Occupation Cobbler Parents Vano Djughashvili Spouse Keke Geladze (m. 1872) | Role Joseph Stalin's father Name Besarion Jughashvili | |
 | ||
Full Name Besarion Vanovis Jughashvili
ბესარიონ ჯუღაშვილი
Виссарион Иванович Джугашвили Born c. 1850 Didi Lilo, Tiflis Governorate, Russian Empire Died August 25, 1909, Tbilisi, Georgia Children Joseph Stalin, Georgy Jughashvili, Mikhail Jughashvili Grandchildren Yakov Dzhugashvili, Vasily Stalin, Svetlana Alliluyeva, Artem Sergeev Similar People Joseph Stalin, Keke Geladze, Yakov Dzhugashvili, Kato Svanidze, Vasily Stalin | ||
Besarion Ivanis dze Jughashvili (1849 or 1850 – 25 August 1909) was the father of Soviet ruler Joseph Stalin. He was commonly known as "Beso". He was a successful cobbler by trade, but later in life he slid into alcoholism and became a vagrant. His wife and Stalin's mother was Ekaterine Geladze.
Contents
Ancestry
Besarion was born into an Orthodox Christian serf family from the village of Didi Lilo in Tiflis Governorate, most likely in 1850. Besarion had a brother named Giorgi who was murdered by bandits.
Besarion was the paternal grandson of Zaza Jughashvili from the village of Geri, north of Gori. His father was possibly ethnically Ossetian who had the surname "Dzhugaev" rather than Dzhugashvili. According to Roy Medvedev, he visited an Ossetian village where the local inhabitants proudly stated that "Stalin's father was the Ossetian Prince Dzhugaev". The surname "Dzhugashvili" is possibly of non-Georgian origin since the various people of the Caucasus region had moved around for centuries. In the mid-19th century, Zaza took part in a peasant uprising in Ananuri, a small county seat near Ger on the Aragvi River. The uprising was crushed by Imperial soldiers, and Zaza was captured along with nine other rebels. Zaza escaped and hid in Gori, where he was recaptured and remanded as a serf to Prince Eristavi. He became involved in another uprising on the Eristavi estate. It is unknown who his wife was, or the exact number of children he sired. Vano Jughashvili, Besarion's father, tended the vineyards of Georgian Prince Badur Machabeli in the village of Didi Lilo (დიდი ლილო).
Life in Gori
According to the Arsoshvili family (Jughashvili's relatives and longtime residents of Didi Lilo), Jughashvili (nicknamed "Beso") couldn't afford paying a three-ruble tax and had to move to Gori in search of employment.
In Gori, he lived in a house that belonged to the Kulumbegashvili family. Here, Jughashvili found a job as a cobbler. He married Ekaterine Geladze on 29 May 1872 in the evening at the Uspensky Church.
Their first child, a boy named Mikheil, was born on 26 February 1875 but died two months later. Their second child, a boy named Giorgi, was born on 5 January 1877 and died of measles on 1 July 1877. These tragedies led to Besarion's alcoholism. Their third child, a boy named Ioseb, was born on 18 December 1878. Ioseb would later change his surname to Stalin and rule the Soviet Union.
Besarion could speak Georgian, Russian, Turkish and Armenian. Although it's unclear whether or not he could write in his native Georgian.
Besarion eventually opened his own workshop and it was a great success for a time. He had an apprentice and ten employees. But his alcoholism resurfaced. He subsequently became very abusive toward his wife and son, at one point having tried to strangle Keke. His ability to work also suffered, to the point that his workshop was kept alive only by his apprentices.
Although Besarion wanted his son to become a cobbler like him, Ekaterina instead had Ioseb enrolled in school to be educated for the Russian Orthodox priesthood. This enraged Besarion. He kidnapped Stalin from the Gori school so often that Stalin's maternal uncles had to smuggle him in. In a drunken rage, he vandalized a local tavern and attacked the village police chief. For this, he was expelled from Gori.
Later life and death
Besarion moved to Tiflis, where he found work at the Adelkhanov Shoe Factory, while his wife and son stayed in Gori. When Ioseb was 12, he was struck by a carriage and hospitalized in Tiflis. When he recovered, Besarion took him away to be trained at his shoe factory. Ekaterina recovered her son with the help of friends in the clergy and school system. In retaliation, Besarion cut off all financial support to his family and left them to fend for themselves.
In January 1900, Ioseb was imprisoned for the first time because his father had not paid his taxes for his village. Ioseb's friends paid it for him.
In May 1901, Besarion met his son for the last time. Ioseb was organizing a strike in the Adelkhanov Shoe Factory where Besarion worked. Besarion asked his son, "Why are you coming here?" "To address these fellows," Stalin replied. Beso then said, "Why aren't you learning a trade?"
In May 1902, he encountered his ex-wife on her way to visit Ioseb in Batumi prison. He shouted, "Stop or I'll kill you! He [Stalin] wants to turn the whole world upside down. If you hadn't taken him to school he'd be a craftsman, now he's in prison. I'll kill such a son with my own hands, he's disgraced me." A mob protected her from him. She never saw him again.
Besarion died on 25 August 1909 in Mikhailovsky Hospital in Tiflis, suffering from tuberculosis, colitis and chronic pneumonia. He is buried in Telavi, Georgia in a pauper's grave. He had made no effort to contact his son.