Stalin himself later claimed that the early death of his first wife, Ekaterina, left a profound mark on the Soviet dictator. She was introduced to the young revolutionary by her brother in 1905, while she was working as a seamstress in Baku, the capital of what is now Azerbaijan. By July 1906, the pregnant Ekaterina and Stalin were married. The priests who performed the ceremony only agreed to do so at night, because Stalin insisted on using false documents and an alias at the wedding.
Ekaterina gave birth to the couple’s only son, Yakov, in March 1907. But just months later, she contracted typhus and died on November 22, 1907, at only 22 years old. According to accounts from the time, an inconsolable Stalin threw himself onto her grave during the funeral. He reportedly said of his dead wife: “This creature softened my heart of stone.
She died, and with her died my last warm feelings for humanity. ”
Despite this alleged devotion, Stalin quickly abandoned his first son. Yakov was left to be raised by Ekaterina’s family, and it was more than a decade before he was sent to live in the Stalin household.