Stalin must have held a grudge against his mother for his brutal and unstable childhood, or he tried so hard to become a Russian and forget his Georgian past, that he left his mother behind along with his heritage6. .
Svanidze Family.
When Stalin finally left for Tiflis, he entered a different world then he was used to. Just like other big cities in the Russian Empire, Tiflis was full of under ground political movements, which were not happy with the way things were in Russia. Stalin started to attend meetings and became a member of the socialist movement. During his time in Tiflis where he studied at the Theological Seminary, Stalin met Alexander Svanidze, who was just like him, interested in the revolutionary movement. Svanidze had three sisters, one of which was Yekaterina or Kato for short, would eventually become Stalin's first wife.
Alexander introduced a twenty-eight year old Stalin to his sister and they instantly fell in love. At this time Stalin had already left behind his religious beliefs and called himself an atheist, just as was required for his revolutionary status and persona. Kato on the other hand was a devoted religious woman. When talks of marriage came around, and Kato were married at the St. David's Orthodox Church in Tiflis in 1906. Stalin was very involved in revolutionary movement at this point in his life, which made it difficult for his wife to see him often. He referred to himself as a revolutionary but in reality he was just someone who organized ways to get money for their movement, and was more of a fund-raiser8. He was always away, so the couple mostly corresponded through mail. They did have a son Yakov Dzhugashvili who was born on March 18, 19079.
Unfortunately, the boy grew up without knowing his parents. Kato died of typhus on December 5, 1907 at the age of twenty-two. It is believed by some that Stalin was with his wife when she was passing away, and that she may have died in his arms.