Svetlana Alliluyeva

Svetlana Alliluyeva
Svetlana with father Joseph Stalin in 1935
Born	Svetlana Iosifovna Stalina (1926-02-28)28 February 1926 Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Died	22 November 2011(2011-11-22) (aged 85) Richland Center, Wisconsin, U.S.
Nationality	Soviet (1926–1967, 1984–1986) American (naturalised 1967–1984) British (1992–2011)
Other names	Lana Peters
Occupation	writer and lecturer
Spouse(s)	Grigory Morozov (1944–1947) Yuri Zhdanov (1949–1952) Ivan Svanidze (1962-1963) William Wesley Peters (1970–1973)
Children	Iosif (1945–2008) Yekaterina/Katya (1950– ) Olga/Chrese Evans (1971– )
Parent(s)	Joseph Stalin Nadezhda Alliluyeva

Svetlana Iosifovna Alliluyeva (Russian: Светла́на Ио́сифовна Аллилу́ева, Georgian: სვეტლანა იოსებინა ალილუევა; 28 February 1926 – 22 November 2011) (born Svetlana Iosifovna Stalina, Russian: Светла́на Ио́сифовна Сталина, Georgian: სვეტლანა იოსებინა სტალინა), later known as Lana Peters, was the youngest child and only daughter of Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin and Nadezhda Alliluyeva, Stalin's second wife. In 1967, she caused an international furor when she defected and became a naturalized citizen of the United States until 1984 when she returned to the Soviet Union and had her Soviet citizenship returned. She later went back to the United States and also spent time in the United Kingdom and France. She was the last surviving child of Stalin.

Svetlana was born on 28 February 1926. Like most children of high-ranking Soviet officials, Svetlana was raised by a nanny and only occasionally saw her parents. Her mother, Nadezhda Alliluyeva, died on 9 November 1932. The death was officially ruled as peritonitis resulting from a burst appendix. However, there were various other theories as to the cause of her death: murder on the orders of Stalin; that she was killed by Stalin himself; or that Nadezhda committed suicide.

On 15 August 1942 Winston Churchill saw her in Stalin's private apartments in the Kremlin, describing her as "a handsome red-haired girl, who kissed her father dutifully." Churchill says Stalin "looked at me with a twinkle in his eye as if, so I thought, to convey 'You see, even we Bolsheviks have a family life.'"

At 16, Svetlana fell in love with Aleksei Kapler, a Jewish Soviet filmmaker who was 40 years old. Her father vehemently disapproved of the romance. Later, Kapler was sentenced to ten years in exile in the industrial city of Vorkuta, near the Arctic Circle.