Yakov Dzhugashvili

Yakov Iosifovich Dzhugashvili was the eldest of Joseph Stalin's three children, the son of Stalin's first wife, Kato Svanidze, who died 9 months after his birth. His father, then a young revolutionary in his mid-20s, left the child to be raised by his late wife's family. In 1921, when Dzhugashvili had reached the age of fourteen, he was brought to Moscow, where his father had become a leading figure in the Bolshevik government who eventually became head of the Soviet Union. Disregarded by Stalin, Dzhugashvili was a shy, quiet child who appeared quite unhappy and tried to commit suicide several times as a youth. Married twice, Dzhugashvili had three children, two of whom reached adulthood.