What happened to Stalin's descendants?
Joseph Stalin and his children, pictured L-R: Vasily, Svetlana, Yakov
Getty Images; Global Look Press
The Soviet leader had two wives, three children of his own and one adopted child. His descendants had very different feelings about their controversial relative: some were proud of their kinship, while others tried to hide it.
Joseph Dzhugashvili (Stalin’s real name before he took his famous pseudonym - click here to find out more) was very close to his mother. She surrounded him with love, worked hard to provide for her son, and wanted him to become a priest. His father was a heavy drinker and often beat his son and wife. Some biographers see those childhood beatings as the root of the incredible cruelty that Stalin would later show both to his loved ones and to his people.