Twenty Letters To A Friend

Svetlana Iosifovna Alliluyeva (1926-2011), later known as Lana Peters, was the youngest child and only daughter of Joseph Stalin and Nadezhda Alliluyeva, Stalin's second wife. In 1967, she defected and became a naturalized citizen of the United States until 1984 when she returned to the Soviet Union. Her first book, Twenty Letters to a Friend, caused a sensation. In it, she remembers her father and describes growing up amongst the highest ranks of the Communist Party.