dzhugashvili has nothing to do with the youngest son of Joseph Stalin. This is the daughter of Maria Nuzberg, who took the surname Dzhugashvili.
The reburial was arranged in order to somehow join this family - a kind of piracy characteristic of our time.
"WHAT COULD I THANK MY GRANDFATHER FOR? FOR MY CRAPED CHILDHOOD?"
- You and your cousin Evgeniy Dzhugashvili are fantastically different people. You speak in a quiet voice and love poetry, he is a loud military man, regretting the good old days and wondering why the ashes of this Klaas do not knock on your heart...
I don't like fanatics, and Evgeny is a fanatic who lives in the name of Stalin. I can’t see how someone adores the leader and denies the crimes he committed.
A year ago, another relative of yours on Eugene’s side, 33-year-old artist Yakov Dzhugashvili, turned to Russian President Vladimir Putin with a request to investigate the circumstances of the death of his great-grandfather Joseph Stalin. Your cousin claims in his letter that Stalin died a violent death and this “made it possible for Khrushchev to come to power, imagining himself as a statesman, whose so-called activities turned out to be nothing more than a betrayal of state interests.” Convinced that a coup d'état took place in March 1953, Yakov Dzhugashvili asks Vladimir Putin to “determine the degree of responsibility of all persons involved in the coup.”
I don't support this idea. It seems to me that such things can only be done out of nothing to do...What happened, happened. People have already passed away, why bring up the past?
According to legend, Stalin refused to exchange his eldest son Yakov for Field Marshal Paulus, saying: “I don’t exchange a soldier for a field marshal.” Relatively recently, the Pentagon handed over to Stalin’s granddaughter, Galina Yakovlevna Dzhugashvili, materials about the death of her father in fascist captivity...
It's never too late to take a noble step. I would be lying if I said that I shuddered or my soul ached when these documents were handed over. All this is a thing of the distant past. And it is primarily important for Yasha’s daughter Galina, because she lives in the memory of her father, who loved her very much.
It is important to put an end to it, because the more time passes after all the events associated with the Stalin family, the more difficult it is to reach the truth...
Is it true that Stalin was the son of Nikolai Przhevalsky? The famous traveler allegedly stayed in Gori in the house where Dzhugashvili’s mother, Ekaterina Geladze, worked as a maid. These rumors were fueled by the amazing resemblance between Przhevalsky and Stalin...
I don't think that's true. Rather, the matter is different. Stalin was keen on the teachings of the religious mystic Gurdjieff, and it suggests that a person should hide his real origin and even shroud his date of birth in a certain veil. The legend of Przhevalsky, of course, was grist for this mill. And the fact that they are similar in appearance, please, there are also rumors that Saddam Hussein was the son of Stalin...
Alexander Vasilyevich, have you ever heard suggestions that you got your talent as a director from your grandfather?
Yes, they sometimes told me: “It’s clear why Bourdonsky is a director. Stalin was also a director”... My grandfather was a tyrant. Even if someone really wants to attach angel wings to him, they won’t stay on him... When Stalin died, I was terribly ashamed that everyone around was crying, but I wasn’t. I sat near the coffin and saw crowds of sobbing people. I was rather frightened by this, even shocked. What good could I have for him? What to be grateful for? For the crippled childhood I had? I don’t wish this on anyone.... Being Stalin’s grandson is a heavy cross. I would never play Stalin in a movie for any money, although they promised huge profits.
What do you think about Radzinsky’s acclaimed book “Stalin”?
Radzinsky, apparently, wanted to find in me as a director some other key to Stalin’s character. He came supposedly to listen to me, but he talked for four hours. I sat and listened to his monologue with pleasure. But he didn’t understand the true Stalin, it seems to me...
The artistic director of the Taganka Theater, Yuri Lyubimov, said that Joseph Vissarionovich ate, and then wiped his hands on the starched tablecloth - he’s a dictator, why should he be ashamed? But your grandmother Nadezhda Alliluyeva, they say, was a very well-mannered and modest woman...
Once in the 50s, my grandmother’s sister Anna Sergeevna Alliluyeva gave us a chest where Nadezhda Sergeevna’s things were kept. I was struck by the modesty of her dresses. An old jacket, mended under the arm, a worn skirt made of dark wool, and the inside is all patched. And this was worn by a young woman who was said to love beautiful clothes...
P.S. In addition to Alexander Burdonsky, there are six more grandchildren of Stalin on a different line. Three children of Yakov Dzhugashvili and three of Lana Peters, as Svetlana Alliluyeva renamed herself after leaving for the USA.
Alexander Vasilievich Burdonsky direct grandson of I.V. Stalin, eldest son of Vasily Stalin.
He is the only one of Stalin's descendants to publish his DNA.
Joseph Stalin's grandson Alexander Burdonsky: “Grandfather was a real tyrant. I can’t see how someone is trying to invent angel wings for him, denying the crimes he committed.”
Joseph Stalin's grandson Alexander Burdonsky: “Grandfather was a real tyrant. I can’t see how someone is trying to invent angel wings for him, denying the crimes he committed.”
After the death of Vasily Iosifovich, seven children remained: four of his own and three adopted. Nowadays, only 75-year-old Alexander Burdonsky, the son of Vasily Stalin from his first wife Galina Burdonskaya, is alive among his own children. He is a director, People's Artist of Russia, lives in Moscow and heads the Central Academic Theater of the Russian Army.
Alexander Burdonsky met his grandfather the only time - at the funeral. And before that, I saw him, like other pioneers, only at demonstrations: on Victory Day and on the October anniversary. The always busy head of state did not express any desire to communicate more closely with his grandson. And the grandson wasn’t too keen. At the age of 13, he took his mother’s surname on principle (many of Galina Burdonskaya’s relatives died in Stalin’s camps).
— Is it true that your father, a “man of crazy courage,” took your mother away from the famous former hockey player Vladimir Menshikov?
— Yes, they were 19 years old then. When my father was caring for my mother, he was like Paratov from Dowry. What were his flights on a small plane over the Kirovskaya metro station, near which she lived, worth... He knew how to show off! In 1940, the parents got married.
My mother was cheerful and loved the color red. I even made myself a red wedding dress. It turned out that this was a bad omen...
— In the book “Around Stalin” it is written that your grandfather did not come to this wedding. In a letter to his son, he sharply wrote: “If you got married, to hell with you. I feel sorry for her that she married such a fool.” But your parents looked like an ideal couple, they were even so similar in appearance that they were mistaken for brother and sister...
“It seems to me that my mother loved him until the end of her days, but they had to part... She was simply a rare person - she could not pretend to be someone and never lied (maybe this was her problem)...
— According to the official version, Galina Aleksandrovna left, unable to withstand the constant drinking, assault and betrayal. For example, the fleeting connection between Vasily Stalin and the wife of the famous cameraman Roman Carmen Nina...
“Apart from everything else, my mother didn’t know how to make friends in this circle.” The head of the security, Nikolai Vlasik (who raised Vasily after the death of his mother in 1932), an eternal intriguer, tried to use her: “Galochka, you have to tell me what Vasya’s friends are talking about.” His mother - swearing! He hissed, "You'll pay for this."
It is quite possible that the divorce from my father was the price to pay. In order for the leader’s son to take a wife from his circle, Vlasik started an intrigue and slipped him Katya Timoshenko, the daughter of Marshal Semyon Konstantinovich Timoshenko.
“Is it true that your stepmother, who grew up in an orphanage after her mother ran away from her husband, abused you and almost starved you to death?”
“Ekaterina Semyonovna was a powerful and cruel woman. We, other people's children, apparently irritated her. Perhaps that period of life was the most difficult. We lacked not only warmth, but also basic care. They forgot to feed us for three or four days, some were locked in the room. Our stepmother treated us terribly. She beat her sister Nadya most severely - her kidneys were broken off.
Before leaving for Germany, our family lived in the country in the winter. I remember how we, small children, sneaked into the cellar at night in the dark, stuffed beets and carrots into our pants, peeled unwashed vegetables with our teeth and gnawed on them. Just a scene from a horror movie. The cook Isaevna had a great time when she brought us something....
Catherine's life with her father is full of scandals. I think he didn't love her. Most likely, there were no special feelings on both sides. Very calculating, she, like everyone else in her life, simply calculated this marriage. We need to know what she was trying to achieve. If there is prosperity, then the goal can be said to have been achieved. Catherine brought a huge amount of junk from Germany. All this was stored in a barn at our dacha, where Nadya and I were starving... And when my father threw my stepmother out in 1949, she needed several cars to take out the trophy goods. Nadya and I heard a noise in the yard and rushed to the window. We see: Studebakers are coming in a chain...
— Stalin’s adopted son Artem Sergeev recalled that, seeing how your father poured himself another portion of alcohol, he told him: “Vasya, that’s enough.” He answered: “I have only two options: a bullet or a glass. After all, I’m alive while my father is alive. And as soon as he closes his eyes, Beria will tear me to pieces the next day, and Khrushchev and Malenkov will help him, and Bulganin will go there.” same. They won’t tolerate such a witness. Do you know what it’s like to live under an ax? So I’m moving away from these thoughts."
“I visited my father both in Vladimir prison and in Lefortovo. I saw a man driven into a corner who could not stand up for himself and justify himself. And his conversation was mainly, of course, about how to get free. He understood that neither I nor my sister could help with this (she died eight years ago). He was tormented by a sense of injustice of what had been done to him.
— You and your cousin Evgeniy Dzhugashvili are fantastically different people. You speak in a quiet voice and love poetry, he is a loud military man, regretting the good old days and wondering why the ashes of this Klaas do not knock on your heart...
“I don’t like fanatics, and Evgeny is a fanatic who lives in the name of Stalin. I can’t see how someone adores the leader and denies the crimes he committed.
— A year ago, another relative of yours on Eugene’s side, 33-year-old artist Yakov Dzhugashvili, turned to Russian President Vladimir Putin with a request to investigate the circumstances of the death of his great-grandfather Joseph Stalin. Your cousin claims in his letter that Stalin died a violent death and this “made it possible for Khrushchev to come to power, imagining himself as a statesman, whose so-called activities turned out to be nothing more than a betrayal of state interests.” Convinced that a coup d'état took place in March 1953, Yakov Dzhugashvili asks Vladimir Putin to “determine the degree of responsibility of all persons involved in the coup.”
- I do not support this idea. It seems to me that such things can only be done out of nothing to do...What happened, happened. People have already passed away, why bring up the past?
— According to legend, Stalin refused to exchange his eldest son Yakov for Field Marshal Paulus, saying: “I don’t exchange a soldier for a field marshal.” Relatively recently, the Pentagon handed over to Stalin’s granddaughter, Galina Yakovlevna Dzhugashvili, materials about the death of her father in fascist captivity...
“It’s never too late to take a noble step.” I would be lying if I said that I shuddered or my soul ached when these documents were handed over. All this is a thing of the distant past. And it is primarily important for Yasha’s daughter Galina, because she lives in the memory of her father, who loved her very much.
It is important to put an end to it, because the more time passes after all the events associated with the Stalin family, the more difficult it is to reach the truth...
— Is it true that Stalin was the son of Nikolai Przhevalsky? The famous traveler allegedly stayed in Gori in the house where Dzhugashvili’s mother, Ekaterina Geladze, worked as a maid. These rumors were fueled by the amazing resemblance between Przhevalsky and Stalin...
In the last year of his life, Vasily Stalin began his day with a glass of wine and a glass of vodka
- I don't think that's true. Rather, the matter is different. Stalin was keen on the teachings of the religious mystic Gurdjieff, and it suggests that a person should hide his real origin and even shroud his date of birth in a certain veil. The legend of Przhevalsky, of course, was grist for this mill. And the fact that they are similar in appearance, please, there are also rumors that Saddam Hussein was the son of Stalin...
— Alexander Vasilyevich, have you ever heard suggestions that you got your talent as a director from your grandfather?
— Yes, they sometimes told me: “It’s clear why Bourdonsky is a director. Stalin was also a director”... My grandfather was a tyrant. Even if someone really wants to attach angel wings to him, they won’t stay on him... When Stalin died, I was terribly ashamed that everyone around was crying, but I wasn’t. I sat near the coffin and saw crowds of sobbing people. I was rather frightened by this, even shocked. What good could I have for him? What to be grateful for? For the crippled childhood I had? I don’t wish this on anyone.... Being Stalin’s grandson is a heavy cross. I would never play Stalin in a movie for any money, although they promised huge profits.
— What do you think about Radzinsky’s sensational book “Stalin”?
“Radzinsky, apparently, wanted to find in me as a director some other key to Stalin’s character. He came supposedly to listen to me, but he talked for four hours. I sat and listened to his monologue with pleasure. But he didn’t understand the true Stalin, it seems to me...
— The artistic director of the Taganka Theater Yuri Lyubimov said that Joseph Vissarionovich ate and then wiped his hands on the starched tablecloth - he’s a dictator, why should he be ashamed? But your grandmother Nadezhda Alliluyeva, they say, was a very well-mannered and modest woman...
“Once in the 50s, my grandmother’s sister Anna Sergeevna Alliluyeva gave us a chest where Nadezhda Sergeevna’s things were kept. I was struck by the modesty of her dresses. An old jacket, mended under the arm, a worn skirt made of dark wool, and the inside is all patched. And this was worn by a young woman who was said to love beautiful clothes...