The Soviet state again addressed Vasilii Dzhugashvili's case on January 5, 1960, after his having served six years and eight months. At that time, prison authorities had reported him as a good prisoner and there was concern about his deteriorating health (heart disease, stomach disorders, and other problems).
Nikita Khrushchev was apparently ready to consider clemency and turned to the head of the KGB and the chief prosecutor for their joint recommendation. The proposed terms were quite generous. Vasilii was to be "granted a partial amnesty, freeing him from the rest of his sentence and the Moscow city government was to be charged to give him a three-room apartment and the ministry of defense was to give him a pension in accordance with the law, along with three months in a sanatorium, to return the personal property taken from him at the time of his arrest, and to give him a one-time payment of 30,000 rubles.” The Presidium of the Central Committee appeared ready to accept this proposal and prepared a draft decree on this point on January 8, 1960.
It was probably Vasilii's stubbornness that cost him this generous amnesty. There are no documents on his case between January 8, 1960, and his scheduled release on April 28, 1961. We imagine that Vasilii, when presented with the earlier amnesty proposal, demanded full rehabilitation and restoration to the rank of general—terms the leaders of the Soviet Union could not accept.
The next-to-last memo in the file, dated April 7, 1961, is again from the chief prosecutor and the head of the KGB, written three weeks before Vasilii's scheduled release. The frustrated memo makes clear that Vasilii has been a major irritant. The terms of his release have become more severe. Vasilii has not "corrected himself,” acts in a "dark fashion,” and "demands special privileges for himself which he had during the life of his father.”
Clearly, the Soviet leadership feared that Vasilii would be a loose cannon if allowed to stay in Moscow. Better to bury him in a closed provincial city. When told that he would be sent to Kazan or Kuibyshev, he asserted that he would not voluntarily live anywhere but Moscow. He rejected the proposal to change his name and threatened that if not given appropriate conditions (dacha, apartment, pension, and so forth), "he would not keep quiet, but would tell everyone that he was convicted without foundation and was treated arbitrarily.” After his release, Vasilii threatened to meet with N. S. Khrushchev and other members of the Presidium, inform the appropriate offices about his mistreatment, and perhaps ask the Chinese embassy to send him to China, where he could recover his health.
His threat to appeal to the Chinese was not received as an idle one. At the time, the Chinese under Mao were disturbed about Khrushchev's "defamation” of Stalin in his 1956 secret speech. Having Stalin's own son under Chinese wings would have been a powerful propaganda tool in the setting of worsening Sino-Soviet relations. Vasilii's threat to contact foreign journalists also had to be taken seriously. Having a drunken and "dark” son of Stalin spouting off to the international press could have harmed Soviet interests.
What to do with such an ornery person? The verdict: "Because of these actions, we propose to exile him to Kazan (a city where no foreigners are allowed), as an exception to existing legislation. In Kazan, he will be given a single one-room apartment.”
The banished Vasilii Dzhugashvili would not be an irritant for long. The KGB reported to Khrushchev on March 9, 1962, that Dzhugashvili (Stalin) Vasilii Iosifovich had died in Kazan earlier that day. "According to preliminary information, the cause of death was alcohol abuse. V. I. Dzhugashvili, despite multiple warnings of his doctor, was systematically drunk. We consider it wise to bury V I. Dzhugashvili in Kazan without military honors. We request permission to inform his closest relatives. Signed V Semichastny, Head of the KGB.”
Vasilii Dzhugashvili was partially rehabilitated in 1999, when the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court lifted charges of anti-Soviet propaganda that dated from 1953. His body was re-buried in a Moscow cemetery in 2002.
World History
