Putin’s Grandfather was the Cook of Stalin and Lenin

Yes, Russian President Vladimir Putin's paternal grandfather worked as a cook for both Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin. It was revealed by Russian President himself during an interview for a documentary film posted recently on the Internet.

In the two-hour documentary, Putin, the Russian President also revealed that his grandfather Spiridon Putin was a valued member of Stalin’s staffs. The wartime Soviet leader, who died in 1953, conducted extensive purges during his around three decades in power.

In the film Putin is seen saying about his grandfather, “(He) was a cook at Lenin's and later at Stalin's, at one of the dachas in the Moscow area”. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also confirmed later that the said information in the film was accurate.

Spiridon Putin, who was Stalin's personal cook used to occupy his position with great responsibility. Joseph Stalin liked feasts, especially those that featured in the Georgian cuisine. It is said that Stalin himself was a great cook and frequently invented new dishes himself. For example, “Aragvi” - lamb meat with braised vegetables, a variation of Georgian chanakhi, was his brainchild and was very particular about his food. Georgian dishes, the Stalin preferred were mtsvadi and satsivi. When it came to drinks, Khvanchkara wine was his favorite.

Here you would like to know in little details the favourite dishes of some of the 20th century’s autocrats and dictators. 

Adolf Hitler

Despite being history’s most well known genocidal vegetarian, the Nazi leader’s favourite dish was actually petits poussins à la Hamburg, or baby pigeons stuffed with tongue, liver and pistachio nuts.

Benito Mussolini

Pasta and potato were headaches for Benito Mussolini. But he loved them when made from rough-chopped raw garlic with oil and lemon. 

Joseph Stalin 

The Soviet leader held six-hour banquets where copious amounts of semi-sweet Khvanchkara wine were consumed, leaving guests puking and incontinent. His favourite dish however was chicken with walnuts and spices. He was also a great cook and know the art of cooking very well.

Kim Jong-il

North Korea’s late dear leader had extremely expensive tastes, importing Iranian caviar, Thai mangoes and Japanese rice cakes with mugwort. The North Korean dictator also involved a large group of women to ensure rice grains were of same size. He loved raw fish and like to eat them still gasping and thrashing when he started eating.

Muammar Gaddafi

The Libyan Dictator was fond of Italian pasta and pastries but the most delicious of food for him was camel meat, couscous and prunes, a traditional Libyan dish.

Saddam Hussein

Saddam Hussein only have fresh beef and lamb trimmed of fat and love to eat olives, only from the Golan Heights. Iraq’s dictator also had a weakness for Quality Street and Old Parr whiskey.

Idi Amin

Idi Amin also known as man-eater dictator ate 40 oranges a day, but dined on pizza and KFC while living in exile in Saudi Arabia. The Ugandan leader also had a habit of serving bee larvae and fried grasshoppers at state banquets to annoy visiting dignitaries.

According to the published data about Putin's KGB origin. Russian President Vladimir Putin's grandfather Spiridon Putin, joined a small restaurant, Tver as an apprentice at the age of 12 years, he then was moved to work in a restaurant in St Petersburg. After the October revolution, Spiridon Putin came to Moscow with Lenin, for whom he once cooked, and then he joined Stalin in the vartet government villa as chef.

According to Vladimir Putin his grandfather Spiridon worked as a cook all his life. At the end of 30s, many changes were made. The staff here were transferred to all directions, “Grandpa was assigned to the Elaine Sikeye retreat. He was a chef to many important people and ministers, including the culture minister Faure Ceva, first Secretary of the municipal Party committee in Moscow Gerry Capito Andrianof and Khrushchev Shen, the mother of Khrushchev, and others. During the Great Patriotic War, grandfather was also the chef of chief of Soviet intelligence bureau, Scherbakov Aoguo Liao Wo villa where he worked a longer period of time.”

Vladimir Putin's father Alexander has vivid memories about his father. According to him, “Stalin used a pseudonym to Gorki sanatorium, every time my father personally cook for him. Father never said anything, once he said that Stalin is strict, but very fair. He was the most respected by the family of Lenin. He said more than once that he had entertained countless people, but he had never seen such a good family as Lenin! My father is good at cooking! He is a versatile, especially good at doing and carnivorous fish. Father who tasted the skill, no wrong he repeatedly praised. Until the age of 72, he also personally participated to make arrangements for dinner”.

Spiridon Putin continued to cook for the Soviet establishment until shortly before he died in 1965 at the age of 86 years. Vladimir Putin was only 12 years old at the time. As a child Putin had little memories of retreat at Sikeye Elaine, where he spent a lot of memorable time with grandpa and grandma. The vicissitudes of Spiridon was probably never dreamed that nearly 40 years later, his grandson Putin became the president of Russia.