Yagubov, S., Stalin byl voxhdem rabochego dvizheniya v Baku, Moscow 1947.
Yergin, Daniel, The Prize, London 1991.
Zhukov, Y., “Gori-Tbilisi,” Novy Mir, 12 December 1939.
Illustrations
Mugshot of Stalin, 19121
School photo, late 1880s2
Stalin’s birthplace in Gori1
Official photo of Beso, Stalin’s father3
Stalin’s mother, Keke1
Koba Egnatashvili18
Sasha Egnatashvili18
Damian Davrichewy4
Stalin in 1893, aged sixteen5
Stalin in 18961
Seminary photo, late 1890s1
Fire at an oil refinery6
Rothschild oil refinery, Batumi6
Hashimi Smirba6
Group photo in Kutaisi Prison, 19036
Novaya Uda6
Kutaisi Prison6
Stalin’s cell6
Natasha Kirtava6
Olga Alliluyeva3
Olga and her children3
Kamo3
Stalin’s network of street children, 19057
Okhrana agents pose in their street costumes3
Stalin, ca. 1905–65
Trotsky5
Lenin, ca. 19055
Kato Svanidze1
Kato Svanidze, headshot, from gravestone, Tbilisi3
Daily Mirror extract, 16 May 19078
Russian Social Democratic Labour Party agreement3
Daily Mirror extract, 27 June 19078
Daily Mirror extract, 15 May 19078
Mugshot of Kamo from the police files, ca. 19081
Sergo Ordzhonikidze1
Baku oil fountain5
Nagayev’s Palace in Baku9
Burning oil wells, Baku, 14 September 190310
Murtuza Mukhtarov and his wife, Liza11
Stalin with Kato’s family beside her dead body, 19071
Alvasi Talakvadze6
Ludmilla Stal11
Stalin1
Stalin when he was arrested in 19101
Stalin with Spandarian in 19151
Backs of postcards12
Front of postcard1
Maria Kuzakova with her son Constantine and his baby3
Mugshot of Stalin when he was arrested in 19111
Stalin’s apartment block in Vienna13
Lenin’s flat in Cracow1
Roman Malinovsky3
Stalin in 19131
Tatiana Slavatinskaya16
Kureika, photographed in the 1930s1
Ostyak tribesman with reindeer on the Arctic Circle14
Alexander Davidov17
Lidia Pereprygina17
Bolshevik exiles photographed at Monastyrskoe in the summer of 19151
Vera Shveitzer14
KGB boss Serov’s memo to Khrushchev in 1956, about the investigation into Stalin’s affair with thirteen-year-old Lidia Pereprygina12
Taurida Palace3
Soldiers in St. Petersburg, February—March 19173
Lenin addresses the crowds from Kseshinskaya’s palace in St. Petersburg, July 19173
July Days coup3
Nadya Alliluyeva1
Stalin’s bedroom in the Alliluyev apartment3
Lenin1
Smolny and new Soviet government, 19173
The first meeting of the new government15
Lenin’s orders to his guards on access to his office15
Stalin5
Alexandra Kollontai and Pavel Dybenko ca. 19175
Stalin, ca. 19175
The author and publishers offer their thanks to the following for their kind permission to reproduce images:
1. David King Collection
2. Stalin House Museum, Gori
3. Author’s collection
4. Davrichewy Family Collection
5. RIA Novosti
6. Khariton Akhvlediani State Museum, Batumi
7. Georgian Filial Institute of Marxism-Leninism (GF IML)
8. Mirrorpix
9. Getty
10. Roger Viollet / Topfoto
11. Azerbaijan International Magazine
12. RGASPI
13. Lisa Train
14. Dr. Piers Vitebsky
15. Smolny Institute Museum
16. Achinsk Regional Museum (ARM)
17. The Sunday Times (London)
18. Egnatashvili Family Collection
While every effort has been made to trace copyright holders, if any have been inadvertently overlooked, the publishers will be happy to acknowledge them in future editions.
1878–1904
Stalin, the merciless, paranoid dictator in training. Here is the supreme secret operator, vigilant arch-conspirator, consummate politician, mastermind of criminal and political violence, Marxist fanatic in a fedora, stiff collar and silk cravat. A police mug shot from 1912.
Already a charismatic leader, the schoolboy Soso Djugashvili, the future Stalin, about ten years old. Smaller than his contemporaries, overcoming a series of illnesses and accidents to become an outstanding student and star choirboy, he suggested the taking of this photograph, ordered the photographer, arranged the sitting and placed himself in his favourite commanding position: back centre.
Soso became a streetfighter, gang leader and charismatic manipulator in the rough streets of Gori, one of the most violent towns in the Tsar’s empire: Religious holidays were celebrated with organized brawls involving the entire population, from toddlers to greybeards. Stalin’s birthplace is the house is on the left.
Left: Dubious parent—the official image of “Crazy Beso” Djugashvili, cobbler, alcoholic, wife-and child-beater. Stalin refused to confirm this was his father. Jealousy drove Beso mad. Right: Keke Djugashvili, Stalin’s remarkable mother, in old age. In youth she was pretty and intelligent, but forceful, sarcastic and outspoken—like her son. Powerful men protected her from Beso.
Stalin’s real father? Koba Egnatashvili, a wrestler and rich innkeeper, was a local hero who loved, funded and protected Soso.
Stalins half brother? Soso grew up with the dashing Egnatashvilis, including another wrestler and entrepreneur, Sasha, whom he later promoted to Kremlin courtier, NKVD General and trusted food taster. Sasha was nicknamed “the Rabbit.”
Gori police chief Damian Davrichewy so flirted with Keke that Beso tried to kill him. His son, Josef (above), was Stalin’s childhood friend and claimed to be his half brother. He and Stalin became the most notorious (and successful) bank robbers and terrorists in the Caucasus.
Above left: His mother’s delight. In 1893, Soso Djugashvili, scholar and chief chorister, studied for the priesthood at the Tiflis seminary, which resembled a Victorian English public school run by priests. Adolescent Soso (late 1890s, above right) soon caused havoc in the seminary (above, in his priestly robes, back row, second from left) by embracing Marxism and running an outrageous duel of wits with the priest he nicknamed “the Black Spot.”