Svetlana Alliluyeva – Daughter Of Joseph Stalin

Svetlana Alliluyeva was probably the only person who managed to melt the heart of the fearsome Joseph Stalin. This happened when she was a little girl. At that time, of course, she was unable to establish a link between a loving man who was playing with her and the Russian leader who had sown terror in his own territory.

This woman surprised the world in the 60s when she left the Soviet Union and applied for asylum in the United States. Keep in mind that this country was one of her father’s biggest opponents. From that moment on, she was used as a propaganda prize as far as the famous Cold War was concerned. They used her to discredit the regime her father was leading.

The pain and contradictions that Svetlana experienced explains why she changed her name several times. She was born Svetlana Iosifovna Stalin, but later changed her father’s surname to Svetlana Alliluyeva. Eventually, she also stopped using this name and became Lana Peters instead.

Svetlana Alliluyeva: A paradoxical childhood

Svetlana was Joseph Stalin’s only daughter. He already had two sons from his first marriage and another from his second marriage, which was with Svetlana’s mother, Nadezhda Alliluyeva. Those who have studied Stalin’s life have pointed out that only three people softened the heart of this leader. One of them was his mother, Yekaterina Gueladze.

Another person who melted his heart was his first wife, Ekaterina Svanidze. He was really in love with her, but she died of tuberculosis at an early age. Some say Stalin never became himself again after losing Ekaterina.

There was also a third that this leader really loved, and that was his daughter, Svetlana. She had no idea that the man who pampered her every day was one of the most disgusting men in the history of Russia. 

Svetlana Alliluyeva took her education within the walls of the Kremlin, as if the rest of the world did not exist. She lived in a kind of ivory tower and completely ignored what was going on in the world outside. She had a babysitter who took care of her every day.

Her father did not spend much time with her, but he always managed to let her know how much he loved her. In fact, it was Svetlana’s mother who seemed most absent.

An absent mother

When Svetlana Alliluyeva was six years old, her mother died suddenly. Official sources said she suffered from a fatal appendicitis.

Although this has always been a mystery, there is enough evidence to suggest that Svetlana’s mother’s death was not natural. One thing was certain, though: She was in love with Stalin. But when she traveled away to go to university, she was disappointed to see what he was doing at Russia.

Nadia was one of the few people who shouted ” executioner ” in Stalin’s face. The day before her death, she had a public discussion with the leader. There are testimonies claiming that he was physically aggressive towards her in public.

The next day, she was found in her bed with a bullet in her heart. Most believed she had committed suicide, while others believed her husband had killed her. Svetlana Alliluyeva was forced to believe in the official version.

The sad awakening

As Svetlana Alliluyeva grew up, she began to understand that things in her country were not as she had thought. She maintained a close and loving bond with her father until she turned 16. By that age, Svetlana had now learned English. One day she accessed an article in English indicating that her mother had committed suicide.

This news triggered a major disagreement with him who had once been a loving father to her. Later, she fell in love with a film director who was much older than her. Stalin was not happy about this relationship. To get it over with, he got some of his people to arrest the film director and send him to Siberia.

Svetlana Alliluyeva: The adult life

When Svetlana was just 19 years old, she got married and had a child. Maybe she only did this to rebel against her father. This was the first of four short marriages that left her with two more children.

When her father died, she was not allowed to talk about the leader’s privacy. Her feelings towards her father had always been ambivalent; she loved and hated him at the same time. About 14 years later, she traveled to India all alone.

She left behind her children of 19 and 16 years. She arrived in the United States in April 1967, where she began working as a writer. They paid her twenty million kroner for her autobiography.

She remarried and had a daughter named Olga. After her last divorce and various problems, all caused by the political shadow that followed her, Svetlana tried to commit suicide in 1991, but she did not succeed.

She died of cancer in 2011 and had informed everyone that they were not allowed to transport her body back to Russia after her death.