What was the real reason for the death of Stalin’s wife, Aliluyeva, who fell to her death? Among the staff of the General Directorate of State Political Security, there were two stories circulating: one, similar to that of my superiors, was that Nozheda Aliluyeva shot herself, and the other was a whispered assertion that she was shot by Stalin.
One of my old subordinates, whom I recommended to Stalin’s personal guard, told me some details about this. He happened to be on duty at Stalin’s residence that night. Shortly after Stalin and his wife returned from a concert, gunfire came from the bedroom. “When we rushed in,” said the guard, “she was already lying on the floor, her hair disheveled, wearing a black satin nightgown, with the pistol thrown at her side.”
Strangely enough, the guard recounted the incident without talking about where Stalin was or whether he was there when the shots rang out and the guards ran into the bedroom. The guard didn’t even say a word about how Stalin looked in the face of his wife’s sudden death, what instructions he gave, or whether he had sent for a doctor …… I got the distinct impression that this man wanted to tell me something very important, but wanted me to ask questions first. But I did not dare to go deeper into the conversation and hurriedly digressed.
In this way, the witnesses at the scene confirmed to me that Nadezhda Aliluyeva’s Life was taken by a pistol bullet. Whose finger pulled the trigger is still a mystery. However, if I draw conclusions based on what I know about their conjugal life, then it can be inferred that it was suicide.
Stalin and his wife’s Family life was so incompatible that it was an open secret to the senior cadres of the State Political Security Directorate and later the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The power of one hand and the flattery of those around him made Stalin unbearably arrogant. He did whatever he wanted, because whatever he said and did, he received only unanimous praise. Stalin dared to make some dirty jokes in the presence of his wife, to make some obscene and unpleasant gestures that no self-respecting woman could bear, and his wife was ashamed of such behavior, while he got pleasure from it, especially when it happened at parties or evenings, in front of the guests. The slightest expression of dissatisfaction on the part of Aliluyeva was immediately met by Stalin’s violent replies: and when he was drunk, he would swear at her.
Aliluyeva was never a bully, on the contrary, she was friendly and amicable, so the guards loved her. But they often saw her in secret tears. She was different from any other woman, because she could not associate with people casually and could not choose her friends as she wished. She could not even invite her close friends to “Stalin’s house” without the permission of Stalin and the head of the State Political Security Directorate, who was responsible for his security.
In 1929, under the call to industrialize the country as soon as possible, Communists and Komsomol members enthusiastically took part in the industrial construction. Nadezhda Aliluyeva also wanted to contribute to this cause and expressed her desire to study at a school. Stalin did not even want to listen to this. She turned to Averil Yenukidze, who was supported by Sergor Ordzhonikidze. Together, they convinced Stalin and Nadezhda was finally given the opportunity to study. She chose to study textiles and began to learn the technology of viscose fiber production.
Thus, the dictator’s wife became a university student. Special precautions were taken so that no one in the institute except the director knew and could not guess that the new female student was Stalin’s wife. The head of the Directorate of Operations of the State Political Security Directorate, Paul Kerr, placed two agents in her department, who were nominally university students, but in fact were responsible for ensuring her safety. The driver in charge of transporting her was strictly forbidden to stop in front of the Academy and had to squeeze into the corners of alleys to wait for his passenger. Later, in 1931, Aliluyeva received a gift – a brand-new “Little Gass” (a Soviet-style Ford car). From then on, she didn’t need a driver to go to the Academy. Of course, her car was always followed by a small car with agents of the State Political Security Directorate in it. Her private car did not attract any suspicion in the Academy – by this Time there were many prominent people in Moscow who owned private cars. Having managed to escape from the suffocating environment of the Kremlin, she felt happy and devoted herself to her studies with a passion to serve her country.
Indeed, it was a big mistake for Stalin to allow his wife to associate with ordinary citizens. Until then, she had learned about the government’s policy through newspapers and official speeches at party congresses. And in those newspapers and speeches, whatever was going on was interpreted as the party’s overwhelming interest in improving people’s lives. Of course, she knew that the people should make certain sacrifices and give up much of their self-interest in order to industrialize the country, but she still believed those government announcements about how the standard of living of the working class was improving year by year.
But after entering the institute, she had to conclude that it was all a lie. She was shocked to learn that the wives and children of workers and employees were being deprived of the right to buy Food, that is, of the food on which they depended. She also learned that countless Soviet girls – typists, clerks and other small employees – had to sell their bodies in order to save themselves from starvation and to provide for their Parents who had lost their labor. And that was not the worst of it. Some of the university students who were mobilized for collectivization told Aliluyeva many horrifying facts: the mass shooting and deportation of peasants, the severe famine in Ukraine, the thousands of orphaned children wandering the country begging for a living. Thinking that Stalin did not know the whole truth about the situation in the country, she told her husband and Yenukidze about what she had seen at the Academy. Stalin, however, tried to avoid these topics and accused his wife of “collecting rumors about Trotskyists”.
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