2-548-149 - © Fine Art Images/Heritage Images

Soviet leader Josef Stalin with his son Vasily and daughter Svetlana, 1930s. Vasily Iosifovich Dzhugashvili (1921-1962) and Svetlana Iosifovna Alliluyeva (1926-2011) were the children of Stalin (1879-1953) and his second wife Nadezhda Alliluyeva. Vasily served in the Red Army air force, reaching the rank of Lieutenant-General. In 1952 he was dismissed from his command of the Air Force in the Moscow Military District after insisting that aircraft flew in bad weather during a military parade, resulting in two bombers crashing. After his father's death, Vasily fell foul of the regime. He was arrested for divulging secret information at a dinner with foreign diplomats and sentenced to 8 years imprisonment. He was released in 1960, but died just after 2 years later from the effects of chronic alcoholism. Svetlana defected to the United States in 1967. From a private collection.