His father threw him to the ground so hard when he was a child that there was blood in his urine for five days. He also threw a knife at his father when he was four to protect his mother.
According to his mother Keke's memoirs, and I quote Montefiore quoting her, his father started drinking after the death of their first child (he blamed the Icon of Gery that they had prayed to to preserve the life of their child), and he "'could not stop drinking. A good family man was destroyed'...'his hands began shaking and he couldn't sew new shoes. The business was only kept going by his apprentices.'" The young Stalin apparently would hide at the neighbors' when he heard his father coming home singing in the street, which meant he was drunk (which was almost always).
She herself seems to have abused him terribly though. Apparently after he had ascended to God Emperor status he asked her, "why did you always beat me?" To which she answered, "well, it didn't hurt you did it?"
I should really visit Gory, his hometown. The hovel he was born in is preserved inside the Stalin Museum on Stalin Street (yes, Gory has a Stalin Street).
--- joanna <123hop at comcast.net> wrote:
> There was a book by Alice Miller, "Breaking Down the
> Wall of Silence" (
> http://www.alice-miller.com/books_en.php?page=8)
> that talks about the
> horrific abuse.
>
> Joanna
>
Lyubo, bratsy, lyubo, lyubo, bratsy, zhit!
ËÞÁÎ, ÁÐÀÒÖÛ, ËÞÁÎ, ËÞÁÎ, ÁÐÀÒÖÛ, ÆÈÒÜ!
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