Putin’s Father Was Forced to Marry His Mother After He Put Out Her Eye With a Pitchfork: Archival Photos
© Photo: Bild
Russian dictator Vladimir Putin was born into a family formed under coercion rather than love — and the marriage began under grim circumstances. This is described in the book “The Tsar Himself” by Russian investigative journalists Roman Badanin and Mikhail Rubin.
According to the book, Putin’s future parents — mother Maria Ivanovna and father Vladimir Spiridonovich — were forced to marry after a tragic incident around 1928 in the village of Turginovo, Tver region.
One day, 17-year-old Maria invited her peer Vladimir to her home. Unexpectedly, he arrived with friends. The girl was frightened and refused to let them into the yard. The boys then began to break down the gate with pitchforks. In the scuffle, Vladimir struck Maria in the face with the pitchfork, causing her to lose an eye.
The authors claim that Maria’s parents forced him to marry their disfigured daughter, threatening him with trial if he refused. Ultimately, the marriage went ahead, and the young couple moved from the village to Leningrad.
“Maria, in the rare surviving photographs, almost always turned her head to the side to hide the part of her face with the missing eye. This contrasts with the official stories Putin himself told about his parents. He, in particular, publicly insisted that he ‘never saw his father drunk and never heard a single rude word from him,’” Bild reports.
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