Real Wives of Dictators | Nadya Alliluyeva, Stalin's Wife

Betwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society

History Hit

Society, Sex, Scandal, Education, History

4.8 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 21 March 2025

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Nadezhda Alliluyeva was born into a revolutionary family, but was it always her fate to marry Joseph Stalin?

She was independent, intelligent and highly politicised. Indeed, Stalin was a hero of hers growing up.

What was it like to be so heavily involved in the Communist Party and the Soviet Union? What was Stalin like as a husband to her? And was her death as suspicious as some made out?

Joining Kate for this third episode of our limited series, Real Wives of Dictators, is Sheila Fitzpatrick, historian of the Soviet Union and author of books including The Death of Stalin.

This episode was edited by Tom Delargy and produced by Stuart Beckwith. The senior producer was Charlotte Long.

If you'd like to get in touch with the show you can contact us at [email protected].

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All music from Epidemic Sounds.

Betwixt the Sheets: History of Sex, Scandal & Society is a History Hit podcast.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, I'm your host, Kate Lister.
0:02.4	If you would like betwixt the sheets, add free and get early access, sign up to History Hit.
0:08.7	With a History Hit subscription, you can also watch hundreds of original documentaries with top history presenters.
0:16.0	And enjoy a new release every single week.
0:19.8	Sign up now by visiting history hit.com forward slash subscribe.
0:24.7	Hello, my lovely betwixters.
0:26.6	It's me, Kate Lister.
0:28.0	I am here, you are here, and we are all ready to proceed with the show.
0:31.6	But before we can do that, I have to tell you.
0:33.5	This is an adult podcast, Pokemon by adults, to other adults about adulty things
0:36.3	and an adulty way covering a range of adults and subjects, and you should be an adult podcast spoken by adults, other adults about adulty things and an adulty way you're covering a range of adults and objects and you should be an adult too.
0:38.8	Do you feel safer?
0:39.9	I'm glad you feel safer.
0:41.3	I certainly feel safer.
0:42.6	Right.
0:43.2	On with the show!
0:49.7	They say that behind every great man, there's a great woman.
0:53.8	I've never really believed that.
0:55.7	But what about evil men?
0:57.6	Are there crap and evil women behind them too?
1:00.5	And whilst it's the men in these horror stories that seem to get the most attention,
1:05.1	in this brand new mini-series, we are exploring the lives of four of the wives of some of
	...

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