Who is Vasily Stalin. Biography of Vasily Stalin: the son of the leader of the peoples. "Hot, quick-tempered, nervous system weak"
15 years ago, in November 2002, the remains were reburied in Moscow younger son Stalin. The ashes were transported from Kazan at the request of one of the adopted daughters of Vasily Dzhugashvili.
Gravestone photo on the monument to Vasily Stalin. Shortly before his death, he changed his surname. © / AiF
The body of Stalin's youngest son (the eldest Yakov died in German captivity - ed.) has been resting for 15 years at the Troekurovsky cemetery in Moscow. However, in Kazan, at the Arsk cemetery, there is still a black marble monument with the inscription "Vasily Iosifovich Dzhugashvili". There is no grave mound in the fence, but it is always carefully cleaned and decorated with flowers. The assigned cemetery staff takes care of the fence and the monument. Not free of charge, employees explain. These services are paid for by relatives from Moscow.
The story of the last year of the leader's son's life is told by AIF-Kazan.
Stalin's house
“They opened the grave very quickly,” recalls the events of 15 years ago, one of the cemetery workers. “They put up a fence, removed the body, then took it away… There were more journalists than relatives.”
“My friend lived with Vasily in the same house on Gagarin Street,” adds another employee of the necropolis. - He said that Stalin's son was very fond of alcohol. So much so that sometimes he could not walk to the apartment himself - the janitor and neighbors helped. At the same time, they spoke well of him. Like, he was the most humane of the entire Stalinist family.
Vasily Stalin arrived in Kazan in April 1961, accompanied by KGB officers. After eight years in prison, he was exiled to a city closed to foreigners, which was then Kazan. After Stalin's death, Vasily, at that time with the rank of Lieutenant General of Aviation, who until 1952 commanded the air forces of the Moscow District, was arrested for anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda, as well as abuse of office.
“Anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda is the accusations of the country’s leadership, including Khrushchev, in the death of Stalin,” explains historian Alexei Litvin, who studied the case of Vasily Dzhugashvili in the archives of the Tatarstan KGB in the 1990s. Stalin's son thought his father had been poisoned. It is difficult to comment on this, because the case of Stalin's illness has not been fully published so far. In the 90s, Vasily Dzhugashvili was cleared of all political charges, he was amnestied. But accusations of abuse of office, embezzlement of money remained.
With a cane, blue glasses
A resident of Kazan, Lyudmila Kutuzova, was 12 years old when she accidentally met Vasily Stalin. Her father worked as a photographer for a newspaper published by a construction trust. He had a photo lab in the basement of one of the houses on Gagarin Street. After school, Lucy often came to her father, helped him wash the photographs, gloss them.
“Once a young man came to my father - thin, reddish, in civilian clothes, with a cane,” the woman recalls. - I remember his blue glasses in a thin frame, I didn’t see them in Kazan - maybe it was fashionable or he had vision problems ... Later I often heard that Stalin’s son was fond of alcohol, but on drinking man he didn't look the same at the time.His father looked at him with surprise - apparently, he also saw him for the first time. The stranger brought some films: either he wanted to retake the photo, or he decided to take up photography himself and was advised to contact his father. What they were talking about, I didn't know. Realizing who exactly came to him, my father quickly escorted me home. Everyone knew that Vasily Stalin was under surveillance all the time. Perhaps that is why his father never spoke about him in the family.
But after he came to the photo lab, they began to communicate. Dad went to Vasily's house - to the "Stalinist" house on Gagarin, 105, as all the inhabitants called it. He was acquainted with the wife of Stalin's son. Her girls, whom Vasily adopted, studied at our school (No. 99 - Approx. Aut.), Also on Gagarin Street.
His wife (nurse Maria Shevargina looked after Vasily Stalin in the hospital where he was treated after he was released from prison - ed.), came to school for their daughters. A prominent woman with an unusual color of eyes - green-blue. One of the daughters had the same eyes.
“Of the 11 volumes of Vasily Dzhugashvili's case, only three were read,” says Aleksey Litvin. - In the remaining eight there were wiretapping data. In his one-room apartment, she was everywhere, even in the toilet.”
It is known that in Kazan Vasily met his colleague Anvar Karimov. During the war, he served in the division commanded by Vasily. Dzhugashvili and Karimov lived in the same house. During interrogation at the KGB, Karimov said that they recalled how they served together, that Vasily shouted that he was imprisoned in vain, that he was not guilty of anything, he simply doubts whether his father died by his own death.
“What kind of life did Stalin’s son lead in Kazan? He walked, drank, told everyone that he was the son of the leader. He enjoyed great prestige among the Georgians in the markets, who were always ready to provide him with any assistance, were proud of him, - Alexei Lvovich continues. - Moreover, there was a legend that when he was buried, a team of 10 Caucasians arrived in Kazan, who wanted to rebury him in Georgia...I do not presume to judge how Vasily Stalin fought, in what hostilities he participated. For me, the boys of the war years, absolutely all participants in the war who fought for the USSR are heroes. In my opinion he was not outstanding person, only a representative of the golden youth.
In Kazan, he was offered to change the name "Stalin" to "Dzhugashvili" or "Alliluyev", as his sister did. He refused for a long time (in the end he agreed, as they promised to give him a bigger apartment - ed.). Said:
"I was born and will die Stalin." Although his father himself at one time inspired him that Stalin was alone in the country, it was he himself. Vasily held on to this surname, because he was known by this surname. Without her, he would ordinary person, not known for any deeds. He was known only as the son of Stalin, about whom some remembered bad things, others remembered good things.
400 rubles - for the funeral
On the day of the funeral of Vasily Dzhugashvili, Alexei Litvin taught a lesson at school No. 99. I saw through the window that a hearse was driving up to the “Stalinist” house, jumped out into the street along with my 10th grade, for which I later received a scolding from the headmistress for disrupting the lesson. But the teacher and students were late - the hearse had already left.
“According to the KGB, about 300 people came to Stalin's funeral, mostly residents of the surrounding houses. “From relatives were his real children: son Alexander Burdonsky, who later became the director of the Central Academic Theater Russian army and daughter Nadezhda, who later married the son of the writer Alexander Fadeev, but bore the surname "Stalin" all her life.
The funeral took place at the expense of the KGB of Tatarstan - a little more than 400 rubles were spent on them. And the monument was erected by relatives, including one of his first wives, the daughter of Marshal Tymoshenko. Later, the inscription “from Dzhugashvili” appeared on it.
To clarify the causes of death of Vasily Dzhugashvili, they created medical commission headed by the director of GIDUV Khamza Akhunzyanov. The day before, Major Sergei Kakhishvili, a teacher at the Ulyanovsk Tank School, visited the Dzhugashvili family. The commission checked all the bottles of alcohol that the guest brought him. No poison was found in them, and Kakhishvili, who was arrested after Vasily's death, was released.
"Acute heart failure, which developed as a result of pronounced atherosclerosis against the background of alcohol intoxication," the commission established such a cause of death for Stalin's son.
Several years ago, representatives of the Communist Party proposed to install a memorial plaque on the house where Vasily Dzhugashvili lived in Kazan. This idea was not supported. Nevertheless, myths and legends about Stalin's son still circulate. Aleksey Litvin explains this with feelings of fear, flattery, the idea of " strong hand”, which will deal harshly with corrupt officials, crooks. Such associations are caused by many, especially the older generation, by the name of the “leader of the peoples”, as well as everything connected with his family.
“Although in Stalin's time there were a lot of swindlers, trials of them - they just didn't talk about them - they were shot, and that's it,” says Aleksey Litvin.
Olga Lyubimova
The fate of Vasily Stalin
Three weeks after the death of the leader, on March 26, 1953, by order of the Minister of Defense Marshal Bulganin, Lieutenant General of Aviation Vasily Iosifovich Stalin was transferred to the reserve without the right to wear military uniform. And a month later, on April 28, the son of the leader, from whom dust particles had previously been blown away, was arrested.
The decision to arrest was signed by the head of the investigative unit for especially important cases of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Lieutenant-General Lev Emelyanovich Vlodzimirsky.
Why was Stalin's son treated so harshly?
The machinations of Lavrenty Pavlovich, who took revenge on his son for his father? But Beria himself was arrested two months later. He was followed by General Vlodzimirsky. And Vasily Stalin continued to sit. He was accused of drinking and “didn't show up for work. He received reports from his subordinates at his apartment or in his country house. He planted servility in the apparatus subordinate to him. But they don't get jailed for it. They were accused of wasting public funds. But this is not the most serious crime. The real charge was brought against him under the infamous Article 58 of the Criminal Code - for anti-Soviet statements.
They were judged by the accelerated procedure adopted after the assassination of Kirov in December 1934: without a lawyer and without a prosecutor. It was his father who invented it in order to send "enemies of the people" to the other world as soon as possible.
The case of Vasily Stalin was considered by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court. September 2, 1955 sentenced him to eight years in prison. He was supposed to be sent to a camp, but he was kept in the Vladimir prison, away from people. Why such severe punishment? For drunkenly promising to go to foreign correspondents and say everything he thinks about the current leaders of the country?
The verdict was written: “For illegal spending and appropriation of state property” (abuse of official position under especially aggravating circumstances - Article 193–17 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR) and for “hostile attacks and anti-Soviet slanderous fabrications against the leaders of the CPSU and the Soviet state” (and this already deadly article 58-10).
His sister, Svetlana Stalina, recalled that Vasily was arrested after drinking with foreigners. In the course of the investigation, scams, embezzlement, and the use of one's official position surfaced. The investigation went on for two an extra year. The Chekists arrested Vasily's adjutants, his colleagues, and they signed the necessary testimony.
But the main thing is different - people returned from places not so remote, who ended up in prison with light hand Vasily Stalin. And these were not simple people, and marshals and generals ... And not only the big military, but also the party leaders really had reason to hate the leader's son. First of all, Georgy Maksimilianovich Malenkov, whom Vasily almost broke his career.
In 1946, Stalin sent a letter to members of the Politburo stating that major crimes had been uncovered in the aviation industry - factories supplied unusable aircraft, and the command of the air force turned a blind eye to this. It is believed that Aviation General Vasily Iosifovich Stalin complained to his father about bad planes.
The curator of the aviation industry was a member of the Politburo and secretary of the Central Committee Malenkov. On May 4, 1946, Stalin, by a special resolution of the Politburo, deprived him of the post of secretary of the Central Committee: “To establish that Comrade Malenkov, as the chief of the aviation industry and the acceptance of aircraft - over the air force, is morally responsible for the outrages that were revealed in the work of these departments (production and acceptance of low-quality aircraft), that he, knowing about these outrages, did not signal them to the Central Committee of the CPSU (b).
The Ministry of State Security began to collect evidence against Malenkov, preparing for his arrest. The investigators involved in the aviation business said, not without pleasure: "Malenkov got burned." But the leader got used to the marvelously efficient Georgy Maximilianovich. I decided that he had already been punished enough, and returned Malenkov to his location.
So, it turns out that Vasily Stalin was punished because he once complained to his father about the generals and party officials? Revenge? This is one reason. There is another - he ceased to be a celestial and he was no longer allowed those liberties that were forgiven to the son of the leader.
Vasily was not liked by the Minister of War, Marshal Bulganin, with whom the younger Stalin behaved in a familiar, if not boorish way. After the death of the leader, everything changed, but Vasily Iosifovich continued to talk with Bulganin, and with other members of the Presidium of the Central Committee, just as before.
He publicly said about the minister:
It's not enough to kill him!
Vasily's words were recorded and reported to the party leadership.
Vasily Iosifovich was summoned by the head of the Main Directorate of Personnel of the Ministry of Defense, who handed him a copy of the order for his dismissal from the armed forces. Vasily began to ask to be given some kind of work.
Bulganin accepted it. Offered:
Are you going to be the head of the flying club in Morshansk?
Vasily exploded:
This position is for a first lieutenant. I won't go to her.
Bulganin said:
Then I have no place for you in the army...
Apparently there was another motive. Subconsciously, by planting the younger Stalin, the members of the Presidium of the Central Committee were freed from the mystical fear of this name.
Stalin's son-in-law, Yuri Andreyevich Zhdanov, who was in charge of a department in the Central Committee of the CPSU, was also expelled from Moscow. After the death of the leader, three secretaries of the Central Committee - Suslov, Pospelov and Shatalin - had a conversation with him at once. Suslov for the sake of appearance asked:
Where did you work before the Central Committee apparatus?
He was an assistant at Moscow University.
Apparently, it is advisable for you to return there, - Suslov stated.
But they did not want to leave him in the capital. A week later, Zhdanov was summoned again, and Pyotr Pospelov made him a different offer:
The Central Committee believes that you should gain experience in local party work. It would be useful to work in the science department of the Chelyabinsk or Rostov Regional Committee.
Yuri Zhdanov chose Rostov, where he stayed. They didn't touch him again.
Today, Vasily Stalin, with his unfortunate fate, is, perhaps, sympathy. He was left without a mother at the age of eleven and, in fact, grew up without a father who had neither the time nor the desire to deal with useless children.
Vasily could not bear this heavy burden - to be the son of a great leader. Too much great expectations were assigned to him. And too quickly his father was disappointed in him. I saw that he would not be an heir. The father looked at the children with regret. Neither son nor daughter could awaken fatherly love in him. Or maybe Stalin did not have these feelings at all. He remembered Vasily, only appointing him to another high position or removing him from it.
Vasily was brought up by the Stalinist guards. He showed early impudence and arrogance, unwillingness to learn anything and the habit of enjoying life. Fortunately, he was one of the few in the country who were allowed to do this. And until the death of his father, he was surrounded by sycophants and drinking companions.
In the summer of 1948, Vasily became commander of the air forces of the Moscow Military District. He was only twenty-seven years old. In May 1949, his father promoted him to lieutenant general. Assigning a high rank has become an occasion for endless drinking.
On December 9, 1950, the head of the Kremlin Medical and Sanatorium Department, Professor Pyotr Ivanovich Yegorov, reported to Stalin:
“I consider it my duty to report to you on the state of health of Vasily Iosifovich.
Vasily Iosifovich suffers from exhaustion of the nervous system, chronic catarrh of the stomach and anemia. The cause of these diseases is excessive alcohol abuse.
November 16 p. d. Vasily Iosifovich suddenly (at home, at about one in the morning, while watching a movie) developed an epileptic seizure - total loss consciousness, general spasms of the muscles of the body, biting of the tongue and discharge of a foamy liquid from the oral cavity ... Unfortunately, over the past seven to ten days, Vasily Iosifovich again began to drink a lot, and in connection with this, symptoms of severe intoxication again appeared (aversion to food, weight loss, increased irritability, bad dream).
The convictions and demands of doctors to stop drinking alcohol did not lead to anything. I ask for your help…”
On July 27, 1952, a parade was held in Tushino on the occasion of the holiday air fleet, they were ex officio commanded by General Stalin. In the evening there was a reception. Vasily Iosifovich appeared already drunk. In the presence of his father, he behaved in a boorish way, in public he cursed the commander-in-chief of the country's air forces.
Stalin senior was angry: his son dishonors him. On August 13, 1952, Vasily was seconded to the command of the Air Force Commander-in-Chief, and on September 5 he was enrolled as a student at the Military Academy General Staff. He did not go to classes, he sat in the country and drank. This continued until he was arrested...
In the Vladimir prison, the leader's son was kept under the surname Vasiliev. He, still quite a young man, was ill - apparently, on the basis of the immoderate use of strong drinks. Yes, and the Soviet prison quickly destroys health.
Khrushchev asked the KGB chairman Shelepin:
And how does Vasily Stalin behave? Talk to him, consult with Svetlana.
Stalin Jr. swore to Shelepin that he would behave with dignity.
I am in favor of releasing him,” Khrushchev said.
Fulfilling the will of the first secretary, on January 5, 1960, KGB chairman Shelepin and prosecutor general Rudenko reported to the Central Committee:
“Stalin V.I. has been imprisoned for six years and eight months. During this period of time, the administration of places of deprivation of liberty is characterized positively. He currently has a number serious illnesses(disease of the heart, stomach, vessels of the legs and other ailments).
In view of the foregoing, we ask the Central Committee of the CPSU to consider the following proposals:
apply a private amnesty to Stalin V.I., release him from further serving his sentence and remove his criminal record;
to instruct the Moscow City Council to provide VI Stalin with a three-room apartment in Moscow;
instruct the Ministry of Defense of the USSR to grant Stalin a pension in accordance with the law, provide him with a ticket to a sanatorium for a period of three months and return the property confiscated during the arrest personally belonging to him;
to give V. I. Stalin thirty thousand rubles as a lump-sum allowance.”
On January 11, Vasily Stalin was released ahead of schedule. But he did not manage to use anything that he was promised. Started drinking again. Just three months later, on April 16, he was arrested "for continuing anti-Soviet activities." It was about the fact that he visited the Chinese embassy, where he made a "slanderous statement of an anti-Soviet nature," as stated in the documents of the KGB.
Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Council Kliment Efremovich Voroshilov spoke with Vasily in a paternal way. Vasily repented and asked to give him a job. The elderly marshal reproached him for drinking:
I've known you since the day you were born, I had to babysit you. And I only wish you well. But now I will tell you unpleasant, bad things. You must become a different person. You are still young, but what a bald head you have. Your father did not have, although he lived to be seventy-four years old. All this because you drive too hectic life You don't live the way you should. You bear the surname of a great man, you are his son and you must not forget that...
Khrushchev did not like the conversation between Voroshilov and Vasily. And all the members of the Presidium of the Central Committee, as one, attacked Voroshilov, although Kliment Efremovich did nothing wrong. With regard to Stalin Jr., the leaders of the party were not at all shy in their expressions.
Vasily Stalin is an anti-Soviet, an adventurer, Suslov, a member of the presidium and secretary of the Central Committee, formulated the accusations. - It is necessary to stop his activities, cancel the decree on early release and put him back in custody. The behavior of Comrade Voroshilov - there was no need to get involved. It seems that you support this scum.
Put him in jail, - supported Suslov by the secretary of the Central Committee, Nikolai Grigoryevich Ignatov. - Rebirth led him to treason.
Vasily Stalin turned out to be a vile, dirty person, said Nuritdin Mukhitdinov. Why did Comrade Voroshilov have to receive him?
Vasily Stalin is a traitor to the motherland, his place is in prison, and you caressed him, - Voroshilov and Frol Kozlov scolded. - After the conversation with Comrade Khrushchev, he did not run anywhere, but after the conversation with you, he ran to the Chinese embassy.
Vasily asked the Chinese embassy to allow him to go to Beijing for treatment and work. But the party leadership was not going to let the leader's son go to China, with which relations were deteriorating before our eyes.
Vasily Stalin is a state criminal, - said Alexei Nikolayevich Kosygin, a member of the Presidium of the Central Committee and Khrushchev's deputy in the government. - He needs to be isolated. And Comrade Voroshilov behaves incorrectly.
In the decision of the Presidium of the Central Committee, they wrote: “In connection with the criminal antisocial behavior of V. Stalin, cancel the decision of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of January 11, 1960 on the early release of V. Stalin from further punishment and the removal of a criminal record; place V. Stalin in places of deprivation of liberty to serve his sentence in accordance with the verdict of the Military Collegium Supreme Court USSR dated September 2, 1953.
Vasily Stalin was returned to prison to serve his sentence in full. A year later, the term ended. But they did not want to let him into Moscow. Shelepin and Rudenko proposed “as an exception to the current legislation, send V. I. Stalin after serving his sentence into exile for a period of five years in the city of Kazan (foreigners are prohibited from entering this city). In case of unauthorized departure from the specified place, according to the law, he can be held criminally liable.”
On April 28, 1961, Vasily Iosifovich was transferred to Kazan. They brought him to the chairman of the KGB of Tatarstan, who explained to the son of the leader that he was not allowed to leave the city for the next five years.
At large, Stalin Jr., already a seriously ill person, lived less than a year. He was picked up a one-room apartment, put a pension of one hundred and fifty rubles. He drank constantly. Drinking buddies, neighbors and just random people willingly spoke about himself, meaningfully explained:
They put me in because I know too much.
I didn't get my passport for a long time. They demanded from him to change his surname to Dzhugashvili, he flatly refused. Finally, the local KGB bargained with him. Vasily set conditions: give him a bigger apartment, increase his pension and allocate him a car. Moscow agreed with his demands. On January 9, 1962, he was issued a passport with the surname Dzhugashvili. He immediately married a nurse, Maria Ignatievna Shevargina. She looked after him at the A.V. Vishnevsky Institute of Surgery, where he lay after prison, and followed Stalin's son to Kazan.
The apartment was equipped with listening equipment, so that the security officers knew that Vasily continued to vilify Khrushchev. He believed that he was not allowed into Moscow because they were afraid. He drank almost every day. Very old, looked bad. Doctors had difficulty getting him out of the binge.
On March 14, 1962, a teacher from the Ulyanovsk Tank School visited him. A native of Georgia, he brought with him a large number of red wine. A three-day binge led to alcohol intoxication. Vasily Stalin's heart could not stand it.
On March 19, KGB chairman Semichastny reported to Khrushchev: “According to preliminary data, the cause of death was alcohol abuse. Dzhugashvili, despite repeated warnings from doctors, systematically drank.
The KGB chairman proposed to bury the former general in Kazan without military honors. The offer was accepted. Vasily's early death gave rise to rumors that he had been murdered. But who could do it? And why?
In 1962, Malenkov, who had been expelled from the party, had already been retired. Khrushchev had no personal relationship with the younger Stalin. And in general, new people were already in power, who practically did not know Vasily Iosifovich.
But maybe the KGB really had a hand in early death chief's son?
In Kazan, he was cared for by a nurse who forced him to marry herself and adopt her children. They assure that she was connected with the KGB and killed him - she gave special injections ... True, it is not clear why she had to kill the man she married to herself?
And who did Vasily Stalin interfere with? If they were afraid of his conversations with random interlocutors, they could simply return him to jail. And it was no longer so easy to organize a “wet business”. The chairman of the KGB had to draw up a paper, the first secretary of the Central Committee, that is, in this case Khrushchev, sign it. Find performers who will not think that the next boss can put them in jail for this.
There were no such actions in the post-Stalin period; in any case, nothing is known about this, although after 1991 state security documents about the most odious crimes were declassified.
There were other rumors - that in fact the nurse who cared for Vasily managed, with the help of acquaintances in the police, to obtain a passport for him with a fictitious surname and took him to Gelendzhik. And as if there are people who saw him there: he drank with the peasants in the park on a bench.
The KGB Department for the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic conducted a thorough check of the circumstances of the death of Vasily Iosifovich, including a forensic medical examination. There is no reason to doubt that Stalin Jr. died a natural death. He died comparatively young because he had mismanaged his life. True, he is only partially to blame for this: he managed to be born in a family where no one was happy and could not give happiness to others.
The difficult fate of the grandchildren of the leader of the peoples.
The second son of the leader of the peoples, Vasily, from marriage with Nadezhda Alliluyeva.
Vasily had a very ardent, amorous nature. As a result, numerous marriages. From an early marriage with Galina Burdonskaya, a student, Vasily had two children, son Alexander (1941) and daughter Nadezhda (1943). JV Stalin did not welcome his son's early hobbies.
The family life of Galina and Vasily did not work out. Vasily did not show paternal feelings, led an immoral lifestyle, which is why his wife often left him. All these scandals affected the children and left a seal on their entire subsequent life. In 1945, Vasily divorced his wife and took away her children. Under the pretext that Galina was abusing alcohol, it was decided to leave the children with their father.
Vasily was not involved in raising children. Shortly after the divorce, he married Yekaterina Timoshenko, daughter of Marshal S. K. Timoshenko. The newly-made wife disliked the children of Vasily. According to the testimonies of people from the environment, Catherine deprived the children of food, punished them physically.
Alexander was assigned to the Suvorov School in Kalinin. Later, in the 50s, after the death of her father-in-law, Galina wanted to take the children for herself, but Vasily did not allow it. For secret communication with his mother, Alexander was physically punished by his father. The childhood of Alexander and Nadezhda was poisoned by the hatred of the stepmother, the cruelty of the young father and the atmosphere that reigned in the Stalinist family. Alexander never saw his grandfather in person, only at a distance, at parades. I saw him for the first time at a funeral. Alexander changed his father's surname at the age of 16 so as not to have anything in common with him. Relationship with the Stalins brought Alexander Bourdonsky nothing but troubles. He even had to change schools to avoid being insulted. Alexander, on the contrary, speaks tenderly of his mother and is very grateful to her for the spiritual principle underlying the soul of the future artist. Alexander became a famous theater director, people's artist and works to this day in the theater of the Soviet (now Russian) army.
Nadezhda, the daughter of Vasily, unlike her brother, had a legendary surname. She graduated from the theater school. She was married to A. Fadeev, bore him a daughter. She did not realize herself in art. She died in 1999.
In a marriage with Ekaterina Timoshenko, Vasily had two more children, Svetlana (1947) and Vasily (1949). Their fate is much more tragic. Svetlana grew up unhealthy child, she found herself mentally deranged. The mother abandoned her disabled daughter and Svetlana died alone at the age of 43.
Vasily graduated from school with difficulty.
After Stalin's death, all his relatives were persecuted. In order to avoid this, Svetlana and Vasily were sent by their mother to Tbilisi. Young Vasily then studied at the Faculty of Law. Vasily reveled in the fame and money of the famous grandfather. Stalin's grandson did not need money, but, apparently, he needed love and psychological support.
In Tbilisi, Vasily began to use drugs and once, unable to withstand another withdrawal, shot himself in the head. He was then 23 years old.
Later, Vasily was married twice more. His subsequent wives did not give birth to children, they were only adopted daughters. The names of the stepfather of the daughter were not carried. However, it is known that it was the adopted daughters who took care of the reburial of Vasily and to this day take care of his grave in Moscow.
The life of Vasily Stalin after the death of his father split into two periods: before and after. Once, in a circle of friends, Vasily said: "I live while my father is alive." During the life of Joseph Vissarionovich, Vasily led a rather rampant and immoral lifestyle. He knew that his life was short and, that is why, he tried to take everything from it at once. After graduating from a regular school in 1938, Vasily entered the military aviation school.
It should be noted that he was not an excellent student in studies, but in practice he showed himself to be a good pilot. He often risked his life, performing the most difficult aerobatics, in connection with which he often received disciplinary punishments from his superiors. The boss wanted to remove him from flying, but the pilot's talent was too obvious, so it was decided to leave Vasily at an aviation school. From the first days of the Great Patriotic War, Vasily was eager to go to the front, but he began to participate in the war only from 1942.
In order to get to the front, Vasily knocked on the thresholds of all military leaders, but no one wanted to take on such responsibility. Knowing full well that if something happens to the son of Comrade Stalin at the front, then the heads of many generals will roll. In the end, Vasily achieved what he wanted and ended up at the front, where he was wounded in the leg. In 1943, on the personal orders of Joseph Stalin, Vasily became an instructor and was forbidden to fly. Life without the sky was like death for him, but the father was too afraid for his son to allow him to continue flying.
At that moment, the Nazis staged a real race in the sky for Stalin's son, each of his flights was accompanied by a whole squadron of fascist pilots. After the war, Vasily's career took off and by 1948, he had already become a commander Air force Moscow military district.
Having come to power, he first of all began to develop sports. Stalin believed that every good pilot should also be a good sportsman, as it allows you to improve attention, coordination and speed of thinking. That is why, during his reign, the football and hockey clubs of the MVO Air Force were the best in the USSR. In 1952, Vasily was removed from his post as commander of the Moscow Military District due to the fact that he appeared at a party meeting (after the parade) in a drunken state.
Personal life.
Vasily loved women, and they loved him. But lawful wife he had only one - Galina Burdonskaya. Vasily lived with her for four years and from this marriage he had a son and a daughter. After Galina, Vasily had 3 more civil wife. The last lover of Vasily was a nurse - Maria Nusberg. Svetlana Alliluyeva considered her an employee of the KGB and was sure that it was she who poisoned her brother, which was the cause of death. But these speculations this moment have not been documented.
Death of I.V. Stalin.
The death of his father came as a great shock to his son. He was in great emotional distress. At the funeral, Vasily accused his father's former associates of killing him and threatened to convene a whole press conference of foreign journalists about this. Such statements of the son of the leader were not in vain for him.
It became clear to the country's leadership that it was too dangerous to leave Vasily at will, and he was not going to remain silent. Therefore, as a matter of urgency, a case was fabricated against Vasily, on the fact of embezzlement of state money for inappropriate purposes and for personal gain. Although, all of Vasily's inner circle knew that Stalin spent his entire salary on drinking and women, and he himself lived very modestly.
In April 1953, Vasily Stalin was arrested, his property was confiscated, and Vasily himself was taken to the main KGB prison in Lubyanka. The investigation into the Stalin case went on for almost 2.5 years. Vasily, during the investigation, behaved submissively, did not bicker with the investigator, but on the contrary, he fully admitted even the most stupid accusations against him. In 1954 he was sent to the Lefortovo prison where he spent a year.
In 1955, after the verdict, he was transferred to the Vladimir Central. Stalin was sentenced to 8 years. In prison, the leader's son was under the assumed name of Vasilyev Vasily Petrovich, since the Central Committee could not allow the world to know that Stalin's son was in prison simply because of family ties.
In prison, Vasily began to work as a turner, and his the physical state worsened every day. The wound in the leg, which he received during the war years, reminded of himself. He developed tissue necrosis and practically became disabled. Upon learning of this, Nikita Khrushchev immediately decided to amnesty Stalin, since the death of Vasily in prison would become a real international scandal.
In 1960, the released Vasily Stalin received an apartment in the center of Moscow, a pension and a ticket to Kislovodsk. But he received all the blessings under two conditions: stop drinking and keep silent about everything that he knows. And he knew too much.
After some time, Vasily began to drink again, but the worst thing for him was that almost immediately after his release, he went to the Chinese Embassy and began to ask for political asylum there. This did not suit the Central Committee and Khrushchev personally, and Vasily was again imprisoned for a year.
In 1961, he was released from prison due to the end of his term. The country's leadership decided to send Vasily to live in the city of Kazan, which was closed to foreigners, since Khrushchev understood that Vasily would not give up trying to tell everything he knew to Western journalists. In Kazan, he was given a small apartment, in which he died a year later. The cause of death, according to doctors, was alcohol poisoning.
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In February 1945, the 286th Fighter Aviation Division of the 16th Air Army, operating in the Berlin direction, received a new commander. Young, energetic, but not quite ordinary.
Firstly, he was very young - young even for the war in which Ivan Chernyakhovsky in three years went from colonel to general of the army and commander of the front, and which, very likely, would have ended as a marshal, if not for the German fragment that cut off his life in the winter of 1945.
The new commander of the 286th Fighter Aviation Division (IAD) ended this war as a colonel. However, he also started it as a colonel. It happens in war, too. Especially when your last name is on a special account and under special control.
GOOD START
The surname of the young division commander was Stalin.
Name and patronymic - Vasily Iosifovich.
Year of birth - 1921.
Place of birth - the city of Moscow.
Last thing military rank- Lieutenant General of Aviation, assigned in 1947.
Vasily Stalin is most often served today as a dim-witted shirt-guy and a drunkard, with whom his father could not do anything, but he nevertheless secured some kind of career. And if, they say, not a father, this “talentlessness” would never have received a squadron under command ...
But who really was the unusual "Berlin" division commander of 1945?
To better understand this, you have to start from afar.
From the autumn of 1923 to the spring of 1927, Vasily Stalin lived in orphanage. They lived there Foster-son Stalin Artem Sergeev, Timur and Tatyana Frunze, the son of People's Commissar of Justice Dmitry Ivanovich Kursky - Evgeny, children of People's Commissar of Food Alexander Dmitrievich Tsyurupa. In total - 25 children of party leaders. Plus - 25 homeless children from the street.
Artem Sergeev has the best memories of this house. Just like all of his other students. An interesting example... Children were vaccinated by Dr. Natanson. And the children decided that when they grow up, Natanson will be killed - so these vaccinations got them ...
But they changed doctors. And the new doctor said that not everyone would be vaccinated, but only those who wanted to join the army. And here, not only the boys, but also the girls ran to the injections in a race. With a cry: "And I have an injection!"
They are asked:
- Why do you need an injection?
- I want to join the army! I'll be a Red Army soldier...
It is unlikely that not only today's kids, but also many of today's adults will understand the essence of what is written above.
But it was.
And in such an atmosphere, Stalin's son grew up.
First, the foundations of character are laid in early childhood, and Vasya had it in an intelligent orphanage, going through which was a boon for the development of an outstanding personality.
Secondly, then Vasily studied at a normal school, and he was brought up by the school and teachers, and not by the notorious street. There is a known case when the mathematics teacher Martyshin wrote to Stalin about the shortcomings of his son, and the father answered, recommending that he be stricter with Vasily.
Thirdly, the father himself raised his son - not with notations, but by personal example, although he could have made a harsh reprimand. Stalin brought up his son and his named brother Artem Sergeev and conversations along the way home life... After all, Stalin had it too. And Stalin spoke to the boys as if they were adults. And affected the most different topics. For example, in 1930, after Repin's death, he spoke to them about Repin.
In addition, the grandson was raised by his maternal grandfather, Sergei Yakovlevich Alliluyev.
And everyone was brought up well.
Here is the situation described by Artem Sergeev. After the death of Vasily's mother, Nadezhda Alliluyeva, Artem and Vasily caught crucian carp at her dacha in Zubalovo on her birthday.
Vasily says:
- We'll send it to my father, he loves carp.
Artem asks:
- Will you take the fish yourself?
No, my father didn't call me.
It doesn’t look like a capricious offspring of an all-powerful tyrant, does it? Then Vasily took a bucket with a lid, put the fish in it, sealed the bucket and said:
- This is the order. Caution won't hurt.
That is, Vasily Stalin, already a teenager, fully understood what self-discipline is when it is vital.
Zalessky writes that Vasily was allegedly "a capricious, weak-willed, weak person." But here is a photo - the boy jumps from the high side of the longboat. Let a weak and weak-willed person try to do this. Since childhood, Vasily was fond of equestrian sports and loved to jump from a parachute tower - also activities not for the faint of heart. The main thing is - where did Konstantin Zalessky see weak-willed combat pilots ?!
Before the war, after graduating from the Lipetsk courses, Vasily was appointed to a group of pilot inspectors, with the outbreak of war he was a squadron commander in a fighter regiment, and then - for some time - the head of the inspection of the Red Army Air Force.
There is a group photo taken near Stalingrad in the summer of 1942 of the pilots of the 434th Fighter Aviation Regiment, commanded by Hero Soviet Union Ivan Kleschev. Autumn steppe, under the shock - 19 people, the seventh from the right - Kleshchev, and left hand from him - Vasily Stalin.
The 434th Fighter Aviation Regiment (IAP) was subordinate to the Air Force inspection. Kleshchev commanded them, but Vasily Stalin supervised from July 13, 1942. At the end of October 1942, the 434th IAP was renamed the 32nd Guards, and on December 31, 1942, Kleshchev died in a plane crash.
Vasily became the regiment commander.
Konstantin Zalessky writes about him: “In January 1943 he was transferred to active army and was appointed commander of the 32nd Guards Fighter Regiment. On May 26, 1943, by order of his father, he was removed from the post of regimental commander "for drunkenness and revelry."
But it wasn't like that.
More precisely - not quite so.
AND HEROITY AND SLABILITY
The 32nd Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment (GvIAP), commanded by Vasily Stalin, was transferred to the Kalinin Front, and in March 1943 the regiment became part of the High Command Reserve Aviation Group under the command of General Sergei Ignatievich Rudenko.
Officially, Guards Colonel Vasily Stalin made 27 sorties during the entire war, but most likely their number was greater. Although the flight book is a strict document, some sorties by the regiment commander might not have been recorded.
On March 5, 1943, in a battle over Semkina Gorushka, Stalin shot down an Fw-190 fighter plane. To some, this may seem like a small victory, but after all, Stalin always flew in a group, as a regiment commander, and his first task was not to shoot down enemy aircraft, and not to lose control of the battle. This is first.
Secondly, one must know Stalin's character. IN dogfight you don’t always understand who shot down, and pilots sometimes wrote down personal victories, throwing on their fingers who should count the next one. Vasily Stalin would rather give a downed plane to his subordinates than take at least one from them for himself.
This one personally shot down plane of Vasily Stalin shows and proves well what kind of person he was and how he protected the honor of his name. And his, and - even more - his father. Vasily could fall under an evil influence, but this is in everyday life, in Peaceful time. He could have committed a serious sin - he committed it, as we will see. But not in battle, not when his military honor would be called into question!
Much later, fellow soldier Vasily Stalin Fedor Prokopenko recalled: “Vasily shot down four planes ... In one battle, I personally saw how he set fire to the Fokker ... Somehow I helped him out - they could have shot him down ... "
Prokopenko made 126 sorties, had 9 personal victories. He is sometimes mistakenly presented as a Hero of the Soviet Union, but this is not so. Prokopenko had the Order of Lenin and two Orders of the Red Banner.
IN official document 1945, Vasily Stalin has two downed aircraft. At the same time, not all ordinary combat pilots of the times of the war could boast of at least one personally shot down aircraft.
By the way, commanding the 32nd regiment, Stalin could die - and with a guarantee, on the precisely designated day of March 2, 1943. On that day, during a pre-flight inspection of the Yak-9 command aircraft, an aircraft technician discovered a stuck awl in the connection of the first thrust from the tail of the depth rudders, which jammed the control. The last flight was on February 26, after which the aircraft was put to check the landing gear and gas tanks. If not for the thoroughness of the check of the senior technician-lieutenant Povarenkin, everything could have ended badly.
But how Stalin was removed from the regiment ...
On March 23, 1943, his regiment was supposed to fly to the Malino airfield near Moscow for understaffing with people and equipment. But when the regiment landed on the way at an intermediate airfield, an emergency occurred. Colonel Stalin, four Heroes of the Soviet Union - Lieutenant Colonel Vlasov, captains Baklan, Kotov and Garanin - as well as the flight commander Shishkin and the armaments engineer of the regiment, Engineer-Captain Razin, went to the Selizharovka River - to kill fish with grenades and missiles(RS). When throwing the last RS, Captain Razin made a mistake - he hastened to turn the "windmill". Result: one person was killed, one seriously injured, one lightly. Vasily himself was seriously wounded - a large fragment of the RS hit the left foot, damaged the bone. The second fragment easily grazed the left cheek.
On April 4, 1943, Vasily was taken to the Kremlin hospital, and Professor Alexei Dmitrievich Ochkin operated on him under general anesthesia - the one who operated on Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin three years later with stomach cancer, strangely "not noticed" by the Kremlin's therapists. But this is by the way.
Interestingly! Joseph Stalin did not immediately find out about the state of emergency, but after learning, he ordered the commander of the regiment, Colonel Stalin V.I. removed from office with the wording: "For drunkenness and revelry." It is said harshly, but there's nothing to be done - the Supreme Commander ordered so! He also ordered not to give any command posts to his son without his order.
After the hospital, Vasily Stalin was appointed an ordinary pilot-instructor of the 193rd air regiment. Moreover, a long break in his combat biography - from April 1943 to January 1944 - was so great because the injury turned out to be difficult, with a complex heel injury.
On January 16, 1944, he took up the duties of an inspector pilot for piloting techniques in the same 1st Guards Fighter Air Corps (GvIAK), in which he fought before the emergency. That is, his former command did not seek to “fight off” him.
In Vasily's nomination for promotion to the position of division commander, the commander of the 1st Guards Fighter Air Corps, Lieutenant General Yevgeny Mikhailovich Beletsky, wrote: “In the position of an inspector pilot since January 1944. During this time, he proved himself to be a very energetic, agile and initiative commander ... He has excellent piloting technique, loves flying ... He is tactically literate, combat work aviation regiments and divisions can organize well. He knows how to work with people, but sometimes he shows excessive vehemence, irascibility ... "
On May 18, 1944, Colonel Vasily Stalin took command of the 3rd Bryansk Guards Fighter Aviation Division. By that time, he had 3105 flight hours. For 23 years - a huge plaque. And this alone made Vasily an experienced aerobatic pilot.
Then they grew rapidly. Here, for example, are three photographs of Artem Sergeev: April 1943 - captain; June 1943 - major; October 1943 - lieutenant colonel, commander of an artillery regiment. And this despite the fact that Sergeev was surrounded in 1941, was captured, fled, and until September 1941 he commanded a partisan detachment in Belarus. Then, after being wounded, he was evacuated to " mainland". Moreover, the participation of Stalin the father in the fate of the named son was zero - during the war, Artem fell out of sight of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, which is quite understandable.
Another example. The brilliant air fighter Yevgeny Yakovlevich Savitsky became the division commander at the age of 28 - in 1938. In 1942 he was already a general and an air corps commander. Vasily Stalin, on the other hand, became a major general of aviation only in 1947 - after three performances that Joseph Stalin turned back.
"IN FULFILLMENT OF ORDERS IS ACCURATE ..."
It is sometimes argued that Vasily Stalin "did not have any abilities of a commander." But whether Vasily Stalin was a competent divisional commander can be judged by his 1944 report to the corps commander about actions under the threat of a division at the Slepyanka airfield from a group of German troops breaking through to the west near Minsk.
Vasily Stalin promptly ordered the evacuation of materiel, guards banners and secret headquarters documents to the northeastern outskirts of Minsk, instructed the division chief of staff to organize ground defense and prepare a night launch, and he himself flew on a U-2 to the Dokukovo airfield - to organize a night launch there. Then he returned to Slepyanka and in the morning led the division to attack the Germans breaking through, and after the attack landed the division in Dokukovo, which brought it out from under attack. He acted quite competently, and did not have the skills to organize ground combat.
By the end of the summer of 1944, Stalin's division added the "Red Banner Order of Suvorov II degree" to the name "Bryansk". And since February 1945, Vasily Stalin commanded the 286th Fighter Aviation Division, which was part of the corps of the above-mentioned General Savitsky.
The fact that Yevgeny Savitsky and Vasily Stalin were friends after the war was recorded in photographs, where both were taken in an unambiguously informal setting. Alas, in one of the books about Vasily Stalin there are “memories” that are cited according to the issue of Moskovskaya Pravda dated January 29, 1989 and are submitted on behalf of Air Marshal E.M. Savitsky: “And then the order comes: appoint Vasily Stalin ... to my corps. I confess that I was somewhat timid: the son of such a father ... A despot and a clown, like his father, during his lifetime he was eventually left completely alone ... "
Marshal Savitsky died, like the commander of Vasily Stalin, Marshal Sergei Ignatievich Rudenko, in 1990 - April 6, 80 years old. So I could give an interview in 1989. However, it is hard to believe that twice Hero of the Soviet Union, a former homeless child, raised Soviet power to the height of a marshal, so he spoke about his military friend and, most importantly, about his Supreme Commander-in-Chief.
Chief Marshal of Aviation A.E. spoke very sharply about Vasily Stalin. Golovanov. Alexander Evgenievich is a figure I respect. But they were very much, as I understand it, different people with Vasily Stalin on the psychological drawing of nature.
Golovanov, who regarded his father with reverence and collaborated a lot with him, writes about his son as a "moral monster" who absorbed "so much badness that would be enough for a thousand scoundrels." This is clearly a biased and unfair assessment, and I don't know why it was given. In the war, Marshal Golovanov could not have known Vasily - in general ... And after the war, they hardly intersected much.
Little truth has been written about Vasily Stalin. The more valuable is the testimony of his former army commander, Hero of the Soviet Union, Air Marshal Rudenko, who commanded the 16th Air Army at the end of the war. In his memoirs “Wings of Victory”, published in 1985, he wrote: “In the evening on the eve of the last assault, we organized listening to the order of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief on the radio ... And again we heard the familiar names of the commanders of the distinguished aviation formations and units: E.Ya. Savitsky, A.Z. Karavatsky, B.K. Tokarev, I.V. Krupsky, G.O. Komarov, E.M. Beletsky, I.P. Skok, V.V. Sukhoryabov, Yu.M. Berkal, V.I. Stalin, K.I. Rasskazov, P.A. Kalinin, G.P. Turykin, P.F. Chupikov, A.G. Tips...»
And further, Sergei Ignatievich personally noted General Beletsky and Vasily Stalin: “Colonel V.I. Stalin arrived at our front a little earlier from 1 IAK. A graduate of the Kachinsky School, Vasily Iosifovich began the war as an inspector pilot, near Stalingrad he commanded the 32nd Guards Aviation Regiment, then the 3rd Guards Division. During the fighting near Berlin, he led the 286th Fighter Division. For successful actions, he was awarded two Orders of the Red Banner, the Orders of Alexander Nevsky and Suvorov of the 1st degree (more precisely, the 2nd degree. - S.B.), the Polish Cross of Grunwald ... "
If Rudenko had had bad memories of Vasily Stalin, if he had not treated him with respect, he would hardly have remembered him like that many years after the war. Rudenko died in 1990, 86 years old.
And on July 20, 1945, Colonel General Rudenko signed an attestation for the commander of the 286th Nizhyn Red Banner Order of Suvorov Fighter Aviation Division of the Guards, Colonel Stalin. In the certification it was said that Stalin flies on Po-2, UT-1, UT-2, I-15, I-5, I-153, Li-2, I-4, MiG-3, LaGG-3, Yak-1, Yak-7 and Yak-9, Hurricane, Il-2, Boston-3, DS-3, La-5, La-7. Total flight time - 3145 hours 45 minutes, 27 official sorties, 2 aircraft shot down.
Rudenko assessed Stalin quite adequately: “Comrade. Stalin has good organizational skills, as a pilot is trained, he can transfer his combat experience to his subordinates ... He is accurate in carrying out orders ... "
MAN IS STYLE
The named brother of Vasily, Artem Sergeev, said that Vasily was power-hungry, but in material terms he was absolutely disinterested. And such a person cannot but be internally noble. In the post-war 40s, he commanded the aviation of the Moscow Military District, and most of Vasily Stalin's subordinates remember him kindly.
A good indicator here can be air parades, which were held annually in Tushino just at the time when Vasily Stalin was the district aviation commander. He organized them and led them himself. After Vasily was removed, they came to naught. But there you have to be able to take on a lot.
Vasily often appointed disabled pilots to staff positions. And when they were surprised at this, he answered that a combat pilot would master staff work, but a staff officer who did not understand the essence of flight work could break firewood.
Vasily was clearly a good organizer with a quick response and, as they say, "launched a hedgehog" by the collar of many, and this is unlikely to be liked by many. After all, we rarely like energetic people - few of the bosses are like Stalin Sr., who appreciated energy when it was combined with competence and responsibility.
They say that Vasily drank a lot and even allegedly suffered from a chronic form of alcoholism. Anyone who writes like this knows very little what a chronic alcoholic is. Vasily Stalin spent many years in solitary confinement, and this is not a camp, you can’t get secret alcohol here. Nevertheless, Vasily did not experience alcohol withdrawal.
I don't think he drank that much - while he was "in the saddle". In addition, judging by a number of memoirs, both Air Force commander Alexander Alexandrovich Novikov and Air Force commander Pavel Fedorovich Zhigarev drank a lot. They are not known for being alcoholics. Or the English journalist Alexander Werth recalled how Western diplomats got drunk at a reception hosted by the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs (NKID) of the USSR in 1943 on the occasion of the anniversary of October revolution. The English ambassador got so drunk that he fell face down on the table into the dish and cut his face with splinters.
Soon after the death of his father, Vasily was arrested - even at a time when the Ministry of the Interior was headed by Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria. However, I do not exclude that, by arresting Stalin's son, Beria simply saved Vasily's life! This assumption is also confirmed by the fact that Vasily Stalin was arrested under Beria, but he continued to sit even after the arrest of Beria. If Vasily suspected Lavrenty Pavlovich as the murderer of his father, then it would seem that it would be better - after the arrest of Beria, release another "innocent victim" of his "arbitrariness", and that's it. And let Vasily, drunk, once again publicly send curses to the vile murderer. But no! Stalin's son, as he sat down under Beria, continued to sit under Khrushchev. The question is: who did Vasily Stalin blame for the death of his father?
There are memories of a certain Stepan S., a former warden of the Vladimir prison, about how Vasily Stalin was brought to the prison in the spring of 1953. Not everything in these memoirs is reliable, but I am sure of one exact detail: “Vasily impressed us with discipline and neatness. He was absolutely closed, all the time thinking about something ... "
They say that a person is a style. So, the style of Vasily Stalin's letters, especially letters from prison, reveals an active, systematically thinking nature, absolutely not swaggering and ... And psychologically, in some ways, similar to the young Stalin-father.
In any case, the letter of Vasily Stalin to his daughter Lina dated June 10, 1956, in all its style, can be confused with the letters of Joseph Stalin to his daughter Svetlana. An interesting detail: Vasily also calls his daughter "mistress" - as his father called his sister Svetlana.
And here is what Vasily wrote to his wife on October 1, 1956: “Can these scoundrels understand that there is a hardest, most difficult struggle for existence, for life, for love. Will the wits, lovers of sensations, understand that not under all circumstances the form of this struggle is noble ... "
Stalin's son died on March 19, 1962 in Kazan. He couldn't win his fight for life at the time. But he visited the Berlin sky and won that fight.
As well as his comrades.