Victoria Fyodorova

Victoria Fyodorova (formerly Pouy; January 18, 1946 – September 5, 2012) was a Russian-American actress and author. She was born shortly after World War II to U.S. Admiral Jackson Tate (1898–1978) and Russian actress Zoya Fyodorova (1909–1981); the couple had had a brief affair before Tate was expelled from Moscow by Joseph Stalin. Victoria Fyodorova wrote the 1979 book, The Admiral's Daughter, which was about her experience attempting to reunite with her father.

Fyodorova's mother, Zoya Fyodorova, was a well-known Soviet actress starting in the 1930s. In 1945, she met United States Navy Captain Jackson R. Tate (died 1978), a State Department deputy attaché stationed in Moscow; and they had an affair. Tate was warned to end the relationship by the Soviet Secret Police.

When Stalin learned of the affair, Tate was declared persona non grata and expelled from Russia. Zoya Fyodorova was arrested and sent to Siberia for eight years. Their daughter, Victoria, was named for V-E Day. Victoria lived with her mother's sister in Kazakhstan until she was 8 years old, when her mother was released, after Stalin's death. Victoria was also an actress in Russia, as her mother had been. She appeared in a number of well-received films, including a 1970 adaptation of Crime and Punishment. She was married briefly and divorced.

University of Connecticut professor Irene Kirk learned of Victoria's story in 1959 and spent years trying to find Tate in the United States. Tate was unaware of having a daughter and of his former lover's arrest and imprisonment. When Kirk found Tate in 1973, she carried correspondence back and forth between the two.

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