section_path: Personal life and characteristics
section_name: Personal life and characteristics
paragraph_text: Personal life and characteristics
  
  Ethnically Georgian, Stalin grew up speaking Georgian, It has been argued his ancestry was genetically Ossetian, but he never acknowledged an Ossetian identity. He remained proud of his Georgian identity, and throughout his life retained a heavy Georgian accent when speaking Russian. Some colleagues described him as "Asiatic", and he supposedly said that "I am not a European man, but an Asian, a Russified Georgian". Service noted that Stalin "would never be Russian" and never tried to pretend he was. Montefiore was of the view that "after 1917, became quadri-national: Georgian by nationality, Russian by loyalty, internationalist by ideology, Soviet by citizenship."
  
  Described as a poor orator, Stalin's style was "simple and clear, without flights of fancy, catchy phrases or platform histrionics ". He rarely spoke before large audiences and preferred to express himself in writing. Stalin's mustached face was pock-marked from smallpox during childhood; this was airbrushed from published photographs. He was born with a webbed left foot, and his left arm had been injured in childhood which left it shorter than his right and lacking in flexibility. Stalin was a lifelong smoker, who smoked both a pipe and cigarettes. Publicly, Stalin lived relatively plainly, with simple and inexpensive clothing and furniture.
  
  As leader of the Soviet Union, Stalin typically awoke around 11 am, with lunch being served between 3–5 pm and dinner no earlier than 9 pm; he then worked late. He often dined with other Politburo members and their families. As leader, he rarely left Moscow unless to go to a dacha for holiday; he disliked travel, and refused to by plane. His choice of favoured holiday house changed, although he holidayed in south USSR every year from 1925 to 1936 and 1945 to 1951. He had a dacha at Zubalova, 35 km outside Moscow, although ceased using it after Nadezhda's 1932 suicide. After 1932, he favoured holidays in Abkhazia, being a friend of its leader, Nestor Lakoba. In 1934, his new Kuntsevo Dacha was built; 9 km from the Kremlin, it became his primary residence. In 1935, he began using a new dacha provided by Lakoba at Novy Afon; in 1936, he had the Kholodnaya Rechka dacha built on the Abkhazian coast, designed by Miron Merzhanov.