Stalin's daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva was the favorite of her formidable father. It would seem that a girl who was born in the family of a man who headed a huge country is destined for a brilliant fate. But in fact, everything turned out differently. The life of Stalin's daughter turned out to be like a continuous adventure that had nothing to do with the fate of the offspring of high-ranking political figures of the Soviet Union.
Birth
Svetlana was born in Leningrad on the last day of the winter of 1926. She was the second child in the marriage of Joseph Stalin with Nadezhda Alliluyeva. In addition to her, the “leader of all times and peoples” and his wife had a son, Vasily. The girl also had a brother Yakov, whom his first wife Ekaterina Svanidze gave birth to his 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 years was overshadowed by the early death of her mother, who committed suicide when the girl was 6 years old. They hid from Svetlana the true cause of her mother's death, telling her that she had died onoperating 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 actually remained orphans, because Iosif Vissarionovich was too busy with state affairs and he did not have enough time to raise offspring.
Sveta grew up surrounded by numerous nannies and governesses. She was taken to class by a personal driver. She studied well at school, knew English. After the outbreak of the war, she and her brother Vasily were evacuated to Kuibyshev. The girl's life was boring. She was forbidden to walk, be friends with neighbor children, 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. The father was rarely at home, and the young man, taking advantage of his absence, often held noisy parties. Among the acquaintances of the brother, one could meet famous artists, singers and athletes of 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 full of novels, but she will never forget her first adult love. A solid age difference did not bother either the girl or her chosen one. Alexei was incredibly handsome and was a success with women. By the time he met Svetlana, he managed toget a divorce. His ex-wives were famous Soviet actresses.
Young Sveta impressed Kapler with her erudition and adult reasoning about life. He was a mature man and understood that an affair with the daughter of the “leader of the peoples” could end badly for him, but he could not do anything with his feelings. Although Sveta was always followed by a personal bodyguard, she managed to escape from his pursuit and wander with her lover through quiet streets, visit the Tretyakov Gallery, theater performances, and closed screenings of films at the Cinematography Committee with him. In her memoirs, Svetlana Iosifovna wrote that there was no close relationship between them, because in the Soviet Union sex before marriage was considered a shame.
About the first adult feeling of his daughter, Stalin became aware very soon. The General Secretary of the USSR immediately disliked Kapler, and trouble began in the life of the actor. He was repeatedly summoned to the Lubyanka and subjected to many hours of interrogation. Since it was impossible to judge Kapler for having an affair with Svetlana, he was accused of spying for Great Britain and sent to the Vorkuta labor colony for 10 years. For the girl herself, this affair ended with several heavy slaps in the face from a strict father.
First marriage
The further biography of Stalin's daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva is connected with her studies at Moscow State University. After leaving school, she entered the Faculty of Philology, but, after graduating from the first year, under pressure from her father, she transferred to the Faculty of History. The girl hated history, howeverwas forced to submit to the will of the pope, who did not consider literature and writing worthy occupations.
In her student years, Svetlana married Grigory Morozov, a school friend of her brother. The girl was then 18 years old. Stalin was against this marriage and categorically refused to see his son-in-law. In 1945, a 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 for him. Svetlana was not going to become a mother-heroine. Instead, she planned to graduate. During the years of marriage with Morozov, a young woman had 4 abortions, after which she fell ill and filed for divorce.
Marriage at the insistence of the father
In 1949, Joseph Stalin's daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva got married again. This time her husband was chosen by her father. They became the son of the secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party Andrei Zhdanov, Yuri. Before the wedding, 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, daughter Ekaterina, and then filed for divorce. Iosif Vissarionovich was dissatisfied with this trick of Svetlana, 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 put up with her rebellious character.
Life after paternal death
In March 1953, the “leader of all peoples” died. After the death of her father, Svetlana was given his savings book, which accounted for only 900 rubles. All personal belongings and documents of Stalin were taken from her. But the woman could not complain about the lack of attention to herself from the government. She developed a good relationship with Nikita Khrushchev, with whom she studied at the university together. Since 1956, Svetlana's place of work has been the Institute of World Literature, where she studied the books of Soviet writers.
Well, what did Stalin's daughter Svetlana do next? Her personal life in the 50s was replenished with another marriage. This time, Alliluyeva's chosen one was the Soviet Africanist Ivan Svanidze. Life together lasted from 1957 to 1959 and ended, as in previous cases, in divorce. The spouses did not have common children. To brighten up her loneliness, Svetlana started short-term novels. At this time, the list of her lovers was replenished 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 in Moscow an Indian citizen Brajesh Singh 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 the ashes of her husband to her homeland. Having received permission from the member of the Politburo of the Central Party of the CPSU A. Kosygin, she went toIndia.
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 located in Delhi and asked the United States for political asylum. Such an unexpected trick of Alliluyeva caused a scandal in the USSR. The Soviet government automatically enrolled her in the list of traitors. The situation was aggravated by the fact that Svetlana had a son and a daughter at home. But the woman did not believe that she had abandoned them, because, in her opinion, the children were already old enough and could well live on their own. By that time, Joseph had already managed to get his own family, and Ekaterina was in her first year at the university.
Transforming into Lana Peters
Alliluyeva failed to leave India straight for the States. In order not to spoil the already strained relations with the Soviet Union, American diplomats sent a woman to Switzerland. For some time Svetlana lived in Europe, 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 spoke about her father and her own life before leaving Moscow. Svetlana Iosifovna started writing it back in the USSR. This book became a worldwide sensation and brought the author about $2.5 million in revenue.
Living in distant America, Svetlana tried to arrange a personal life with the architect William Peters. After her marriage, which took place in 1970, she took her husband's surname and shortened her name, becoming simply Lana. Soon the newly mintedMrs. 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 broke up. Later, Alliluyeva realized that Peters was advised to marry her by his sister, who was sure that the “Soviet princess” should have many millions from her father. Realizing that she had miscalculated, she did everything to get her brother divorced. After the dissolution of the marriage 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 are writing and donations from charitable organizations.
Return of Alliluyeva to the Union
In 1982 Svetlana moved to London. There she left Olga at a Quaker boarding school and traveled the world. Unexpectedly for everyone, a woman returns 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 she moved to her father's homeland in Georgia. Here Alliluyeva was provided with royal living conditions. Olga began to attend school, take lessons in Russian and Georgian, and go in for equestrian sports. But life in Tbilisi did not bring joy to Svetlana. Restore corruptedShe never had a relationship with her children. Joseph and Catherine were offended by their mother because almost 20 years ago she left them. Stalin's daughter Svetlana could not find understanding among relatives. Her biography contains information that in 1986 she and her youngest daughter will again emigrate to America. This time there were no problems with leaving. Gorbachev personally ordered that the daughter of the “leader of the peoples” be released from the country without hindrance. Returning to the States, Alliluyeva permanently renounced her Soviet citizenship.
Re-emigration and decline of life
How and where did Stalin's daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva live after her second departure from the USSR? Returning to the States, an elderly woman settled in the town of Richland (Wisconsin). She completely stopped communicating with her son Joseph and daughter Catherine. Soon Olga began to live separately from her and earn a living on her own. First, Svetlana Iosifovna rented a separate apartment, then she moved to a nursing home. In the 90s, she lived in an almshouse in London, then again went to the United States. Alliluyeva spent the last years of 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 will be incomplete if you do not mention how the fate of her three children turned out. Alliluyeva's eldest sonJoseph dedicated his life to medicine. He studied cardiology and wrote many scientific papers on heart ailments. Iosif Grigorievich did not like to tell reporters 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. Ekaterina Yuryevna prefers not to answer questions from journalists about her mother, stating that she never knew this woman. In order to hide away from increased attention from the press and special 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 seller. The woman practically does not speak Russian. As an older brother and sister, Olga did not have a relationship with her mother.
Stalin's daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva was able to live a long and bright life. The biography with photos presented in the article allowed readers to learn many interesting facts about her fate. This woman was not afraid of scandals, public opinion and condemnation. The daughter of the “leader of peoples” knew how to love, suffer and start life anew. She failed to be a good mother to her children, but she never suffered from it. Svetlana Iosifovna did not tolerate when she was called the daughter of Stalin,therefore, once in the West, she forever said goodbye to her old name. But, having become Lana Peters, she remained a “Soviet princess” for the whole world.
