Yakov Jugashvili

Jakow Iossifowitsch Dschugashvili

Yakov Iosifovich Dzhugashvili ( Russian Яков Иосифович Джугашвили , Georgian იაკობ ჯუღაშვილი / James Dschughaschwili * 18th March 1907 in Badsi, government Kutais , Russian Empire ; † 14. April 1943 in Sachsenhausen concentration camp ) was a Soviet artillery officer of the Red Army . He was the eldest son of Josef Stalin and his first wife Ketewan Swanidze .

Life

After the death of his mother, he initially grew up with relatives. In the early 1920s, Yakov moved back into the household of his father, who had married Nadezhda Alliluyeva in 1919 . After he wanted to marry the 16-year-old priest's daughter Soja Gunina in 1925, a scandal ensued, as a result of which Jakow wanted to shoot himself in the heart. Stalin later dubbed his son a "street bully" and a "blackmailer" and ridiculed him for his failed suicide attempt . After school, Yakov attended the workers' faculty and at the age of 23 went to the Dzerzhinsky Transport Institute. Without the support of his father, he became an engineer in 1935 and initially worked at the Stalin automobile plant before attending the Artillery Academy of the Red Army . In 1936 Dschugashvili married the Jewish dancer Julia (also: Judith ) Melzer from Odessa . Both daughters were the future historian Galina Dschugaschwili , both son of the future colonel of the Soviet army Yevgeny Dschugaschwili.

German propaganda in Russian in 1941: “Do not shed your blood for Stalin! He has already fled to Samara ! His own son surrendered! If Stalin's son saved himself, then you are not obliged to sacrifice yourself for him! "

After joining the Red Army as a volunteer in 1937, Jakow Dschugaschwili became a first lieutenant in 1940 and in 1941 was given command of the 14th Howitzer Regiment of the 14th Panzer Division. On July 16, 1941, he was captured by the German Wehrmacht . A photograph used for propaganda purposes shows him in the presence of German soldiers; In addition, the interrogation protocol was read out on the radio in Russian, in which he strongly criticized the state of the Soviet army and its leadership. According to legend, Stalin turned down the offer to exchange him for the captured General Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus after the Battle of Stalingrad on the grounds that he was not prepared to “exchange field marshals for soldiers”. In some Soviet sources, the capture has been referred to as a propaganda lie. Stalin had his daughter, Julia Dzhugashvili, detain and his granddaughter in a state reformatory accommodate as it passes through Jacob's alleged desertion as were politically unreliable.

He was imprisoned by first in the officers' camp (Oflag) XIII D in Hammelburg and then in the Oflag XC in Lübeck-Vorwerk . Most recently, he was arrested in special camp A for Allied prisoners of war of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp near Oranienburg . There he was housed in a barrack with a nephew of the Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov , Lieutenant Wassilij Kokorin , and four British people of Irish origin - Thomas Cushing, William Murphy, Patrick O'Brien and Andrew Walsh. He died on the evening of April 14, 1943, when he ran into the electrically charged camp fence, presumably with suicidal intent. It remained unclear whether he was shot by security guards or died by electricity. Forensic doctors found on site that a bullet had penetrated the head, but the death had already occurred beforehand by an electric shock . Shortly afterwards the body was burned and the urn with the investigation documents and the death certificate sent to the Reich Security Main Office . Eight days later, Joachim von Ribbentrop received a “ Secret Reich thing ” from Heinrich Himmler with the words: “Dear Ribbentrop. I am sending you a report on the fact that the prisoner of war Jakob Dschugaschwili, son of Stalin, was shot while trying to escape in special camp A in Sachsenhausen near Oranienburg. "

In 2013, Der Spiegel reported on previously unpublished documents from the Central Archives of the Ministry of Defense in Podolsk, which contained 389 pages of information about the role of Yakov Jugashvili during his capture, his biography in the shadow of his overpowering father and the circumstances surrounding his suicide. As early as 1968, Gestapo documents appeared in the Washington State Department according to which, among other things, he had become the victim of detention psychosis and that his death was akin to suicide. The thesis is supported by the testimony of the former inmate Cushing. He reported, among other things, of a change in character after the propaganda broadcasts in English and Russian over loudspeakers in the camp that, according to Stalin, Hitler had no Russian prisoners: "He only has Russian traitors, and we will take care of them when the war is over" and the Denial that Yakov was his son.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} Christian Neef : Contemporary history: "Shoot me!" , Der Spiegel 7/2013 of February 9, 2013
2. ↑ Stalin's son - "Didn't even manage to shoot himself" , one day on June 22, 2016, accessed the same day
3. ↑ “Not all come back as heroes” . In: Der Spiegel . No. 39 , 1988, pp. 184-190 ( online ).
4. ^ Benjamin Bidder: Stalin's grandson sued Russian flagship newspaper. Spiegel online , September 15, 2009, accessed April 17, 2012 . 
5. ↑ Stalin rejected the exchange , Der Spiegel 40/1967 of September 25, 1967
6. ↑ Historical Notes: The Death of Stalin's Son Time Magazine , March 1, 1968, English, viewed September 16, 2011 (fee required)
7. ↑ Shoot it . In: Der Spiegel . No. 9 , 1969, p. 74-75 ( online ).
8. ^ ^{A b} Thomas Cushing: Stalin's son felt rejected . In: Der Spiegel . No. 13 , 1968, p. 92-95 ( online ).

Web links

Commons : Jakow Dschugaschwili  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files