Alexander Burdonsky where he is buried. Vasily Stalin's children are their destiny. - That is, their mother was buried with your father

Biography, life story of Alexander Vasilievich Burdonsky

Alexander Vasilyevich Burdonsky - Russian theater director, grandson of a Soviet statesman.

early years

Alexander Vasilyevich is from Kuibyshev (Samara). In this city, located in the Middle Volga region, he was born on October 14, 1941. During that period, Hitler's troops confidently advanced deep into the USSR, and his parents, like many Soviet people, were evacuated away from the front line. The boy's father was the son of the all-powerful head of state.

Just like his father, Sasha bore the famous surname of his grandfather, but after his death he had to change it. The new leaders of the state launched a campaign to condemn the personality cult of the dictator, so it was not safe to be then. Alexander took the name of Galina's mother and became Bourdonsky.

As for the relationship between the grandson and the grandfather, they did not exist as such. Alexander saw his outstanding relative from time to time, and then from afar. Approached only at the funeral, when he was lying in a coffin. In his younger years, Alexander condemned for tyranny, but over time he revised his views and recognized his contribution to the building of the socialist system.

The family broke up when Sasha was four years old. The mother could not get permission to raise her son, and his father took him to him. Alexander had mostly fond memories of him, although he had a difficult character, and he drank quite often. But about the stepmother Ekaterina, the daughter of the former People's Commissar of Defense Timoshenko, he spoke unflatteringly.

So that the child did not take up a lot of his time, he assigned him to the Suvorov school, which he successfully completed. But the young man did not want to associate his life with military service: he was attracted to the theater.

CONTINUED BELOW

Alexander Burdonsky went to study at GITIS in the art of creating theatrical performances. Along with this, he decided to try to make an acting career and became a student of the studio course, which trained personnel for Sovremennik. Alexander's mentor was unforgettable.

A graduate of a creative university did not have to look for a job for a long time. The beginning actor received an offer to play on the stage of the Theater on Malaya Bronnaya. Anatoly Efros invited him there. The newcomer managed to get used to the role of Shakespeare's Romeo, but after three months he changed his occupation.

No, Alexander Burdonsky did not say goodbye to the stage, but moved to the Central Theater of the Soviet Army. There he was entrusted with preparing the production of the play "The One Who Gets a Slap". The management of the theater did not regret that it had made a bet on an inexperienced director who had not yet made a name for himself. Burdonsky coped with the task with flying colors, after which he finally established himself in the team.

Alexander had to achieve recognition solely thanks to his abilities and efforts, and he was proud of it. After death, it was better not to stutter about kinship with him. By the way, he got to the Theater on Malaya Bronnaya not at all because of his noble origin.

Personal life

The director's chosen one was the charming Dalya, with whom he studied on the same course. The wife of Alexander Vasilyevich, who served as the chief director at the Youth Theater, passed away before him. The couple had no children.

Leaving life

Alexander Vasilievich Burdonsky died in Moscow on May 24, 2017. In recent years, the director suffered from a serious illness, but died suddenly from cardiac arrest. Farewell to the People's Artist of Russia took place in the theater of the army, to which he devoted a lot of time and energy.

"WE COULD NOT FEED BY A WEEK - WE, TWO HUNGRY CHILDREN, CLEANED AND AIRED BY TEETHED BEETLES"

- During the war, both Yakov, Stalin's eldest son, and Vasily, your father, went to the front ...

- It could not be otherwise.

- Yakov, as you know, was captured and died tragically there, but Vasily was kept by fate ... Was he a brave pilot?

- I knew many of his fellow soldiers, and absolutely everyone said: "Vaska was brave." However, he was not allowed to take risks ...

- Didn't he seem a little crazy to you?

- Well, of course, but if I were a prince, I would probably also behave recklessly ...

- Or maybe, on the contrary ...

- ... I would build continuous theaters ... (Smiling).

- Binge drinking, spree, did he constantly happen?

- It began during the war ... Unrestrained ... And then it became a disease. I remember a case at the dacha: we walked there, played on the territory, and my father walked to the entrance. We had a tame rook - we found him with a broken wing, cured him, and he became domesticated, and this bird flew up to his father. My God, how he screamed! Apparently, he had a delirium tremens, but we didn't understand this ... Only many years later we realized, somehow talking to Kapitolina ...

He, of course, was ill, and hard, but the environment supported this addiction, because when his father was drinking, you could get something from him ...

- Controlled ... Have you seen him often in this state?

- Well, not really ... Still, we seemed to live in our own half, and he lived in his ... Not often, but he saw ...

- Father sometimes showed some kindness towards you, could he stroke, kiss?

- Yes, and there are even photographs, where he drags me, little one, on the backs, aunt. When I grew up, all this happened less often, but I could.

- Did you beat often?

- No. I remember how he beat me when I met my mother, and then we lived in Germany for some time with Yekaterina Timoshenko, and I climbed out of the window. There was such a low second floor ... Fortunately, I fell onto a large bush and nothing special happened to me - well, I scratched myself somewhere, but when my father arrived and Catherine told him about it, he slapped me in the face ... However, this, apparently, some kind of anxiety splashed out ...

- Prevention ...

- Anxiety! - it was expressed like this, do you understand?

- Yekaterina Timoshenko, the daughter of the former People's Commissar of Defense, by your own admission, beat you and her sister in mortal combat, even with a whip ...

- Bila, Nadya even tore off her lower lip - I had to heal.

- Is it true that your stepmother beat off your sister's kidneys?

- Yes! Well, she kicked her in boots, but how much does a girl six or seven years old need? Nadya was thin, fragile ...

- Where is such cruelty in a young woman?

- I think it’s, how to say ... Remember the Danish cartoonist Bidstrup's comic strip "The Circle Is Closed"? The minister yelled at the deputy, the deputy at the pom, the assistant at the secretary, and the last in this chain, the lowest in the hierarchy, had no one to take evil off, so he kicked the dog, and she, in turn, grabbed the minister by the butt. I think this is how my father's attitude to Catherine manifested itself.

- Did he beat her hard?

- Before your eyes?

- Well, not mine. Imagine the second floor: here, let's say, is our room, then the hall, and then their apartments, but you can still hear ...

- Listen, if the stepmother did this: she kicked her sister in her boots, whipped her with a whip - why didn't you go to your father, didn't you complain?

- They were probably afraid. Now I can lie to you, but I think they were still afraid. We could not have been fed for a week ...

- What did you eat?

- Oh, we had Isaevna there, an old cook, - she secretly brought semolina porridge, but Ekaterina found out about it and immediately fired her. We, two hungry cubs, were sitting on the second floor and once saw how potatoes, carrots and beets were being brought from the cellar on sleds to the kitchen. We were not locked with a key, so we dressed at night ...

- ... hungry ...

- ... we went into this cellar and took everything that we got under our arms into the hem of our nightgowns ... We didn’t even see what we were taking, we only heard the squeak - there were rats, apparently, running around, and they brought this prey .. We didn't have a knife, so we cleaned and ate unwashed beets with our teeth - this was also the case.

- What did Tymoshenko get you out of the light?

- This, obviously, was the punishment for something ...

- But, excuse me, do not feed the children ...

- Darling, you can't look into someone else's "bowler hat".

- Did the other stepmothers behave normally towards you?

- Capitolina? She is not a bad person, she was a normal woman, she went through a hard life, a hungry childhood ...

“WHEN FATHER FROM VLADIMIR PRISON TO MOSCOW AND DELIVERED TO THE KREMLIN, KHRUSHCHOV HUGGED HIM, CRYED AND CRASHED:“ WHAT DID THEY DONE TO YOU? ”

- When, after the death of your father, you met with Yekaterina Timoshenko and talked to her all day long, did you recall your childhood grievances?

- No. She asked: "Sasha, is it really true, I was a good stepmother?" I: “Of course,” but I look her in the eyes, but she did not understand my, so to speak, radiation, the signals that she sent her. Well, why? She had a completely sick daughter, a drug addict son ... ( Her daughter Svetlana had mental disabilities, suffered from Graves' disease, was later declared incapacitated, and her son Vasily shot himself under the influence of drugs at the age of 19. — D. G.).

- Is the sick girl a half-sister, Tymoshenko's daughter from your father?

- Who knows, from him or not, but it seems like from his father - so it is considered ...

- I am quoting you: “My father said to my mother: I have only two options - a bullet or a glass, because I am alive while my father is alive” ...

- Have you ever talked to him about Stalin?

- After he was released. In the prison in Vladimir, where I visited him, people sat tightly, like at a party meeting, so only purely secular conversations could be conducted there, but when he left, they talked.

- Vasily Iosifovich loved your father?

- Oh sure!

- What exactly did he say about him?

- I was tormented by the fact that he was removed.

- They killed ...

- Yes, and that the people who did it, portrayed grief, and rejoiced themselves - he suffered from this lie. By the way, when father was transported from Vladimir to Moscow and taken to the Kremlin, Khrushchev hugged him, cried and lamented: “What did they do to you?”, So there were many theaters from the times of Nero and Seneca.

- In what conditions was Vasily Iosifovich in Vladimir?

“In people like everyone else, the only thing was that they made a wooden floor in his cell, because, apparently, he had severe pains already. After all, my father was released because his obliterating endarteritis progressed - do you understand what it is? Legs die off, gangrene goes ...

- How long did he sit?

- In the political prison Vladimirskaya for almost seven years, another year in Lefortovo ...

- And all this time he was closed within four walls, he was not even in a colony ... Why was he kept there, why was it necessary?

“I think they just didn't know what to do with him.

- That is, let him die ...

- They were afraid to release them, especially since the country was always full of rumors ... Everyone was interested in them - both the son of the king of the American press, Hirst Jr., who came to the Soviet Union, and China, which naturally did not support Stalin's debunking. Questions came from everywhere: where is he, what is he? Of course, such a person could not be released, and even more so the "iron mask" could not be removed from him.

- How did the prisoners treat him?

- Very good - there are still legends about this, in my opinion. My father made some carts for them, on which they carried food, but he also experienced a terrible humiliation. I did not see this, but Nadya told me how one day she came to Vladimir before me, and she was taken to the office. There, on the wall, there was a portrait of Stalin, and under it the father was sitting in a quilted jacket - and the guard, when he brought him in, pushed him in the back with a rifle butt.

- In which theater will you see it?

- In our. Isn't Russia a theater? We call it that ...

- Have you come to Vladimir more than once?

- Yes, several times...

- And they came directly to the prison?

- In Vladimir, the aunt of my mother's friend lived (she taught - in her family, all literature or English, in my opinion, was taught) - so we stayed with them. She accompanied me on a date with her father (oh, what was her name? - Lida, in my opinion), but how was it? Kill me, I don't remember ...

- Vasily Iosifovich, when he saw you, did he cry?

- No, he was not a tearful person at all.

- Did you often see him after prison?

- How often? Father was nothing at large. When he was released from prison in '61, he came to us. Mom wanted to stay, of course: "No!"

- That's even how ...

- For quite a long time - he asked me - I brought him furniture from the Kremlin warehouses, which used to be at his dacha and in his mansion, but there was still furniture from the adjutant's, because everything decent had already sold out ... Well, it doesn't matter. .. For this time, my father went to a sanatorium in Kislovodsk with my sister, and then, when he returned, he was also with her, with Nadya. He was still in Vishnevsky's clinic, and after he collided with the car of a Japanese or some ambassador, he was again arrested and exiled to Kazan.

All this took less than a year - release, Kislovodsk, Vishnevsky's clinic, new imprisonment, but he could not be kept in prison - he was dying, so he was offered a choice of five cities. He named Kazan because there were flight regiments.

Nadya and Kapitolina, I, when he was buried, flew there. In a one-room apartment, a coffin stood on two stools, Kapitolina saw ampoules from injections on the floor and tried to lift them, and the notorious Masha Nuzberg ( according to some reports, a paid KGB informant who met Vasily Stalin when he was in the hospital, and followed him to Kazan, where she insisted on formalizing the marriage. — D. G.) crushed them with my foot.

- Strange nurse, yes ...

- Surgeon Vishnevsky ( Colonel General of the Medical Service, since 1948 director of the Institute of Surgery named after Alexander Vasilyevich Vishnevsky, his father.— D. G.) Svetlana warned that this is a snitch and, in general, she is not on their staff, but this is not my business, I do not know the circumstances ...

“WHEN THE FATHER WAS FAREWELL TO, I VERY STRONGLY BLACK BLUES ON HIS HANDS STUFFED, GRATED. FROM THE FUNERAL THE SISTER IS RETURNED TO MOSCOW ... "

- Father was also killed, what do you think?

- Of course, not without it, and so we arrived, we could not buy flowers - it was frosty, although it was March. It is strange, but their life with their mother met in two numbers: the father was born on March 24, and died on March 19, and the mother, on the contrary: was born on July 19 and died on the 24th in the same month. Nevermind...

Many people gathered to say goodbye to their father, the large courtyard was crowded with people, because the Voice of America immediately conveyed the message of his death ... How did we know? Also completely by accident. We got a call, Nadya picked up the phone, and she was told: “Father has died. Funeral then and then. " Sobbing, panic ... We did not know what to do and decided to go to our cousin. They jumped out, caught a taxi ... Just drove off, the driver turned: “Did you hear Vasya Stalin died?”, But I'm talking about something else ...

At the funeral, many men in civilian coats were, but when they approached the coffin, the floors were thrown open, and then there was a flight uniform: I remembered this well, and then I was struck by very severe bruises on my father's arms, abrasions. You know, this is how a face is scratched if a person fell on his face, but go and know why such bruises were already black. Kapitolina and I discussed this later: “Strange ... Someone was holding his hands, or what?”.

- Did you cry at the funeral?

“I’m not, but my sister returned to Moscow with gray hair ... Then this gray hair disappeared, but I was shocked that she took off her black kerchief, and her hair turned out to be white under it.

- This is 20 years old. Why?

- Nerves. She loved her father very much (I can't say this about myself, a sinner). She loved, regretted, although I also regretted - to a certain extent, limited ...

- Was Vasily Stalin buried in Kazan?

- His grave was there, but Svetlana, my aunt, even when she lived in Moscow, tried to have him reburied at the Novodevichy cemetery next to his mother - Nadezhda Alliluyeva. She was denied. My sister Nadya wrote letters, and I signed them - also to no avail. Our family was denied, and Nuzberg's daughters were allowed.

- That is, their mother was buried with your father?

- They buried him with her ( in 2002, at the Troekurovsky cemetery. — D. G.), therefore, when they ask me if I have been there and why I don’t go to the grave, I answer that I said goodbye to my father in Kazan, his soul flew away in this city, and they accompanied him on his last journey there. Nadya and I were at that funeral, but what lies here, I don't know ( Maria Nuzberg's daughter Tatiana did everything secretly from Alexander Burdonsky, who heard about the transfer of ashes from journalists. — D. G.).

- You say that you did not love your father, although you felt sorry for him, but now you understand him?

- Of course, there can be no two opinions, and I forgive him everything, including my childhood.

- Do you watch films about him?

- Well ... With Steklov in the title role - "My best friend - General Vasily, the son of Joseph" - practically could not, and the picture "The Son of the Father of Nations" was simply forced to look, and I bought into the fact that very well actor Gela Meskhi played his father ...

- Did you like it?

- I liked it, because he looks like him insanely, even in manners (he reminds me, young, - a good boy!). The father in his performance may be too Robin Hood, but he is similar, and everything else is such a idiot that there is simply nowhere else to go.

STALIN'S OUT-OF-WEDDING CHILDREN? For God's sake, why not? IN THE TURUKHAN REGION, NOT IN THE SAME DOUBLE HE WAS DOING IT, BUT WITH SOMEONE ... "

- Did you communicate with your aunt, Svetlana Alliluyeva?

- Of course.

- Did you have a good relationship?

- Svetlana Iosifovna, in fact, as far as I know, did not like relatives ...

- No, she treated Nadya and me very well, and when she returned from America ... In general ... She wrote about this, about me ... ( During a short return to her homeland in 1984, Svetlana Alliluyeva was amazed at the dizzying take-off made by this once "quiet, fearful boy who recently lived with a heavy drinking mother and a sister who began to drink" during 17 years of separation.— D. G.)

- An interesting woman?

- Undoubtedly - both talented and intelligent, and, you know, her pen is very good.

- Light ...

- That's not even the point - I'll try to explain to you what I mean. Maria Osipovna Knebel, the great director and my teacher, has a lot of books, and when you read them, it seems as if you are talking to her - this is how she spoke and wrote. Svetlana had it in the same way, which struck me - she has very good books, especially “Distant Music” I like.

- Do you have brothers and sisters in Russia today?

- There is practically no one left. Nadya died, Osya, Svetlanin's son, died ... Katya, her daughter, lives in the Far East - she is a volcanologist, after graduating from Moscow State University she married a colleague. Naturally, they weren't in Moscow dealing with volcanoes, they left, and then her husband got a very serious cancer, and he shot himself. Having buried him, Katya remained to live there - she is a Zhdanovskaya girl ...

- Svetlana's daughter from Yuri Zhdanov, son of Stalin's comrade-in-arms Andrei Zhdanov?

- Yes. Here all sorts of riches were left to her and all that rest, but she put an end to it all. ( Ekaterina Zhdanova only once in more than 40 years left the village of Klyuchi in Kamchatka - she flew to Rostov-on-Don to her father, who was the rector of Rostov University. She lives as a hermit in a dilapidated, neglected house, does not communicate with anyone except her many dogs. When the administration of the village offered her to make repairs, they did not let anyone inside, so the hut was patched up only outside. — D. G.).

- And what, not a single soulmate is left?

- Well, how? Firstly, my sister has a daughter, she also has a daughter - my grand-niece, a very good girl, clever. When three years ago my granddaughter, so to speak, entered the institute, I tried to help her, someone else volunteered to lend a shoulder: she didn’t want to, she didn’t want to! - and entered. He studies perfectly, pah-pah, so as not to jinx.

- Did the children remain on the line of Yakov, Stalin's eldest son?

- Well, his daughter Galya died, and her son with his Algerian father ( Hussein bin Saad - UN expert. — D. G.) lives, a sick boy. Well, how sick? Wonderful brains, mathematics, physics - everything is great, but he was born with a trauma - deaf-blind, and Galya returned his sight with her own hands, taught him in a regular school, he graduated from the institute. There, his feat was accomplished ... ( For obvious reasons, Alexander Vasilyevich "forgot" to mention his cousin - retired Colonel Yevgeny Yakovlevich Dzhugashvili, who in 1996 headed the Society of Ideological Heirs of Joseph Stalin in Georgia, repeatedly in courts in defense of the honor and dignity of his grandfather acted and even his role in the film directed by Abashidze "Yakov, son of Stalin" performed. — D. G.).

- According to rumors, Stalin had illegitimate children - do you believe in that?

- For God's sake...

- So, theoretically, this is possible?

- Why not?

- A living person ...

- In exile on Kureyka, in the Turukhansk region, not in a hollow, he did it, but with someone, however, in one newspaper I read that he loved pretty guards, but it was somehow quickly hushed up. Which in a fit you cannot say ... Somehow, when I lived on Tverskaya, a man came to me who worked on television here ( Konstantin Kuzakov, Deputy Chairman of the State Television and Radio of the USSR. — D. G.): this means I am Stalin's son. I ...

- ... "How can you prove it?" ...

- No, I was nice. “I'm glad for you,” he said. - So what? What have I got to do with it? " - "We must communicate in some way." - "What for? - I asked. - I don’t know you, you me too, we may be completely different people. You have your own circle associated with work, I have mine - well, thank God, why do we need to communicate? " - "And you are completely indifferent that you have an uncle?" “To be honest, absolutely,” I nodded.

I really didn't care about him, and then, you know, how many people come and call who are not really relatives: "I am the daughter of that ...", "I am the granddaughter of this ..."? There was even a person who claimed that he was my mother's son and was allegedly born after she left her father - this “brother” saw a film about her on TV and, apparently, was captivated by her, and our Alliluyas' ears hung up, they believed.

"I DIDN'T WANT THAT I HAVE CHILDREN, AND I WAS NOT ADVISED TO GIVE MY SISTER"

- You have no children ...

- I did not want...

- Why?

- Well, I have to go back to my childhood for explanations (I didn’t advise my sister to give birth, but she decided otherwise). I have lived a very hard life, do you understand? I don’t tell you the details, because why stir up my grievances, who are already 60 years old? - This is ridiculous. No, I didn't want to have children. Fortunately, my wife was also a crazy director, Lithuanian ( classmate Dalia Tumalyavichute, who worked as the chief director of the Youth Theater in Vilnius. — D. G.) - we have ash everywhere pouring, we selflessly argued about some projects ...

- Is it true that at one time you were married to Lyudmila Chursina?

- The Lord is with you! I have been working with her for many years - yes, but everywhere for some reason they end up asking questions about Chursina: both in the Baltics and in St. Petersburg. She...

- ...beautiful woman...

- ... beautiful, talented, and you can talk to her, because not all actresses are different in their brains, they are able to understand some things.

- You started your way in art under the direction of Oleg Efremov ...

- I studied acting in the Sovremennik studio, and as soon as Maria Osipovna Knebel began teaching us, I knocked on her door at GITIS, I graduated from her course and since then I have been working, working, working.

- For many years you have been the director of the Theater, first of the Soviet Army, then of the Russian ...

- ... and until 1951 - Red ...

- Excellent actors worked in this theater: Nina Sazonova, Lyudmila Kasatkina, Andrey Popov, Fyodor Chekhankov ...

- ... Vladimir Zeldin still, thank God, goes on stage, Lyudmila Chursina, Alina Pokrovskaya, Maria Golubkina ...

- Is it a pleasure to create with such masters?

- Still would! - but our cooperation gave them great pleasure, they loved me very much. I also have a performance at the Maly Theater that we did with Elina Bystritskaya - I am friends with her and love her very much, and she answers me in the same way, and even when I left Japan (I staged there four times), every time all the actors got together and cried - so I can be too.

- If today you are suddenly offered a very good script for a film about Stalin, such that you will be carried away, interested in, would you agree to play your grandfather?

- No. No!

- The train left?

- This is some other people should do - why me, what have I to do with this? No, I never would, for any money.

- If only - again, the subjunctive mood! - you were told today that you can live your life differently, which one you would choose? The one that is?

- Yes, you know ... As a reasonable person, you understand that happiness is a matter of seconds, well, minutes gather, but I still do what I love, I am engaged in it, it reciprocates to me - it means that I have already pulled out some lucky ticket. On the other hand, my mother and I once said: well, I would have been born, and she would have been married to Volodya Menshikov ... It's not fame that worries me, believe me, no! - but I am in some kind of binding of history, in some tragic events, I not only turned out to be a witness, but also a participant. This leaves a serious imprint and teaches a lot - first of all, to remain a decent person. At 75, can you already say I'm decent enough? No, he fought, of course, and drank, maybe he was rude to someone, but all these are such trifles ...

- The last question: do you go to the grave of grandmother Nadezhda Sergeevna Alliluyeva, to the grave of grandfather Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin?

- To Stalin - never, he is a statesman, and other people go to him and put flowers, but every year I go to my grandmother several times, be sure ... And to Nadezhda Sergeevna, and to my mother’s dad and mother, and to Anna Sergeyevna Alliluyeva, whom I remember very well ... She was a wonderful person, the kindest: a saint, a holy fool - I ask you to leave that. When Pasternak was unanimously expelled from the Writers' Union, one vote was against.

- Her?

- She had already managed to get out of prison by that time, where she spent eight years alone for nothing ...

Well, on Novodevichy, all my idols are buried: Stanislavsky, Nemirovich, Ulanova, Babanova - our entire theater school, the whole color of our culture: how can you not go there? Of course. I go around everyone with flowers ...

The famous director Alexander Burdonsky passed away the night before

Late the night before, in one of the Moscow clinics, Alexander Vasilyevich Burdonsky, the director of the Theater of the Russian Army, the son of Vasily Stalin, the grandson of the "father of peoples", was gone. His whole life was overcoming the circumstances of his relationship. More details in the material of Realnoe Vremya.

Black chick on the escalator

We met Alexander Vasilyevich in October 1989, in one of the first conversations he spoke about a documentary film that he had once seen at the Moscow Film Festival. It was a film by Hungarian filmmakers about a poultry farm. There, yellow chickens ran along a long belt, and when they reached the machine, he dumped them into the basket.

But then a black chicken got on the tape, and it also ran to the right place, and the photocell did not work: the chicken was of a different color. It's hard to be a black chicken, not like everyone else. Alexander Vasilyevich initially, by the fact of birth, was "not like everyone else." It is no coincidence that when he graduated from the directing department of GITIS, Yuri Zavadsky invited him to the theater. Mossovet for the role of Hamlet, the "black prince". After much deliberation, Bourdonsky refused.

In honor of Suvorov

He was born on October 14, 1941 in Samara, then Kuibyshev, where the Alliluyev-Stalin clan was sent to evacuation. His parents met shortly before the war, Vasily Iosifovich literally stole his fiancée from his hockey player friend, the charming blonde Galina Burdonskaya. He looked after beautifully, for example, he could fly up to her yard in a small plane and throw off a bouquet of flowers.

The father, together with his friend-pilot Stepan Mikoyan, flew to Samara a couple of days later - Vasily Iosifovich wanted to show off his son. He named him Alexander in honor of Suvorov and planned a military career for him.

Galina Burdonskaya and Vasily Stalin with little Sasha. Photo bulvar.com.ua

The parents divorced almost immediately after the end of the war, and Vasily Iosifovich, in revenge on his ex-wife, did not give her children and even forbade him to see them. Once Alexander Vasilyevich violated the ban and saw his mother. When the father found out about this, the punishment followed: he "exiled" his son to the Suvorov School in Tver.

Burdonsky never saw his grandfather, Stalin was not interested in his grandchildren. For him, his grandfather was a symbolic figure on the mausoleum, which could be seen at demonstrations. Galina Burdonskaya has never seen her father-in-law in her life either, although it is known that even after the divorce, she did not fall under the hammer of repression thanks to the protection of Stalin. Once he called Beria and told him: "Don't you dare touch Svetlana and Galina!"

When Stalin died, the grandson was brought to the funeral of his grandfather, and he sat near the coffin, looking at the long procession of people walking. Stalin's death did not cause any emotion in him. Soon his father was arrested, and Alexander Vasilyevich, together with his sister Nadezhda, was returned to his mother.

In recent years, Vasily Iosifovich, an ambiguous, tragic figure, spent in exile in Kazan. Here he died under mysterious circumstances. Burdonsky and his sister came to Kazan for his funeral. Alexander Vasilyevich later recalled that the death of Vasily Stalin was not officially reported, but the news of this spread throughout Kazan, and a lot of people came to say goodbye to him. People walked and walked to his apartment on Gagarin Street, walked in silence. Men in civilian clothes approached, opened the hem of their coats, and orders were visible under them. This is how the front-line soldiers said goodbye to a combat general - a brave pilot. Vasily Stalin was really an ace and did not hide in the war.

"He is Stalin's grandson"

Burdonsky never dreamed of a military career, from early childhood he thought only of the theater. Two of his childhood shocks are Galina Ulanova, seen at the Bolshoi Theater, and Vladimir Zeldin in the play "Dance Teacher".

Vasily Stalin at the farewell ceremony for his father. Moscow, Column Hall of the House of Unions, March 6, 1953. Photo jenskiymir.com

He decided to enter GITIS, the directing department. The course was recruited by the legendary student of Stanislavsky, Maria Knebel, whose family suffered from repression. She later told Alexander Vasilyevich: “Before me stood Stalin's grandson, and I understood that now I could decide his fate. It lasted a split second, and I said to myself: "God, what am I thinking! .. He's not guilty of anything." Burdonsky later became her favorite student.

He graduated from GITIS, where he studied at the same time and was friends with the future chief director of the Kamalovsky Theater Marcel Salimzhanov, but could not find a job in Moscow. Nobody wanted to hire Stalin's grandson. Maria Knebel helped, she took him as an assistant for her production of "The One Who Gets Slaps" at the Central Theater of the Soviet Army. And after the successful premiere, Alexander Vasilyevich was hired to work in this theater, which he did not change until the end of his life.

Helped "Look"

Burdonsky never advertised his relationship with Stalin. His view of his grandfather was always balanced and objective. In principle, he never staged performances about Joseph Vissarionovich, although there were such proposals. And he never got involved in politics.

During the years of perestroika, he rehearsed a play based on Erdman's comedy "Mandate", and they tried to close the play, which was daring for those times. Aleksandr Lyubimov helped by inviting the director to the then super popular Vzglyad program, then many learned that Aleksandr Burdonsky was Joseph Stalin's elder grandson.

Alexander Vasilyevich was one of the brightest representatives of romanticism in Russian theater. Theater was the greatest love in his life. He worked in line with the Russian psychological theater, never cheating on him. And this now requires a lot of courage. His Charades of Broadway or Invitation to the Castle were impeccably stylish. "The Lady of the Camellias" - nostalgic and beautiful. The performances of Chekhov's plays are like gentle nocturnes.

Theater was the greatest love in his life. He worked in line with the Russian psychological theater, never cheating on him. Photo molnet.ru

Several years ago, Alexander Burdonsky came on tour to Kazan, his performances were sold out. He could no longer visit his father's grave - incomprehensible "relatives" by this time had already reburied the ashes of General Vasily Stalin in Moscow.

It's hard to be a black chicken. It is difficult not to fall into temptation, feeling your "peculiarity" due to stellar kinship, just as it was not easy to endure the years of the overthrow of Stalin and the dislike that unwise people projected onto his relatives. He passed all the tests with dignity.

Tatiana Mamaeva

The role of Joseph Stalin in history is assessed in different ways. Some adore his personality, others fervently hate him and his policies. During his life, the family of Joseph Vissarionovich lived well. His son, Vasily Stalin, often behaved capriciously, committing odious acts unworthy of his surname. However, he did not bear any punishment for his actions. The grandson of Joseph Stalin, director Alexander Vasilyevich Burdonsky, had to change his surname in order to calmly engage in creativity.

Alexander Burdonsky biography: early years

The director was born on October 14, 1941 in the city of Kuibyshev, which is now called Samara. His father is the famous Soviet pilot Vasily Stalin, and his mother is Galina Burdonskaya. The grandfather's surname, Stalin, given to him after birth, helped the boy at a young age. However, after the death of Joseph Vissarionovich, the surname had to be changed to Burdonsky.

The change is explained by the debunking of the personality cult of the great leader at the 20th Congress of the Communist Party. From that moment on, the oppression of Stalin's relatives began. The father of the future director was also hit.

Vasily Stalin

The health of Alexander Burdonsky's father in custody had deteriorated so much that he urgently needed treatment. Nikita Khrushchev decides to release Vasily ahead of schedule, but in return requires compliance with a number of conditions:

1. Stop talking about your father's death, blaming current politicians for his death.
2. Do not lead a riotous lifestyle.

Gritting his teeth, Vasily agrees with the demands of Nikita Sergeevich. He is given a pension, the title is returned and a 3-room apartment is issued. But the happiness of Vasily Stalin does not last long: in a drunken state, he announces the murder of his father by Khrushchev and blames the whole world for his misfortunes. He is returned to prison and then sent to the closed city of Kazan.

Based on his biography, the series "The Son of the Father of Nations" was shot, reflecting the life of Vasily with his first wife and relations with his own son Alexander.

Fathers and Sons

Alexander Burdonsky, the son of Vasily Stalin, was taken away from his mother in early childhood. She was forbidden to visit her child, so the upbringing fell entirely on the shoulders of her father. Constant drinking, a riotous lifestyle prevented Vasily from raising his son correctly.

As he himself stated, stepmothers and governess were engaged in it. It is worth noting that, despite all the hardships of fate and the temporary absence of his mother, Alexander turned out to be a good person and a loving husband. His father was preparing a military career for him, but he preferred to engage in theater and cinema.

The death of the leader and his role in the life of Alexander Burdonsky

Grandfather, Joseph Stalin, was never interested in the fate of his own grandson. Alexander has never seen him live. But he happened to see his grandfather at the funeral. As he later noted, Stalin's death did not affect his emotional state in any way.

Alexander was not fond of politics, his interests included only the theater. Often he received offers to stage a play about his grandfather, but he always refused. He never advertised his relationship with the leader.

According to him, the grandfather was an unnecessarily insane, but, undoubtedly, a brilliant politician. In his youth, Alexander treated Joseph Vissarionovich with a certain contempt. Having matured, I was able to assess the role of my grandfather in history more as positive than negative.

Childhood and adolescence of the actor passed in difficult moral conditions. Thanks to his fortitude and special character, the boy did not lose himself in the glory that fell on him. And in the future, he did not use his kinship to swear at his famous grandfather. In the view of Bourdonsky, he remained an unattainable figure.

Where did you study

As his father wanted, Alexander began to study at the Kalinin Suvorov School. After graduating from the 7th grade, he entered the Art and Technical School of theatrical profile. He took an active part in the life of the educational institution and the House of Pioneers.

In 1958 he graduated from college and began working as a sham artist in theaters in the capital of the USSR. At the beginning of 1966, he was studying at GITIS on directing department.

In 1971, Burdonsky graduated from his studies and received an invitation to play in a play by Shakespeare. Already in 1972, director Andrei Popov made him an offer to stay at TsTSA and continue his acting career. It's easy to guess that Alexander agrees.

Personal life of the actor

Burdonsky married his colleague and classmate Dalia Tumalyavichuta. She worked as a chief director in a youth theater, died before her husband. There were no children in the marriage, and the widowed Alexander Vasilyevich Burdonsky was left completely alone. It is worth giving him his due - he never used his "special" position, considering himself an ordinary person.

Death

At the age of 76, Alexander Burdonsky died. The news of the death of the director and actor did not provoke heated discussions in society, which is natural, because he led a modest lifestyle. Due to heart problems, on May 24 last year, the actor died in a Moscow hospital.

45 years ago - March 19, 1962 - the youngest son of the "father of nations" Vasily Stalin died
Alexander Burdonsky met his grandfather for the only time - at a funeral. And before that I saw him, like other pioneers, only at a demonstration: on Victory Day and on the October anniversary.

"THE STEPMOM TREATED US FRIENDLY. FORGOT TO FEED IN THREE-FOUR DAYS, THE SISTER'S KIDNEYS HAVE BEEN BEATENED"

Yes, they were then 19 years old. When my father looked after my mother, he was like Paratov from "Dowry". That only cost his flights on a small plane over the metro station "Kirovskaya", near which she lived ... He knew how to show off! In 1940, the parents got married.

My mother was cheerful, she loved the color red. I even made a red wedding dress for myself. It turned out to be a bad omen ...

The book Around Stalin says that your grandfather did not come to this wedding. In a letter to his son, he sharply wrote: "He got married - to hell with you. I pity her that she married such a fool." But after all, your parents looked like an ideal couple, even outwardly they were so similar that they were mistaken for brother and sister ...

It seems to me that my mother loved him until the end of her days, but they had to part ... She was just a rare person - she could not pretend to be someone and never cunning (maybe that was her trouble) ...

According to the official version, Galina Aleksandrovna left, unable to bear the constant drunkenness, assault and betrayal. For example, Vasily Stalin's fleeting relationship with the wife of the famous cinematographer Roman Karmen Nina ...

Among other things, my mother did not know how to make friends in this circle. Head of security Nikolay Vlasik (raised Vasily after the death of his mother in 1932.- Auth. ), an eternal intriguer, tried to use it: "Checkmark, you must tell me what Vasya's friends are talking about." His mother is obscene! He hissed, "You're going to pay for this."

It is quite possible that the divorce from my father was the price. In order for the leader's son to take a wife from his circle, Vlasik twisted the intrigue and slipped him Katya Timoshenko, the daughter of Marshal Semyon Konstantinovich Timoshenko.

Is it true that your stepmother, who grew up in an orphanage after her mother ran away from her husband, offended you, almost starved you?

Ekaterina Semyonovna was a domineering and cruel woman. We, other people's children, apparently annoyed her. Perhaps that period of life was the most difficult. We lacked not only warmth, but also elementary care. They forgot to feed us for three or four days, some were locked in a room. Our stepmother treated us terribly. Sister Nadia was severely beaten - her kidneys were beaten off.

Before leaving for Germany, our family lived in the country in winter. I remember how we, small children, crept into the cellar at night in the dark, stuffed beets and carrots into our pants, peeled unwashed vegetables with our teeth and gnawed them. Just a scene from a horror movie. Povarikha Isaevna had a great hit when she brought us something ...

Catherine's life with her father is a continuous scandal. I don't think he liked her. Most likely, there were no special feelings on both sides. Very calculating, she, like everyone else in her life, just calculated this marriage. You need to know what she wanted. If well-being, then the goal can be said to have been achieved. Catherine brought in a huge amount of junk from Germany. All this was kept in a barn at our dacha, where Nadya and I were starving ... And when my father put my stepmother out in 1949, she needed several cars to take out the trophy goods. Nadya and I heard a noise in the yard and rushed to the window. We see: "Studebakers" go in a chain "...

From the Gordon Boulevard dossier.

Ekaterina Timoshenko lived with Vasily Stalin in a legal marriage, although his divorce from Galina Burdonskaya was not formalized. And this family fell apart because of Vasily's betrayals and hard drinking. Drunk, he rushed to fight. The first time Catherine left her husband because of his new romance. And when Vasily Stalin, the commander of the Air Force of the Moscow District, conducted an air parade poorly, his father removed him from his post and forced him to get along with his wife. At least at the funeral events in connection with the death of the leader, Vasily and Catherine were nearby.

They had two children together - in 47, a daughter, Svetlana, appeared, in 49, a son, Vasily. Svetlana Vasilievna, who was born sickly, died at 43; Vasily Vasilyevich - he studied at the Tbilisi University at the Faculty of Law - became a drug addict and died at the age of 21 from a heroin overdose.

Ekaterina Timoshenko died in 1988. She is buried in the same grave with her son at the Novodevichy cemetery.

"FATHER WAS A DESPERATE FLYER, TAKE PART IN THE BATTLE OF STALINGRAD AND IN THE BATTLE OF BERLIN

Yes. I remember Kapitolina Georgievna with gratitude - she was the only one at that time who humanly tried to help my father.

He wrote to her from prison: "I am very strongly ovassilized. And this is not accidental, for all my best days - family days - were with you, Vasilievs" ...

By nature, my father was a kind person. He loved to tinker at home, locksmith. Those who knew closely spoke of him - "golden hands". He was an excellent pilot, brave and desperate. He took part in the Battle of Stalingrad and in the capture of Berlin.

Although I love my father less than my mother: I cannot forgive him that he took me and my sister to him and we lived with our stepmothers. Dad bore the surname Stalin, I changed it. By the way, everyone is wondering if he left me a legacy of a penchant for alcoholism. But you see, I have not drunk myself and am sitting in front of you ...

I read that from Lefortovo Vasily Stalin came not to Kapitolina Vasilyeva, but to your mother. But she did not accept him - she already had her own life.

Mom said: "It's better to go to a tiger in a cage than to be with my father for even a day, at least an hour." This is with all the sympathy for him ... She remembered how, separated from us, rushed about in search of a way out and ran into a wall. I tried to get a job, but as soon as the personnel department saw a passport with a stamp on the registration of marriage with Vasily Stalin, they refused under any pretext. After Stalin's death, my mother sent a letter to Beria asking him to return the children. Thank God, it did not manage to find the addressee - Beria was arrested. Otherwise it could have ended badly. She wrote to Voroshilov, and only after that they returned us.

Then we settled together - my mother and I, sister Nadezhda already had her own family (For 15 years, Nadezhda Burdonskaya lived with Alexander Fadeev Jr., the son of the actress Angelina Stepanova and the adopted son of a Soviet classic writer. Fadeev Jr., who suffered from alcoholism and tried several times to commit suicide, was married to Lyudmila Gurchenko before Nadezhda.- Auth. ).

Sometimes they ask me: why do I like to stage performances about difficult women's lives? Because of mom ...

Last May, you premiered The Queen's Duel with Death, your interpretation of John Murrell's The Laugh of the Lobster, dedicated to the great actress Sarah Bernhardt ...

I had this play for a long time. More than 20 years ago Elina Bystritskaya brought it to me: she really wanted to play Sarah Bernhardt. I had already decided to stage a play with her and Vladimir Zeldin on our stage, but the theater did not want Bystritskaya's "tour", and the play left my hands.

Sarah Bernhardt has lived a long life. Balzac and Zola admired her, Rostand and Wilde wrote plays for her. Jean Cocteau said that she didn’t need a theater, she could arrange a theater anywhere ... As a theater man, I cannot but worry about the most legendary actress in the history of world theater, who had no equal. But, of course, I also worried about her human phenomenon. At the end of her life, already with an amputated leg, she played the scene of the death of Marguerite Gaultier, without getting out of bed. I was shocked by this thirst for life, this irrepressible love of life.

From the Gordon Boulevard dossier.

Galina Burdonskaya, who drank heavily, was diagnosed with "smoker's vessels" in 1977 and her leg was amputated. She lived as an invalid for another 13 years and died in the corridor of the Sklifosovsky hospital in 1990.

"AN INTELLIGENT ANSWER ABOUT THE REASONS OF FATHER'S DEATH (AT 41 YEARS OLD!)

I visited my father both in the Vladimir prison and in Lefortovo. I saw a man cornered, who could not stand up for himself and justify himself. And his conversation was, of course, mainly about how to get out of freedom. He understood that neither I nor my sister could help in this (she died eight years ago). He was tormented by a sense of injustice done to him.

From the dossier of "Gordon Boulevard" .

Vasily loved animals from childhood. He brought a wounded horse from Germany and went out, kept stray dogs. He had a hamster, a rabbit. Once at the dacha, Artyom Sergeev saw him sitting next to a formidable dog, stroking him, kissing him on the nose, giving food from his plate: "This one will not deceive, will not change" ...

On July 27, 1952, a parade dedicated to the Day of the Air Force was held in Tushino. Contrary to the prevailing myth that an airplane crashed because of Vasily, he coped with the organization brilliantly. After watching the parade, the Politburo in full force went to Kuntsevo, to the dacha of Joseph Stalin. The leader ordered his son to be at the banquet too ... Vasily was found drunk in Zubalovo. Kapitolina Vasilyeva recalls: "Vasya went to his father. He came in, and there the whole Politburo was sitting at the table. He was swung to one side, then to another. Father said to him:" You are drunk, go out! "And he:" No, father, I'm not drunk. "Stalin frowned:" No, you're drunk! "After that, Vasily was removed from office ...".

At the coffin, he wept bitterly and stubbornly insisted that his father had been poisoned. I was not myself, I felt the approach of trouble. The patience of "Uncle Lawrence", "Uncle Yegor" (Malenkov) and "Uncle Nikita", and they knew Vasily from childhood, burst out very quickly. 53 days after his father's death, on April 27, 1953, Vasily Stalin was arrested.

The writer Voitekhov wrote in his testimony: “In the winter at the end of 1949, when I arrived at the apartment of my ex-wife, actress Lyudmila Tselikovskaya, I found her torn to pieces. She said that Vasily Stalin had just visited her and tried to force her to I went to his apartment, where he drank in the company of pilots. Vasily knelt down, called himself a scoundrel and a scoundrel and declared that he was living with my wife. In 1951 I had financial difficulties, and he arranged me at the headquarters I did not do any work, but I received my salary as an Air Force athlete. "

The documents indicated that it was not Vasily Iosifovich Stalin who was taken to prison, but Vasily Pavlovich Vasilyev (the leader's son should not be in prison).

In 1958, when Vasily Stalin's health deteriorated sharply, as reported by the chief of the KGB Shelepin, the leader's son was again transferred to the Lefortovo detention center of the capital, and once he was taken to Khrushchev for several minutes. Shelepin recalled how then Vasily fell on his knees in Nikita Sergeevich's office and began to beg him to be released. Khrushchev was very moved, called him "sweet Vassenka", asked: "What have they done to you?" I burst into tears, and then kept Vasily in Lefortovo for another year ...

They say that a taxi driver who heard a message on the Voice of America told you about the death of Vasily Iosifovich ...

Then the third wife of father Kapitolin Vasiliev, me and sister Nadya flew to Kazan. We saw him already under the sheet - dead. Kapitolina lifted the sheet — I remember perfectly well that he had stitches. Probably, it was opened. Although a clear answer about the reasons for his death - at 41! - no one gave us then ...

But Vasilyeva writes that she did not see the seams from the autopsy, that the coffin stood on two stools. Without flowers, in a wretched room. And that her ex-husband was buried like a bum, there were few people. According to other sources, several monuments even fell at the cemetery due to a crowd of people ...

People walked for a long time. Several people, passing, parted the sides of the coat, under which there were military uniforms and orders. Apparently, the pilots arranged their farewell in this way - it could not have been otherwise.

I remember that my sister, who was then, I think, 17 years old, came from this funeral completely gray-haired. It was a shock ...

From the Gordon Boulevard dossier.

Kapitolina Vasilyeva recalls: “I was planning to come to Kazan for Vasily’s birthday. I thought I’ll stay at a hotel, bring something tasty. And suddenly a call: come to bury Vasily Iosifovich Stalin ...

Came with Sasha and Nadia. Nuzberg asked what he died of. He says, they say, Georgians have arrived, brought a barrel of wine. It was, they say, bad - they made an injection, then a second. Twisted, twisted ... But this happens when blood clotting. Toxicosis is not corrected with injections, but the stomach is washed. The man lay and suffered for 12 hours - an ambulance was not even called. I ask why this is so? Nuzberg says that the doctor herself gave him an injection.

I surreptitiously looked around the kitchen, looked under the tables, into the trash can - I could not find any ampoule. She asked if there was an autopsy and what it showed. Yes, he says, it was. Poisoned by wine. Then I told Sasha to hold the door - I decided to check it myself if there was an autopsy. I went to the coffin. Vasily was in a tunic, swollen. I began to unfasten the buttons, and my hands were shaking ...

There are no traces of an autopsy. Suddenly the door flew open, two mordovorot burst, which followed me on my heels as soon as we arrived in Kazan. Sasha was thrown away, Nadia was almost knocked off her feet, and I flew ... And the Chekists yell: "You are not supposed to! You have no right!"

Five years ago, the ashes of Vasily Stalin were reburied in Moscow, which you almost read in the newspapers. But why at the Troekurovsky cemetery, if his mother, grandfather and grandmother, aunt and uncle are buried at Novodevichy? So decided your half-sister Tatyana, who has been striving for this for 40 years, wrote to the Kremlin?

Let me remind you that Tatyana Dzhugashvili has nothing to do with the youngest son of Joseph Stalin. This is the daughter of Maria Nuzberg, who took the surname Dzhugashvili.

The reburial was arranged in order to somehow join this family - a kind of piracy characteristic of our time.

"WHAT COULD I THANK MY GRANDFATHER FOR? FOR MY RUPTURED CHILDHOOD?"

I don't like fanatics, and Yevgeny is a fanatic who lives in the name of Stalin. I cannot see how someone adores the leader and denies the crimes he has committed.

A year ago, another Yevgeny relative, 33-year-old artist Yakov Dzhugashvili, turned to Russian President Vladimir Putin with a request to investigate the circumstances of the death of his great-grandfather Joseph Stalin. Your cousin nephew claims in his letter that Stalin died a violent death and this "made possible the coming to power of Khrushchev, who imagines himself a statesman, whose so-called activities turned out to be nothing more than a betrayal of state interests." Confident that a coup d'etat took place in March 1953, Yakov Dzhugashvili asks Vladimir Putin "to determine the degree of responsibility of all persons involved in the coup."

I do not support this venture. It seems to me that you can do such things only if you have nothing to do ... What happened happened. People have already passed away, why stir up the past?

According to legend, Stalin refused to exchange his eldest son Yakov for Field Marshal Paulus, saying: "I am not changing a soldier for a field marshal." Relatively recently, the Pentagon handed over to Stalin's granddaughter - Galina Yakovlevna Dzhugashvili - materials about the death of her father in Nazi captivity ...

It is never too late to take a noble step. I would be lying if I said that I shuddered or that my soul ached when these documents were handed over. All this is a matter of the distant past. And it is above all important for Yasha's daughter Galina, because she lives in the memory of her father, who loved her very much.

It is important to put an end to it, because the more time passes after all the events associated with Stalin's family, the more difficult it is to reach the truth ...

Is it true that Stalin was the son of Nikolai Przhevalsky? A well-known traveler allegedly in Gori was staying in the house where Dzhugashvili's mother, Ekaterina Geladze, worked as a maid. These rumors were fueled by the amazing external similarity between Przhevalsky and Stalin ...

I don’t think this is the case. Rather, the point is different. Stalin was fond of the teachings of the religious mystic Gurdjieff, and it suggests that a person must hide his real origin and even shroud his date of birth with a kind of veil. The legend of Przewalski, of course, poured water on this mill. And what looks like, so please, there are still rumors that Saddam Hussein was the son of Stalin ...

Alexander Vasilievich, have you ever heard suggestions that you inherited your talent as a director from your grandfather?

Yes, sometimes they said to me: "I understand why the Bourdon director. Stalin was also a director" ... Grandfather was a tyrant. Let someone really want to attach angel wings to him - they will not hold on to him ... When Stalin died, I was terribly ashamed that everyone around was crying, but I was not. I sat near the coffin and saw crowds of people crying. I was rather frightened by this, even shocked. And what good could I have for him? What to thank for? For the crippled childhood I had? I do not wish this to anyone .... To be Stalin's grandson is a heavy cross. I will never go to play Stalin in a movie for any money, although they promised huge profits.

What do you think about the sensational book "Stalin" by Radzinsky?

Radzinsky, apparently, wanted in me as a director to find some other key to Stalin's character. He allegedly came to listen to me, and he himself spoke for four hours. I sat and listened with pleasure to his monologue. But he did not understand the true Stalin, it seems to me ...

The artistic director of the Taganka Theater, Yuri Lyubimov, said that Iosif Vissarionovich ate and then wiped his hands on a starched tablecloth - he's a dictator, why should he be ashamed? But your grandmother Nadezhda Alliluyeva, they say, was a very educated and modest woman ...

Once in the 50s, grandmother's sister Anna Sergeevna Alliluyeva handed us a chest where Nadezhda Sergeevna's things were kept. I was struck by the modesty of her dresses. An old jacket, darned under the arm, a worn skirt of dark wool, and patches on the inside. And it was worn by a young woman who was said to love beautiful outfits ...

P. S. In addition to Alexander Burdonsky, there are six more relatives of Stalin's grandchildren in another line. Three children of Yakov Dzhugashvili and three - Lana Peters, as Svetlana Alliluyeva called herself when she left for the USA.