Name: Svetlana Alliluyeva

Age: 85 years old

Place of Birth: Leningrad; A place of death: Wisconsin, USA

Activity: philologist, translator

Family status: was divorced

Svetlana Alliluyeva - biography

Alliluyeva Svetlana Iosifovna - philologist - translator, who wrote memoirs about her father Joseph Stalin, candidate of philological sciences, only daughter of Joseph Stalin.

Childhood, family

Svetlana Alliluyeva, nee Stalin, and in exile Lana Peters, was born on February twenty-eighth, 1926. Her rich biography began in Leningrad. She appeared at a time when Joseph Stalin was a revolutionary, and his second wife was Nadezhda Alliluyeva, who did not want to take her husband’s surname. In the Stalin-Alliluyeva family, Svetlana became the second child, since the girl already had an older brother, Vasily, and Yakov Svanidze, a half-brother from her father’s first marriage.

Despite the fact that the girl never needed anything, her parents loved her, but her father showed this love in his own way, offensively. This made her childhood the most miserable.

The girl was barely six years old when her mother died. The death of Nadezhda Alliluyeva was a real shock for the child. The father, busy with a full-time job, could not devote much time to his daughter. Sometimes they didn’t see each other even for several days. Soon a nanny was hired for the children. It was the influence of Alexandra Andreevna that later helped Svetlana choose her path in life and become a philologist.

Svetlana Alliluyeva - Education

Svetlana Alliluyeva went to model school No. 25, where she showed a special interest in literature. But deprived of communication with her peers, the girl tried to somehow cheer herself up. During these years, her main occupation became the study in English and watching Soviet films.

When school years left behind, Svetlana dreamed of entering the Literary Institute. But this dream was not allowed to come true, since the father believed that his daughter should not engage in such an unworthy occupation. Therefore, the young girl had to enter the Faculty of History at Moscow State University. After graduation, she enters the Academy social sciences and, having defended his dissertation, becomes a candidate of philological sciences.

Career of Svetlana Alliluyeva

Svetlana Alliluyeva gets a job at the Institute of World Literature, where she is actively involved in literature. But after the death of her father, the girl’s entire biography changes dramatically. It turned out that her father left her only nine hundred rubles as an inheritance.

In 1966, having left for India, Svetlana Alliluyeva asked for political asylum from America, which deprived her of Soviet citizenship. And in 1984, she again decides to return to her homeland. But two years later she decides to return to America again, although she lived in comfortable conditions in Georgia. But, having renounced Soviet citizenship, in America she settled in a home for the elderly.

In 1967, her first book of memoirs was published, where she described her Kremlin childhood and the personality of Stalin. This book brought her popularity, but her subsequent books were not so in demand.

Svetlana Alliluyeva - biography of personal life

Svetlana Iosifovna Alliluyeva has many marriages and novels. During Stalin's lifetime, she was already married twice and both marriages ended in divorce. In her biography, there were only five official marriages, although there were also many novels.

The first husband was his brother’s classmate Grigory Morozov, but his father was against this union. Stalin tried to do everything to ensure that this marriage broke up as quickly as possible. In this union, Svetlana’s first child was born - son Joseph.

In 1949, the long-awaited divorce and new marriage took place. This time Stalin himself chose the husband for his daughter. It turned out to be Yuri Zhdanov, who was also the son of the Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee. Before the registry office, the young people did not see each other. In this marriage, a daughter, Catherine, was born, and a divorce immediately followed. When Svetlana Alliluyeva left for America, she left her daughter with her husband’s relatives. Her daughter could never forgive her for this.

After her father's death she enters into civil marriage with Brajesh Singh, who lived in India. Soon her husband dies, and Svetlana asks permission to bury him in his homeland. But she never returns from there.

It is known that in 1957, Svetlana Alliluyeva married scientist Ivan Svanidze again. But two years later a divorce followed. In 1970 there was a fifth marriage that took place in America. Her husband was the architect William Peters.

In this marriage, Svetlana gave birth to a third child - daughter Olga, whom she later gave to American school- boarding school But Svetlana Alliluyeva’s relationships did not work out not only with her husbands, but also with her children, whom she simply abandoned and who do not want to know anything about her.

Son Joseph worked as a cardiologist, but died in 2008, never meeting his mother again.

In 2011, the famous and only daughter of Joseph Stalin died alone, with no relatives, no children, no friends nearby, in an American nursing home from cancer. Her body, at Olga's request, was cremated and sent youngest daughter, so her burial place is still unknown.

Author of biography: Tati

Svetlana was born on February 28, 1926 in the family of Joseph Stalin and Nadezhda Alliluyeva. Her mother committed suicide on November 9, 1932. In addition to her, the son Vasily grew up in the family of Stalin and Alliluyeva. The father showed tenderness and warm feelings towards Svetlana while she was a child. He often spoiled her and never beat her, and in general did not offend her in any way.

In the year of her mother’s death, Svetlana went to school. She studied at Moscow Model School No. 25 until 1943 and graduated with honors. After school, she dreamed of entering the Literary Institute, but her father did not share her love for philology. Although she entered the philological department of Moscow State University, she did not manage to stay there until her studies were certified.

She studied there for one year, and then fell ill. Later she returned to higher education, but already studied at the history department of the same Moscow state university. The girl studied Germany at the department of modern and contemporary history. As some researchers note, choosing a place to study for his daughter was Stalin’s first serious decision regarding Svetlana.

After completing her studies at the history department in 1949, Alliluyeva continued her education in graduate school. She went to the Academy of Social Sciences under the CPSU Central Committee. And already here I began to study my favorite philology.

So, in 1954, she defended her PhD thesis on the topic “Development of advanced traditions of Russian realism in the Soviet novel” and became a candidate of philological sciences. Subsequently, Svetlana worked as a translator from English, as well as a literary editor. During her work, she translated several books, and then, from 1956 to 1966, she worked in the sector for the study of Soviet literature at the Institute of World Literature.

During her work in 1962, she was baptized and also baptized her children.

In 1963, Svetlana wrote the book “Twenty Letters to a Friend.” These letters were written in the summer of 1963 in the village of Zhukovka, near Moscow, over a period of thirty-five days. In the preface to the book, Svetlana notes, “The free form of the letters allowed me to be absolutely sincere, and I consider what is written to be a confession.”

Then began the period of Svetlana’s life in exile. On December 20, 1966, she and her common-law husband Brajesh Singha went to India. She wanted to stay there, but the embassy insisted on Svetlana’s return to the Soviet Union and said that after returning to her homeland she would not be allowed to travel abroad. To which Svetlana reacted quite quickly: she went to the US Embassy in Delhi and asked for political asylum here.

A subsequent move to the West made it possible to publish “Twenty Letters to a Friend” in 1967. In these letters, Svetlana Alliluyeva recalled her father and Kremlin life. The publication of the memoirs became a real sensation, after which Svetlana lived in Switzerland, and then moved to the USA.

In America, she began to live under the name Lana Peters (she left her surname after her marriage to the architect William Peters). The magazine version of her memoirs “Twenty Letters to a Friend” was sold to the Hamburg publication Der Der Spiegel for $122,000. Then and subsequently, Svetlana Alliluyeva lived on money earned through literary work, as well as on donations from citizens and various organizations.

Interesting notes:

Almost ten years after her divorce from her fifth husband, in 1982, Svetlana Alliluyeva moved to the UK. In Cambridge, she sent her daughter Olga to a Quaker boarding school and began to travel. As Olga (Chris Evans) and Svetlana’s loved ones said later, because of this, the relationship between mother and daughter was not the best.

In November 1984, Svetlana and her daughter appeared in Moscow as a surprise. Then she was received quite well and her Soviet citizenship was quickly restored. At home, she was unable to establish relationships with the children from previous marriages - son Joseph and daughter Ekaterina, whom she left behind when leaving for India.

Then she left for Georgia, but did not stay here for long. Almost two years later, Svetlana Alliluyeva sent a letter to the CPSU Central Committee asking for permission to leave the country. After Mikhail Gorbachev's intervention in 1986, she was allowed to return to the United States, where she arrived on April 16, 1986. After leaving, she renounced her Soviet citizenship. Researchers note that Svetlana Alliluyeva abandoned her homeland, because here she was threatened with the fate of suffering moral punishment for the sins of her father until death.

In America, Svetlana Alliluyeva began to live in the state of Wisconsin, and in 1992 she lived in a nursing home in the UK. Later she lived in the Swiss monastery of St. John, but returned to Great Britain that same year. Last years Svetlana Alliluyeva's life was spent in the American city of Madison. She lived in another nursing home, already in the city of Richland, until her death.

Stalin's daughter died of colon cancer, the woman's burial place is still unknown. In November 2012, it became known that the FBI had declassified Svetlana Alliluyeva’s dossier, from which it became known that American intelligence agencies were monitoring her life in America.

Svetlana Alliluyeva and her men

From her youth, Svetlana started bright romances, which were not always successful for her men. In total, Svetlana Alliluyeva was married five times, one of the marriages, with a Hindu, whose name was Raja Brij Singh, was not formalized.

At the age of 14 she was in love with the son of Lavrentiy Beria - Sergo, and at the age of 16, her chosen one was playwright and screenwriter Alexey Kapler, who was twice the girl’s age.

The first husband of Stalin's daughter was Grigory Morozov. The couple had their first child - a son, who was named Joseph. After that, she was married to a representative of the Kremlin elite, Yuri Zhdanov, from whose marriage she had a daughter, Ekaterina. After Stalin's death in 1957, Jonrid Svanidze became her husband.

Svetlana Alliluyev's fourth husband was the noble heir of the Indian family Raja Brij Singh. Svetlana's fifth husband was the US architect William Peters. Svetlana Alliluyeva was also tied up romantic relationship with Andrei Sinyavsky and poet David Samoilov. There is no information about other men in her life, but you can read more about them on our website.

In 2005, Alliluyeva gave an interview to the Russia channel, and as a result, the film “Svetlana Alliluyeva and Her Men” was created. It details the personal life of Stalin's daughter.

March 6, 1967 daughter Joseph Stalin Svetlana Alliluyeva decided not to return to the Soviet Union.

“Kalina-raspberry, Stalin’s daughter, Svetlana Alliluyeva, ran away, what a fig family!” - this is how folk art responded to the event, which put the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee and others on their ears governing bodies Soviet Union.

The beloved daughter of Joseph Stalin, whom foreign media referred to only as the “Red Princess,” became a “defector.”

Svetlana Iosifovna caused a lot of trouble even for dad. The daughter's stormy temperament resulted in a series of novels that Svetlana began when she was still a teenager. From the choice of his daughter, Stalin often flew into a rage, which fell on the heads of the unlucky suitors. For the director Alexey Kapler The relationship with the girl resulted in many years of stay in the Gulag.

In 1944, Svetlana married Grigory Morozov, her brother's classmate, Vasily Stalin. The marriage produced a son, who was named Joseph, but the relationship did not last long. In 1949, Stalin's daughter married a second time - this time to the son of the leader's comrade-in-arms Yuri Zhdanov. The marriage lasted three years and Svetlana had a second child - a daughter. Catherine.

Farewell ceremony for Joseph Stalin. Svetlana Alliluyeva is in the center. Photo: RIA Novosti

Under the wing of the state

After the death of her father, Svetlana found herself under the close attention of the new leaders of the state. True, unlike brother Vasily, she was not put away either in prison or in a psychiatric hospital. She worked at the Institute of World Literature, in the sector for the study of Soviet literature.

Svetlana, now bearing the surname Alliluyeva, continued to try to arrange her personal life. The lady's next chosen one was an Indian aristocrat and communist Raja Bradesh Singh.

The USSR authorities were quite wary of marriages with foreigners. But, firstly, Alliluyeva did not officially marry Singh, secondly, India was considered a friendly state, and thirdly, the leadership of the countries believed that it would be better for Stalin’s daughter to be involved with men than to publicly say something unnecessary.

According to the memoirs of the then head of the KGB of the USSR Vladimir Semichastny, Alliluyeva lived very well by those standards - good salary, benefits monetary allowance herself and her children. Stalin's daughter lived in a “house on the embankment”; a dacha and a car were assigned to her. In general, Svetlana Iosifovna could support not only herself and her children, but also her common-law husband, who transferred all his earnings to relatives in India.

Comrade Kosygin's guarantee

In the fall of 1966, Raja Bradesh Singh died after a serious illness, and Svetlana Alliluyeva wrote a letter Leonid Brezhnev with a request to allow her to travel to “her husband’s homeland to scatter his ashes over the sacred waters of the Ganges.”

The Politburo thought about what to do. Soviet leaders knew that Alliluyeva had completed work on the book “Twenty Letters to a Friend.” The contents of this manuscript were well known to them. In general, they did not see anything too seditious in her - Svetlana criticized her father for repression, which did not diverge from the official line of the party. But, at the same time, they were not going to allow the publication of memoirs in the USSR, and they were not eager for the book to be published in the West.

They decided that Alliluyeva could be released, instructing the KGB to prevent Stalin’s daughter from taking away the manuscript.

Mikhail Semichastny claimed that Svetlana did not take her out, but still managed to somehow transfer her abroad.

The decisive factor in allowing Alliluyeva to leave was the personal guarantee of the head of the Soviet government Alexey Kosygin, who had a friendly relationship with Stalin’s daughter.

Confidence was added by the fact that Svetlana’s son Joseph was going to get married and the date of the celebration had been set. Members of the Politburo logically reasoned that the mother was unlikely to miss her son’s wedding.

KGB warns

To the USSR Ambassador to India Ivan Benediktov was instructed to provide Svetlana with all possible assistance.

In December 1966, Svetlana Alliluyeva arrived in India, where Ambassador Benediktov placed her in a separate apartment on the territory of the village of Soviet diplomatic mission employees.

The ashes were scattered over the waters of the Ganges, but Svetlana Iosifovna was not in too much of a hurry to return to her homeland. With permission to stay for seven days, Alliluyeva spent a month in India. His son called his mother from Moscow, asking when Svetlana would return. She begged Joseph to postpone the wedding.

Alliluyeva herself persuaded Ambassador Benediktov to resolve the issue of extending her stay in India for another month. The diplomat agreed, and Svetlana was indeed given the go-ahead. At the same time, Stalin’s daughter left for her late husband’s native village and completely disappeared from the sight of her compatriots for a month.

Finally, in early March, it was decided that Alliluyev should be returned. Moreover, Joseph was losing patience, and his calls to his mother, who had returned to Delhi, were extremely nervous.

And Svetlana Iosifovna asked the ambassador to once again extend her stay in India. But this time Ivan Benediktov handed Alliluyeva a passport and a plane ticket to Moscow on March 8.

Stalin's daughter began to pack her things and buy gifts, but the head of the Soviet intelligence station in Delhi became wary - there were certain oddities in her behavior. In a restaurant, a scout, disguised as a foreigner, managed to talk to Svetlana, who was drinking heavily. She, blaspheming the Soviet leadership, including Kosygin, who vouched for her, let slip that she wanted to stay abroad, and already had “some agreements” for this.

The conversation was reported to Ambassador Benediktov, but he did not believe it. Just in case, Svetlana was assigned to be monitored by a security officer working at the embassy. It was necessary to watch Alliluyeva especially carefully during her traditional evening walks. The fact is that Svetlana Iosifovna was walking past the territory of the US Embassy.

Gateway to the “free world”

Despite these precautions, Svetlana Alliluyeva escaped. Right in front of her escort on the evening of March 6, 1967, she “drew” into the US Embassy grounds through a gate that was usually closed.

That same night, the Americans took the woman to the airport and she flew to Switzerland, where she asked for political asylum. However, she was refused first in Switzerland and then in Italy, and in transit through Germany arrived in the United States, where she was granted asylum.

“Huge everyone! I'm very happy to be here! This is just wonderful!” Stalin’s daughter greeted journalists at Kennedy Airport.

And in the USSR at that time there was a “debriefing”. Kosygin was a “high-flying bird,” so they preferred to forget about his guarantee. The main scapegoat was Ambassador Benediktov, who was recalled from India and transferred to work in Yugoslavia, relations with which were very difficult at that time.

Alliluyeva’s escape became one of the arguments for the removal of KGB head Vladimir Semichastny in May 1967. In addition, dozens of Soviet officials of lower rank were punished.

Already from abroad, Svetlana called her son, trying to explain the motives for her action. Joseph refused to understand his mother, considering her act a betrayal. He also did not allow Svetlana to talk to her sister.

New York - Moscow - New York

Alliluyeva managed to amass a decent capital from her memoirs, and in 1970 she married an American architect William Peters. She took the name Lana Peters, gave birth to a daughter, who was named Olga, and the birth of Stalin’s granddaughter in the USA became a new sensation for the American press.

But gradually interest in her in the United States began to fade. The expected hunt for the fugitive by the KGB did not follow - the new head of the Committee Yuri Andropov decided that Alliluyeva was of no interest.

Lana's new marriage lasted only a couple of years, as the architect Peters began to complain that "Lana had awakened dictatorial character traits, the same as her father."

After living for a decade with her daughter in the USA, in 1982 Svetlana moved to the UK, and in November 1984 she appeared... in the Soviet Union.

This was not a special services operation—Stalin’s daughter was homesick. At the press conference, she scolded the West and accused the American intelligence services: “All these years I have been a real toy in the hands of the CIA!”

They settled her in Tbilisi, created all the conditions for her, but two years later, already under Mikhail Gorbachev, she again asked for permission to travel to the United States. She received it quickly enough - everyone was already tired of Svetlana Iosifovna’s “turns”. The children she abandoned in the USSR were never able to forgive her.

Olga Peters changed her name to Chris Evans, and now lives in Portland. Whether she, unlike her brother and sister, was close to her mother is known only to herself. For the last two decades of her life, Svetlana Alliluyeva lived almost as a recluse, either in the USA or in the UK, rarely giving interviews. She died in November 2011 in a nursing home in the American city of Richland, Wisconsin.

She did not follow in her father’s footsteps, preferring “life behind the scenes,” and wrote memoirs in which she exposed the party leadership and showed Stalin from an unexpected side.

Father's death

Svetlana developed a very contradictory relationship with her father, whose shadow haunted her throughout her life. But even despite their numerous conflicts, his death became a real blow for Alliluyeva, a turning point in her life: “It was then scary days. The feeling that something familiar, stable and strong has shifted, shaken...”

Probably nowhere today you will find so many warm words about Joseph Stalin as in the memoirs of Alliluyeva, who herself later admitted that in last days She loved him more than anything in his life. Joseph Vissarionovich died long and painfully, the blow did not give him an easy death. The leader’s last moment was completely terrifying: “At the last minute, he suddenly opened his eyes and looked around at everyone who was standing around. It was a terrible look, either mad or angry and full of horror before death and before the unfamiliar faces of the doctors bending over him. This glance went around everyone in a fraction of a minute. And then, it was incomprehensible and scary, he suddenly raised up left hand and either pointed it somewhere upward, or threatened us all. The next moment, the soul, making a final effort, escaped from the body.”
And then began the power of Lavrentiy Beria, so hated by Alliluyeva, whom she more than once in her “letters” called “a scoundrel, a creeping reptile and the murderer of her family,” the only person who, according to him, rejoiced at the death of the leader: “Only one person behaved almost indecent - Beria. He was excited to the extreme, his face, already disgusting, was constantly distorted by the passions bursting through him. But his passions were - ambition, cruelty, cunning, power, power... He tried so hard, at this crucial moment, not to outwit, not to underwit! When it was all over, he was the first to jump out into the corridor and in the silence of the hall, where everyone stood silently around the bed, his loud voice could be heard, not hiding his triumph: “Khrustalev! A car!

"Orders"

All children have their own games, and Svetlana Alliluyeva also had hers. Since childhood, the leader’s daughter played “orders”; the tradition was invented by the father himself, and it became an obligatory component of the life of his children. The point was that the daughter should not have asked for anything, only ordered: “Well, what are you asking for!” - he said, “just order, and we will immediately carry out everything.” Hence touching letters: “To Setanka the hostess. You probably forgot the folder. That's why you don't write to him. How is your health? Aren't you sick? How do you spend your time? Are the dolls alive? I thought that you would send an order soon, but there was no order, no matter how. Not good. You're insulting the folder. Well, I kiss you. Waiting for your letter". Stalin always signed the order: “daddy” or “secretary”.

Mother

Svetlana cherished the image of her mother, Nadezhda Alliluyeva, all her life, despite the fact that she spent very little time with her; she was only six when Stalin’s second wife died. And during her lifetime, Nadezhda spent little time with her daughter; it was not in the custom of emancipated women to babysit children.
However, it is life with her mother at the dacha in Zubatovo that Sveta associates with her best memories. She managed the household on her own and found the best teachers for the children. After her death, Alliluyeva recalls, the entire house was transferred to state control, and from somewhere a crowd of servants appeared who looked at us as if we were “an empty place.”
Stalin's second wife shot herself in her room on the night of November 8-9, 1932, the reason was another quarrel with her husband, whom she, according to her memoirs, loved dearly all her life. Naturally, the children were not told about this; Sveta learned the terrible secret about suicide many years later: “They told me later, when I was already an adult, that my father was shocked by what happened. He was shocked because he did not understand: for what? Why was he stabbed so horribly in the back? He said that he himself did not want to live anymore. At times he was overcome with some kind of anger and rage.” Stalin perceived her death as a betrayal; moreover, Nadezhda left her husband as an inheritance a long incriminating letter, which subsequently freed his hands. Repression began in the country.

Lucy Kapler

But it wasn’t my mother’s death that played a role decisive role in aggravating the conflict between “fathers and sons”.
Stalin's daughter had many novels, and each of them was remarkable in some way. Alexey Kapler, nicknamed “Lucy,” became the first love of the “general’s daughter,” whom she very quickly had to part with—her dad didn’t approve.
This story took place during the difficult years of the Great Patriotic War. Lyusya conceived a new film about pilots and came to Zubatovo to consult with Sveta’s brother, Vasily. Well, then, long walks, trips to the cinema: “Lucy was for me then the smartest, kindest and most wonderful person. He revealed to me the world of art – unfamiliar, unexplored.” Nothing foreshadowed trouble until Pravda published a careless article by an ardent lover from Stalingrad, where Kapler went on the eve of the battle. A “letter” from a certain lieutenant to his beloved completely betrayed the author; last words: “It’s probably snowing in Moscow now. From your window you can see the battlements of the Kremlin.”
Clouds began to gather over the couple. It became obvious to the lovers that they had to separate, and besides, Lucy was planning a business trip to Tashkent. The last meeting was reminiscent of “Shakespearean passions”: “We could not talk anymore. We kissed silently, standing next to each other. It was bitter and sweet for us. We were silent, looked into each other's eyes, and kissed. Then I went to my home, tired, broken, anticipating trouble.”
But trouble really happened, the next morning Lucy Kapela was “asked” to go to the Lubyanka, from where he went not on a business trip, but to prison on charges of having connections with foreigners. A day later, an angry dad burst into Svetlana’s room: “No way.
I could find myself a Russian!” - Kapler’s Jewish roots irritated Stalin most of all.

Exotic romance

Fate did not favor Svetlana with happy novels. Another personal tragedy and at the same time great happiness was her relationship with Brajesha Singh, the heir of a rich and noble Indian family. When they met in 1963 in a Kremlin hospital, Brajeshey was already terminally ill - he had advanced pulmonary ephymesis. However, as your heart dictates, the lovers moved to Sochi, where the Indian soon proposed to Svetlana. But the marriage was refused, saying that in this case Brajeshey would take her abroad legally. Svetlana claimed that she did not intend to live in India, but would like to go there as a tourist. Kosygin refused this too. Meanwhile, in Moscow he was getting worse. Alliluyeva was sure that he was “specially treated this way.” She begged Kosygin to let her and her husband (as she called Brajeshey) go to India, but she was again refused. She was able to see the homeland of her lover only accompanied by his ashes; Brajesh died in her arms on October 31, 1966.

Foreign epic

With the death of Brajesh, Svetlana's life abroad began. After her trip to India, she became a “defector”; her citizenship was reset in the USSR. “I didn’t think on December 19, 1966 that it would be my last day in Moscow and in Russia,” Alliluyeva later recalled in her book “Only One Year.” But the big name did not leave her abroad either; Svetlana was supported by CIA officers - for America during the Cold War it was useful to have the daughter of a great dictator who had escaped from her own country. Another USSR diplomat, Mikhail Trepykhalin, argued that Alliluyeva’s presence on US territory could “undermine” relations between Washington and Moscow. Now it is difficult to judge exactly what kind of connections Alliluyeva had with the US intelligence services; her dossier, published after her death, has undergone serious editing. On the one hand, she thanked America for the miraculous rescue: “Thanks to the CIA - they took me out, didn’t abandon me and published my “Twenty Letters to a Friend.” On the other hand, she is credited with the following words: “for forty years of living here, America has given me nothing.”

Goodbye Russia

Svetlana spent most of her life abroad. In her memoirs, she described her longing for her homeland, the joy of returning at the end of 1984: “As I understand everyone who returned to Russia after emigrating from France, where life was not so unsettled... I also understand those who did not leave for relatives abroad, returning from camps and prisons - no, they don’t want to leave Russia after all! No matter how cruel our country is, no matter how difficult our land<…>none of us, with our hearts attached to Russia, will ever betray her, abandon her, or run away from her in search of Comfort.” The return was not easy for her; Gorbachev personally received permission for her entry. But her father’s shadow, which inexorably pursued her all her life, never allowed her to get along peacefully in her homeland. In 1987, she left the USSR forever, which, however, also did not have long to live. Svetlana Alliluyeva, the Kremlin princess, ended her days in 2011 in a nursing home in Richland, USA.

While the multi-part biographical drama “Svetlana” about the daughter of Joseph Stalin is being broadcast on Channel One, critics are pondering how the narration in the film corresponds to reality. After all, there were legends about the biography of Svetlana Stalina and her personal life - by the way, very stormy.

Career

In 1949, Svetlana Stalina graduated from the history department of Moscow State University and graduate school. Defended my Ph.D. She knew English perfectly. She managed to fulfill her dream of engaging in literary activities. So, Svetlana worked at the Institute of World Literature and was translating English-language books. At one time she was also a literary editor and worked in the sector for the study of Soviet literature.

Her books were published at intervals of several years:

• "Twenty Letters to a Friend"
• "Only One Year"
• “Book for granddaughters: Journey to the Motherland”

They contain the biography of Svetlana Iosifovna Stalina, her thoughts and memories. Royalties from books allowed her for a long time lead a comfortable life.

Personal life

A difficult relationship with her father forced Svetlana to spend her entire life sorting out gentlemen and looking for “the one.” She was officially married 4 times and, in addition, she was credited with having affairs with different men. When the seventeen-year-old “daughter of the leader” was evacuated to Kuibyshev during the war, she met director Alexei Kapler.

The man became her first love, albeit platonic. The age difference between them was 20 years. The couple visited museums, theaters and cinema.

Svetlana and Alexey Kapler

When Alexey went to the front, he never saw Sveta again. The Kremlin decided to send him into exile as an English spy, away from Sveta. Stalin’s daughter did not want to be bored alone for a long time, and soon after breaking up with Kapler she got married.

Svetlana Stalina's first husband was Grigory Morozov. She didn’t love him, she just dreamed of getting out of her father’s care as quickly as possible. Stalin did not approve of the marriage, according to Svetlana, largely because Morozov was a Jew. But surprisingly, he developed feelings for his grandson Joseph, Svetlana’s first-born.

Stalin with his first husband

Her marriage to Morozov ended quickly. The husband insisted on big family, and Svetlana, without a twinge of conscience, had one abortion after another and wanted to study.

The father selected the daughter's second husband. He introduced her to Yuri Zhdanov, the son of a Politburo member. The daughter fulfilled her father’s will and married Zhdanov, but after the wedding she began to protest: she often drank and walked away from her husband. The birth of her second daughter, Katerina, was difficult. The woman almost died and firmly decided to leave Yuri.

Svetlana Stalina and Yuri Zhdanov

Svetlana Stalina’s third husband, Jonrid Svanidze, himself filed for divorce after 3 years of marriage, tired of his wife’s love affairs.

Stalin's daughter managed to find personal happiness on the fourth attempt. Her common-law husband, Indira Gandhi's ally, Brajesh Singh, was from India. They met during treatment in the hospital and did not part for the next 5 years. However, the terminally ill Brajesh died, and Svetlana went to India to fulfill his last wish.

Svetlana Stalina with her fourth husband

Here she had to scatter the ashes of her lover over sacred river Ganges. Svetlana lived in Singha village for several months, after which she decided to ask America for political asylum. Stalin, who by that time had long been bearing the surname “Alliluyeva,” did not want to return to the USSR. A political scandal broke out.

Svetlana was not allowed into America; accompanied by the consul, she was sent to Switzerland, where she spent several years. At home, she was actively discussed and condemned: Stalin left her children at home, and she herself went abroad.

But Svetlana claimed that at that time her children were absolutely independent. The son got married, the daughter was a student. And Stalin decided that she could afford to arrange her personal life.

American family

The end of the 60s of the last century became a turning point in the biography of Svetlana Stalina and her personal life. She still managed to emigrate to the USA and then get married there. Her fifth husband was the American architect William Peters. The marriage produced their common daughter, Olga, who later took the name Chris Evans. Svetlana also wanted to feel as little involved in Russia as possible, and became Lana Peters.

Did Svetlana do the right thing by emigrating to America?