Svetlana Iosifovna Alliluyeva (née Stalina, in exile - Lana Peters; February 28, 1926, Leningrad, USSR - November 22, 2011, Richland, Wisconsin, USA) - Soviet philologist-translator, candidate of philological sciences; memoirist.
She became widely known as the daughter of I.V. Stalin, about whose life she left a number of works in the genre of memoirs. In 1966, she emigrated from the USSR to the USA.

Svetlana Peters
Svetlana Iosifovna Alliluyeva
Birth name: Svetlana Iosifovna Stalina
Occupation: memoirist
Date of birth: February 28, 1926
Place of birth: Leningrad, USSR
Citizenship: USSR → USA → Great Britain
Date of death: November 22, 2011
Place of Death: Richland Center, Wisconsin, USA
Father: Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin
Mother: Nadezhda Sergeevna Alliluyeva
Spouse: 1) Grigory Iosifovich Morozov
2) Yuri Andreevich Zhdanov
3) Ivan (Jonrid) Aleksandrovich Svanidze
4) (civil marriage) Brajesh Singh
5) William Wesley Peters

Born into the family of Joseph Stalin and Nadezhda Alliluyeva. Her mother committed suicide on November 9, 1932.
As a child, Svetlana had a greater influence on her nanny Alexandra Andreevna, who previously, in particular, worked in the family of N.N. Evreinov.
She graduated with honors from Model School No. 25 in Moscow, where she studied in 1932-1943. After school, she planned to enter the Literary Institute, but her father did not like her choice.

She entered the Faculty of Philology of Moscow State University. M.V. Lomonosov, where I studied for a year. She got sick and then returned to her first year, but this time at the Faculty of History. She chose a specialization in the department of new and modern history, was engaged in Germany. Graduated from the Faculty of History of Moscow State University (1949) and graduate school at the Academy social sciences under the Central Committee of the CPSU. In 1954 she defended her Ph.D. thesis “The Development of Advanced Traditions of Russian Realism in the Soviet Novel.” Candidate of Philology. She worked as an English translator and literary editor, and translated several books, including works by the English Marxist philosopher John Lewis.

In 1944, she married Grigory Morozov, a classmate of her brother Vasily. The marriage was subsequently dissolved. Son Joseph Alliluyev (1945-2008) became a cardiologist, Doctor of Medical Sciences.
In 1949 she married Yuri Zhdanov. Yuri adopted Joseph, Svetlana's first son. In 1950, their daughter Ekaterina was born.
After Stalin's death, the guards discovered a savings book in his bedroom containing 900 rubles - it was handed over to Svetlana.
She worked at the Institute of World Literature from 1956 to 1967, in the sector for the study of Soviet literature.
In May 1962, she was baptized in Moscow and had her children baptized by Archpriest Nikolai Golubtsov.

Emigration
On December 20, 1966, she came to India, accompanying the ashes of her common-law husband Brajesh Singh. On March 6, she asked the Soviet Ambassador Benediktov to allow her to stay in India, but he insisted that she return to Moscow on March 8, and stated that she would no longer be allowed to leave the USSR. That same day, she showed up at the US Embassy in Delhi with her passport and luggage and asked for political asylum. Permission to leave the USSR was given to her by A. N. Kosygin, a member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee.

“...my non-return in 1967 was based not on political, but on human reasons. Let me remind you here that when I was leaving for India then to take the ashes of a close Indian friend there, I did not intend to become a defector; I then hoped to return home in a month. However, in those years I paid my tribute to the blind idealization of the so-called “free world”, a world with which my generation was completely unfamiliar. - S. Alliluyeva"

Moving to the West and the subsequent publication of “Twenty Letters to a Friend” (1967), where Alliluyeva recalled her father and Kremlin life, caused a worldwide sensation (according to some statements, this book brought her about 2.5 million dollars). She stopped in Switzerland for a while, then lived in the USA.

As Svetlana Alliluyeva’s cousin Vladimir Fedorovich Alliluyev recalled, she wrote her first book, “Twenty Letters to a Friend,” while still in the USSR. One of the copies of the manuscript was stolen and handed over to Soviet journalist Victor Louis, who secretly smuggled the book to the West and published excerpts from it in the German magazine Stern, deliberately distorting a number of facts; The book “Only One Year” was written “under the dictation of experienced ‘specialists’.” Once in the West, Svetlana, as she herself said, immediately came under strict control. She is quoted as saying: “Thank you to the CIA - they took me out, didn’t abandon me and published my “Twenty Letters to a Friend.”

In 1970, she married the American architect William Peters (1912-1991), gave birth to a daughter (Olga Peters, later renamed Chris Evans), divorced in 1972, but retained the name Lana Peters. S. Alliluyeva’s financial affairs abroad were successful. The magazine version of her memoirs “Twenty Letters to a Friend” was sold to the Hamburg weekly Der Spiegel for 480 thousand marks, which translated into dollars was 122 thousand (in the USSR, according to her niece Nadezhda, Stalin left her only 30 thousand rubles). After leaving her homeland, Alliluyeva lived on money earned by writing and on donations received from citizens and organizations.
In 1982 Alliluyeva moved from the USA to England, to Cambridge, where she sent her daughter Olga, born in America, to a Quaker boarding school. She herself became a traveler and traveled almost the whole world.

Return to the Soviet Union
Finding herself completely alone, at the end of November 1984, unexpectedly for those around her (as S. Alliluyeva herself writes in the book “A Book for Granddaughters” at the request of her son Joseph), she appeared in Moscow with her daughter. She was greeted with enthusiasm by the Soviet authorities, and her Soviet citizenship was immediately restored. But disappointment soon set in. Alliluyeva could not find a common language with either her son or her daughter, whom she abandoned in 1967. Her relations with the Soviet government deteriorated. She went to the Georgian SSR, where she lived in a three-room apartment of an improved type, she was given salary, special support and the right to call a car (a black Volga was constantly on duty in the garage of the Council of Ministers of the Georgian SSR for its maintenance). In Georgia Alliluyeva celebrated her 60th birthday, which was celebrated in the premises of the Stalin Museum in Gori. Her daughter went to school and went in for equestrian sports. Teachers taught Olga Russian and Georgian at home. But even in Georgia, Alliluyeva had many clashes with the authorities and with former friends.

Second departure to the West
After living in the USSR for less than two years, Alliluyeva sent a letter to the CPSU Central Committee asking for permission to travel abroad. After personal intervention Secretary General The Central Committee of the CPSU M. S. Gorbachev in November 1986, she was allowed to return to the USA. After leaving, Alliluyeva renounced her USSR citizenship.

In the USA, Alliluyeva settled in the state of Wisconsin. In September 1992, correspondents found her in a nursing home in the UK. Then she lived for some time in the monastery of St. John in Switzerland. In December 1992, she was seen in London in the Kensington-Chelsea area. Alliluyeva drew up papers for the right to help so that, after leaving the nursing home, she could pay for the room. Her daughter Olga leads an independent life in Portland (Oregon).
In 2005, she gave an interview to the Rossiya TV channel for the film “ Svetlana Alliluyeva and her men."

In 2008 Alliluyeva, who refused to communicate with journalists for so long, starred in a 45-minute documentary film"Svetlana about Svetlana." During the interview, she refused to speak Russian, citing the fact that she is not Russian (her father is Georgian, and her mother is the daughter of a German woman and a Gypsy).

Lately Svetlana Alliluyeva lived in a nursing home near Madison (Wisconsin) under the name Lana Peters.

She died on November 22, 2011 in a nursing home in Richland (Wisconsin, USA) from colon cancer. ABOUT Alliluyeva's death was announced on November 28 in the New York Times. At the same time, a representative of the municipality told reporters that the Richland funeral home had no certificate of her death or burial place. The owner of a local funeral home told reporters that several months ago, Lana Peters' daughter came to Richland to complete paperwork in the event of her mother's death, and at her request, the body of Svetlana-Fotina-Lana Stalina-Alliluyeva-Peters was cremated and sent to Portland, Oregon. The date and place of the funeral are unknown.
In November 2012, it became known that the FBI had declassified the dossier Svetlana Alliluyeva; It follows from the documents that American intelligence services monitored the life of Stalin’s daughter in the United States.

Personal life
She had many affairs, four official marriages and one civil marriage. When she was fourteen years old, she fell in love with her son Sergo Beria.

Marriages
In her first marriage, she was the wife of the Soviet scientist-lawyer Grigory Iosifovich Morozov, a classmate of her brother Vasily. Divorced in 1949.
Son Joseph Grigorievich Alliluyev, Russian cardiologist.
In her second marriage, since 1949, she is the wife of Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences Yuri Andreevich Zhdanov, daughter-in-law of the Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks A. A. Zhdanov. Yuri adopted Joseph, Svetlana's first son.
Daughter Ekaterina Yuryevna Zhdanova, lives in Kamchatka, volcanologist
Third husband - Ivan Aleksandrovich Svanidze. The marriage lasted from 1957 to 1959.
Fourth (civil) marriage with Indian citizen Brajesh Singh. The husband died in 1966. Alexei Nikolaevich Kosygin, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, personally prevented the marriage. Svetlana’s meeting with him, which took place in the Kremlin on May 4, 1965 in her father’s office, did not help either. Despite the fact that Singh was already terminally ill, Kosygin told her that she would not be allowed to marry a foreigner.
Fifth marriage - in 1970 she married the American architect William Peters (1912-1991), divorced in 1972, but retained the name Lana Peters.
Daughter Olga Peters, changed her name to Chris Evans (Chrese Evans)

Novels
In the early 1940s, Svetlana had an affair with writer Alexei Kapler, who was almost twice her age. This led to the fact that in 1943 Kapler was arrested, accused of relations with foreigners and espionage for England and exiled for five years to Vorkuta, where he worked as a photographer; in 1948, having been released, Kapler, contrary to the ban, came to Moscow, for which he was again arrested and sent to a forced labor camp. He was released and rehabilitated in 1954.
She also had affairs with Andrei Sinyavsky (future dissident), poet David Samoilov.

Essays
S. Alliluyeva wrote four books of memoirs published abroad:
Twenty Letters to a Friend (New York, Harper & Row, 1967)
One Year Only (New York, Harper & Row, 1969), ISBN 0-06-010102-4
A Book for Granddaughters: A Journey Home (New York, Liberty Publishing House, 1991)
Russian edition: M.: Novosti Publishing House, - 1992. 168 p. ISBN 5-7020-0520-1

Distant Music (published in 1984 in India and 1992 in Moscow)
She translated from English E. Rothstein’s book “The Munich Agreement” (1959), wrote several small works, including about the writer B. L. Pasternak, and “A Book for Granddaughters” (October, 1991, No. 6).
Alliluyeva S. Stalin's daughter. Last interview. - M.: Algorithm, 2013. - 304 p. - ISBN 978-5-4438-0346-3

Film incarnations
Nadezhda Mikhalkova - Son of the Father of Nations - 2013

Svetlana Alliluyeva, the only daughter of Joseph Stalin, has a very interesting biography and a busy personal life. The woman (her photo can be seen below) became famous thanks to her books, in which she told the whole truth about the USSR and her father.

Childhood

On February 28, 1926, Joseph Stalin's first and only daughter was born in Leningrad. Svetlana was raised together with her brother Vasily and half-brother Yakov, who was born in Stalin’s marriage to Ekaterina Svanidze.

Joseph Vissarionovich loved his children very much, but he had a special relationship with his daughter - the Leader always spoiled his baby, bought her the best toys and monitored her safety.

Sveta spent most of her childhood in the village of Zubatovo. At the dacha there was everything necessary for life (and even a little more), but the girl did not feel truly happy.

Nadezhda Alliluyeva never considered it necessary to show affection to her children and raised them quite strictly. But at the same time, the woman managed the household wonderfully and knew how to find good teachers.

Studies

In 1932, Stalin’s daughter went to school No. 25 - the most the best place for children whose parents were involved in important party activities. Svetlana liked to attend classes and learn something new, although communication with classmates did not work out.

The girl finished educational institution with honors and submitted documents to the Literary Institute, thereby going against the will of her father. But after studying for a year, Sveta became very ill and was forced to quit her studies.

After recovery, Alliluyeva went to study at the Faculty of History against her wishes. In 1949, the talented student received a diploma and entered graduate school.

After 5 years, Svetlana still fulfills her dream, defends her PhD thesis with honors and becomes a Candidate of Philological Sciences.

Mother suicides

Nadezhda Alliluyeva shot herself in the head after she had a huge fight with her husband. Her youngest child at that time I was only 6 years old.

The official voiced version of death is a sudden attack of appendicitis. For quite a long time, Sveta remained in the dark and only years later did she learn the truth about how her mother actually passed away.

Joseph Stalin was never personally involved in raising his children - work and public duty occupied everything free time. Therefore, there were always governesses in the house of the great leader.

Despite this, Svetlana Alliluyeva was always under strict control. Her childhood was marred by:

• she always had to go to school with a personal driver;
• it was forbidden to play with other children;
• invite someone to visit;
• talk too much about your family.

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At the beginning of the war, Stalin sent his daughter and son Vasily to Kuibyshev. But there continued to be excessive surveillance. All that brought Sveta pleasure was watching and learning a foreign language.

Personal life

Stalin's daughter was never deprived of the attention of men. Even the possible punishment of the leader did not deter numerous suitors. Therefore, Svetlana fell in love quite early and was married more than once.

In her memoirs, the woman wrote openly about her husbands and even lovers. The most famous personalities among them were:

• poet David Samoilov;
• Soviet literary critic and writer Andrei Sinyavsky.

Because of her turbulent personal life, Alliluyeva was condemned more than once, but there were also those who showed admiration for her openness, courage and ability to follow the dictates of her heart, and not be afraid of universal contempt.

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Marriages of Svetlana Alliluyeva

Svetlana Iosifovna always openly answered questions regarding romantic feelings and relationships. Thanks to her and the interview, the public knows everything, almost down to the smallest detail:

1. Svetlana first fell in love at the age of 16. Her chosen one was screenwriter Alexei Kapler, whom the girl met at her brother’s party. The young people began dating, despite the large age difference and strict supervision over Alliluyeva. But Stalin very quickly found out about this, after which Kapler was accused of espionage and sent to a penal colony.
2. A few years later, as a student, Sveta marries Grigory Morozov, a good friend of her brother. Joseph Vissarionovich did not approve of this relationship and even after the birth of his grandson, he refused to communicate with his son-in-law. After 4 years, Alliluyeva’s family broke up due to the fact that the girl did not want to have any more children and had at least four.
3. At 23, Stalin's only daughter marries again. This time, the leader himself chose her chosen one - Yuri Zhdanov. He was the son of the secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. A year later, a daughter, Katya, was born into their family, but Alliluyeva still filed for divorce, not wanting to live with an unloved person.
4. In 1957, Svetlana married scientist Ivan Svanidze, but this union broke up even before the couple had children together.
5. After this, Alliluyeva met Brajesh Singh, who came to the Soviet Union from. The lovers lived for quite a long time in civil marriage, since they were not allowed to formalize the relationship. Unfortunately, the man died after a long illness in 1966. Svetlana cremated Brajesh and obtained permission to travel abroad to bury her lover at home.
6. After 4 years, Stalin's daughter last time marries architect William Peters and changes her last name to Lana. A daughter, Olga, is born into the family, but the relationship between the spouses quickly deteriorates and they file for divorce.

Children

Svetlana Alliluyeva can hardly be called a good mother. She abandoned her older children after moving abroad, and her youngest daughter Olya did not develop warm feelings for her.

Already quite mature age the woman tried to correct the mistakes of her youth and make peace with her family, but all her attempts were unsuccessful.

Stalin's grandchildren lived a rather difficult life - eldest daughter she even gave an interview in which she practically accused her mother of all sins. But still, they were all able to achieve a lot and make a name for themselves:

1. The eldest son Joseph, named after his grandfather, was officially adopted by Yuri Zhdanov. As an adult, the man changed his documents and took his mother’s last name. Alliluyev entered medical University, after which he began working as a cardiologist. Joseph also published scientific works, was married twice and raised a son, Ilya. Stalin's only grandson died in 2008, but his mother did not come to say goodbye to him.
2. Catherine, middle child Svetlana Alliluyeva, became a geophysicist. After receiving her diploma, the girl moved to Kamchatka and broke off all relations with her mother’s relatives and with herself. Katya got married, but her husband committed suicide due to addiction to alcohol. The woman had to raise her daughter Anna completely alone.
3. Youngest daughter Olga, whose photos are very popular on the Internet today, abandoned her name and became Chris Evans. Perhaps this is due to the fact that Svetlana gave the girl to a rather at a young age to a boarding school and was not allowed to communicate with peers. And although the woman has never given an interview, she sometimes publishes photographs of her mother online, with captions about how she is sometimes missed.

Life after father's death

After news of Joseph Stalin's death appeared in March 1953, Svetlana Alliluyeva was left with practically nothing. The girl had to survive by withdrawing the remaining money from her savings book - 900 rubles.

During this difficult time, Sveta was supported by her fellow student Nikita Khrushchev - in the future, their friendship greatly helped the woman who did not want to live her whole life in the Soviet Union.

Escape, return and escape again

After the death of Brajesh Singh, Alliluyeva lived for several months in the native village of her chosen one. The woman liked it so much independent life without supervision, she contacted the American embassy to secure political asylum.

At home, such behavior was considered undignified. The woman began to be perceived with hostility also taking into account the fact that she left her children practically without any supervision.

Svetlana Iosifovna started a lot abroad. She first moved to Switzerland and spent several years there. After this, the woman was allowed to move to the United States, where Alliluyeva began writing books and earning a lot of money from it.

The most famous works are very popular to this day. Namely:

• "Twenty Letters to a Friend";
• "Only one year";
• "Distant Music"

In 1982, Lana Peters moved to England, sent my own daughter to boarding school and begins to travel around the world. After 2 years, Stalin’s daughter unexpectedly returns to her homeland. The woman explains this decision with the desire to give Olya a decent education.

Alliluyeva is received quite cordially in the Union, her citizenship is restored, she is given an apartment, a driver with a car and a decent pension are provided. But Svetlana doesn’t like noisy Moscow, so she soon moves to Georgia.

Olga begins to go to school, study history and languages. The girl even became interested in horse riding and achieved good results. If we talk about the older children, then, as before, they refused to make contact with their mother.

Stalin's daughter tried to get used to life in the Union again, but after some time the woman began to think about moving again. Two years later, without any explanation, Svetlana packs her things and returns to the United States with her daughter. And he never returns to his native country.

From this moment on, Alliluyeva’s progress is much more difficult to trace. They say that in 1992 the writer was registered in a nursing home in Great Britain, then moved to Switzerland (the monastery of St. John), and was also seen in.

But there is reliable information that Svetlana Iosifovna, shortly before her death, lived in a home for the elderly, which is located near the city of Richland, Wisconsin.

Death

The biography of Svetlana Alliluyeva ends on November 22, 2011. American news reported that the talented writer Lana Peters, the daughter of the famous leader Soviet Union, died of colon cancer.

The mother’s body was cremated by her daughter Olga, and she sent it to Portland. As for exact date and burial places, they are still hidden.

On February 28, 1926, in the USSR, in the city of Leningrad, a girl, Svetlana, was born, who later took the name Alliluyeva.

And on November 22, 2011 in the United States, in a hospital in the small town of Richmond in Wisconsin, at the age of 85, a certain Lana Peters died of cancer.

And although we are talking about the same woman, between these names there are decades of ups and downs, rushing around the world across seas and oceans. A life passes by, the beginning of which did not foreshadow such an unusual and unpredictable end. When alone, in another country. When the environment is different, the language is different - everything is different!

There is also something in common: neither the surname Alliluyeva nor the surname Peters, without side information, gives reason to assume that the woman who wore them is the daughter of Joseph Stalin. The greatest dictator of the twentieth century for some and an outstanding politician for others. But for her - simply and not just a father.

© photo: Sputnik /

Here you go! - you object. - Okay, there’s also Lana Peters. But who doesn’t know Svetlana Alliluyeva?

They know. Because she declared herself loudly. Yes Yes! As a talented scientist, historian, philologist. And most importantly - as an unsurpassed memoirist. At one time, we voraciously read the typewritten version of her “Twenty Letters to a Friend” - naked memories of Stalin and his Kremlin entourage. They read secretly, in general, at the risk of running into trouble.

A real sensation! As they say now - a bestseller. Perhaps someone will try to reduce literary success to the scandalous nature of the story. However, this is, of course, also a very talented book. Captivating style, subtle observations, unconventional thoughts. To slightly paraphrase a well-known maxim: the author showed herself to be a person on whom nature, as usual, did not rest.

In childhood and adolescence, unlike her brother Vasily, who was prone to daring actions, Svetlana behaved like an exemplary daughter of a loving father, by the way. For all her, in general, no less cool disposition than his, she was unusually modest. I studied well. I didn’t try to take advantage of privileges and never exposed myself.

She defended her dissertation. She worked as a translator. And many years later, in 1966, she took the ashes of her common-law husband, the Indian communist Brajesh Singh, home. And unexpectedly she turned to the US Embassy with a request for political asylum.

Here I return again to the idea that even to very competent people the name of Svetlana Alliluyeva might not mean anything.

The State Department refused her request!..

As Canadian history professor Rosemary Sullivan, who wrote a detailed study about Stalin’s daughter, found out, the American consul in Delhi did not believe Svetlana. Took her for an adventurer or a crazy person. Just in case, I sent a request to the CIA. But neither there, nor in the FBI, nor in the State Department, have they even heard of such a thing. Nobody knew that Stalin even had a daughter.

Ultimately, it was previously “sold” to Switzerland. And only later, after the release of her memoirs, the whole world started talking about Svetlana. Including us in the Soviet Union. True, looking around and whispering. It was then that Alliluyeva was publicly perceived as Stalin’s daughter.

She herself wrote in one of her books that she would prefer it if her mother married a carpenter. There is certainly an element of bravado and shockingness in this. On the other hand, this woman can be understood. Imagine what it’s like if your father’s name constantly hangs over you like the sword of Damocles?! And in the USSR, and in the States, and in England, where she also managed to live.

One had only to emerge from the shadows, at least somehow declare oneself, and the origin immediately surfaced. And she couldn’t help but say so. At least due to the unspent intellectual potential.

It was, presumably, not so much the attention of the public as the close guardianship of the special services. Roughly speaking, continuous surveillance. Wherever you live. Wherever you fly. With the Soviets, everything is clear. But from recently declassified archives it became clear that the Americans proved themselves no less glorious.

© photo: Sputnik /

Not just intelligence agencies. The fate of her last marriage to architect Wesley Peters is sad. Svetlana clearly did not expect a dirty trick from him. Apparently, after many ordeals, she hoped to finally find happy family and peace. But it turned out that it was not possible. The marriage turned out to be of convenience. One-sided.

Moreover, it is purely American. Because neither in Russia nor in Georgia would it have occurred to anyone that Svetlana could have lost her fortune from Stalin. Even the most ardent enemies did not dare to accuse the leader of the peoples of selfishness. According to eyewitnesses, after his death, a savings book with 900 rubles in his account was found in his apartment. Which they passed on to their daughter.

But Peters believed the legend that Stalin left her a huge amount of money, which he kept in a Swiss bank. One way or another, he got his hands on one and a half million dollars from the publication of the memoirs, according to the testimony of the same Rosemary Sullivan.

Perhaps that is why at some point Svetlana Alliluyeva and her daughter from Wesley suddenly found themselves in Georgia. Disappointed in America. She's back. But it didn’t take root in Moscow. Arrived in Tbilisi. As if, to my historical homeland, where I had never lived before. She led a very secluded life. The Georgian leadership did not particularly advertise this fact. So, I wouldn’t be surprised if many people didn’t even know about her arrival.

© photo: Sputnik / Alexander Grashchenkov

I accidentally found out where she lived from a friend of mine, a charming hardware worker who was assigned to her. Naturally, she didn’t go into detail about anything. However, from scraps of phrases it was not difficult to conclude that Alliluyeva was a very unpretentious woman, but with a complex and difficult disposition.

It was also obvious that trying to settle in Georgia would lead nowhere. IN student years I have already witnessed one of these. Also associated with the leader. One fine day, his grandson was enrolled at the university in a year younger than me. Son of Vasily Stalin from the daughter of Marshal Timoshenko. I won’t go into details, but this is where nature has definitely rested! He didn't stay here long. Went back to Moscow. And soon we learned that he had died...

Returning to America, Alliluyeva again felt pressure. Including from publishers. She was forced to write about her father, but she didn’t want to anymore. I take the liberty of suggesting that with age, Svetlana Iosifovna began to feel remorse for her previous memoirs. Because Stalin, even if he was a dictator, still remained a father for her. Whom she loved very much.

And who loved her very much. The leader didn’t let anyone off the hook, but I’m sure he would certainly forgive his daughter...

Good day everyone!

Stalin's daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva was the favorite of her formidable father. It would seem that a girl born into the family of a man who headed a huge country was destined for a brilliant fate. But in reality everything turned out differently. The life of Stalin's daughter turned out to be like a complete adventure that had nothing in common with the destinies of the offspring of high-ranking political figures of the Soviet Union.

Birth

Svetlana was born in Leningrad on the last day of winter 1926. She was the second child of Joseph Stalin's marriage to Nadezhda Alliluyeva. In addition to her, the “leader of all times and peoples” and his wife had a son, Vasily, growing up. The girl also had a brother Yakov, whom his first wife Ekaterina Svanidze gave birth to to her father (he died in German captivity during the war).

Alliluyeva's life after her mother's suicide

Stalin's daughter Svetlana grew up in prosperity that others could only dream of. The biography of her childhood was overshadowed by the early death of her mother, who committed suicide when the girl was 6 years old. They hid it from Svetlana the real reason the death of my mother, informing her that she died on the operating table during an attack of acute appendicitis. But, as Alliluyeva herself later recalled, her mother simply could not stand the humiliation and insults from her high-ranking husband. After her suicide, Svetlana and Vasily were actually left orphans, because Joseph Vissarionovich was too busy with government affairs and did not have enough time to raise his offspring.

Sveta grew up surrounded by numerous nannies and governesses. She was taken to classes by a personal driver. She did well at school, she knew English language. After the start of the war, she and her brother Vasily were evacuated to Kuibyshev. The girl's life was boring. She was forbidden to go for walks, make friends with neighboring children, or talk to strangers. The only entertainment for Svetlana was the films she watched on her home movie projector.

First love

Vasily, unlike his sister, did not want to be bored. His father was rarely at home, and the young man, taking advantage of his absence, often threw noisy parties. Among his brother’s acquaintances one could meet famous artists, singers and athletes at that time. At one of these parties, 16-year-old Svetlana met 39-year-old screenwriter and actor Alexei Kapler. Stalin's daughter fell in love with him. The biography of this woman will continue to be replete with novels, but her first adult love she will never forget. The significant age difference did not bother either the girl or her chosen one. Alexey was incredibly handsome and popular with women. By the time he met Svetlana, he had gotten divorced twice. His ex-wives were famous Soviet actresses.

Young Sveta impressed Kapler with her erudition and adult discussions about life. He was a mature man and understood that an affair with the daughter of the “leader of the peoples” could end in tears for him, but he could not do anything with his feelings. Although Sveta always had her personal bodyguard on her heels, she managed to escape from his pursuit and wander with her lover along quiet streets, visiting with him Tretyakov Gallery, theatrical performances, closed film screenings at the Cinematography Committee. In her memoirs, Svetlana Iosifovna wrote that there were no close relationships between them, because in the Soviet Union sex before marriage was considered a shame.

Stalin became aware of his daughter’s first adult feelings very soon. The Secretary General of the USSR immediately disliked Kapler, and troubles began in the actor’s life. He was repeatedly summoned to the Lubyanka and subjected to hours of interrogation. So how to judge Kapler for love affair it was impossible with Svetlana, he was accused of spying for Great Britain and was sent to the Vorkuta forced labor colony for 10 years. For the girl herself, this affair ended with several heavy slaps in the face from her strict father.

First marriage

The further biography of Stalin’s daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva is connected with her studies at Moscow State University. After graduating from school, she entered the Faculty of Philology, but after finishing the first year, under pressure from her father, she transferred to History. The girl hated history, but was forced to submit to the will of her father, who did not consider literature and writing worthy pursuits.

During her student years, Svetlana married Grigory Morozov, a school friend of her brother. The girl then turned 18 years old. Stalin was against this marriage and categorically refused to see his son-in-law. In 1945, the young couple had a child, who was named Joseph. Svetlana's first marriage lasted only 4 years and, to Stalin's great joy, broke up. As Alliluyeva said in one of her interviews, Grigory Morozov refused to use protection and wanted her to give birth to ten children. Svetlana did not intend to become a mother-heroine. Instead she planned to get higher education. During the years of marriage with Morozov, the young woman had 4 abortions, after which she fell ill and filed for divorce.

Marriage at father's insistence

In 1949, Joseph Stalin's daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva married again. This time her husband was chosen by her father. He became the son of the Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party Andrei Zhdanov, Yuri. Before the wedding, the young people did not have a single date. They got married because Stalin wanted it that way. Yuri officially adopted Svetlana's son from his first marriage. A year later, Alliluyeva gave birth to her husband’s daughter, Ekaterina, and then filed for divorce. Joseph Vissarionovich was dissatisfied with Svetlana’s behavior, but he could not force her to live with an unloved person. The Secretary General of the USSR realized that his daughter would no longer obey him, and came to terms with her rebellious character.

Life after father's death

In March 1953, the “leader of all nations” passed away. Afterwards it was handed over to Svetlana, whose account contained only 900 rubles. All personal belongings and documents of Stalin were taken from her. But the woman could not complain about the government’s lack of attention to herself. She developed a good relationship with Nikita Khrushchev, with whom she studied at the university. Svetlana’s place of work since 1956 was the Institute of World Literature, where she studied books

Well, what did Stalin’s daughter Svetlana do next? In the 50s, she was replenished with another marriage. This time, Alliluyeva’s chosen one was the Soviet Africanist scientist Ivan Svanidze. Their life together lasted from 1957 to 1959 and ended, as in previous cases, in divorce. The couple had no children together. To brighten up her loneliness, Svetlana started short-term affairs. At this time, the list of her lovers was supplemented by the Soviet writer and literary critic Andrei Sinyavsky and the poet David Samoilov.

Escape to the West

In the 60s, with the onset of Khrushchev’s “thaw,” the fate of Stalin’s daughter changed dramatically. Svetlana Alliluyeva meets Indian citizen Brajesh Singh in Moscow and becomes his common-law wife(she was not allowed to enter into an official marriage with a foreigner). The Hindu was seriously ill and died at the end of 1966. The woman, using her connections in the government, asked the Soviet authorities to allow her to take her husband’s ashes home. Having received permission from A. Kosygin, a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU, she went to India.

Being away from the Soviet Union, Svetlana realized that she did not want to return home. For three months she lived in Singh's ancestral village, after which she went to the American embassy in Delhi and asked the United States for political asylum. Such an unexpected trick by Alliluyeva caused a scandal in the USSR. The Soviet government automatically included her in the list of traitors. The situation was aggravated by the fact that Svetlana had a son and daughter at home. But the woman did not think that she had abandoned them, because, in her opinion, the children were already old enough and could easily live on their own. By that time, Joseph had already managed to start his own family, and Catherine was in her first year at university.

Transformation into Lana Peters

Alliluyeva was unable to leave India directly for the States. In order not to spoil already strained relations with the Soviet Union, American diplomats sent the woman to Switzerland. Svetlana lived in Europe for some time, and then moved to America. In the West, Stalin's daughter did not live in poverty. In 1967, she published the book “20 ​​Letters to a Friend,” in which she talked about her father and own life before leaving Moscow. Svetlana Iosifovna began writing it back in the USSR. This book became a worldwide sensation and brought the author about $2.5 million in income.

Living in distant America, Svetlana tried to arrange a personal life with the architect William Peters. After her marriage in 1970, she took her husband's surname and shortened her name, becoming simply Lana. Soon the newly-made Mrs. Peters had a daughter, Olga. Madly in love with her American husband, Svetlana invested almost all her money in his projects. When her savings ran out, the marriage fell apart. Later, Alliluyeva realized that Peters was encouraged to marry her by his sister, who was sure that the “Soviet princess” must have many millions from her father. Realizing that she had miscalculated, she did everything to get her brother to divorce. After the divorce in 1972, Stalin's daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva (photo with William Peters is presented below) retained her husband's surname and remained alone with Olga. Her main sources of income were writing and donations from charitable organizations.

Return of Alliluyeva to the Union

In 1982, Svetlana moved to London. There she left Olga in a Quaker boarding school and went to travel the world. Unexpectedly for everyone, the woman returned to the USSR in 1984. She later explained the reason for this decision by the fact that Olga needed to be given a good education, and in the USSR it was provided free of charge. The Soviet authorities greeted the fugitive kindly. Her citizenship was restored, she was given housing, a car with a personal driver, and a pension. But the woman did not like living in Moscow and moved to her father’s homeland in Georgia. Here Alliluyeva was provided with royal living conditions. Olga began attending school, taking Russian and Georgian language lessons, and going in for equestrian sports. But life in Tbilisi did not bring joy to Svetlana. She was never able to restore her damaged relationship with her children. Joseph and Catherine were offended by their mother because she abandoned them almost 20 years ago. Stalin’s daughter Svetlana was never able to find understanding among her loved ones. Her biography contains information that in 1986 she and her youngest daughter emigrated to America again. This time there were no problems with leaving. Gorbachev personally ordered that the daughter of the “leader of the peoples” be freely released from the country. Returning to the States, Alliluyeva forever renounced Soviet citizenship.

Repeated emigration and decline of life

How and where did Stalin's daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva live after her second departure from the USSR? Back in the States elderly woman settled in the town of Richland (Wisconsin). She completely stopped communicating with her son Joseph and daughter Ekaterina. Soon Olga began to live separately from her and earn a living on her own. At first, Svetlana Iosifovna rented a separate apartment, then moved to a nursing home. In the 90s, she lived in an almshouse in London, then moved to the USA again. Last years Alliluyeva spent her life in a nursing home in the American city of Madison. She died of cancer on November 22, 2011. In her dying order, Alliluyeva asked to be buried under the name of Lana Peters. The place of her burial is unknown.

Children of Svetlana Iosifovna

Stalin's daughter lived in this world for 85 years. The biography of this woman would be incomplete without mentioning how the fate of her three children turned out. Alliluyeva's eldest son Joseph devoted his life to medicine. He studied cardiology and wrote many scientific papers on heart diseases. Joseph Grigorievich did not like to talk to journalists about his mother; he was on bad terms with her. Lived 63 years. Died of a stroke in 2008.

Svetlana Iosifovna’s daughter Ekaterina works as a volcanologist. Like her older brother, she was very offended by Alliluyeva when she left for the West, leaving the children alone. She prefers not to answer questions from journalists about her mother, declaring that she never knew this woman. In order to hide away from increased attention from the press and intelligence services, Alliluyeva’s daughter left for Kamchatka, where she lives to this day. Leads a secluded life.

The youngest daughter Olga Peters became a late child for Alliluyeva. She gave birth to her in her fifth decade. As an adult, Olga changed her name to Chris Evans. Today she lives in the USA, works as a salesperson. The woman practically does not speak Russian. Like her older brother and sister, Olga’s relationship with her mother did not work out.

Long and bright life Stalin's daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva was able to survive. The biography with photos presented in the article allowed readers to learn a lot interesting facts about her fate. This woman was not afraid of scandals, public opinion and condemnation. The daughter of the “leader of the peoples” knew how to love, suffer and start life anew. She was unable to become a good mother for her children, but she never suffered from this. Svetlana Iosifovna did not tolerate being called Stalin’s daughter, therefore, once in the West, she said goodbye to her old name forever. But, having become Lana Peters, she remained for the whole world a “Soviet princess.”