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| | Borzoi Reader | Catalog | Stalin by Simon Sebag Montefiore |
 | | Joseph Vissarionovich Djugashvili was not born on 21 December 1879, Stalin's official birthday. |
 | | "Soso" was actually born in a tiny shack (that still exists) to Vissarion, or "Beso," and his wife Ekaterina, "Keke," née Geladze, over a year earlier on 6 December 1878. |
 | | Ekaterina, "Kato," a placid, darkly pretty Georgian daughter of a cultured family, was the sister of Alexander Svanidze, also a Bolshevik graduate of the Tiflis seminary who joined Stalin's Kremlin entourage. |
| www.randomhouse.com /knopf/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9781400076789&view=excerpt (2299 words) |
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