- Born in 1911, Vladimir Spiridonovich Putin was still a child when the first World War began
- During the Second World War, he joined the Russian secret police, NKVD where he almost lost his life
- The older Putin lived to be 88 years old before he died in 1999
Vladimir Putin has been touted as the villain who may just be on the verge of starting a third world war, following his attack on Ukrain. The irony is that his father Vladimir Spiridonovich Putin survived both previous World Wars, and even fought in the WWII alongside the NKVD.
The life of Spiridonovich was long, but it wasn’t one that was without many tragedies including having to bury two kids and almost losing Vladimir Putin along the line.
Vladimir Spiridonovich Putin Was Born Before The WWI
It was on February 23, 1911, that Vladimir Spiridonovich Putin was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia. He was birthed as one of six kids, five of whom would later die during WWII.
His father, Spiridon Putin was a chef who served as the personal cook of Russian revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin. He also served Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader, Joseph Stalin in the same capacity.
Raised in Saint Petersburg, the older Putin was only three years old when the first world war, began in 1914. By the end of the war in 1919, over 2.5 million Russians were killed but Vladimir Putin’s father who was 8 years old at the time, survived.
He grew up amidst the hardship that was inflicted on the world by the war and later got a job in one of the factories in St Petersburg which at the time, was Leningrad.
He Volunteered To Fight In WWII
By 1939, Vladimir Putin‘s father was 38 years old, and there was the second World War brewing. Although because of his work in the factory he had a document that exempted him from the draft, that did not stop him from volunteering to fight in the war. This was after he joined the communist party.
Putin Senior was assigned to the Russian secret police of the time known as the NKVD. While with the squad, he almost lost his life in an operation after the squad was betrayed by one of them. He was one of the only three men to have survived the attack, losing 24 men of the squad in an attack by the Germans. He survived by hiding underwater for hours, using a reed to breathe.
He came very close to death a second time after he was sent again during the war to a spot along the Neva River, Nevsky Pyatachock. The Soviet troops remained in control of the spot but it was at the price of thousands of their men. Putin was almost killed there but for another soldier who rescued him after he was injured and took him to the hospital.
Vladimir Spiridonovich Putin And His Family Suffered Tragedies
Vladimir Spiridonovich Putin got married to Maria Ivanovna Shelomova before the Second World War, although the exact date of their marriage was not captured. The pair and many others at the time were not spared of the many tragedies that followed the war.
Their marriage was blessed with three kids; Albert Vladimirovich Putin. Viktor Putin, and Vladimir Putin who is the youngest of them. He was born after the war on October 7, 1952.
During the Siege of Leningrad by Nazi Germany’s forces, the older Putin lost his two older sons. Viktor lost his life to diphtheria and was buried in a place that was initially not known to his parents as he was taken from them like other kids to save his life. Albert, on the other hand, died in infancy.
He came very close to losing his wife as he returned home on crutches only to find medics taking her away on crutches. Believing that she was alive, he asked them to stop but they told him she was not going to make it. He insisted and they returned her. That was how Putin managed to save his wife’s life and then he nursed her back to health.
Their son who was born after the war, Vladimir Putin, managed to survive.
How Vladimir Putin’s Father Died
Having survived the world’s most tragic wars and other sad occurrences, Vladimir Spiridonovich Putin died on 2 August 1999. Circumstances of his death were not revealed.
The older Putin was preceded by his wife who died in 1998.
See Also: Lyudmila Aleksandrovna Ocheretnaya Is The Ex-Wife Of Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Began The Attack On Ukrain A Day After His Father’s Birthday
Although it might as well be purely coincidental and without any significance, it cannot be overlooked that Vladimir Putin decided to start his attack on Ukraine on February 24, a day after his father’s posthumous birthday.
It has been claimed that the Russian President has the desire of getting back all the Soviet Union states that he believed were stolen from the “Motherland.” It is alleged that he wants to form back the original USSR as he doesn’t believe in the independence of Estonia, Georgia, and Ukraine.
Because of this, it is unknown if he wants to bring back the USSR in a war he started a day after his father’s birthday as a tribute to the older Putin. More so, it remains unclear if it has any significance to him.
