By Xinhua
Moscow : Galina Dzhugashvili, granddaughter of the erstwhile Soviet Union leader Josef Stalin, has died at the age of 69, Itar-Tass news agency reported Tuesday.
A spokesperson at the Burdenko Military Hospital, where Galina was admitted, confirmed her death Monday.
Galina was the only daughter of Yakov Dzhugashvili, Stalin’s elder son and a Soviet pilot who was reportedly killed by the Nazis at the Sachsenhausen camp in 1943 after Stalin declined to exchange him for a captured German general.
“Now a lot of bad things are being said about Stalin. But it is quite forgotten that his grandchildren live in the world – good people, and their religion is honesty and decency,” Itar-Tass quoted Tina Egnatashvili, a relative and friend, as saying.
Graduated from Moscow State University, Dzhugashvili later studied philology. She was a member of the Russian writer’s association.
Stalin, whose original surname was Dzhugashvili, led the Soviet Union to victory in World War II but there was controversy over his rule.