Vladimir Putin's family has deep roots in the Russian peasantry, with the earliest known ancestor, Yakov Nikitin, documented in the Tver district in 1627. His grandfather, Spiridon Putin, served as a personal chef to both Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin, while his father, Vladimir Spiridonovich, was a Soviet Navy veteran who was severely wounded in World War II. Putin's early family history was marked by tragedy, as his two older brothers died in infancy or during the Siege of Leningrad, and his maternal grandmother was killed by German occupiers. In 1983, he married Lyudmila Shkrebneva, with whom he had two daughters, Maria (1985) and Katerina (1986), before their marriage was formally annulled in 2014. The article also details widely believed claims of illegitimate children, including a daughter, Elizaveta Rozova, born in 2003, and two sons with former gymnast Alina Kabaeva.