Alliluyeva, Svetlana (1926–)
Alliluyeva, Svetlana (1926–)
Soviet writer. Name variations: Svetlana Stalin, but for most of her life used mother's maiden name Alliluyeva (also spelled Allilluyeva). Born Svetlana Iosifovna Stalina, Feb 28, 1926, in Moscow, USSR; youngest child and only dau. of Joseph Stalin and Nadezhda Alliluyeva-Stalin; graduated Moscow University, 1949; graduate study, Academy of Social Sciences, Moscow; m. Grigory Morozov, 1943 (div. 1947); m. Yury Zhdanov, 1949 (div.); reportedly m. Mikhail L. Kaganovich, 1951; married, in common law, Brijesh Singh, c. 1963 (died 1966); m. James Wesley Peters, 1970 (sep. 1971); children: (1st m.) Joseph Alliluyev (b. 1945); (2nd m.) Ekaterina (Katya, b. 1950); (4th m.) Olga Peters.
Mother shot herself (1932); remained close to father until he learned of her affair with Jewish filmmaker Alexei Kapler and banished him to Lubianka Prison in Siberia for 10 years; father died (1953); defected to US (1967); wrote Twenty Letters to a Friend, the story of her mother's family; returned to Russia (1984), in a well-publicized visit with her 14-year-old daughter, Olga.
See also Women in World History.