Svetlana! Svetlana!
In 1967, Joseph Stalin’s daughter braved her way over the Iron Curtain, secret memoir in tow, and landed in America as the Cold War’s most famous defector. At 40 years old, Svetlana had left everything behind for a new life in the West and the chance to finally share her story. What she found instead — a controversial commune in the Arizona desert built by Frank Lloyd Wright, a whirlwind marriage dictated by destiny, and a Montenegrin matriarch with dreams of immortality — was far more complicated. In Svetlana! Svetlana! neurotic playwright Dan Kitrosser unravels the weird and wild life of his greatest muse.
Episodes
In the midst of the Cold War, Joseph Stalin's only daughter, Svetlana Alliluyeva, decides to flee Mother Russia to start a new life in America. But with the KGB on her tail, how on earth is she going to get out? Playwright Dan Kitrosser unravels her story.
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After her dramatic defection, Svetlana settles into her new life in America. She’s an overnight millionaire, trading communism for capitalism — a bestselling author with the attention of the world. But everyone from her translator to the KBG to a new lover is driving her nuts!
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A strange and mystical invitation lures Svetlana to Frank Lloyd Wright’s architecture commune in the Arizona desert. And so, Svetlana embarks on a new journey that will alter the course of her life forever. Dan goes there too and gets in the wrong Honda.
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It’s been only three weeks since Svetlana first set foot at Taliesin West, and she’s about to marry Frank Lloyd Wright’s protégé: William Wesley Peters. Could this be happily ever after?
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Who is Olga Ivanovna Lazović Hinzenberg Lloyd Wright? And why is her name so short? In this episode, we learn about a woman who survived revolutions and revelations, all in the pursuit of art and immortality.
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The honeymoon phase ends quickly for newlywed Svetlana as she chafes against communal life at Taliesin — and its overbearing leader.
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Just a few months into her whirlwind marriage, Svetlana finds herself unexpectedly pregnant at 44 — much to the displeasure of Olgivanna.
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Svetlana reaches a breaking point at Taliesin. But as she tries to move forward into the next chapter of her life, her past continues to haunt her.
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Svetlana keeps searching for a place that feels like home. Could it be America? Could it be England? Could it be… Russia and the children that she left behind 18 years ago?
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After pinballing around the world for two decades, the only thing Svetlana has left is her story. But what will it take for the world to hear it?
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