Inspirational Quotes by Svetlana Alliluyeva (Russian Defector, Memoirist)

Svetlana Alliluyeva (1926–2011,) originally Svetlana Josifovna Stalina, later known as Lana Peters, was the Russian-born daughter and youngest child of Soviet ruler Joseph Stalin. She defected to the United States during the cold war, denounced communism, and caused an international furor.

Born in Moscow as Svetlana Stalina, she adopted her mother’s last name, Alliluyeva, after her father’s death in 1953. She graduated from Moscow University in 1949 and taught Soviet literature and English language 1953–65 before joining the Progres publishing house as an English-translator of Russian literature 1965–66.

Following the death of her third husband in 1966, Alliluyeva visited his native India. In New Delhi, she circumvented the Soviet Embassy and, with the CIA’s help, defected to the United States in 1967. Her decision to leave the USSR was considered a massive public relations boost for the United States and a huge embarrassment to the Soviets.

Alliluyeva described her father as “a moral and spiritual monster,” burned her Soviet passport, became an American citizen, signed a lucrative publishing contract, and began translating her memoirs. The resulting bestseller, Twenty Letters to a Friend (1967,) recalled her life as Stalin’s youngest child. Her follow-up book, Only One Year (1969,) described the events surrounding her defection.

Alliluyeva moved countries frequently, sampling religions from Hinduism to Christian Science. She lived in Britain 1892–84 and returned to the Soviet Union in 1984 to be reunited with the two children she had left behind. She returned to America in 1985 and spent the remainder of her life there.

More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Svetlana Alliluyeva