In recent years, a number of leaders have become central figures in international political discussions, with Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin continuing to top this list. He is currently the most discussed head of state by the global community. This is not without reason – Putin has drawn attention to himself by declaring war on Ukraine.
The Russian president's activities, decisions, and speeches frequently make headlines in global media, with political analysts and experts closely monitoring his every move.
Vladimir Putin has remained a key figure in Russian politics since 2000. During his leadership, Russia has taken steps towards internal stability, economic growth, and re-establishing itself as a powerful actor in the international arena. At the same time, Putin has faced criticism on issues such as human rights, press freedom, and a harsh stance against the opposition.
Russia's military intervention in Ukraine in February 2022 changed not only the region but also the global energy and security balance. Western states have imposed severe sanctions against Russia, and Putin himself has been excluded from many international events.
Today, Putin's opponents consider him a violent and repressive leader. This is not without reason: dozens of civilians – children, women, and the elderly – are killed or wounded every day in Ukraine. In this regard, many also call Putin a "child killer," "president with blood on his hands," and a "cruel and merciless leader."
Nevertheless, the Russian leader remains an object of both support and interest in many countries. His political strategy, his stance against the West, and his power play in the Eurasian region are among the main topics of discussion.
Much has been written and said about Vladimir Putin, who has been in power for many years. The public has relatively little information about his parents.
The Modern.az website, in its "Leaders' Parents" section, this time discusses Vladimir Putin's father and mother.
The Russian leader's father, Vladimir Spiridonovich Putin, was born in 1911 in Saint Petersburg (formerly Leningrad) into a working-class family. He served in the Soviet Army during World War II, fighting in a special purpose unit of the NKVD.
Vladimir Spiridonovich was severely wounded in 1941 during the German attack on Leningrad. According to claims, he was injured by a mine explosion in battle and subsequently received long-term treatment in a hospital. During the war years, Vladimir Spiridonovich worked at a military factory. He had been given a document exempting him from general mobilization, but he voluntarily went to the front.
After the war, Vladimir Spiridonovich worked as a veteran laborer, serving as a guard and then a foreman in various factories and enterprises. He was known as a calm, hardworking, and resilient person.
Vladimir Putin's mother, Maria Ivanovna Shelomova, was born in 1911 in Tver Oblast. She also grew up in a poor peasant family. Vladimir Spiridonovich and Maria Ivanovna met in Tver and married at the age of 17.
Putin's mother was a poorly educated woman. It is believed that she only attended primary school. The woman had to work hard throughout her life, taking on any job: whether as a cleaner in a shop or a guard.
During World War II – specifically the Siege of Leningrad – Maria Ivanovna lived with her family in extremely difficult conditions, battling hunger and cold.
Putin himself notes in his memoirs that his mother was on the verge of dying from starvation during the siege.
The President states that his mother, Maria Ivanovna, led a simple and modest life. After the war, she worked in various factories, was mostly engaged in housework, and was known as a woman devoted to her family.
The Putin family lost two sons before and after World War II. The family's first son – Vladimir's elder brother – died in infancy, and the second son died of starvation and illness during the Siege of Leningrad. The child's name was Viktor. During the Leningrad blockade, government representatives took the 3-year-old boy to an orphanage, like other children, to save him from starvation and later evacuate him from the besieged city. While there, Viktor contracted diphtheria and died of starvation. The parents were not even informed where their child was buried.
Vladimir Putin was only able to visit his brother's grave in 2014, after his father and mother had passed away. An initiative group found information in the archives, and the president was informed that Viktor was buried in a mass grave at Piskarevskoye Cemetery in Saint Petersburg.
Vladimir Putin – the future president – was born in 1952, after the war ended, and was his parents' only surviving child.
These tragedies had a deep psychological impact on Putin's parents. Therefore, they treated Vladimir with special care, striving to raise him strong both physically and morally.
His mother did not want Vladimir to practice judo during his adolescence. "Every time I went to practice, she would say: 'Are you going to fight again?!'" Vladimir noted in his memoirs. This situation was rectified by Putin's coach, who came to Vladimir's home and told his parents what their son was doing and what successes he had achieved, after which the family's attitude towards sports changed.
After the war, Putin's family settled in an ordinary one-room communal apartment in Saint Petersburg. Vladimir Putin recalls: "A fifth floor without a lift, a simple, poor apartment... My parents were very proud of this standard of living they had achieved before the war. They thought it was almost the limit of their dreams."
Vladimir Putin's parents spent most of their lives in a village located in Tver Oblast. The head of state also mentioned this in an interview with journalist Pavel Zarubin.
The village in Tver Oblast became the Putin family's second homeland.
Putin remembers his parents with deep respect, boasting of their simple and hardworking lifestyle, their resilience, and their modesty.
In several speeches, the Russian leader has emphasized his father's heroism in the war and his mother's silent sacrifice, stating that he learned lessons from their life experiences.
"I was born into a simple family and lived this life for a long time... Our family was very modest. On Sundays and holidays, my mother would bake cabbage, meat, and rice pies. They were very delicious," Putin stated in his memoirs about his parents.
Vladimir Putin specifically noted that he never received instructions from his parents, but was raised by his father's personal example.
"First of all, I want to emphasize that I never saw my father drunk. In general, he was never in such a state. He was an honest man, meticulously adhering even to the most ordinary rules and regulations. As for my mother, I never heard her swear even once."
According to Vladimir Putin, his mother was a very kind-hearted woman. "Despite the suffering, hunger, misery, and many losses she experienced during the war, she felt pity for German soldiers and did not hate them," the president states, noting that he could not understand this.
"She did not hate the enemy, and that is what is surprising. To be honest, I still cannot fully understand it," the president confessed in his memoir about his mother.
"My mother was a very gentle, kind person... She said she did not hate the German soldiers, calling them innocent people sent to war. This is amazing. We were raised with Soviet books and films... And we hated the enemy. But my mother, for some reason, was not like that. And I remember her words about the enemy soldier very well: 'They are hardworking like us. They were driven to the front to fight'," Putin quoted his mother.
According to the president, when his father was wounded in the war and hospitalized, he secretly gave his mother a portion of his food ration so that she would not die of hunger.
"But they could not save their sons who fell ill and died in besieged Leningrad. And my brother, whom I never saw, perished," Putin described those difficult days.
Vladimir Putin was born 7 years after the war. At that time, his parents were already over 40 years old.
After her son was born, Maria Ivanovna worked night shifts to dedicate as much time as possible to her long-awaited child. In the early 70s, Maria Ivanovna had a stroke of luck – she won a "Zaporozhets-966" car in a lottery. And the mother gifted the car to her student son. For Vladimir Putin, then a third-year student at Leningrad State University, this car became a kind of social lift. Vladimir was friends with sons from wealthy families who were car enthusiasts. Later, these connections positively influenced the future president's career.
Many years later, when Vladimir Vladimirovich was already working for the "KGB," his parents were given an apartment in a new building in a residential area of Leningrad.
Vladimir Spiridonovich and Maria Ivanovna did not live to see the moment their only child, Vladimir, became the President of Russia.
The president's mother, Maria Ivanovna, passed away in 1998. A year later – in 1999 – his father, Vladimir Spiridonovich, also died. Vladimir Putin was elected President of the Russian Federation in 2000, just a few months after his father's death.
Putin's parents' grave is in Serafimovskoye Cemetery in Saint Petersburg.
A. Gafarli
