She became the first wife of Stalin.
Amazing fact about the personal life of the “father of Nations” a lot, but at the same time, little is known about his first wife. Perhaps it was true love! For the sake of their Kato Joseph, the man who abandoned his studies at a prestigious theological Seminary and joined the ranks of the Bolshevik party, agreed to get married in a Church.
Introduction and wedding
Her future husband young Kato introduced her to his older brother, who once with Joseph studied at the Seminary. In just three days in love with Joseph introduced the mother with her young darling.
Kato Svanidze.
Keke (so called Ekaterina Georgievna Geladze) approved the choice of his son and bless the happy lovers to the marriage. Then mother’s permission was still very important for the future of the Soviet dictator…
Ekaterina Georgievna Geladze, the mother of Stalin.
The wedding took place very late at night on 16 July 1906 at mount Mtatsminda, where was situated the monastery of St. David (near Tbilisi). The daughter of a simple farmer in Tiflis that night was the lawful wife of the son of a cobbler from Gori.
The monastery on Mtatsminda mountain, which hosted the wedding of Joseph and Kato.
The wedding was held in the strictest confidence, because Soso at that time was illegal because of his revolutionary activities. Holds a secret wedding ceremony long-standing and reliable friend and classmate of Joseph at the Seminary. Married young is not under his, and under an assumed name – Guliashvili.
Married to a revolutionary
Only a few months young Catherine fully felt what it is to be a wife of a revolutionary. In mid-November in their apartment knocked the police were looking for Joseph. He was in Baku, and the police decided to arrest Kato. The formal reason for the arrest of a girl who was already on the third month of pregnancy, was that a young wife brought uninvited guests to my old (maiden) passport while in the small town of her marriage was no secret. It was liberated in late December, just after her relatives wrote the petition. Joseph also signed it, but was represented there not as a husband, and as a cousin of the unfortunate detainee.
Investigative piece on police of Joseph Stalin.
In mid-March of 1907 from Joseph Kato was born a son named Jacob. But just three months later the young family had to flee from their hometown due to a RAID on a stagecoach in Tiflis, who had allegedly organized Joseph. Robbers had stolen about 250 thousand roubles – for those times a huge amount. But then it turns out that Soso slandered, and the real organizer of such large-scale robbery was the Czar’s police. All notes from the coaches was pre-marked, and later when you try to exchange them to abroad managed to catch and put in prison many of the revolutionaries. The miracle of detention avoided only by Joseph, because he was hiding in Baku.
Ekaterina Svanidze.
However, the young couple had to hide almost constantly. Kato asked the mother-in-law that left little Jacob and taking care of him. But Keke, refused. Son of Kato sent to his family and to the mother-in-law was very offended and called her not only as “the woman”.
And only death will separate us…
In Baku Ekaterina Svanidze suddenly fell ill with galloping consumption. Soso secretly brought his wife to his native Tiflis, and he was forced to hide in Baku. In Georgia, he returned just a few hours before the death of his beloved wife. She died in his arms the next day. Their marriage lasted a little over a year, but according to the memoirs of contemporaries, Stalin really loved his Catherine. However, there were those who argued that Joseph often came home drunk, beat his wife and reviled her last words.
At the funeral of Kato, which was held at Kocisko cemetery in Tbilisi, Soso told his longtime friend: “This is a very gentle creature softened my heart of stone; but alas Kato died, and along with it forever all died my last warm feelings for people”. Witnesses remembered that when the coffin with the body of a young couple began to lower into the ground, Stalin followed and the two friends barely managed to keep grieving friend.
Stalin at the funeral of his first wife Kato Svanidze, 1907
According to one version, it was with the death of his beloved wife linked the alias of Joseph, with whom he later went down in history – Stalin. After all, his heart became cold and unfeeling steel. Now he was only interested in the revolutionary struggle and politics.
The Father Of The Peoples
Family portraits.
Alexander Svanidze, through which Joseph Dzhugashvili met with their Kato, became a fiery revolutionary. He held the post of Minister of Finance of Georgia, worked in Geneva, and head of Vneshtorgbank USSR. He and his wife were the most trusted people in the house of Stalin. But in 1937, Stalin ruthlessly severed ties with the past – Svanidze was arrested and shot, and his wife, knowing it, died of a broken heart. The longer the name, the law in the house of Stalin is not mentioned. On my Kato Stalin spoke only in the last years of his life, when he loved to remember his native Georgia, adolescence and his first love.
