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Who were Putin's siblings? Russian president lost brother in Siege of Leningrad

Putin's eldest brother Albert was born in the 1930s but died in infancy, while his one-year-old brother Viktor was buried in an unmarked grave
PUBLISHED MAR 2, 2022
Born in 1952, Vladimir Putin (R) was his parents Vladimir and Maria's third son, but was the only one to survive (Hulton Archives/Getty Images)
Born in 1952, Vladimir Putin (R) was his parents Vladimir and Maria's third son, but was the only one to survive (Hulton Archives/Getty Images)

Vladimir Putin's private life is revealed to the public only in glimpses. Many do not know that the Russian president lost his brother during the 872-day Siege of Leningrad, the Soviet-era name for St Petersburg.

Born in 1952, Putin was his parents’ third son, but the only one to survive. His eldest brother, Albert, was born in the 1930s but died in infancy, while his one-year-old brother, Viktor, who was taken from his mother to survive the siege, died in a children's home and was buried in an unmarked grave.

In January 2012, a St Petersburg research organization announced that they had found a record of Viktor V Putin, who was born in 1940 and died in 1942.

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“My brother, whom I have never seen and did not know, was buried here, I don’t even know where exactly,” Putin said during an annual wreath-laying at Piskaryovskoye Cemetery in St Petersburg in January 2012. An estimated 470,000 civilians and soldiers were buried in mass graves at the site, with a memorial plaque stating that 641,803 people died of starvation in the city between 1941 and 1944.

“My parents told me that children were taken from their families in 1941, and my mother had a child taken from her — with the goal of saving him,” he said at the event. “They said he had died, but they never said where he was buried. ”

As mentioned, the St Petersburg organization 'We Remember Them All By Name' announced that they had found a record of Viktor V Putin, who was born in 1940 and died in 1942. Representing the organization, Aleksandr Nesmeyanov said he had found evidence that "10 men and 5 women with the last name Putin were buried in the mass graves, but only one, the baby Viktor, had the patronymic Vladimirovich," according to The New York Times.

September 1943: A mother and child walk past the ruins of a building in Leningrad, bombed by the Nazis during the siege of the city. (Photo by B. Kudoyarov/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

In the book 'First Person', Putin said his mother, Maria, had lost consciousness due to starvation, and "they laid her out with the corpses" until someone heard her moaning. His father, Vladimir, subsequently set aside his rations to feed her, despite being hospitalized with war wounds himself. In a 2008 essay published in Russkiy Pioner, Putin revealed how his father had six brothers - five of whom died during the war along with some of his mother's relatives.

The two-year, four-month Siege of Leningrad saw water and power supplies cut off and an unprecedented surge of disease as a Nazi Germany blockade had stopped essential humanitarian supplies to the city. Putin also recounted how his two-year-old brother Viktor died from diphtheria and starvation following months of a violent war. As mentioned, Putin's other brother, Albert, was born in the 1930s but died in infancy. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin visits the USA House in the Olympic Village on February 14, 2014, in Sochi, Russia. (Photo by Marianna Massey/Getty Images for USOC)

The Russian president told how his father nursed his mother back to health, and she went on to live until 1999. "I often heard grown-ups talking about it during my childhood," Putin wrote in a separate article for the Russkiy Pioner. "It was a catastrophe for the family. My mother lost her family too. And I was a late child. She had me when she was 41. But no one in my family was left untouched by the siege. Everyone put up with sorrow, despair, tragedy. But the surprising thing is that they didn't hate the enemy."

Putin was born in 1952, seven years after the siege ended in 1944, according to the Times.

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