Vasily Stalin

Vasily Iosifovich Stalin (since January 1962 - Dzhugashvili; 1921-1962) - Soviet military pilot, lieutenant general of aviation. Commander of the Air Force of the Moscow Military District (1948-1952). Youngest son of Joseph Stalin.

There are many interesting facts in the biography of Vasily Stalin, which we will talk about in this article.

So, before you is a short biography of Vasily Stalin.

Biography of Vasily Stalin

Vasily Stalin was born on March 24, 1921 in Moscow. He grew up in the family of the future head of the USSR Joseph Stalin and his wife Nadezhda Alliluyeva.

At the time of his birth, his father was the People's Commissar of the RSFSR Inspection for National Affairs.

Childhood and youth

Vasily had a younger sister, Svetlana Alliluyeva, and a half-brother, Yakov, the father's son from his first marriage. He was brought up and studied together with Stalin's adopted son, Artem Sergeev.

Since Vasily's parents were busy with state affairs (his mother edited material in a communist newspaper), the child experienced a lack of paternal and maternal affection. The first tragedy in his biography occurred at the age of 11, when he learned about his mother's suicide.

After this tragedy, Stalin very rarely saw his father, who suffered the death of his wife and seriously changed in character. At that time, Vasily's upbringing was handled by the head of the security of Joseph Vissarionovich, General Nikolai Vlasik, as well as his subordinates.

According to Vasily, he grew up surrounded by people who did not differ in highly moral manners. For this reason, he started smoking and drinking alcohol early.

When Stalin was about 17 years old, he entered the Kachin aviation school. Although the young man did not like theoretical studies, in fact he turned out to be an excellent pilot. On the eve of the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945), he served in the fighter regiment of the Air Force of the Moscow Military District, where he regularly flew flights.

Immediately after the start of the war, Vasily Stalin volunteered for the front. It is worth noting that the father did not want to let his beloved son go to fight, because he valued him. This led to the guy going to the front only a year later.

Military feats

Vasily was a brave and desperate soldier who was constantly eager to fight. Over time, he was appointed commander of a fighter aviation regiment, and later entrusted with commanding a whole division that took part in the operations to liberate Belarusian, Latvian and Lithuanian cities.

Stalin's subordinates said many positive things about him. However, they criticized him for being unjustifiably risky. There were many cases when, due to Vasily's rash actions, the officers were forced to save their commander.

Nevertheless, Vasily himself repeatedly rescued his comrades in battles, helping them to escape from opponents. In one of the battles he was wounded in the leg.

Stalin ended his service in 1943, when, with his participation, there was an explosion while jamming fish. The explosion led to the death of people. The pilot received a disciplinary penalty, after which he was appointed an instructor in the 193rd Aviation Regiment.

Over the years of his military biography, Vasily Stalin has received over 10 awards, including 3 Orders of the Red Banner. An interesting fact is that in Vitebsk he was even erected a memorial sign in honor of his military merits.

Air Force service

At the end of the war, Vasily Stalin commanded the air force of the central district. Thanks to him, the pilots were able to improve their skills and become more disciplined. By his order, the construction of a sports complex began, which became a subordinate institution of the Air Force.

Vasily paid great attention to physical culture and was the chairman of the USSR Equestrian Federation. According to the veterans, it was with his submission that about 500 Finnish houses were built, intended for pilots and their families.

In addition, Stalin issued a decree according to which all officers who did not have a 10-grade education were obliged to attend evening schools. He founded football and ice hockey teams that showed a high level of play.

In 1950, a notorious tragedy occurred: the best football team of the Air Force crashed during a flight to the Urals. According to the memoirs of friends and relatives of the pilot, Wolf Messing himself warned Joseph Stalin about this plane crash.

Vasily survived only because he listened to Messing's advice. A couple of years later, another tragedy occurred in the biography of Vasily Stalin. At the May Day demonstration, he ordered a demonstration flight of fighters, despite bad weather conditions.

2 jet bombers crashed during the landing approach. Low clouds became the cause of the plane crash. Vasily increasingly began to attend headquarters meetings in a state of alcoholic intoxication, as a result of which he was deprived of all posts and powers.

Stalin justified his riotous life by the fact that he would supposedly be able to live only as long as his father was in health.

Arrest

In part, Basil's words turned out to be prophetic. After the death of Joseph Stalin, they began to fabricate a case of money embezzlement from the state budget against the pilot.

This led to the arrest of a man in the Vladimir Central, where he was serving his sentence under the name of Vasily Vasilyev. He spent 8 long years in prison. Initially, he was able to improve his health, since he did not have the opportunity to abuse alcohol.

Stalin also worked hard, mastering the turning business. Later, he became seriously ill and actually became disabled.

Personal life

Over the years of his personal biography, Vasily Stalin was married 4 times. His first wife was Galina Burdonskaya, with whom he lived for about 4 years. In this union, a boy Alexander and a girl Nadezhda were born.

After that, Stalin married Yekaterina Timoshenko, who was the daughter of Marshal of the USSR Semyon Timoshenko. Soon the couple had a son, Vasily, and a daughter, Svetlana. The couple lived together for only 3 years. It is worth noting that in the future the pilot's son was seriously addicted to drugs, committing suicide.

Stalin's third wife was the USSR swimming champion Kapitolina Vasilyeva. However, this union lasted less than 4 years. It is curious that after his arrest, Stalin was visited by all 3 wives, who apparently continued to love him.

The fourth and last wife of a man was Maria Nusberg, who worked as a simple nurse. Vasily adopted her two children, who, like his adopted daughter from Vasilyeva, took the surname Dzhugashvili.

It is fair to say that Stalin cheated on all his wives, as a result of which it was extremely difficult to call the pilot an exemplary family man.

Death

After Vasily Stalin was released, he was forced to settle in Kazan, closed to foreigners, where he was given a one-room apartment at the beginning of 1961. However, he did not really manage to live here.

Vasily Stalin died on March 19, 1962 due to alcohol poisoning. A couple of months before his death, the KGB officers forced him to take the name of Dzhugashvili. At the end of the last century, the Russian prosecutor's office dropped all charges against the pilot posthumously.