Vasili Stalin

Vasili Stalin was partially rehabilitated in 1999, when the political charges of Anti-Soviet activity in 1953 were lifted. His body was moved from Kazan to Moscow and re-buried there.

His sister Svetlana Allilueva defected in 1967, and later became a naturalized citizen of the United States.

Stalin died on 19 March 1962, due to chronic alcoholism, two days before his 41st birthday, and was buried in Arskoe Cemetery.

In January 1960 he was released and sent for a treatment from alcohol dependency for three months. Back in Moscow Vasili received a pension and a three room flat from the state. He was allowed to wear his General's uniform, but was denied of service by Kliment Voroshilov.

Humiliated by the denial, Vasili went to the Chinese Consulate and applied for a medical visa on April 15, 1960.

He was arrested on April 16, 1960, and exiled to the city of Kazan, where he was kept under the house arrest until he died of alcoholism on Mach 19, 1962, at age 41.

Stalin died on March 5, 1953, and General Vasili was arrested on April 28, 1953, after his lavish dinner party with British guests. Vasili was charged with "anti-Soviet activity, embezzlement, beating of subordinates, manipulations that caused death of people, and other serious crimes. Many of those charges were supported by factual evidence.

His prosecutor, Lev Vladzimirskii and his boss Lavrenti Beria were arrested in December 1953, and executed. Vasili Stalin asked Nikita Khrushchev for clemency, but he was considered a threat to them. Vasili was judged in a behind-closed-doors trial and imprisoned under a fictitious name - Vasili Pavlovich Vasilyev. He was held in the special penitentiary, the famously rough "Vladimirsky Central" in the city of Vladimir.

After the war Vasily took up an interest in sports, in particular ice hockey. He helped develop a team to represent the air force, VVS Moscow, and brought in Anatoly Tarasov as the player-coach for the inaugural season in 1946–47. However Tarasov argued with Vasily over players and left the team after one season for CDKA Moscow (later CSKA Moscow). On 5 January 1950 a plane carrying the VVS team crashed at Sverdlovsk, killing the team. Even so VVS won three straight Soviet Championship League titles from 1951 to 1953, before Vasily divested himself of the team in the wake of his father's death.

He was promoted to major-general in 1946, to Lieutenant-General in 1947, and to Commander of the Air Forces of the Moscow Military District in 1948.

The Soviet Union was invaded by Nazi Germany on 22 July 1941, and Stalin was transferred to the front in August 1941, and given the surname Ivanov in an attempt to conceal his identity. As the son of Stalin he flew in combat rarely, and when he did he was accompanied by a formation. In total Vasily took part in 29 combat missions, and is said to have shot down two enemy aircraft. As the son of the Soviet leader, Vasily was hated by most of his colleagues, who felt he was an informant to his father. In the spring of 1942 he was sent back to Moscow, and given a role inspecting the conditions of the air force, and mainly stayed in Moscow for the rest of the war. Bored in this role, Vasily found himself in trouble after an 4 April 1943 incident where he had explosives dropped into the Moskva River, injuring himself and killing the flight engineer.

In 1933 Stalin and his sister were enrolled in Moscow Model School No. 25, a prominent public school. Stalin was a poor student, and Svetlana would recall that the teachers would frequently discuss his poor behavior with his father. He was transferred out of the school in 1937 to the Special School No. 2, though the faculty there did nothing to curtail his behavior. One year later Stalin, now aged 17, was sent to the Kachinsk Military Aviation School. He had initially wanted to attend an artillery school, but as his half-brother Yakov was already enrolled in one their father did not not want them both in the same military branch. His father ordered the school to not grant him any favours or due to his name, and asked that he stay in a regular barracks. Stalin did quite well at the school, with a 1939 report to his father noting he was "[d]edicated to the cause of the Party of Lenin-Stalin", and was "interested and well versed in questions of the international and domestic situation". However the report also noted Stalin tended to study poorly, was unshaven for duty, and reacted "badly to snafus in flight". He completed his schooling in March 1940, with his final marks stating he did "excellent", and was given the rank of air force lieutenant. On 31 December 1940 he married Galina Burdonskaya, a student at the Moscow State University of Printing Arts, and was also 19-years-old.

Starting from the death of Alliluyeva, Joseph Stalin ceased to visit his children; only the nursemaid and head of Stalin's security guards looked after Vasily and his sister. With his father frequently absent, Stalin became close to Károly Pauker, a Hungarian who worked as a bodyguard for his father. Pauker frequently travelled out of the Soviet Union and would bring back gifts to the younger Stalin, though during the Great Purge his foreign nationality and excursions made him a target for repression, and he was shot in August 1937. Stalin spent time with other guards as well, and drank with them. He would later reflect that his entire life had been "spent among adults, among guards" and that it left a "deep mark on the whole of [his] private life and character". He tried to gain the attention of his father, writing letters about what he was doing, but the elder Stalin did not reciprocate.

His mother, named Nadezhda Allilueva, suffered from the cruelty of his father, who bullied her into submission, until her mysterious death in 1932. Vasili inherited many of his father's traits, becoming manipulative, secretive, and brutal to people.

Vasili's sister, named Svetlana Allilueva, was born in 1926. As a teenager at school Vasili was a mediocre student and graduated with poor grades. He was 17 and wanted to go to the best pilot school in Kacinsk, where Russian Aces were raised. His grades were too low, but with the insistence of Lavrenti Beria Vasili was admitted. He initially was given a special treatment; he had a private room and privileged meals. Stalin ordered to cancel all of his privileges. A student of 19 years old Vasili married Galina Burdonskaya of the same age. He was rapidly promoted in the ranks, became a pilot and served in the Soviet Air Force, rising to a General during the Second World War. He made 27 fights and downed one Nazi airplane. He was decorated three times with the Order of the Red Banner and received other highest decorations. He became one of the youngest Generals in the entire Soviet Army. At the end of the war he loaded his plane with valuable goods, gold, and jewelery, which was looted from German homes and flown back to Moscow. Vasili Stalin had a half brother, named Yakov Dzhugashvili (Svanidze), who was the son of Stalin's first wife, named Ekaterina Svanidze. During the Second World War his brother Yakov was captured in the battle by the Nazi special forces and was held in a concentration camp. The Nazi leadership offered to return brother Yakov to Moscow in exchange for the POW Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus, who was captured by the Soviet Red Army in the Battle of Stalingrad. Vasili Stalin was anticipating his brother back home. But Joseph Stalin refused the offer to have his son returned, saying, "I do not exchange a General for a soldier. " Stalin doomed his son Jakov to death in the Nazi camp. Vasili lost his brother. Joseph Stalin showed his cruelty and strengthened his power. Vasili was made the Air Force Commander of the Moscow Military District at age 26. However, Stalin's nepotism was mixed with paranoia and suspiciousness about the people around him and his son. Vasili's brother Jakob (Stalin's other son) died in a Nazi camp. Stalin surrounded his surviving son with special agents, but they were fearful of Stalin's son, whom they were supposed to control. With his position Vasili received a football team (soccer club), named VVS, or Military Airforce Club. Vasili became obsessed with the game. His position allowed him to get any sportsman in the nation for his team. He employed many famous athletes and organized several winning teams. Vasili also organized construction and financing of a major sports arena in Moscow; but his uncontrolled use of the government money became a huge problem. General Vasili got drunk during and after each game played by his "toy" sport-star Bobrov. Drinking parties were massive and wild, with women dancing on their dining table among bottles of vodka. Also, some people around Stalin's son were disappearing without a trace.

After the death of Lenin in January of 1924, his father became the benevolent dictator of Russia, then called the Soviet Union. Vasili grew up in Kremlin, where he had private governess, toys, and servants.

Vasili Iosifovich Stalin (b. Dzhugashvili) was born on March 21, 1921, in Moscow, Russia. His father, named Joseph Stalin, was the Secretary General of the Communist Party.