What kind of pets did Soviet leaders keep?

Lenin's hobby of keeping pets

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, the great leader of the world's proletarian revolution, owned many dogs and cats throughout his life, yet very little information is known about them. Because of his passion for hunting, Lenin owned a red hunting dog named Zhenka when it was a puppy. The Soviet leader even possessed a special guidebook on how to properly care for pets and personally trained the puppy.

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

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

This photograph shows Lenin in 1922 at his residence in Gorki with his dog, Ayda.

Besides dogs, Soviet leaders also had a fondness for cats. Several photographs of the Soviet leader with his pet cat circulated widely after his death, creating an image of a benevolent leader in Soviet society.

Stalin's dogs, squirrels, and bears

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

After becoming the supreme leader of the Soviet Union, Stalin was frequently given pets, such as the squirrels that Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev gifted him after World War II. Stalin kept these squirrels at his Blizhnyaya Dacha residence on the outskirts of Moscow and always personally fed them.

Milka, the hunting dog of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. (Photo: Darwin Museum)

There is also a story about a bear that lived in Stalin's wooden house. This bear was discovered by his guards when it was quite young and was then raised there.

The Soviet leader had visited the bear several times but then forgot about its presence at his home. It wasn't until the bear was fully grown that he remembered and decided to send it to the zoo.

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

Nikita Khrushchev's dogs

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

Another pet-keeping trend in the Soviet Union, initiated by leader Khrushchev, was the poodle breed. Khrushchev's poodle was also a gift from Queen Elizabeth II of England.

Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev is pictured taking a walk with cameraman Roman Karmen and his pet dog. (Photo: Lev Petrov)

Upon retirement, Khrushchev adopted a sheepdog and affectionately named it Arbat at his wooden house.

After his beloved pet passed away, the former Soviet General Secretary acquired a mixed-breed dog and named it Belka.

Brezhnev's cat had prophetic abilities.

During an official visit to India in 1969, Brezhnev met the Tibetan Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lama gifted the Soviet General Secretary a black cat named Lama and told him that if it started behaving strangely, it meant Brezhnev was in danger. Later accounts suggest that Lama rescued his owner on at least three occasions.

On one occasion, just as Brezhnev was about to go out, Lama scratched at the door and jumped on his chest or used his teeth to pull at his trousers. The Soviet leader, remembering the prophecy, made minor adjustments to his plans or canceled them entirely. All three such instances saved Brezhnev from two assassination attempts and one accident.

On one occasion, Brezhnev ignored the cat's "advice" and went outside as usual, but Lama rushed out and ran into a car wheel.

Tra Khanh (Source: RBTH)

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