Stalin's Granddaughter Galina Dzhugashvili Dies

Yakov Dzhugashvili, Galina's father, was Stalin's eldest son (Wikipedia Commons) August 28, 2007 -- Galina Dzhugashvili, a granddaughter of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, has died in Moscow at age 69.

Hospital officials said Dzhugashvili died late August 27 at Burdenko military hospital after a prolonged illness.

Her father, Yakov -- Stalin's eldest son -- was a Soviet army officer who historians say died at the Nazis' Sachsenhausen camp in 1943 after Stalin declined to swap him for a captured German general.

Four years ago, Dzhugashvili said that her recollections of her grandfather were "a child's memories - the best and most tender."

She said Stalin had been "very tender" with her because she was a girl.

(AP, ITAR-TASS, Interfax)