Stalin's property: what did the leader owned and what inheritance he left

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

There are legends about the asceticism of the leader and generalissimo Joseph Stalin. Despite the fact that, as the first person of the state, he had the right to both excellent wages (the highest in the USSR!) And the use of party property, he left very little in his inheritance, and did not own any property during his lifetime. What was Stalin's financial situation, what did he own and what did he leave to his children?

After the leader died, an inventory of his personal belongings was made, his modesty and asceticism surprised even those who worked alongside him for many years. The inventory of the property is compiled briefly and succinctly, indicating the time and persons in charge. So, what was in Comrade Stalin's personal belongings? • Gray notebook • Red notebook • 67 sheets of notes on separate pages • 5 smoking pipes, 4 boxes with tobacco and other smoking devices • 2 white tunics • 2 gray tunics. • 10 pairs of trousers. • A box of underwear. • A passbook with 900 rubles. Some more interior elements were included in the "other property" column. Among them is an alarm clock in the shape of a fox (without an ear) and a figurine - a gift from Roosevelt. That, perhaps, is all, no gold bars, cash in the cellar and other unexpected finds.

At the same time, Stalin's salary was huge at that time, he had the opportunity to enjoy all the privileges, to rest anywhere in the country at party dachas. There were about two dozen of them in total - most of them were in Crimea, Abkhazia and Sochi. However, cash and other valuables were not found in any of the houses.

What did Stalin spend his money on?

Based on the foregoing, a reasonable question arises - if the leader did not spend money, then where did he do it? He received about 10 thousand rubles a month, a similar salary could be received by outstanding scientists. Needless to say, these were isolated cases. The new "Victory" then cost about the same as Stalin's salary. That is, the leader had to be fabulously rich. But where did the money go?

Every month, with pedantic accuracy, he paid 300 rubles of membership dues to the party. But at the same time he did not even spend on shoes, the head of the guard recalls that Stalin's boots were changed under cover of night, when he was asleep. If Stalin silently put on new leather boots in the morning, it means that the plan was successful, but often he demanded the return of the old, already worn out shoes. Therefore, it becomes even more incomprehensible where Stalin spent his money, if he lived on everything ready and rested around the country as he wanted and where he wanted.

There is a version that Stalin put money in a safe, and on the day he died, police officers seized more than 3.6 million rubles from his safe, moreover, most of the bills were foreign. By the way, Stalin was also entitled to payments as the author of books and works that were published not only in the USSR, but also abroad. But he did not leave behind him either self-acquired real estate or bank accounts. Either it was hidden by interested persons who chose not to drag the people with other people's wealth, or found this amount more pleasant.

However, Stalin had relatives who could claim not only inheritance, but also lifetime regalia, including financial assistance. However, given the difficult character of the leader and his difficult relationships with people, including relatives, it is not surprising that he did not indulge them. Between the children and other heirs, 30 thousand rubles were divided, which were found in his accounts. There was no question of any millions. This seemed strange to the representatives of the working class, which began to fill up the newspapers with letters, they say, Stalin had accounts in foreign banks, which his daughter Svetlana took advantage of.

Alexander Kolesnik, author of the book "Myths and Truth About Stalin's Family", claims that there is no documentary evidence that Stalin could have foreign accounts, and indeed there cannot be. In addition, Stalin's daughter, Svetlana Alliluyeva, made her fortune on her own thanks to her memoir Twenty Letters to a Friend.

Stalin's immovable and movable property

However, Stalin's asceticism in things does not mean at all that he did not gravitate towards luxury. Isn't 20 "dachas" located in the most picturesque corners of the vast country - this is not a luxury. Probably, if it happened today, these buildings would be called something more pretentious - villas, cottages, and even castles. But that was the Soviet Union, because these were dachas, albeit luxurious.

Stalin received his first country house together with a service apartment in 1919. In the past, this house belonged to the oil industrialist Zubalov. From that very moment, the number of houses that were at the disposal of the head of a huge state has been constantly growing. Some of them were located directly close to Moscow and were used for work and weekly rest, others - in the south of the country - for a full summer vacation and treatment. Stalin spent in the south with his family at least 2 months a year. Moreover, at all his dachas, he was actively engaged in everyday life, demonstrating the strong hand of the business executive in all matters.

Each house had a staff, because the house should have been inhabited and well-groomed by the time the leader decides to come there. In 1951 (the country is recovering after the war, we recall), more than 23 million rubles were spent on the maintenance of Stalin's dacha property. The average wage of a worker at that time was 3 thousand rubles. At the same time, another new house was built for 16 million rubles. In general, almost all houses were constantly rebuilt and altered at the request of the Generalissimo. Now he needed more sun, then more shade, then another floor, then the floor turned out to be superfluous.

But why is it commonly believed that the leader was an ascetic, while he lived luxuriously at the expense of the treasury? Not all oliagrams of the present time can afford such a quantity of real estate, employees, security. The Stalinists are always ready to answer this claim, they say, the dachas were state-owned, they were not inherited. But the property, as it was nomenklatura, remained so, not a single dacha went to the people, they were used only by the highest ranks and, moreover, on the principle of "common fund". Of course, this does not apply to the dachas of the head of state, he used them alone, even if nominally they were common, except for Stalin, no one dared to go there.

Favorite dachas of the Secretary General

Some of the houses that were at his disposal, he visited literally several times, and in others he lived for years. So, the most popular is the Blizhnyaya dacha near the village of Volynskoe. Here he lived for almost 10 years, immediately spent the years of the Great Patriotic War. At first it was a modest structure - a house made of wood, solid, spacious, it had seven rooms, but without elements of luxury.

But in 1938, when the opposition to the current government was almost gone, the house began to be remodeled, faced with bricks, made a bathhouse with billiards, a house for official purposes, a heated greenhouse, and a pond. This was one of the first restructuring, in the future there will be many of them, Stalin loved to equip and remodel something.

The result was a huge house in which the Soviet government and luxury somehow coexist. An elevator was installed to the second floor, a park was laid out around several dozen hectares, a greenhouse for citrus fruits was erected, grapes, watermelons were planted, fish were released into the pond. There was also a farm - cows, horses, chickens, ducks, even an apiary. In total, during the years that Stalin lived here, about 70 thousand trees were planted, most of them fruit trees. We are talking about the main dispossession of the country.

Stalin's first dacha was in Zubalovo. Ironically, this was the home of an oil industrialist, in whose fields the future leader received his first revolutionary experience. At the time of receiving the dacha, it was empty, on two floors, with a tall fence, decorated with elements of Gothic art.

On the first floor there were bedrooms, a dining room, a veranda. Stalin's office was on the second floor, like his bedroom. On the territory of the dacha there was an office building, a house for guards. The Alliluyevs lived in this house with their children. The house has not survived, because when the Germans approached, it was blown up. The Nazis did not get to him. The new house was built promptly, but the secretary general did not like to visit it anymore.

Another of Stalin's four Moscow dachas was located on the site of a park; there was once the estate of Catherine II's favorite. At the time when the dacha belonged to Stalin, "Semenovskaya" included menageries, pheasants, bears were kept here, there were greenhouses, a special type of watermelon was even grown here. The secretary general did not come here very often, but four bedrooms for all tastes were always ready, just in case.

The fourth and last Moscow dacha of Stalin was located in Lipki, in the past it was the estate of the gentlemen along the Dmitrov highway. There was a pond and the main attraction - a lime park. Moreover, the lindens here were not young, but planted a century ago. It was a calm, quiet dacha in which the leader liked to take a break from the bustle of the world.

The dacha on Lake Ritsa was built specifically for Stalin; it was put into operation in 1948. The date speaks for itself. By the way, the information on this building was strictly classified. Here, in addition to the house itself, there was a floating veranda, a bridge, almost 5 thousand trees and flowers were planted. Not to mention all the amenities and the purpose-built road and pier.

Dacha "Swallow's Nest" is located on the mountains overlooking the sea. There are two observation decks here: a large and a small one. The small one was intended for security, on the big one there was a veranda, here Stalin liked to sit for a long time, even in late autumn. The dacha was built in such a way that it is covered from almost all sides, it is not visible either from the mountains or from the sea. And those who visited it, gave a receipt not to disclose its location. There was an underground passage, its own gas station, a garage, a workshop, a catering unit.

The Lebanese, Vorontsov and Massandra palaces were given over to nomenklatura dachas. Massandrovsky - the former royal palace belonged to Stalin. Despite the fact that nominally all members of the Politburo could stay here, except for the general secretary himself, no one came here. But there were always a lot of workers, as if there were always a lot of vacationers here.

New Matsesta was located in Sochi - it was built in the 30s. The leader went here to be treated for healing waters. At first he was forced to leave and go for treatment, but later a pump was installed, a small pool was installed, and "healing waters" came to the state dacha itself. Another Sochi dacha, Valdai, whose rooms were sheathed with Karelian birch, now belongs to the Administrative Department of the President of the Russian Federation.

In Crimea, there was a dacha "Malaya Sosnovka", it is made of wood, later a glass tent was completed here. The dacha in Tskhaltubo also had a bathhouse, here, when the leader was here, daily newspapers and mail were delivered by plane.

As for the vehicle fleet, the leader did not have a personal car. And why, if all the costs of moving the secretary general were borne by the party and the state? When Stalin took over as People's Commissar, he had a Vauxhall car - the only one in the country brought from England. During the Civil War, he rode a Packard. According to rumors, it was a gift from Roosevelt, which was then repainted in white. Rolls-Royces were purchased for the first persons, more than 70 pieces. Stalin never went to the same place, he constantly sat in different places, because he was afraid that an attempt would be made on his life.

Stalin also had the Maksim Gorky motor ship at his disposal; it was sheathed with 17 kinds of wood. Moreover, it is generally not known whether Stalin sailed on this ship, but high-ranking officials often rested here, but the secretary general himself was too afraid of drowning.

What did Stalin's family members own and how much did they receive?

For a long time, these data were classified, just a couple of years ago, the Ministry of Defense disclosed information that ordinary pilots who participated in the bombing of Berlin received no more than 320 thousand rubles. But Vasily received more than 800 thousand. And his first car was a Mercedes. He also lived in a state-owned dacha, huge in area, with everything ready. He owned a kennel, a stable, there was a large farm. They tried to please Vasily, believing that he had influence on his father and could, if something happened, take part of his anger onto himself.

Despite the fact that it is generally believed that Svetlana Alliluyeva made her fortune herself, writing the memoirs "Twenty Letters to a Friend", which were very popular and made her a wealthy lady, would they be interesting to anyone if she were not Stalin's daughter?

According to those close to Stalin, he did not spend his money, and his wages were regularly added on the table in packages, which he did with her and no one knows. But all his life, including dachas, food, travel, clothes - everything was paid for by the state. The Ministry of State Security, in which a special department was created to control the expenses of the first persons of the state. But no one dared to say unequivocally what and where was spent, and even Stalin himself, periodically throwing himself at his employees, including General Vlasik, with the words “Parasites! I know how you make money here!”, Could not control all the expenses. Moreover, he was too far from this, some papers were slipped into him, besides, constant construction projects and alterations contributed to this as well as possible. He was powerless against the system that he himself had built around himself.

By and large, Stalin, if he left an inheritance, is a huge country at the peak of his capabilities. But equally, this very country was his thing, from which he took as much as he needed during his lifetime, without trying to provide a comfortable life for his children and grandchildren for many years to come.

Perhaps, if the leader was puzzled by the future of his descendants, then now the great-grandson of the great leader would not have to fight for an apartment - Stalin's legacy, with his own father.