Several years ago the Russian media published a
number of articles on the topic of whether Stalin was Przhevalsky's illegitimate son.
On the whole, these articles present various arguments, but the only conclusion is that this is a beautiful legend, plausible in some places, but refuted by documents. For example, the newspaper included in the Guinness Book of Records for the largest circulation in the history of mankind,
"Arguments and Facts",
in the corresponding article mentions the words "conspiracy theory, conspiracy theorists" 6 times in its arguments:
But proponents of the conspiracy theory claim - Besarion Jughashvili was not Stalin's father!
Some conspiracy theorists believe that Besarion Jughashvili finally drank himself to death precisely after learning that Joseph was not his son.
But conspiracy theorists are not discouraged - there is evidence, in their opinion, but it is all "in the Soviet archives, which have not yet been declassified.
One more argument of conspiracy theorists - under Stalin the name of Przhevalsk was returned to Karakol, the works of the traveler were published, and they even shot a feature film about him.
Nikolay Mikhailovich Przhevalsky, for unknown reasons, receives more abuse from conspiracy theorists than anyone else.
Such conspiracy theory is much more entertaining than the real story based on facts. But deep sinking into it leads to complete loss of the sense of reality.
In Russian,
such terms first began to be used in the last years of USSR, in the twilight of Perestroika, during the active penetration of US mass culture.
As
Ed Rankin argues in his doctoral dissertation:
Those challenging the official accounts of significant events are often labeled conspiracy theorists and the alternative explanations they propose are often referred to as conspiracy theories. These labels are frequently intended to dismiss the beliefs of those questioning potential hegemonic control of what people believe.
...
The United States’ Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), taking advantage of previous academic work equating those rejecting official accounts for significant political and social events with pathology (Popper, 1949; Hofstadter, 1964), intentionally set in motion a process leading to the creation of the terms conspiracy theory and conspiracy theorist as pejoratives (deHaven-Smith & Witt, 2013). These pejoratives were subsequently adopted as such by academics, the news media, and other authorities (Green, 2015). This conspiracy theory meme has been used to shut down critical thinking and analysis to control public debate about actions of those in power.
If we assume that the above-mentioned articles of the central Russian media about Stalin's extramarital paternity, willy or unwittingly exploit the methodology developed and implemented by the CIA to "control public debate about the actions of those in power," then what caused a series of modern publications on this topic in popular Russian media?
Most likely, the reason was the release to the public of the video recording of the speech of Cambridge-born USSR State Prize laureate, honored scientist of the Russian Federation, geographer and geomorphologist
Andrey Petrovich Kapitsa. Andrey Petrovich was the son of Soviet physicist and Nobel laureate
Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa, and great-grandson of Infantry General
Hieronymus Ivanovich Stebnitsky.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TK6Y1nUg4rgTranscript of Kapitsa's speech:
...after the expedition to rest, and together they go to Gori and make friends with this Prince of Gori, where Stalin is known to have been born.
And when Stalin is born, Przhevalsky goes on expedition - I found a letter, the last letter of Przhevalsky, which says that "I beg you very much, that if events known to you happen in Gori, you will have to help for the rest of your life, because I will no longer have the means."
It was clear that my great-grandfather, Hieronymus Ivanovich Stebnitsky, was supposed to help the then unborn son of Przhevalsky. With momey...
And indeed, until almost the ninety-sixth year he helps Joseph Vissarionovich and his mother with money. And when money run out - he is forced to leave; coinciding dates of the year - the death of my great-grandfather and Stalin's departure from the seminary. So he had no more money.
And that was perhaps the most serious sign in the whole story, because my grandfather dies and he send message only to my father, through my mother, my mother has to tell my father that here they helped Stalin, but that it is not told to anybody.
Only many, many years later I get to the bottom of this story, that it turns out our family helped Stalin all his childhood, after Przhevalsky's death, with money...
- Still, it's a big chance that he's Przhevalsky's son...?
- He knew it. A hundred percent.
- A hundred percent?
- Yes. He knew it, that he was a son, he knew that Stebnitsky helped with money, and he defended my father for that very reason, not because of "respect for science". How many people, Vavilov, what geniuses he ruined.
- But is he really Przhevalsky's son?
- One to one. Not only that, when my father and I were discussing this question, he repeatedly said to me: "You will tell all that after my death...but before my death - do not you dare". So before Przhevalsky's death, it was a classic example of Georgian: bearded, mustached, like Bin Laden is now... As soon as Stalin appears, the beard disappears, a moustache appears and he makes himself look exactly like Przhevalsky by combing his hair.
Look, I don't have documents with me at the moment. Two photos side by side: an absolutely similar view.
Look, what happens next is a story that no one expects at all. I understand that this is true, but I can't prove it... And so in the Far East, once again worked with Lomakin, I have my second heart attack and am put in a hospital, a Kremlin hospital near Moscow, as we all were, under the Kremlin, put in the Russkoe Pole hospital. And I find myself in the adjoining room with Boris Polevoy, a very famous person of ours...
And so, Boris Polevoy is a terrific storyteller! He told me such things... I was just aghast. And when I wanted to at least surprise him, I told him this story about our relative, through Przhevalsky, and how they helped and so on. "I can't believe it! You know, right now our famous director Yutkevich, who made a film about Przhevalsky, is lying in the hospital. Let's go tell him all about it!"
And we go to the luxury suite, a three-room suite, where Yutkevich is and I tell Yutkevich everything. Yutkevich listens to me and says, "You know what," he immediately addressed me as if I were an old acquaintance, "I'll tell you one thing, until I die, you wouldn't tell anybody what I will tell you about what I know. In forty-seventh year Malenkov summoned me and said: we have great respect for your work as an artist, but we want to offer you a directing job, you have to make a film about Przhevalsky".
That is, the Central Committee summons a man and tells him: make a film about Przhevalsky.
"All the money has been released to Mosfilm - don't worry, but think about it, you may have some contradictions, we expect your answer in three days".
Well two days later Yutkevich called and said: it will be done. He comes to Mosfilm, Mosfilm says: everything is at your disposal. As many people as you need. He goes, first of all he writes the script, shows the script to Malenkov. He says: "We are calm that the script will be as it should be, and we won't even read it".
And then the filming goes on. Well, first they shoot in Russia and then they have to shoot in China. And they came with a film crew of about a hundred people, it was a big film crew, overblown at the time, and they flew to Beijing. They stop there, and then they have to shoot Mongolia, and you know where they were, anyone who has seen the film "Przhevalsky" knows where they shot that film. When they stop there, a day goes by, five, ten, twenty, they are given no transport, nothing, and suddenly the press starts literally hounding them about how Przhevalsky is a spy for Russian Tsarism, that he was a figure who went to break with the Russian country and they quietly humiliate Przhevalsky... Yutkevich says: "I don't understand why then... I go to Yudin, Yudin is our ambassador to China, and I say: listen, either I'm here or I have to leave, well I can of course film it somewhere there in Kyrgyzstan, but it would not be believable".
"Wait, wait one day." Yudin writes directly to Stalin, reporting back. A day later everything changes, completely. Apparently Stalin informed Mao and... yes, maybe he told about his father, I don't know how it was said, but everything changed! Yutkevich was given: a regiment, planes, he's taken here and there, the whole film is shot, everything is done instantly, everything is done on Yutkevich's first and last word. All right, it's all over, the whole film has been edited. Malenkov says: "Well, come and show it to us, to the Kremlin". As it turns out, a special dense copy of the film is printed for the Kremlin, because there are very powerful, bright projectors there, so if the film is ordinary, it will be very whitewashed. So it was called: the Kremlin copy has to be made. And so he goes with the Kremlin copy, to Malenkov, and they sit down next to each other and start watching this film. They watch the whole film. A light flashes on and a familiar voice comes from behind:
"Good. I thought you would direct a good movie. But you have two mistakes. You have two mistakes. You didn't show that Przhevalsky discovered the site of the future city of Vladivostok. And that was his great achievement. After all, Vladivostok was built on the very spot in the Golden Horn Bay that Przhevalsky discovered. And the second mistake: show a little bit of Primorye nature, the nature of our Far East, the country needs it now."
Consequently, there is no problem. Two days later he takes off for Primorye, shoots some footage of Vladivostok, and there he assembles some footage of the foundation of the city, pulls out some old footage. The film is being shot in Primorye. 20 days later he brings the material, mounts it, that's it. "No, Stalin won't be watching, he believes you quite well." Malenkov watches it, says: "Great film." They're releasing the project. Two days later, without waiting six months, they give him the Stalin Prize. Because of this film. Well, he's impressed. He has a great future career. Yutkevich becomes one of our greatest directors.
"Przhevalsky" gets, appropriately enough, the Stalin Prize, you've all seen it, I think we all remember that film...
- But still, he never guessed about the kinship, Yutkevich?
- So when I told him everything, he said: "Now I understand why Stalin was so worried and why he wanted so much... well, I could have guessed before, but you told me something I never knew". But he took his word from me, he took his word from Polevoy that it would never be told...maybe really, we are all dead, a lot of time has passed, I wrote a story on the subject. It's lying in my desk, I'm still waiting for the time when I'll finally publish it.
- Not published yet?
- I can't quite make up my mind to publish the story. And indeed here we have a bust, you know, in the faculty, one to one. Stalin was very keen to be like him, so everything: the haircut, the moustache, the uniform - he did everything like Przhevalsky, not the other way around.
I have told you what I know, I have no proof. If you have any other evidence to the contrary, for God's sake, give it to me, I have told you everything that was between Przhevalsky, between Joseph Vissarionovich and the others. Appearance is no small thing, that they resembled each other stunningly, that Stalin wanted to be like Przhevalsky very much. There is a hypothesis that he is a son of Ossetian prince, that he is a son of someone else, there are many hypotheses and so on. But the only hypothesis I have is that he is Przhevalsky's son. Could that be? Yes. He was in Gori at the same time as my grandfather? Yes. That he instructed my grandfather to provide this seminarian financially, because my grandfather was a Lieutenant General, a strong enough man? Yes. What more do you need, as they say? Straight signatures? DNA? By the way, maybe. But for that I still have to finish this whole story.
- Andrey Petrovich, I can give you one fact, well, not a fact, also all by word of mouth. My first wife was a granddaughter of Stalin's cousin, at one time this lady was exiled by Stalin to Mukachevo, well, for garrulity, as I understand it. Well, they were having a row at home, my wife Nadya, she was much older than me, she remembers it, and one day they were talking about Stalin, and her grandmother said: "What kind of Georgian is he? He is half-breed and his mother is B., she got mixed up with a Russian, some visiting geographer there... A domestic conversation".
- You understand that I cannot confirm it.
- My wife told me, her grandma told about her cousin.
- It all just confirms it. You see, I was checking others, I was just curious: I was checking Ossetian theory and I was checking other theories. This one has too many pros - my theory, and those have too many cons. I may be wrong somewhere. Appearance actually confirms, my family history confirms, keeping my father from all attacks confirms. I have told you everything in volume, everything serves one to the other, one thing follows the other, so I have no reason not to believe what has happened in our family over the years. And the fact that Stalin never reprimanded my father was a credit to our family for supporting Stalin's family.
Then, I go to the Geographical Society and pull up all the Przhevalsky archives. All cleared out, I can't find anything. Everything's been seized! Anything that can somehow confirm where... I say: how, why? "We don't know." So someone came and someone cleared out the archives.
- I wonder if it's all either destroyed or lying around somewhere for the time being?
- I think it lies somewhere in the archives, in top-secret archives. You see, on one hand he wanted to be, but on the other hand he understood that here was Georgia, violation of Georgian customs. All this he also did not want. But he invites Yutkevich to make a film about Stalin's father, and he makes a magnificent film about Stalin's father, and he fulfills all the remarks, but you will never see that this is a film about Stalin's father. You know, on the one hand Stalin wants to praise his father, but on the other he is afraid of being linked to his family name again. You feel there's a connection and a contradiction in his behaviour.
I just told you one hypothesis, you may or may not believe it. But it is very interesting. My father, when I basically dug it all up, said: "I guess you're right." And then he told me that the family always supported this group financially in Gori. We didn't know anyone to whom the money was transferred in Gori. That was the only secret. I cannot tell you that it was transferred directly to Stalin, but money was transferred, regularly. This was told to my father. But in ninety-six or the year before that it was stopped, and if you look you'll see just the moment Stalin left the seminary. All in all, you can argue a lot about it, you can argue other versions. But this version is interesting to me in some way.
- But this version is being told by other people too, besides you. So someone has blabbed?
- Yes, of course, many people think Przhevalsky is Stalin's father. But I am the only one who dug around the family, I wondered to what extent it would be confirmed. It all checks out.
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