FBI releases its files on Stalin's daughter

An undated picture of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin holding in his arms his daughter, Svetlana. / AFP/Getty Images

Last Updated 2:41 p.m. ET

MADISON, Wis. Newly-declassified documents show the FBI kept close tabs on Soviet dictator Josef Stalin's only daughter after her high-profile defection to the United States in 1967, gathering details from informants about how her arrival was affecting international relations.

The documents were released Monday to The Associated Press under the Freedom of Information Act following Lana Peters' death last year at age 85 in a Wisconsin nursing home. Her defection to the West during the Cold War embarrassed the ruling communists and made her a best-selling author. And her move was a public relations coup for the U.S.

One April 28, 1967, memo details a conversation with a confidential source who said the defection would have a "profound effect" for anyone else thinking of trying to leave the Soviet Union. The source claimed to have discussed the defection with a Czechoslovak journalist covering the United Nations and a member of the Czechoslovakia "Mission staff."

"Our source opined that the United States Government exhibited a high degree of maturity, dignity and understanding during this period," according to the memo, prominently marked "SECRET" at the top and bottom. "It cannot help but have a profound effect upon anyone who is considering a similar solution to an unsatisfactory life in a Soviet bloc country."

When she defected, Peters was known as Svetlana Alliluyeva, but she went by Lana Peters following her 1970 marriage to William Wesley Peters, an apprentice of Frank Lloyd Wright. Peters said her defection was partly motivated by the Soviet authorities' poor treatment of her late husband, Brijesh Singh, a prominent figure in the Indian Communist Party.

Another memo dated June 2, 1967, describes a conversation an unnamed FBI source had with Mikhail Trepykhalin, identified as the second secretary at the Soviet Embassy in Washington, D.C.

The source said Trepykhalin told him the Soviets were "very unhappy over her defection" and asked whether the U.S. would use it "for propaganda purposes." Trepykhalin "was afraid forces in the U.S. would use her to destroy relationships between the USSR and this country," the source told the FBI.

An unnamed informant in another secret memo from that month said Soviet authorities were not disturbed by the defection because it would "further discredit Stalin's name and family."

Stalin, a dictator held responsible for sending millions of his countrymen to their deaths in labor camps, led the Soviet Union from 1941 until his death in 1953. Stalin's successor, Nikita Khrushchev, denounced him three years later as a brutal despot.

And even though Peters denounced communism and her father's policies, Stalin's legacy haunted her in the United States.

"People say, 'Stalin's daughter, Stalin's daughter,' meaning I'm supposed to walk around with a rifle and shoot the Americans," she said in a 2007 interview for a documentary about her life. "Or they say, 'No, she came here. She is an American citizen.' That means I'm with a bomb against the others. No, I'm neither one. I'm somewhere in between."

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[mjlewis6]

Marxist-Leninism is a far cry from true communism or even socialism.

Most uneducated people just take labels for granted, using the current political party fad of the day to mud-sling any opposition or legislation which they believe smacks of the taint of socialism.

And any socialism or communism that seems anti-Christian to them, likewise is suddenly atheistic. Best read the Bible about community and holding property in common or taking care of your neighbor. That is where this socialism Christians know about comes from, not Karl Marx or Il Duce. Please get your labels straight and learn about that community responsibility is more than being a veteran...it is being a good neighbor and caring about your community elders, education, and a safe environment along with proper treatment of your community's natural resources.

So, give me a break about political labels on communism, socialism and what is wrong with our government. The ONLY way an individual can take government into his own hands....is to go live by himself in the middle of the boondocks and manage his own life. If he needs commerce or social intercourse, he can dig for his own gold and barter for what he needs when he has to come into contact with the rest of us 'lost souls.'

Go to church and learn about community and taking care of your neighbors...and then find out about socialism, communism and the role of being a good Christian in your own community. BIG difference from Marxist Leninism and Mao's Democratic Centralism (rural born communism). Those two are atheistic in the extreme.

[PourpaixPourpaix]

Fascinating release of information. The article is wrong, however, as Stalin was firmly in charge of the Soviet Union from sometime before Lenin's death in 1924, even though technically, Lenin's position in government was succeeded by Alexey Rykov. It took a few years after Lenin's death before Stalin usurped enough power to be unchallenged, but it was long before Stalin was made Chairman of the Council of Ministers in 1941.

Svetlana's mother was Nadezdah, Stalin's second wife, who most likely died because of public comments she made against Stalin's government. I've always wondered why Svetlana stayed so long. One of Stalin's sons shot himself after years of being abused. He survived, and Stalin just commented about how his son couldn't even shoot straight. The world's a far better place without that pig.

[americalove1]

What our family learned about the Stalin era, in the soviet Union, we learned from our step-father and his family, about their escape from the Ukraine, in the '30's, when he was only two.

His mother wasn't with them at the time, when his grandfather, aunt, uncle, and many others all suddenly escaped. His grandfather was raising our step father, in a farm village, far from his mother, because his own birth had been the result of his mother's rape by a local govt official in her own town.

Our step father didn't see his mother again until the late 70's, when she was finally allowed to come here, although they were able to exchange letters decades later. We learned a great deal about their life there from her.

When she was finally able to visit here decades later, she told us even more about life there.

Too bad that the people pushing Socialism in this country couldn't have heard her. I've never forgotten what she told us.

She told us how they had shut all their churches and no one was allowed to go to church or even mention religion. It was a totally atheistic society.

The Govt was everything. Everyone worked at what they were told to do. There was no choice. Everyone was afraid of the govt. It was how they were able to eat and have a place to live. And everyone spied on everyone else. No one trusted anyone else.

The first thing she did, when she arrived here, was to visit the Ukranian church in NJ. She was thrilled to finally, after 40+ years, be allowed to pray in a church.

That''s why I'll never agree with all these self entitlements and the hatred towards Christianity this country has now. We're heading in the exact same direction.

Kruschev himself pretty much stated the same thing when he stated, if I remember right, that they would topple the US from within. Darned if they didn't!

People think it makes us more free? Entitlements are not free. You sell your soul to the Govt. The Govt then owns you lock, stock, and barrel.

Just look at what just happened in CA over a simple Nativity display that most people enjoyed. What harm did it cause?

Get used to our own "Soviet Union", people!