What pets did Soviet leaders keep?

Leader Lenin's pet hobby

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin - the great leader of the world proletarian revolution had many dogs and cats throughout his life, but there is very little information about them. Because of his passion for hunting, Lenin had a red hunting dog named Zhenka when it was a puppy. The Soviet leader even owned a special manual on how to properly raise pets and personally trained the puppy.

In the 1920s, when leader Lenin was ill, he spent a lot of time with his pets as they could help relieve stress.

Leader Lenin and his cat at the Gorki estate, 1922. Photo taken by his sister, Maria Ulianova.

A photo of Lenin in 1922 at his residence in Gorki with his dog Ayda.

In addition to dogs, the Soviet leader also had a hobby of raising cats. Several photos of the Soviet leader with his pet cat were widely circulated after his death, creating an image of a benevolent leader in Soviet society.

Stalin's Dog, Squirrel and Bear

Soviet leader Joseph Stalin also had a fondness for dogs. There is also a popular story that during Stalin's exile in Siberia (1902), he "befriended" a dog and named it Yashka.

After becoming the supreme leader of the Soviet Union, Stalin was often given pets such as the squirrels given to him by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev after the end of World War II. Stalin kept the squirrels at his Blizhnyaya Dacha estate outside Moscow and always fed them personally.

Soviet leader Joseph Stalin's hunting dog Milka. (Photo: Darwin Museum)

There is also a story about a bear living in Stalin's dacha. This bear was discovered by his guards when it was quite young and then it was raised here.

The Soviet leader visited the bear several times but then forgot about its presence in his home. It was not until the bear grew up that he remembered and decided to send it to the zoo.

On Stalin's birthday in 1949, the Queen of the Netherlands gave the Soviet leader a hunting dog named Milka. The Soviet leader later gave Milka to his son Vasily, who was known for his hunting skills.

Nikita Khrushchev's Dogs

Leader Nikita Khrushchev is said to have been the first person in the Soviet Union to own a Chihuahua. Khrushchev's two Chihuahuas were gifts to him from Cuban leader Fidel Castro and Chihuahuas later became popular in the Soviet Union.

Another pet trend in the Soviet Union that Khrushchev started was the poodle. Khrushchev's poodle was also a gift from Queen Elizabeth II of England.

Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev walks with cameraman Roman Karmen and his dog. (Photo: Lev Petrov)

When he retired, Khrushchev kept a shepherd dog and loved it, named Arbat, at his dacha.

After his favorite pet died, the former Soviet leader got himself a mongrel dog and named it Belka.

Brezhnev's prophetic cat

During an official visit to India in 1969, Brezhnev met with the Dalai Lama of Tibet, who presented the Soviet leader with a black cat named Lama and told him that if it started behaving strangely, it meant Brezhnev was in danger. Later stories suggested that Lama rescued his master at least three times.

Once, just as Brezhnev was about to leave, Lama clawed at the door and jumped on his chest or pulled at his pants with his teeth. The Soviet leader remembered the prophecy and made minor adjustments to his plans or canceled them altogether. All three times, Brezhnev survived two assassination attempts and an accident.

Once, Brezhnev did not listen to the cat's "advice" and went out as usual, but Lama rushed out and ran into the car wheels.

Tra Khanh (Source: RBTH)

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