Yakov Dzhugashvili, Joseph Stalin’s eldest son, had a difficult relationship with his father from childhood. Raised largely by relatives after his mother’s death, Yakov was brought to Moscow as a teenager, where Stalin reportedly treated him with coldness and often dismissed him.
In 1928, after Stalin strongly opposed his relationship with 16-year-old Zoya Gunina, Yakov attempted suicide by shooting himself in the chest. The bullet narrowly missed his heart, and he survived after spending months in the hospital.
According to multiple historical accounts, Stalin reacted with little sympathy, reportedly remarking, “He can’t even shoot straight.”
Despite their strained relationship, Yakov later became a Red Army artillery officer during the Second World War. Captured by German forces in 1941, he was used in German propaganda before being imprisoned at Sachsenhausen concentration camp.
In 1943, Germany offered to exchange him for captured Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus after the Battle of Stalingrad, but Stalin refused. Yakov died in captivity on April 14, 1943, at the age of 36.
Photo credits: Russian State Archive / Bundesarchiv
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