Power, treason, executions: 6 destinies of famous Kremlin wives

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

High position in society, wealth and power have long ceased to be the guarantors of happiness. Marriages with high-ranking statesmen are not always the guarantee of a strong family union. Companions of those who stood at the helm of the state have always been interesting to the general public, but their fates were often tragic: they often took their own lives, were sent into exile, and were subjected to repression.

Nadezhda Krupskaya and Vladimir Lenin

Even at a young age, she was not particularly attractive. Fiery revolutionary ideas raged in her soul, and family life seemed like a series of endless conversations about the future. Nadezhda Krupskaya was a good ally in wrestling and a woman completely alien to the trouble of creating family comfort.

She received a marriage proposal in a letter and immediately gave her consent, going to the groom in exile in Shushenskoye. After their wedding in July 1898, they lived together all their lives. However, in Paris, their marriage was in real danger in the person of Inessa Armand, who became the beloved leader of the world proletariat. Nadezhda Konstantinovna several times offered her husband a divorce, she even looked for a separate apartment for lovers.

But Vladimir Lenin initiated parting with his beloved woman. He decided to stay with his wife. Krupskaya was with him until the last day of her life and outlived her husband for 15 years.

READ ALSO: Love in the name of the revolution, or the personal tragedy of the wife of the leader of the revolution, Nadezhda Krupskaya >>

Nino Gegechkori and Lavrenty Beria

She married Lawrence Beria at the age of 16, despite the protests of her relatives. Later they said that Beria simply stole his underage bride, but Nino claimed: she went down the aisle voluntarily.

She was reputed to be the first beauty in the Kremlin, she was always dressed stylishly and elegantly. And she categorically refused to believe in rumors about her husband's love victories. She considered him a wonderful husband and father.

After the arrest of Lavrenty Beria, his wife and son spent more than a year in solitary confinement, undergoing numerous interrogations. Nino refused to testify against her husband. She and her son were sent to Sverdlovsk, later they moved to Kiev. Until the end of her days, Nino justified her husband, refusing to believe any discrediting information.

READ ALSO: "The Devil's Wife": How Nino Beria tried to debunk the myth about her tyrant wife >>

Nadezhda Alliluyeva and Joseph Stalin

She was only 16 years old when she married 38-year-old Joseph Stalin. The longer they lived together, the more often scandals broke out. Nadezhda was jealous of her husband, suspecting him of infidelity with famous actresses and singers.

When they once again quarreled in Voroshilov's house at the celebration of the 15th anniversary of the revolution, Nadezhda left. Molotov's wife Alliluyeva admitted that she wants a divorce. On the night of November 9, 1932, she shot herself, deciding to commit suicide.

The true cause of suicide is still unknown: the most severe headaches that tormented her for many years, jealousy or cruel attitude of her husband. There were even rumors of a murder.

READ ALSO: How did the fate of Comrade Stalin's closest people develop >>

Evgenia Khayutina (née Feigenberg) and Nikolai Yezhov

Nikolai Yezhov was far from Evgenia's first husband. However, even after registering a marriage with Nikolai Yezhov in 1931, she did not abandon her hobby for men. She was credited with novels not only with colleagues, but also with famous personalities: Mikhail Sholokhov, Isaac Babel, Otto Schmidt. When her acquaintances were arrested, she sought protection from Stalin, wrote letters to him, but received no response to them.

In October 1938, Eugene was placed in the Vorovskiy sanatorium for the treatment of psychoneurosis. On November 8, the husband, in response to her letter, sent his wife sleeping pills and some kind of souvenir. On November 19, she drank the entire package of sleeping pills and died two days later after unsuccessful resuscitation. There is an opinion that the souvenir was a secret sign from her husband, who served as a signal for suicide, but historically this fact has not been confirmed by anything.

Ida Averbakh and Heinrich Yagoda

It was in every sense a mutually beneficial union, as a result of which Yagoda became related to the family of Yakov Sverdlov, and Ida in the future, thanks to the support of her husband, was able to get the position of assistant prosecutor of the capital. But the fate of the family union turned out to be sad. Genrikh Yagoda was shot on March 15, 1938, and on June 16, 1938, his wife was also executed.

Svetlana Popova and Nikolay Shchelokov

They met at the front, during the Great Patriotic War and signed in 1944. The career growth of Nikolai Shchelokov in the post-war period was rapid. He served as Deputy Minister of Industry of the Ukrainian SSR, First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Moldavian SSR. Finished service as Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR.

Svetlana gained fame as one of the most greedy Kremlin wives. She suddenly became interested in collecting antiques, but her real passion was diamonds. After her husband was dismissed from the position of Minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Svetlana Shchelokova shot herself in February 1983. He repeated the fate of his wife on the eve of his own arrest in December 1984.

The fate of the relatives of the Soviet leaders was not easy either. For a long time, many wondered why the children of Stalin's daughter did not forgive her for her escape from the USSR.