Stalin's daughter Lana Peters dies in US of cancer
Svetlana Alliluyeva, also known as Lana Peters, passed away in the state of Wisconsin on 22 November, US officials have confirmed to BBC Russian.
Her defection from the Soviet Union in 1967 was a propaganda coup for the US. She wrote four books, including two best-selling memoirs.
But she said she could not escape the shadow of her father.
'Little sparrow'
When Peters arrived in the US, she said she had come for the "self-expression that has been denied me for so long in Russia".
Her defection was partly motivated by the Soviet authorities' poor treatment of her late husband, Brijesh Singh, she said.
Peters went to India in 1966 to spread Singh's ashes, but instead of returning to the Soviet Union she walked into a US embassy to seek political asylum.
She burned her passport, denouncing communism and her father, whom she called "a moral and spiritual monster".
She graduated from Moscow University in 1949, initially working as a teacher and translator.
Peters was married four times - three of them in Russia - and left two children behind in her homeland.
Her first memoir, Twenty Letters to a Friend, was published in 1967 and made more than $2.5m.
She took the name Lana Peters upon marrying architect William Wesley Peters in the US.
The couple settled in central Wisconsin and had a daughter, Olga, before divorcing in 1973.
She returned to the Soviet Union briefly in the 1980s, renouncing the US, but left again after feuding with relatives; Kazinform cites BBC.
To learn more go to www.bbc.co.uk
