section_path: Personal life and characteristics/Relationships and family
section_name: Relationships and family
paragraph_text: Relationships and family
  
  Friendship was important to Stalin, and he used it to gain and maintain power. Kotkin observed that Stalin "generally gravitated to people like himself: parvenu intelligentsia of humble background". Stalin's friendships "meandered between love, admiration, and venomous jealousy". According to Boris Bazhanov, Stalin's one-time secretary, "Women didn't interest him. His own woman was enough for him, and he paid scant attention to her." However, Montefiore noted that in his early life Stalin "rarely seems to have been without a girlfriend". Montefiore described Stalin's favoured types as "young, malleable teenagers or buxom peasant women", who would be supportive and unchallenging. Stalin "regarded women as a resource for sexual gratification and domestic comfort".
  
  Stalin married his first wife, Ekaterina Svanidze, in 1906. According to Montefiore, theirs was "a true love match"; Volkogonov suggested that she was "probably the one human being he had really loved". When she died, Stalin allegedly said: "This creature softened my heart of stone." However, Russian historian Anton Antonov-Ovseenko wrote that Stalin was physically abusive to her. They had a son, Yakov, who often frustrated and annoyed Stalin. Yakov had a daughter, Galina, before fighting for the Red Army in the Second World War. He was captured by the German Army and committed suicide.
  
  In 1914, Stalin, aged 35, had a relationship with Lidia Pereprygina, then 14, who became pregnant with Stalin's child. In December 1914, Pereprygia gave birth to their child, although the infant died soon after. In 1916, Pereprygina was pregnant again. She allegedly gave birth to their son, named Alexander Davydov, in around April 1917. Stalin later came to know of the child's existence but showed no interest in him.
  
  Stalin's second wife was Nadezhda Alliluyeva; theirs was not an easy relationship, they often fought. They had two biological children—a son, Vasily, and daughter, Svetlana —and adopted another son, Artyom Sergeev, in 1921. It is unclear if Stalin ever had a mistress during or after this marriage. She suspected he was unfaithful, and committed suicide in 1932. Stalin regarded Vasily as spoiled and often chastised his behaviour; as Stalin's son, Vasily was swiftly promoted through the Red Army and allowed a lavish lifestyle. Conversely, Stalin had an affectionate relationship with Svetlana during her childhood, and was very fond of Artyom. He disapproved of Svetlana's suitors and husbands, putting a strain on their relationship. After the Second World War, he made little time for his children and his family played a decreasingly important role in his life. After Stalin's death, Svetlana changed her surname to Alliluyeva, and defected to the U.S.
  
  After Nadezhda's death, Stalin became increasingly close to his sister-in-law Zhenya Alliluyeva; Montefiore believed they were lovers. There are unproven rumours that from 1934 onward he had a relationship with his housekeeper Valentina Istomina. Montefiore claimed Stalin had at least two illegitimate children, although he never recognised them as being his. One, Konstantin Kuzakov, taught philosophy at the Leningrad Military Mechanical Institute, but never met Stalin. The other, Alexander, was the son of Lidia Pereprygina; he was raised as the son of a peasant fisherman and the Soviet authorities made him swear never to reveal Stalin was his biological father. Stalin was complicit with the persecution of relatives of his former wives such as Maria and Alexander Svanidze who were arrested and eliminated during the Great Purge.