Stalin's Son Yakov
Yakov Iosifovich Dzhugashvili [ a ] (31 March [ O.S. 18 March] 1907 – 14 April 1943) was the eldest son of Joseph Stalin , and the only child of Stalin's first wife, Kato Svanidze , who died nine months after his birth. Death edit On 14 April 1943, Dzhugashvili died at the Sachsenhausen camp. Initially, the details of his death were disputed: one account had him running into the electric fence surrounding the camp. [ 39 ] However, it had also been suggested that he was shot by the Germans; Kun speculated that it is "conceivable that he committed suicide: he had suicidal tendencies in his youth". [ 29 ] Upon hearing of his son's death, Stalin reportedly stared at his photograph; he would later soften his stance towards Dzhugashvili, saying he was "a real man" and that "fate treated him unjustly." [ 39 ] Meltzer would be released in 1946 and re-united with Galina, though the years apart had made Galina distant from her mother. [ 40...
