Vissarion Jughashvili

Infobox Person
name = Vissarion Jughashvili


image_size = 150px
caption = Vissarion (Beso) Ivanovich Jughashvili
Виссарион (Бесо) Иванович Джугашвили
ბესარიონ ჯუღაშვილი
birth_date = 1853
birth_place = Gori, Didi Lilo, Georgia
death_date = August 25th, 1909
death_place = Tblisi, Georgia
occupation = Cobbler
spouse = Ekaterina Geladze
(1872-1909)
parents = Vano Jughashvili, mother unknown
children = Mikheil
Giorgi
Joseph Stalin

Vissarion (Beso) Ivanovich Jughashvili (also transliterated as Dzhugashvili) ("Виссарион (Бесо) Иванович Джугашвили" in Russian; ბესარიონ ჯუღაშვილი "Besarion Jughashvili" in Georgian) (1853 or 1854 - 1909, other sources give a much later date for his death) was Joseph Stalin's father. His surname means "son of Juga", and is derived from either the Ossetian "Juga" (of unknown meaning) or the Georgian for 'herd' "djogi".

Vissarion Jughashvili was the grandson of Zaza Dzhugashvili from the village of Geri, north of Gori. He is known to have been born into an Orthodox Christian serf family from the village of Didi Lilo in Georgia, most likely in 1850. His father Vano tended the vineyards of Georgian Prince Badur Machabeli in the village of Didi-Lilo. Vissarion had a brother called Georgy who was murdered by bandits. According to the Arsoshvili family (Jughashvili's relatives and longtime residents of Didi Lilo), Jughashvili couldn't afford paying a three-ruble tax and had to move to Gori in search of employment.In Gori, he lived in a house of Kulumbegashvili. Here, Jughashvili found a job as a cobbler and married Ekaterina (Keke) Geladze on May 30 1872.Simon Sebag Montefiore. Young Stalin. 2007. ISBN 978-0-297-85068-7] It is known that their first two children (Mikheil and Giorgi) died as infants. Jughashvili eventually opened his own workshop, and for a time he and his family were prosperous and happy. However, Beso soon developed a severe drinking problem and became violently abusive towards his young wife and his son, Joseph. His ability to work also suffered, to the point that his workshop was kept alive only by his apprentices. Although Jughashvili wanted his son to follow in his footsteps and become a cobbler, his mother instead had him enrolled in school to be educated for the Orthodox priesthood. This enraged Beso; in a drunken rage, he vandalized a local tavern and attacked the village police chief. For this he was expelled from Gori. He moved to Tbilisi, where he found work in a shoe factory, whilst his wife and son stayed in Gori. When his son entered an Orthodox seminary in Tbilisi, Beso made an unsuccessful attempt to remove him and teach him the cobbler's trade instead. After Stalin was expelled from the seminary, Beso met his son for the last time. Soso, as he was called, was attempting to organize a strike in the factory where Beso worked. Beso contemptuously told his son that he would have done better to learn a trade.

Vissarion died on August 25th, 1909 in Mikhailovsky Hospital in Tbilisi, suffering from tuberculosis, colitis and chronic pneumonia. He is buried in Telavi, Georgia.

References

Further reading

* Simon Sebag Montefiore: "Young Stalin", 2007