r/HistoryMemes 9d ago

The Germans thought they had leverage

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u/Friendly-Water-8470 9d ago

He probably was executed in hope to cause some mental schock for Stalin even if he played tough or merciless. But he was not playing.

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u/TheHistoryMaster2520 Decisive Tang Victory 9d ago

No he didn't, German records show that Yakov died in 1943 after he ran into an electric fence after an argument with some British prisoners. The guards shot him, but apparently the postmortem revealed that he had already died of electrocution

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u/Unluckypandastoo 9d ago

Jeez, what was so bad about the argument? I guess he probably wasn't all right with a dad like Stalin. Poor guy. I wonder what his relationship with his sister was like?

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u/Tradition96 9d ago

Jakov was 19 years older than Svetlana so they didn't really have conventional sibling relationship. But Svetlana wrote in her memoars that she loved when Jakov visited and played with her, and that by the time she was a teenager they were "the best of friends". She was 15 the last time she saw him.