Read Online Sex Lives of the Great Dictators by Nigel Cawthorne - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Nigel Cawthorne
Tags: Non-Fiction
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the Ukraine, where her husband's policy of forked collectivization had caused a famine which cost five million lives.
Raising such issues at home was not a recipe for domestic bliss. Stalin would respond with the crudest of insults. He also swore at Lenin's wife, greatly upsetting her. Even his own mother was called an "old whore" to her face.
Stalin would complain to others that Nadya had never been much to his taste, she was "a woman with ideas ...a herring with ideas - skin and bones". Much more to his taste was the former waitress - "a young one with a snub nose and a gay, ringing laugh" - who he employed as a housekeeper at his dacha. Svetlana summed up her virtues in her father's eyes: "Plump, neat, served softly at table and never joined in the conversation."
By the time the waitress joined the household, Svetlana believed that her parents" sexual relationship had come to an end. Nadya had her own bedroom, while Stalin slept in his office or in a small room with a telephone in it, next to the dining-room. It was rumoured that he was having an affair with a ballerina.
There was also a rumour that it was Stalin who had made the sixteen-year-old daughter of Politburo member Lazar Kaganovich pregnant. Trotsky believed that Stalin had another daughter besides Svetlana, whose mother was not Nadya.
Matters came to a head between Stalin and Nadya on the night of 8 November, 1932.
There was a party in the Kremlin celebrating the fifteenth anniversary of the Revolution.
Stalin insisted that she drink, though he knew she was teetotal. There was a row and Stalin threw a lighted cigarette at her. Nadya ran from the room, humiliated. She walked around the grounds of the Kremlin for a long time, trying l compose herself. When she returned to their apartment, she found Stalin in bed with the wile of a party official. Nadya went to her room and shot herself" "
Stalin was unconcerned about her death. At her open coffin, he was heard to say: "She left me as an enemy."
He did not attend her funeral or her memorial service and took his anger out on her family. Nadya's sister Anna was sentenced to ten years" solitary confinement. Her brother Pavel died of a heart attack in 1938 during the purges. Pavel's wife, Eugenia, was imprisoned on the trumped-up charge of having poisoned him. Anna's husband, Stanislav Redens, was arrested and shot the same year. Many said that Nadya was lucky she committed suicide when she did, otherwise she would have fallen victim to the purges too.
Only his daughter Svetlana enjoyed the love of her father, but she became a prisoner of the Kremlin. He would call her his "housekeeper" and she would have to sit on his right during working dinners. He had affectionate nicknames for her - "little sparrow" and "little fly" - and his letters to her always ended "I kiss you". He was always kissing her.
A great distance grew between them when Svetlana learnt, through the Illustrated London News , that her mother had not died of appendicitis as she had been told.
Stalin would lose his temper completely if she formed any kind of friendship with a man.
He stopped kissing her - she was not his "clean little girl" any more. When Svetlana defied Stalin, he would talk crudely of her sexual activity in front of her and his male colleagues. He had the NKVD - the forerunner of the KGB investigate her lovers. While she was still a schoolgirl, Stalin discovered that she was having an affair with a middle-aged Jewish film-maker named Aleksei Kapler. He confronted her.
"I know the whole story," he said, brandishing the NKVD file. "I've got all your telephone conversations right here."
"But I love him," she protested.
"Love!" he said, slapping her across the face. "Your Kapler is a British spy. He's under arrest."
Kapler served five years in the mining camps at Vorkuta, in the Arctic Circle.
Stalin was delighted when Svetlana's first marriage broke up, but when she married again soon after, they became estranged. After
Raising such issues at home was not a recipe for domestic bliss. Stalin would respond with the crudest of insults. He also swore at Lenin's wife, greatly upsetting her. Even his own mother was called an "old whore" to her face.
Stalin would complain to others that Nadya had never been much to his taste, she was "a woman with ideas ...a herring with ideas - skin and bones". Much more to his taste was the former waitress - "a young one with a snub nose and a gay, ringing laugh" - who he employed as a housekeeper at his dacha. Svetlana summed up her virtues in her father's eyes: "Plump, neat, served softly at table and never joined in the conversation."
By the time the waitress joined the household, Svetlana believed that her parents" sexual relationship had come to an end. Nadya had her own bedroom, while Stalin slept in his office or in a small room with a telephone in it, next to the dining-room. It was rumoured that he was having an affair with a ballerina.
There was also a rumour that it was Stalin who had made the sixteen-year-old daughter of Politburo member Lazar Kaganovich pregnant. Trotsky believed that Stalin had another daughter besides Svetlana, whose mother was not Nadya.
Matters came to a head between Stalin and Nadya on the night of 8 November, 1932.
There was a party in the Kremlin celebrating the fifteenth anniversary of the Revolution.
Stalin insisted that she drink, though he knew she was teetotal. There was a row and Stalin threw a lighted cigarette at her. Nadya ran from the room, humiliated. She walked around the grounds of the Kremlin for a long time, trying l compose herself. When she returned to their apartment, she found Stalin in bed with the wile of a party official. Nadya went to her room and shot herself" "
Stalin was unconcerned about her death. At her open coffin, he was heard to say: "She left me as an enemy."
He did not attend her funeral or her memorial service and took his anger out on her family. Nadya's sister Anna was sentenced to ten years" solitary confinement. Her brother Pavel died of a heart attack in 1938 during the purges. Pavel's wife, Eugenia, was imprisoned on the trumped-up charge of having poisoned him. Anna's husband, Stanislav Redens, was arrested and shot the same year. Many said that Nadya was lucky she committed suicide when she did, otherwise she would have fallen victim to the purges too.
Only his daughter Svetlana enjoyed the love of her father, but she became a prisoner of the Kremlin. He would call her his "housekeeper" and she would have to sit on his right during working dinners. He had affectionate nicknames for her - "little sparrow" and "little fly" - and his letters to her always ended "I kiss you". He was always kissing her.
A great distance grew between them when Svetlana learnt, through the Illustrated London News , that her mother had not died of appendicitis as she had been told.
Stalin would lose his temper completely if she formed any kind of friendship with a man.
He stopped kissing her - she was not his "clean little girl" any more. When Svetlana defied Stalin, he would talk crudely of her sexual activity in front of her and his male colleagues. He had the NKVD - the forerunner of the KGB investigate her lovers. While she was still a schoolgirl, Stalin discovered that she was having an affair with a middle-aged Jewish film-maker named Aleksei Kapler. He confronted her.
"I know the whole story," he said, brandishing the NKVD file. "I've got all your telephone conversations right here."
"But I love him," she protested.
"Love!" he said, slapping her across the face. "Your Kapler is a British spy. He's under arrest."
Kapler served five years in the mining camps at Vorkuta, in the Arctic Circle.
Stalin was delighted when Svetlana's first marriage broke up, but when she married again soon after, they became estranged. After
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