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Ketevan Svanidze

  • Kato Svanidze
  • კატო სვანიძე
Ekaterina Svanidze.jpg
Kato Svanidze (c. 1904)
Born Ketevan Svanidze
(1885-04-02)2 April 1885
Racha, Kutaisi Governorate, Russian Empire
Died 5 December 1907(1907-12-05) (aged 22)
Tiflis, Russian Empire
Cause of death Typhus
Resting place Kukia cemetery, Tiflis
41°41′42.4″N 44°47′40.6″E / 41.695111°N 44.794611°E / 41.695111; 44.794611
Spouse(s) Joseph Stalin (1906 –1907, her death)
Children Iakov Jugashvili (son)
Parent(s) Svimon and Sipora (née Dvali) Svanidze
Relatives

Ketevan "Kato" Svanidze (Georgian: ეკატერინა სვიმონის ასული სვანიძე, Ketevan Svimonis asuli Svanidze; Russian: Екатери́на Семёновна Свани́дзе, Yekaterina Semyonovna Svanidze; 2 April 1885 – 5 December 1907) was the first wife of Joseph Stalin and the mother of his eldest son, Iakob.

Svanidze and Stalin were married for just 18 months before she died of an illness in 1907. Her death sent Stalin into a deep grief, and he reportedly said "with her died my last warm feelings for humanity." Years later, several of her family members were executed during Stalin's purges.

Kato was born in the small mountain village of Baji, Kutaisi Governorate, Russian Empire (present day Racha-Lechkhumi and Kvemo Svaneti, Georgia). She was the daughter of Sipora (née Dvali) and Svimon Svanidze. The family were aznauri (minor nobility), but were impoverished. Svimon was a teacher in Kutaisi.

Kato had at least two sisters, Alexandra ("Sashiko", born c. 1878–1936) and Maria ("Mariko", 1888–1942), and one brother, Alexander Svanidze ("Alyosha", 1886–1941).

Records also indicate two more children born to Svimon and Sipora: a girl, Bashiko, and a boy, Miho, but no further information is available about their lifespans and if they lived past early childhood.

Alexander was a member of the Bolshevik Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in Georgia and a friend of Stalin. They attended the Tiflis Spiritual Seminary together until Stalin's expulsion in 1899 for missing his final examinations.


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