Ketewan Geladze
Ketevan (Keke) Geladse ( Georgian ქეთევან (კეკე) გელაძე , Russian Екатерина Георгиевна Геладзе , Yekaterina Georgievna Geladse * 1855 in Gambareuli in Gori , Shida Kartli , Russian Empire ; † 13. May 1937 in Tbilisi , Georgian SSR ) was the mother of Joseph Stalin . She worked as a cleaning lady, housemaid, laundress and seamstress.
Life
Geladze was born as the daughter of the serf farmer Glacho Geladze in what is now Georgia . She had two brothers. The family was released from serfdom in 1861 and moved to Gori , where the father worked as a gardener. The father died early and the brothers took over the livelihood. The mother made sure that she learned to read and write. As a young girl she worked as a cleaning lady.
On May 17, 1872, she married the shoemaker Bessarion Dschugashvili, who was two years her senior . With him she had three children: Micheil (* February 14, 1875), Giorgi (* December 24, 1876) and Iosseb (* December 6, 1878), the later leader of the CPSU and dictator Stalin . The two firstborn babies died a few months after birth. Only the third-born survived.
Family life was initially characterized by prosperity. Dschugashvili went into business for himself, employed ten workers and various apprentices. In the early 1880s, however, he developed into a contentious alcoholic who invested his money in schnapps and regularly beat his wife and son. In 1888, Jugashvili left Geladze without divorce.
In order to finance the living for herself and her child, Geladse already worked as a housemaid, laundress and seamstress for wealthy families during her marriage . She is said to have had extramarital relationships during this time.
Geladze tried to turn her son into a Georgian Orthodox priest , and in 1888 enrolled him in the church school in Gori. In 1894 she motivated him to move to the theological seminary in Tbilisi with a scholarship . Since then she has been in loose correspondence with him. He sent her photos, money and medicine.
After the Soviet invasion of Georgia in 1921, he quartered her in the palace of the former Russian viceroy, today's Youth Palace , at Rustawelis Gamsiri in Tbilisi, where she lived in a room. Georgia's GPU boss Lavrenti Beria hired her several bodyguards after 1927 . The son's visits were rare. The last meeting took place in Tbilisi in 1935, when his mother was in severe health problems.
After her death, Geladze was buried on the Pantheon on Mtatsminda in Tbilisi . Stalin did not attend the funeral, only sent a wreath.
literature
- Roman Brackman: The Secret File of Joseph Stalin. A hidden life . Cass, London et al. 2001, ISBN 0-7146-5050-1 , pp. 2-9, 12, 38, 43, 105.
- Miklós Kun: Stalin: An Unknown Portrait . Central European University Press, Budapest 2003, ISBN 963-9241-19-9 , pp. 8-16, 24-46, 33-35, 53, 343.
- Simon Sebag-Montefiore : The young Stalin . S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-10-050608-5
- Ronald Grigor Suny: Beyond Psychohistory: The Young Stalin in Georgia . In: Slavic Review . 50, 1991, 1, ISSN 0037-6779 , pp. 48-58.
Web links
- Stalin: The First In-Depth Biography Based on Explosive New Documents from Russia's Secret Archives, 1996 (en) (by Edvard Radzinsky )
- Joseph Iremashvili: Stalin and the Tragedy of Georgia, 1932
- Donald Rayfield: Stalin and His Executioners, 2003
- Ketewan Geladze's grave on the Pantheon in Tbilisi
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Geladze, Ketewan |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | ეკატერინე, გელაძე (Georgian); Геладзе, Екатерина Георгиевна (Russian); Ekaterina Georgievna (Russian, transcribed) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Mother of Stalin |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1855 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Gambareuli near Gori , Inner Kartlien , Georgia , Georgia |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 13, 1937 |
| Place of death | Tbilisi |