Joseph Stalin’s Early Years

Joseph Stalin, like Hitler, was very protective about his early years. Stalin used the might and fear of the NKVD (secret police) to ensure that no one ever questioned his past – or those who were brave enough to even hint that they might be interested were suitably warned off. However, recent research shows that Stalin did not fully eradicate the history of his early years and the post-Stalin era was keen to build on Stalin’s denunciation by Nikita Khrushchev. In 1956 the Politburo launched an investigation into Stalin’s years before he came to political prominence and General Ivan Serov, head of the KGB, was put in charge of this investigation.

His report was handed to the Politburo, signed by them and consigned to the Kremlin vaults marked ‘top secret’. It only came to light in 2007.

It states quite clearly that:

1)     Stalin fathered a child while in forced exile in Kureika, Siberia.

2)     He had got pregnant a thirteen years old girl called Lidia Pereprygin in this remote village that was home to just 67 people when Stalin was there during his exile.

3)     If their relationship started in 1914 as the records indicate, then Stalin would have been 35 and Lidia 13.

4)     The statutory age of consent in Russia then was 14.

5)     According to Serov’s report, Stalin moved in with Lidia in the Pereprygin family’s household – a two-room shack.

6)     The police were thinking of prosecuting Stalin for getting an under age girl pregnant. It seems Stalin only escaped this by promising to marry Lidia once she came of age.

7)     Around December 1914, Lidia gave birth to a boy but the baby died shortly after birth.

8)     In 1916, Lidia became pregnant for a second time.

9)     Serov believed that Stalin became engaged to at least 3 women while in exile. All three engagements were broken.

10)  “Women must have been enamoured by him because he was successful with them. He had honey-coloured eyes. They were beautiful.” Molotov

11)  “He was a thin man, strong and energetic (with) an incredible shock of hair and shining eyes.” Zhenya Alliluyeva, Stalin’s sister-in-law

12)  In October 1916, Stalin was conscripted into the army. He was bound to fail the medical because of a stiff arm he had since birth – but it seems that Stalin went along with the conscription to avoid any further entanglements with Lidia.

13)  Probably around April 1917, Lidia gave birth to a son, Alexander. Stalin never contacted her once he left Kureika and she later married Yakov Davydov, a peasant fisherman.

 Alexander was eventually told Stalin was his father by Lidia. This was confirmed by Yury, the son of Alexander. However, when Stalin achieved power any mention of this even in remote Siberia would have been enough to effectively sign your own death warrant.

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