Alexander Burdonsky

Mr. Burdonsky kept a low profile, using his mother’s surname. He said he had never visited Stalin’s grave, by the Kremlin wall. Mr. Burdonsky was the son of Vasily Stalin, Stalin’s youngest son, and Galina Burdonskaya, who came from a humble background. The couple separated in 1945, and their two children were taken away from their mother for eight years. After Stalin’s death in 1953, Vasily, a pilot in the Soviet Air Force who struggled with alcoholism, was sentenced to eight years in jail in 1955 for “anti-Soviet propaganda and agitation” in criticizing the Soviet leadership. He was married to another theater director, Dalia Tamuleviciute, who died earlier. They had no children. Another grandson of Stalin, Yevgeny Dzhugashvili, a former air force colonel, died at 80 in December. He was born out of wedlock to the dictator’s elder son, Yakov Dzhugashvili (Stalin’s original name).