Arrests, suicides, mental disorders: how were the fates of famous Kremlin wives

Many people think that wealth is synonymous with "happiness". In fact, this is not the case at all. The same goes for marriages with rich and influential people. Not always such a union predicts a bright future and "love to the grave."

For example, the fate of the women we want to talk about in this article is very difficult to call happy. Some of them committed suicide, others were tortured or forced to endure humiliation by others. We are talking about six of the most famous Kremlin wives - Nadezhda Krupskaya, Nino Gegechkori, Nadezhda Alliluyeva, Evgenia Khayutin, Ida Averbakh and Svetlana Popov.

Nadezhda Krupskaya has never been an exemplary hostess and keeper of the hearth. Instead, she became someone much more for her husband Vladimir Lenin – a colleague and ideological comrade. Since childhood, revolutionary plans and reflections on a better life have been raging in Nadia's soul.

Nadezhda Krupskaya met her future husband in 1894. Together they participated in the organization and activities of the "Union of Struggle for the Liberation of the Working Class." A few years later, the girl received a marriage proposal from Ulyanov (Lenin) ... in a letter. Krupskaya immediately agreed and went to the groom in exile in the village of Shushenskoye. In July 1898, she entered into a church marriage with him.

After that, Vladimir Ilyich and Nadezhda Konstantinovna lived together all their lives. A real threat to their marriage arose in Paris in 1909, when the leader of the world proletariat met 35-year-old Inessa Armand. The woman soon became Lenin's confidant and, according to most historians, his mistress.

At that time, Nadezhda Krupskaya offered him a divorce several times and even looked for a separate home for lovers (according to some reports, friendly relations were maintained between women in this love triangle). However, Vladimir Ilyich preferred to stay with his lawful spouse, who was with him until the last day of his life.

Nino Gegechkori married Lavrenti Beria when she was only 16 years old. In the book "Marshals and General Secretaries" N. Zenkovich writes that the future spouses met in Sukhumi, where the girl came to ask for her arrested brother. At that time there was a train there, on which Beria was going to go to Tbilisi. After the requests of the young brown-eyed beauty to let her brother go, Beria allegedly invited her into the carriage, where he raped her and kept her in a ban for several more days. After that, he made her a marriage proposal.

Nino herself denies this version of events. According to the girl, before marrying Beria, she had known him for several months. The 22-year-old guy constantly invited Nino for walks in the park. Once, during one of these walks, he told me that he wanted to take a girl to wife. It wasn't that he was head over heels in love – it was just that Lavrenty was going on a government business trip to Belgium, and only family people were allowed abroad at that time.

Nino accepted the young man's offer, as she was already tired of the role of a freeloader in the relatives' house. After she was left without parents, a home and means of livelihood, they took her in.

Despite the fact that their marriage was not based on love, Nino supported and justified her husband all her life, even after the list of his terrible crimes was announced. Nino refused to believe in all the rumors about her husband's love victories.

After Beria's arrest, his wife and son were kept in solitary confinement for more than a year and subjected to various tortures. Despite this, she still refused to testify against her husband. After a while, she and her son were sent to Sverdlovsk, and later they moved to Kiev.

Nadezhda Alliluyeva married 38-year-old Joseph Stalin when she was only 16 years old. The Alliluyev family legend says that at the age of 2, little Nadia fell into the sea. A brave 23-year-old boy, Iosif Dzhugashvili, saved the girl from death.

After a while, the Alliluyev family moved to St. Petersburg. When the girl turned 16, the same savior who returned from Siberian exile appeared in their house. Nadezhda fell head over heels in love with a revolutionary. And this is despite the fact that the man was 21 years older than her.

The young people had an affair very quickly. The girl even went to the front with her fiance, and in the spring of 1919 they officially registered a relationship. But the longer Joseph and Nadezhda were together, the more often scandals broke out between them. Alliluyeva was famous for her stubborn and hot-tempered character, she was very jealous of her husband for famous actresses and singers.

Their last quarrel took place in Voroshilov's house at the celebration of the 15th anniversary of the revolution. Then Nadezhda left the guests, and on November 9, 1932, she was found dead – Stalin's wife committed suicide. However, historians are still arguing over the real reasons for her death. Some are sure that she decided to take her own life because of an unhappy marriage, others blame the headaches that often tormented Nadia for this. There are also those who think that Alliluyeva's suicide was staged at all.

Evgenia Khayutina has always enjoyed the attention of men. Even after her marriage to Nikolai Yezhov, which, by the way, was far from the first, she continued her passion for love affairs. She was credited with novels with many famous personalities, for example, Otto Schmidt, writer Isaac Babel, journalist Mikhail Sholokhov.

In September 1929, at the age of twenty-five, Evgenia met her last husband, Nikolai Yezhov. At that time, he held the positions of head of the frames of the Supreme Economic Council and head of the distribution department of the Central Committee of the CPSU. In 1931 they got married, but it is quite difficult to call their marriage happy. Hayutina's love interests did not leave even Stalin without attention – the Generalissimo repeatedly told Yezhov about the need for a divorce from his wife.

In 1938, Nikolai Yezhov informed his wife of his desire to break off the marriage. It was a big blow for her. During the same period, Eugenia's close friends are arrested, and she herself receives an anonymous letter accusing her of espionage. As a result, Evgenia's mental state deteriorates greatly, the woman is placed in the Vorovsky sanatorium for the treatment of psychoneurosis.

From there she sends letters to Joseph Stalin asking him to protect her, but all messages remain unanswered. Then Evgenia writes to her husband and on November 8, 1938 receives from him an envelope with a package of sleeping pills and a souvenir. Many historians suggest that this trinket was a kind of "signal to action", because after a week a woman commits suicide by drinking the entire package of pills.

The union of these people was based on mutual benefit. Thanks to her marriage with Henrikh Yagoda, Ida Averbakh was able to get the position of assistant prosecutor of the capital. He also managed to become related to the family of Yakov Sverdlov.

However, the fate of the family union turned out to be very tragic. On April 4, 1937, Henrikh Yagoda was arrested, accused of a number of crimes and anti-government activities. On March 13, 1937, he was sentenced to death by firing squad. In June 1938, his wife was also shot.

Their common son (Henry) Garrick, after the death of his parents, took a different surname to avoid persecution. In 1949, he was sent to a camp, from where he was released only after Stalin's death. In general, after the execution of Henrikh Yagoda, 15 of his relatives suffered from repression.

Svetlana Popova and Nikolai Shchelokov met at the front during the Great Patriotic War. In 1944, they officially legalized their relationship.

In the postwar period, the career growth of Nikolai Shchelokov could only be envied. At first he held the position of Deputy Minister of Industry of the Ukrainian SSR, then he was appointed Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Moldavian SSR, and finished his service as Minister of Internal Affairs.

His wife Svetlana Popova managed to become famous as one of the "most greedy Kremlin wives". When her husband's income began to grow, the woman became interested in collecting antiques, and eventually found a new "passion" - diamonds.

After Nikolai Shchelokov was removed from the post of Interior Minister, Svetlana shot herself. The man himself soon repeated her fate. It happened shortly before the planned arrest.

That's how the fate of the companions of famous statesmen and politicians of those times developed. Do you agree that there is nothing to be envious of?