Galina Dzhugashvili

Galina Dzhugashvili
Born	Galina Yakovlevna Dzhugashvili (1938-02-19)19 February 1938 Moscow,Soviet Union
Died	27 August 2007(2007-08-27)(aged 69) Moscow, Russia
Resting place	Novodevichy Cemetery
Nationality	Russian
Alma mater	Moscow State University
Occupation	Translator
Employer	Gorky Institute of World Literature
Parents	Yakov Dzhugashvili(father) Yulia Meltzer(mother)
Relatives	Joseph Stalin(grandfather)

Galina Yakovlevna Dzhugashvili(Russian:Галина Яковлевна Джугашвили;19 February 1938 – 27 August 2007) was a Russian translator ofFrench.She was the granddaughter ofJoseph Stalin,the daughter of Stalin's elder son,Yakov Dzhugashvili.She consistently challenged widely accepted accounts of her father's internment and death at a Nazi prison camp.

Biography

Galina Dzhugashvili was born inMoscow.Her mother wasYulia Meltzer,a well-known Jewish dancer fromOdessa.After meeting Yulia at a reception, Yakov fought with her second husband, anNKVDofficer called Nikolai Bessarab,and arranged her divorce. Bessarab was later arrested by the NKVD and executed. Yakov became her third husband.

Yakov was asenior lieutenantin theSovietartillery in theSecond World War.Historians have traditionally maintained that he was captured by theGermansin 1941 and died at theSachsenhausen concentration campin 1943 after Stalin declined to exchange him for the captured German general Field MarshalFriedrich Paulus.TheUnited States Defense Departmentwas in possession of documents which indicated that Yakov Dzhugashvili was shot by a concentration camp guard, which were shown to Galina Dzhugashvili in 2003, but which she rejected, claiming that her father was never taken prisoner by the Germans, but rather was killed in battle in 1941. She continuously maintained that any photographs or letters indicating her father was at the prison camp were Nazi propaganda.

Galina Dzhugashvili studiedphilologyatMoscow State University,and received a doctorate. She was a member of theRussian Writers Union,and worked all her life as a translator ofFrench,mainly for theGorky Institute of World Literature.She was married to Husein ben Saad, an Algerian mathematician living in exile in Moscow and employed by theUnited Nations,but kept her maiden name. They had one son, Selim, born on 15 November 1971, who was born deaf.

Dzhugashvili died from cancer at theBurdenkomilitary hospital in Moscow, aged 69.

External links

• Galina DzhugashviliatFind a Grave
• New York Times obituary
• Obituary,The Independent,15 September 2007
• Obituary,The Times,10 September 2007