Putin’s Father Brutally Gouged Out Mother’s Eye in Pitchfork Attack — Then Was Forced to Marry Her

In a shocking revelation that peels back yet another layer of the Kremlin’s carefully crafted mythology, a new book alleges that Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s father once gouged out his mother’s eye with a pitchfork during a violent outburst — and then was forced to marry her to avoid prison.

The disturbing incident is detailed in The Tsar in Person: How Vladimir Putin Fooled Us All, a bombshell exposé of Putin’s family history, recently spotlighted by the independent Russian outlet Proekt.

According to the account, the year was 1928. Seventeen-year-old Maria “Marusya” Shelomova — later to become Putin’s mother — was alone in her village home in the Tver region when Vladimir Putin Sr. and a group of male friends arrived.

“She didn’t want to let them in,” recalled local villager Anfisa Kormilitsyna. “They grabbed a pitchfork from the fence and started breaking down the gate.”

What happened next was both grotesque and life-altering.

“Marusya got scared, ran to the fence. Volodka [Putin’s father] smashed through with the pitchfork and struck her in the face,” Kormilitsyna said. “It put out her eye instantly.”

She was rushed to a hospital, where doctors removed the damaged eye entirely. In rural Russia at the time, a disfigured young woman faced severe stigma. Marusya’s mother issued an ultimatum to the young man who had maimed her daughter: Marry her or face a criminal trial.

Vladimir Sr. chose marriage.

For the rest of her life, Maria wore a glass eye and often tilted her head to avoid direct stares. But villagers also remembered Putin’s father as a menace to young women. “He liked to lift girls’ skirts and knot them over their heads so the boys could get a better look,” Kormilitsyna claimed.

Co-author Roman Badanin described the man as “wild” and “known for terrorizing the village’s teenage girls.”

The book’s revelations stand in stark contrast to Putin’s own rosy depictions of his parents. The Russian strongman has often insisted they were paragons of virtue, telling state media: “Never — I want to emphasize this — never did I see my father drunk… I never heard a single swear word from him.”

Historians say these sanitized narratives are part of a broader Kremlin strategy to rewrite history and erase unflattering truths. “In Russia today, real biographies have been forbidden, the press destroyed, and lies have replaced history,” Proekt concluded.

The story not only offers a disturbing look at the violent roots of Putin’s family but also underscores the disconnect between the Kremlin’s propaganda and reality. As one U.S. intelligence source told me in 2025, “You can’t understand Putin’s politics without understanding the brutality that shaped him.”

And with President Trump now back in the White House vowing to take a harder stance on Moscow’s aggression, this dark chapter in Putin’s origin story is likely to fuel even more skepticism about the man steering Russia’s war machine.