Vasily Stalin

Vasily Iosifovich Stalin (Russian: Васи́лий Ио́сифович Ста́лин; 21 March 1921 – 19 March 1962), born Vasily Iosifovich Dzhugashvili (Russian: Васи́лий Ио́сифович Джугашви́ли), was the son of Joseph Stalin by his second wife, Nadezhda Alliluyeva.

The death of Vasily's mother in 1932 (eight years after his father ascended to General Secretary) represented a major change in Vasily's life. Starting from this moment, Joseph Stalin ceased to visit his children; only the nursemaid and head of Stalin's security guards looked after Vasily and his sister, Svetlana. One officer, Sergei Efimov, was charged with continuously looking after the two children.

Vasily started his active military service in the 16th Fighter Aviation Regiment in Moscow. Here he met Galina Burdonskaia, his future wife. They married when Vasily was 19.

As an officer of the Red Air Force, Vasily received rapid promotion. At the beginning of World War II, he was Inspector of Air Forces in the General Staff. In December 1941, he was a Major and after a couple of months was promoted to Colonel. In January 1943, Colonel Vasily Stalin was designated commander of the 32nd Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment. During February and March 1943 he carried out 26 armed sorties. On 5 March he shot down a Fw 190. He claimed another German aircraft soon after.

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. However, he was dismissed as a result of an aviation incident during a military parade on 27 July 1952 (Vasily insisted on letting the planes fly in bad weather, leading to one Tupolev Tu-4 bomber crashing).

Vasily Stalin was also the manager of the USSR Air Force ice hockey team. In 1950, most of its members died when its plane went down in a snowstorm as it approached the Sverdlovsk airport. Vasily, worried that his father would be angry, is said to have concealed the crash from his father and quickly replaced the deceased players.

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