January 30, 2023 • 38 mins
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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Speaker 1 (00:00):
In two thousand eleven, a woman named stet Lana died
unceremoniously in a nursing home in rural Wisconsin at the
age of her obituary in the New York Times reads
like a novel. When I first read it, I was
struck by the story of a woman who was born
a princess and died a pauper, who grew up godless
(00:22):
and then was subsumed by mysticism, a woman who captured
the attention of the world and then died in obscurity.
It was the most triumphantly tragic obituary I'd ever read.
Oh and her dad was Joseph Stalin, Soviet dictator, murderer
of millions. My obituary will say this homosexual jew dankatrocer
(00:48):
spent the entirety of his twenties performing for children as
a giant frog in Times Square, while performing for adults
as Patti LuPone in drag in back rooms and bars
in the East Village, all the while hoping someone would
take him seriously as a playwright. He died as he lived,
with severe anxiety and mild inflammation. And my dad is
(01:12):
not a mustachio tyrant, but a former attorney and present
day clown. Do you like my red nose? What do
you have there? A tire wow on our surfaces. Sped
Lana and I couldn't be more different. For example, she
is dead, but from the moment I read about her,
(01:33):
I couldn't get her off my mind. I spent the
next few years telling her messy, wild and weird story
obsessively to anyone who would listen. I knew it had
to be my next play, so I wrote it, and
I really thought I nailed it. I can't believe this
is all started and quit the fire. So thank you all.
(01:54):
You're brilliant already, and I can't wait for us to
do the show. But where along the way, my actress,
my spent Lana, told me she didn't understand her character,
and then she dropped out of my production. Truth is
she was right. I was so lost in the plot.
(02:15):
I had lost svent Lana somewhere inside of it. I
needed to be there at the tarmac at JFK Airport when,
at forty years old, spent Lana braved her way over
the Iron Curtain and arrived in America as the Cold
War's most famous defector. I am very hip here. I
(02:38):
needed to know how she got lost in the middle
of the desert, in the middle of Arizona, absorbed into
a free laboring fellowship of Frank Lloyd Right Disciples. If
I do just have like a big question, was the
fellowship occult? Ah, it's pretty complicated. I needed to understand
(03:00):
why the hell she married a man whose dead wife's
name was also sped Lana, as if the name itself
implied some sort of Balkan destiny. Just my wife Ago,
And why, oh why did speed Lana become wrapped up
in the clutches of a Montenegrin mystic who believed the
(03:21):
key to immortality was dance. What began as a pang
of artistic inspiration has ultimately become my never ending obsession.
We're going to follow speed Lana through her many attempts
to start over. But when Joseph Stalin is your dad,
(03:41):
can you ever really break free? My name is Dan Catrocer,
and this is sped Lana's feed Lana. You wake up
in the morning, you live your day, and then you
(04:03):
do it tomorrow, and over and over again and over
again again. Act one, The Princess of the Kremlin Good
(04:44):
On April one, the only daughter of Joseph Stalin, got
off a Swiss airliner at Kennedy Airport, walked up to
the cameras and microphones as if she'd been facing them
all her life, which she had not, and said, Oh, everybody,
I'm very glad to be who be here. Look, all
I want to do is start here on the tarmac
(05:05):
at JFK, because this is a huge moment speed. Lana's
father ran the most antagonistic governing body to the US
of all time, and now his daughter is defecting to
the United States. I'm watching this newsreel from fifty six
years ago, and the thing that strikes me is that
Lana is positively giddy. She bounces down the stairs to
(05:29):
the microphones like a red rubber ball. Behind her is
the Swiss airplane that took her across the Atlantic, and
before her is a crowd, electric with excitement, swarming on
the tarmac, more people than we're here for the Beatles
a few years earlier. If it's a plane and few,
(05:51):
there are sharp shooters on the buildings. There are diplomats
waiting eagerly in the crowd. The whole place is buzzing.
Whole next week, I will be able to meet you
at the press confidence and I will be able to
answer more questions which you will will be interested off.
Thank you very much. The problem with starting the story
(06:17):
here is that set Lana is already forty years old.
We can start the story here, I mean, I guess
I just did, but we still have to learn about
the buyers. She was forged in. So as much as
I want us to hang out with fet Lana at JFK,
and don't worry, we'll get there, for now, we have
to rewind a bit to the very beginnings of the
(06:37):
USSR picture Russia. The stars are out, the Bolsheviks are in,
beloved leader Vladimir Lenin dies from a stroke, and Joseph
Stalin want to be priest. Turned Soviet thug sees his control.
(07:02):
Stalin decrees mass annihilation, deportation to Siberia, a brooting of
whole communities, mass liquidation. Look, Stalin's not the nicest guy
at the bar Mitzvah. He was mean to everyone while
he was trying to consolidate power, including his own family.
But there was one member of his family who Stalin
(07:23):
adored above all others. She was his little sparrow. Sped
Lana Here spent Lana talking about her dad in an
interview from any t Journal shortly after landing in America.
The same person who was in the same time merciless
to his political enemies, he could be at the same
time rather kind and tender. Was his favorite child. Look,
(07:47):
we all think we have complicated relationships with our parents,
but nothing is going to be like growing up as
Joseph Stalin's daughter. I want to imagine it, I really do,
but to a certain degree, it's an imaginable Hello, Hello,
and then hi, Mry, Okay, here we are. Oh my god,
(08:07):
I just have to say. Those ear rings, those ear
rings are everything. Rosemary Sullivan wrote a fabulous biography of
spet Lana called Stalin's Daughter. She's everything. I'm not brilliant,
prolific Canadian. I have a big girl crush on Rosemary.
Is it all right if we dive into the woman
(08:28):
of the hour? Of course, let's dive into her. What
was spet Lana's childhood like the first six years until
she was six and a half? Uh she called it
her you know, her blessed childhood. That it took place
at the dacha in the summers with the extended family,
(08:49):
her grandparents, whom she loved, her aunts and uncle's. Visiting dignitaries.
Winston Churchill met her, he called her cute. Little girls
throughout Russia are named after her. Her picture is in
every paper, like Northwest or Oprah's Dogs. If Oprah has dogs.
She's waited on hand and foot and watches as her
(09:09):
father consolidates power at the dinner table. Meanwhile, left and
right people are starving, or being imprisoned or being murdered.
You see, the Soviets decided that the only way for
communism to work was for one person to lead the charge,
and so it fell to Stalin to bend fifteen different
republics and a hundred and seventy million people to his will.
(09:32):
Everyone had to follow the orders, including his wife. S
fed Lana's mother, Nadia. Bet Lana writes about how much
she loved her mother, about how much she yearned for
her mother, But was she a maternal presence when she
was alive. When seed Lana was asked about her mother,
she said, the only thing I remember is the smell
of her perfume when she said good night to me
(09:54):
one night after sed Lana had gone to bed the
door to her room crept open. It was her mother
sneaking in and spooning her daughter. While the two lay
there in a hush silence, sped Lana remembers her mother
tracing a box around her heart and whispering into her
little girl's ear. This box, spent, Lana, This is where
(10:17):
you keep all your secrets. At a young age, spent
Lana learns that truth is a liability and you must
keep it close to your chest. And then her mother
committed suicide. As the story goes, and it's very cinematic,
Stalin is throwing a huge party in the Kremlin. People
(10:38):
are drinking, music is playing, and even though Nadia is
right there, Stalin is flirting with his hairdresser. I know
what you're thinking, Stalin needed a hairdresser. Well, mustaches don't
just comb themselves. Stalin demands that everyone raised their glasses
to toast the Soviet Union. All the glasses fly up
to the ceiling, all except for Naja's. Hey. He yells
(11:01):
across the room to his wife, raise your glass. She
spits back at him, my name is not hey. Ah.
What a line. Nadia rushes out the door, races to
her bedroom, takes a pistol out of her drawer, aims
at at the box around her heart and fires it speed.
(11:25):
Lana was always told that her mother died of appendicitis,
and she would believe that lie for the next ten years.
Her childhood was marked by secrets and lies and death,
all in the name of Stalin. Here's Grace Kennan Warnick,
who spent a good deal of time with feed Lana
when she first came over to the States. We'll learn
(11:45):
more about her in the next episode. Every member of
her mother's family was shot, I mean every single one
of them. Her uncle's killed in the bridges, her aunt
tried to eat glass to kill herself, her first great
love sent to the blueleg. You know, when I was sixteen,
I was so upset because for my birthday, my parents
gave me the same audio cassette tape of Terry Gross
(12:07):
interviews that they had given me the year before first
met Lana. Sixteen was marked by her father sending her
boyfriend to the Gulag, her oldest brother being captured in
a German concentration camp and rather than trade for his release,
Stalin let him be executed, and then finding out in
a contraband copy of Life magazine that her mother didn't
(12:28):
die appendicitis, but died by suicide. So what I'm saying
is we both suffered. Her father lied to her, Everyone
lied to her. So when she found out that her
mother committed suicion and she blamed her father, then it
must have been a kind of rebellion that lodged in
(12:48):
her pursuit of freedom. But it's a quiet rebellion, it
has to be. She tries standing up to her father
on behalf of friends and family who are imprisoned, but
he belittles her, calls her a fool, and she soon
stops trying to intervene, so instead she throws herself into
the world of books. Reading about other places, other stories,
(13:12):
other lives was the only escape she had. When set
Lana seventeen, she goes to the university to study history
and falls for a Jewish academic, hoping this man will
take her away from Kremlin life. They get married, but
Stalin refuses to meet him on the grounds that he's Jewish,
(13:33):
so after three years of that marriage, she divorces the
jew and marries the son of Stalin's right hand man.
I could spend hours on these two marriages alone, But
the thing that's interesting here is that in the first
marriage is that Lana tries to subvert her father, and
then in the second she gives him to him. By
her own account, she becomes passive and vulnerable, shy and
(13:57):
soft spoken, and her father's dictatorial it grows ever more deadly,
and then it's Stalin has a stroke. You've seen the film,
and the death of Stalin is here. I'm here. When
(14:18):
spent Lana gets word, she storms into her father's bedroom
to discover his maid and polyp Euro standing over him,
debating about what to do. The racist started, all right,
we need to stop waiting together the planet. They're all
either too afraid to call for help or too hopeful
that will finally kick the bucket and they can seize control.
(14:38):
No one does anything, and just like in that group
of friends where everyone's hungry yet no one wants to
decide where to eat, it ends in death stalinstead, no
the Stalin host. Now with her father gone, there's hope
that spent Lana will finally be free to do what
(15:00):
she likes to live inside of literature, hang out with
her academic friends, be out of the public eye, and
be free. And even with the KGB still lurking around
every corner. Stet Lana does, in fact, do three subversive things.
She's baptized as a Christian. She changes her last name
from the paternal Stalina to her mother's last name, and
(15:21):
how do you pronounce her? Last interesting question for me.
I try to avoid it, Lana. Here's spent Lana talking
about the name change. I changed it because I didn't
want my son to be Joseph Stylin. And the second
(15:43):
pany And the other thing that she does, and this
is a big one, is that she writes a memoir,
a memoir of her life growing up with Stalin as
her father. Now at this point St. Lana doesn't intend
to publish the book. She writes it as the so
beats would say for the drawer, because truth is still
(16:03):
a liability. The currency of Russia is still betrayal, so
she has to be very careful. But the memoir, which
she writes as a series of vignettes, calling it twenty
Letters to a Friend, flies out of her in a
couple of weeks. It must have been thoroughly cathartic. As
a playwright and screenwriter who often puts writers in his work,
(16:26):
I am well aware that the least dramatic thing you
can show is someone writing, because I know from the outside,
all it is is someone sitting at the keys, pressing
buttons the man. I wish I was there in her
apartment when she was writing her book. It's quiet here
Muscow breathing fire like the human volcano, with its smoldering
(16:50):
love of fashion. I wish I could see her press
her fingers to the keys. Musco sees and bubbles and
gasps for air, listened to the ding of the typewriter
as she reaches the edge of the page. I've never
been an actor on center stage. Well, my life was
(17:11):
spent behind the smell of fresh ink, the feel of
thick paper, the taste of burnt coffee or tea that
probably got old and stale as the days were on.
In tonight's To watch the suppressed history fly out of
her fingertips onto the page, that would have been something.
(17:33):
Sped Lana shares the manuscript with a friend, a literary critic,
who encourages her to publish abroad, but sped Lana refuses,
She's not ready yet. Who knows what danger that would bring.
It was this very same friend, the literary critic who
had offered to read her palm at a party. He'd
studied the thatched lines on her hand, looked up into
(17:55):
her eyes and proclaimed, the second half of your life
will be far more interesting than the first. This after
the break, Act two, a whole new world. I'm not
(18:19):
a particularly brave person, but I've been told that bravery
is like a muscle. You have to work it out
in small ways so that you can lift the big
dumbbells of valor at the weightlifting contest on the beach
of morality. So sped Lana is working out. She finds
her voice in her writing. She starts speaking out publicly
(18:41):
against the government, and she's reading previously banned books about
the terror of Stalin. When she goes to the hospital
to get her tonsils removed, she brings with her a
biography of Gandhi and as if it were destiny. While
recuperating from surgery, her eyes flit up from her book
and land on a most unusual type for a Soviet hospital,
(19:03):
a kind hearted, older Indian man wearing a beret on
his head with tampon stuffed in his nose. He either
had polyps removed from his nostrils, or his mother never
showed him where his vagina was. Most of the men.
She fell in love with a man of quality. I
have to say things. Sounds like quite a wonderful man.
(19:23):
After a day of the two of them making eyes
at one another, they started up a conversation. They spoke
of Gandhi, of Nehru, of politics of literature spanning Russia
and India and the great world beyond. When she finally
revealed to him who her father was, he merely shrugged
his shoulders and said, oh, Briges Singh didn't care about
(19:47):
speed Lana's dad. He only cared about speed Lana. Her
father had been dead for nearly a decade. She was
thirty six years old, thrice divorced, with two teenage children,
and now spent Lana Alujeva was in love, and it's
in love where sped Lana's bravery is tested. She asked
(20:11):
permission to marry him. She was refused. After a failed
attempt at liberalism following Stalin's death, Russia is closing back
up again, and spelled Lana is feeling it, pleading with
heads of state to recognize her marriage to an Indian Hindu.
After many refusals, she decides, fuck it, I'm calling him
(20:35):
my husband no matter what they say. And then there's
the issue of her book. The written word is under
attack and spent. Lana still has a manuscript all about
the intimacies and horrors of life under Stalin's rule. I
felt it was the help of my husband registering. We
felt both that it would be better to send the
(20:58):
book abroad with her per mission. Brigesh gives a copy
of the manuscript to an ambassador buddy of his living
in India. Remember this, it will become important. And then
Brigesh becomes ill again. She wanted to go back with
him to India because he was ill and she thought
maybe the Indian climate would be easier on him. She
(21:20):
was refused permission to go with him. He didn't want
to go without her, and eventually he died. Splana had
only seen one death before her father's. Angry tormented suffocating
for days of fist in the air, but Brigess knew
he was declining. Early one morning in October of nineteen
(21:41):
sixty six, he called her Specta, he said, using his
pet name for her. Specta in Sanskrit means light Specta.
I'm going to die today and by seven am, Brigesh
Singh was gone. I was attached to him, I loved him,
(22:06):
I respected him, and when he has finally died, I
felt that I have myself completely changed. Two years ago,
spied Lana had politely asked the government to marry Bridgess. Denied.
One year ago she begged to journey with him to India. Denied.
And now with nothing left to this man but an
(22:28):
urn filled with his ashes, she has a fire under
her ass. The next day, virtually she went to the
Kremlin and asked if she could take his ashes to India.
He wanted them spread on the game Jess, and she
was given permission to go to to all aboard. Pack
your bags, grab your dead lover's ashes. Kiss you're two teenagers. Goodbye,
(22:52):
We're going to India. Spent Lana is forty years old,
and this is the first time that she has ever
leaving Soviets soil. There's going to be a lot of
planes and countries in the next six months of spet
Lana's life, but she doesn't know that yet. For now,
she's leaving Russia behind for a short stay of a
few weeks. It's just her, a few bags, and her
(23:14):
handler Mrs Casarova. Now a short aside about Mrs Casarova.
I love Mrs Casarova, where spet Lana was excited about
this adventure, this breath of freedom. By all accounts, it
seems that Mrs Casarova was devastated to be leaving Russia.
She cried a lot and told spet Lana not to
(23:37):
go into the glittering, colorful, bustling metropolis that was Deli.
It's dirty, Mrs Casarova said, And then she probably cried
a lot because who wouldn't miss Soviet Russia? That Lana baby,
she loved Deli. She loved being immersed in the bazaars
and the spices and the saris and Deli in the
nineteen sixties, at least among the ruling class, was terribly modern,
(24:01):
she writes. Around me, I saw a variety of different eras, countries, influences.
Speed Lana was floored to see the televisions and record players,
modern music, modern literature, the sound of music. But the
Soviets were being fucking annoying. They forced that Lana to
(24:23):
stay in a hotel room without its own telephone, and
for two weeks they told spet Lana that she couldn't
actually go to Bridgessha's hometown for some political reason. How
many ways could the Soviets push her around? The way
I was treated in India by the Soviet embassy and
best Soviet officials, it made me feel exactly that I
(24:43):
am not human being at all, I am just a
piece of state property. Finally, after what seems to be
some pretty intense pouting, speed Lana is taken to Bridgessha's
village of colum kan Kar by the Ganges River. So
imagine it spent La not Alleluiva, standing on a terrace
and a white sorry looking down below, as a group
(25:05):
of solemn men carrying urn into a boat and roast
slowly through lilies and lotuses in the middle of the
Ganges River. The procession of mourners and white the young
boys weaving their way through the crowd on the shore,
the boat docking in the middle of the water, the
ashes of her husband being poured into the Ganges, his
(25:27):
soul returning to the home of his ancestors in Delhi.
Spent Lana is taken to the modern, vibrant New world,
and in Bragesh's village, she's taken to the ancient spiritual past,
and suddenly Russia felt like neither Here's grace. Kennan wernicky again.
(25:49):
She wants to stay longer in India, and there were
two kgb people there that were supposed to be kind
of looking making sure she didn't get into any trouble.
But she went to visit her lover's brother speed Lana
loves Singh's family. They talked deep into the night. They
drink tea on the terrace. She bathed in the Ganges
(26:09):
each morning. She loves the humid weather and the trees
and fruits, and she never wants to go back to Russia.
If I come back to Moscow, I'll become just a
I'll return back isn't completed enemy of the government, of
the state, of the way of life, of ideology. And
(26:29):
I didn't want to return that way because it would
be it would be then horrible life for my children,
and I knew it was wouldn't be possible to protest,
so I I prefer not to come back. But how
could she survive elsewhere? She had no money. She never
left the country, and even if she could get out,
(26:50):
what other country would want to be at the center
of a major diplomatic controversy. She needs some leverage for
the world outside to take her seriously. And that's where
her manuscript came in twenty letters to a friend, the
story of Stalin as told by his daughter. But speed
Lana would never have carried that book in her bags.
(27:10):
Now remember when Bragesh sent a copy of speed Lana's
manuscript to a buddy of his before he died. Well,
lucky for speed Lana, that buddy happens to be in
India and he has her book and he gives it
to her. So she's back in Delhi. She has her book.
And here's where it gets good. A few days before
(27:33):
spent Lana is supposed to go back to Moscow, it
happens to be International Women's Day and there's a big
party being held at the Russian Embassy in Delhi. Anyone
who's anyone will be there, all the handlers and the
diplomats and KGB officers. It's fabulous. Who would notice if
spent Lana was running late or that she didn't show
up at all. It's nighttime. Everyone is getting dressed up
(27:57):
making their way to the embassy, and spent Lana in
her hotel room without a phone, is laying out her luggage.
She has an idea. She'll put all her belongings on
her bed, tinkling bracelets for her daughter, gold embroidered slippers,
and a hookah for her son. But actually she packs
two other bags, one with some clothes, the other a
(28:20):
small red valise that holds her book. And as the
Russian men and women, diplomats and ambassadors all scurry to
and fro, spent Lana finds a telephone in the lobby
and rings for a taxi. She waits outside the hotel,
her heart pounding as Russians passed by her en route
(28:40):
to the party. Do they know? Can they see in
her eyes what she's plotting. When the taxi finally picks
her up and she asks to be taken to the
American embassy, the driver nods it's a straight shot, but
he seems to know that something's up and takes only
back roads until they land at the brutalist white structure.
(29:05):
Spent Lana marches up to the marine standing guard and
tells him that she is spent Lana Ali Lujeva. She
is Joseph Stalin's daughter and she would like to defect
to the United States of America more after the break
(29:29):
Act three coming to America, where you involved in the
name rerouting of Stalin's daughter, Oh, very much, I'm tell
him about that. It's a very funny story. Chester Bowls
was the ambassador to India for much of the nineteen sixties,
(29:51):
so he was the guy to talk to if say,
you were Stalin's daughter and you were trying to defect
the US from Delhi. In is bed with cases, very
brief cases flu and the office called, and so they
want to come and see me home. They came in
seven of talk and said that a person is scaring
(30:12):
yourself as talent. Daughter just drived the embassy Russian passport
and good order. How m should we do about it?
First thing I say, said, I don't think stal has
a daughter. Here's Rosemary again. First they think she's probably
uh mentally imbalanced. H They don't really believe her. But
(30:33):
she's carrying this book, this manuscript which is twenty letters
to a friend. So they take it, they assess it,
and they it's too authentic not to be real. And
so they say, well, we're not sure we can take
her in, but we've got to get her out. Of India,
because if she's found here, the consequences to her in
the Soviet Union may be severe. So Bulls is concerned.
(30:57):
He doesn't think so Atlanta has thought this. He asks, sir,
are you really sure that you want to leave home?
You've got your daughter and his son there, and it's
a terily big step to take. Have you already thought through?
And you could go back to Russian nebassy right now?
And she immediately said, if you forced me to do that,
I interruptrized, so we we're not forcing to do anything.
(31:18):
She said, well, if this is your decision, I will
go to Press tonight. I love this. This is a
very different spent Lana than we've seen ready and willing
to risk it all. The other night, I was in
bed with my husband, Jordan's, and it was late. He
was drifting off to sleep, and I was chattering about something,
(31:39):
probably myself, because I find myself endlessly fascinating. Anyway, I
started to get excited, which means that I was getting loud,
at which point Jordan's said, ow what I asked, my foot?
You're so loud it's making my foot hurt. I tell
this to you because I know that this is a podcast.
(32:00):
I know that you're probably listening to this with earbuds
in your ears. I know that I have producers and
sound engineers who will help modulate my volume. But still
the next part of the story is ridiculous, and I'm
gonna get excited, which means I'm gonna get loud. So
if you're Jordan's, hold onto your fee baby, because Dan
(32:21):
is gonna scream. Spent Lana and her Cia escort go
to Rome, from which they will fly directly to the US.
But no sooner do they arrive in the Eternal City
than word arrives that the US will not take speed Lana.
They're too deep into arms discussions with the Russians. Taking
(32:42):
Stalin's defecting daughter is too much of a liability. We're
still the Italian government has freaked the fuck out. Spent
Lana cannot be in Rome. Insert the following ridiculous international
diplomatic technicalities. Speed Lana has landed in the international wing
of the airport, which is technically not Rome, even though
(33:04):
it's in Rome, from which she was picked up and
taken directly to an international apartment complex, which is also
technically not Rome, even though it's in Rome. So now
she's locked in an apartment and waiting on the US
to figure out what to do next, knowing every hour
is another hour for the Russians to figure out she's
gone but not in Rome. But the US is still
(33:28):
dragging their feet, So it's up to the impartial Swiss
to take spent Lana. Because word is moving fast. A
New York Times reporter in Delhi figured out what happened,
and now articles are emerging that speed Lana defected. Worse,
it's coming to light that she is in Rome, but
not in Rome, because remember, technically she's not in Rome,
even though she is very much in Rome. When in Rome,
(33:51):
as they say, I still don't know what that means.
So the heat is turned up, and now sped Lana
and her escort have a flight to Switzerland. They hop
in a car and race to the airport, where they
are met by, in my humble and unbiased homosexual opinion,
the most important contribution the Italians have given to modern society,
the paparazzi. It's chaos. Spent Lana's escort slips out, but
(34:18):
Spent Lana stays in the car, which circles around the
airport until it finds an abandoned spot a loading dock
for luggage, and drops spent Lana off like a piece
of Russian baggage. The idea spent Lana will be smuggled
onto the plane with the rest of the suitcases. Hashtag brilliant,
hashtag life goals hashtag Russian luggage. So Stalin's daughter is
(34:39):
on a truck with a bunch of bags, cruise them
through the airport, when Italian officials race towards it, screaming,
she can't come this way. There are reporters everywhere. So
spent Lana is yanked off the bags and then putting
the stairwell, where she remains for several hours. Hashtag stairwell,
hashtag blast hashtag what happened to spent Lana's escort? Her
escort is on the plane, but it's been so long
(35:02):
he's worried, thinking that speed Lana has been arrested. He
gets off the plane and searches the airport, finally finding her,
but the two have missed their flight. Defeated, they go
back to the international apartment just the way they came,
except for one thing, spent Lana's red suitcase with the
manuscript that was the only thing that made it onto
(35:24):
the plane to Geneva. So spent Lana is still in Rome,
but not in Rome, and the Italians are still pissed.
They forced the Americans to pay for a private plane
for speed Lana and her escort to Geneva, and finally
the United States of America plays ball. Spent Lana makes
it to Geneva, where she has reunited with her book.
She stays in this new Swiss purgatory for a few
(35:44):
weeks until an agreement is hatched with a U. S.
State Department official named George Kennon, the publisher Harper in Row,
and a translator named Priscilla Johnson. McMillan will learn about
these folks in the next episode, but for now, sped
Lana has got herself a six month visa and a
book deal for one point five million dollars, which would
be roughly thirteen million dollars today according to the Internet.
(36:05):
That's more than the net worth of Tanya Harding and
Nancy Carragan combined. And so on April one, nineteen sixties seven,
spent Lanta Alla Lujeva, Joseph Stalin's daughter, exhausted and exhilarated
flies in an airplane across the Atlantic Ocean from Switzerland
to New York City, landing at a tarmac at John F.
(36:26):
Kennedy Airport. The throngs of reporters, photographers, diplomats, well wishers,
and probably also some random people who got lost in
JFK looking for where to pick up their uber Everybody,
We've brought spent Lana to America. We did it. Um.
It is a difficult to explane in fu. Oh why
(36:49):
I am he crown, I'm tired, and I'm just the
gay talking about it. But seriously, all of that, that
whole journey from childhood, mother suicide, Stalin's rule, family murdered, imprisoned,
four marriages to children, scattering ashes on the Ganges, secret defection, Delhi, Rome,
(37:11):
I mean not Rome, Switzerland, one point five million dollar
book deal, and now instant us celebrity. All of this, kiddos,
this was all the boring part of the story. Because
what happens next that ship is Craig Gray. Spent Lana's
(37:34):
fent Lana is a production of I Heeart Podcasts and
the documentary group I'm Your Host Dan Catrocer. The show
is written and produced by me Adam Webber, Alison Joy
and Catherine Isaac. We also serve as executive producers at
the Documentary Group. Our executive producer is Joe B. Silhouette's
with production oversight by Stacy Kleger and additional support from
(37:56):
Tom Yellen and Gabrielle tennantbau our I Heart Team is
supervising producer Casey Pegram and executive producer Maya Howard. Editing
assistants from producers Christina Loranger and Joey pat Original music
by Ellen Isakov. Production counsel by Slas eck House, Dasty
Haynes Locko, Clearance counsel by Ballard Spar Back checking assistance
(38:20):
by Megan Trout. Special thanks to my husband Jordan Siegel
and Rosemary Sullivan, author of the book Stalin's Daughter. Excerpts
from spet Lana Alujeva's books Twenty Letters to a Friend
and Only One Year are provided by Chris Evans and
performed by Cassie Greer
In two thousand eleven, a woman named stet Lana died
unceremoniously in a nursing home in rural Wisconsin at the
age of her obituary in the New York Times reads
like a novel. When I first read it, I was
struck by the story of a woman who was born
a princess and died a pauper, who grew up godless
(00:22):
and then was subsumed by mysticism, a woman who captured
the attention of the world and then died in obscurity.
It was the most triumphantly tragic obituary I'd ever read.
Oh and her dad was Joseph Stalin, Soviet dictator, murderer
of millions. My obituary will say this homosexual jew dankatrocer
(00:48):
spent the entirety of his twenties performing for children as
a giant frog in Times Square, while performing for adults
as Patti LuPone in drag in back rooms and bars
in the East Village, all the while hoping someone would
take him seriously as a playwright. He died as he lived,
with severe anxiety and mild inflammation. And my dad is
(01:12):
not a mustachio tyrant, but a former attorney and present
day clown. Do you like my red nose? What do
you have there? A tire wow on our surfaces. Sped
Lana and I couldn't be more different. For example, she
is dead, but from the moment I read about her,
(01:33):
I couldn't get her off my mind. I spent the
next few years telling her messy, wild and weird story
obsessively to anyone who would listen. I knew it had
to be my next play, so I wrote it, and
I really thought I nailed it. I can't believe this
is all started and quit the fire. So thank you all.
(01:54):
You're brilliant already, and I can't wait for us to
do the show. But where along the way, my actress,
my spent Lana, told me she didn't understand her character,
and then she dropped out of my production. Truth is
she was right. I was so lost in the plot.
(02:15):
I had lost svent Lana somewhere inside of it. I
needed to be there at the tarmac at JFK Airport when,
at forty years old, spent Lana braved her way over
the Iron Curtain and arrived in America as the Cold
War's most famous defector. I am very hip here. I
(02:38):
needed to know how she got lost in the middle
of the desert, in the middle of Arizona, absorbed into
a free laboring fellowship of Frank Lloyd Right Disciples. If
I do just have like a big question, was the
fellowship occult? Ah, it's pretty complicated. I needed to understand
(03:00):
why the hell she married a man whose dead wife's
name was also sped Lana, as if the name itself
implied some sort of Balkan destiny. Just my wife Ago,
And why, oh why did speed Lana become wrapped up
in the clutches of a Montenegrin mystic who believed the
(03:21):
key to immortality was dance. What began as a pang
of artistic inspiration has ultimately become my never ending obsession.
We're going to follow speed Lana through her many attempts
to start over. But when Joseph Stalin is your dad,
(03:41):
can you ever really break free? My name is Dan Catrocer,
and this is sped Lana's feed Lana. You wake up
in the morning, you live your day, and then you
(04:03):
do it tomorrow, and over and over again and over
again again. Act one, The Princess of the Kremlin Good
(04:44):
On April one, the only daughter of Joseph Stalin, got
off a Swiss airliner at Kennedy Airport, walked up to
the cameras and microphones as if she'd been facing them
all her life, which she had not, and said, Oh, everybody,
I'm very glad to be who be here. Look, all
I want to do is start here on the tarmac
(05:05):
at JFK, because this is a huge moment speed. Lana's
father ran the most antagonistic governing body to the US
of all time, and now his daughter is defecting to
the United States. I'm watching this newsreel from fifty six
years ago, and the thing that strikes me is that
Lana is positively giddy. She bounces down the stairs to
(05:29):
the microphones like a red rubber ball. Behind her is
the Swiss airplane that took her across the Atlantic, and
before her is a crowd, electric with excitement, swarming on
the tarmac, more people than we're here for the Beatles
a few years earlier. If it's a plane and few,
(05:51):
there are sharp shooters on the buildings. There are diplomats
waiting eagerly in the crowd. The whole place is buzzing.
Whole next week, I will be able to meet you
at the press confidence and I will be able to
answer more questions which you will will be interested off.
Thank you very much. The problem with starting the story
(06:17):
here is that set Lana is already forty years old.
We can start the story here, I mean, I guess
I just did, but we still have to learn about
the buyers. She was forged in. So as much as
I want us to hang out with fet Lana at JFK,
and don't worry, we'll get there, for now, we have
to rewind a bit to the very beginnings of the
(06:37):
USSR picture Russia. The stars are out, the Bolsheviks are in,
beloved leader Vladimir Lenin dies from a stroke, and Joseph
Stalin want to be priest. Turned Soviet thug sees his control.
(07:02):
Stalin decrees mass annihilation, deportation to Siberia, a brooting of
whole communities, mass liquidation. Look, Stalin's not the nicest guy
at the bar Mitzvah. He was mean to everyone while
he was trying to consolidate power, including his own family.
But there was one member of his family who Stalin
(07:23):
adored above all others. She was his little sparrow. Sped
Lana Here spent Lana talking about her dad in an
interview from any t Journal shortly after landing in America.
The same person who was in the same time merciless
to his political enemies, he could be at the same
time rather kind and tender. Was his favorite child. Look,
(07:47):
we all think we have complicated relationships with our parents,
but nothing is going to be like growing up as
Joseph Stalin's daughter. I want to imagine it, I really do,
but to a certain degree, it's an imaginable Hello, Hello,
and then hi, Mry, Okay, here we are. Oh my god,
(08:07):
I just have to say. Those ear rings, those ear
rings are everything. Rosemary Sullivan wrote a fabulous biography of
spet Lana called Stalin's Daughter. She's everything. I'm not brilliant,
prolific Canadian. I have a big girl crush on Rosemary.
Is it all right if we dive into the woman
(08:28):
of the hour? Of course, let's dive into her. What
was spet Lana's childhood like the first six years until
she was six and a half? Uh she called it
her you know, her blessed childhood. That it took place
at the dacha in the summers with the extended family,
(08:49):
her grandparents, whom she loved, her aunts and uncle's. Visiting dignitaries.
Winston Churchill met her, he called her cute. Little girls
throughout Russia are named after her. Her picture is in
every paper, like Northwest or Oprah's Dogs. If Oprah has dogs.
She's waited on hand and foot and watches as her
(09:09):
father consolidates power at the dinner table. Meanwhile, left and
right people are starving, or being imprisoned or being murdered.
You see, the Soviets decided that the only way for
communism to work was for one person to lead the charge,
and so it fell to Stalin to bend fifteen different
republics and a hundred and seventy million people to his will.
(09:32):
Everyone had to follow the orders, including his wife. S
fed Lana's mother, Nadia. Bet Lana writes about how much
she loved her mother, about how much she yearned for
her mother, But was she a maternal presence when she
was alive. When seed Lana was asked about her mother,
she said, the only thing I remember is the smell
of her perfume when she said good night to me
(09:54):
one night after sed Lana had gone to bed the
door to her room crept open. It was her mother
sneaking in and spooning her daughter. While the two lay
there in a hush silence, sped Lana remembers her mother
tracing a box around her heart and whispering into her
little girl's ear. This box, spent, Lana, This is where
(10:17):
you keep all your secrets. At a young age, spent
Lana learns that truth is a liability and you must
keep it close to your chest. And then her mother
committed suicide. As the story goes, and it's very cinematic,
Stalin is throwing a huge party in the Kremlin. People
(10:38):
are drinking, music is playing, and even though Nadia is
right there, Stalin is flirting with his hairdresser. I know
what you're thinking, Stalin needed a hairdresser. Well, mustaches don't
just comb themselves. Stalin demands that everyone raised their glasses
to toast the Soviet Union. All the glasses fly up
to the ceiling, all except for Naja's. Hey. He yells
(11:01):
across the room to his wife, raise your glass. She
spits back at him, my name is not hey. Ah.
What a line. Nadia rushes out the door, races to
her bedroom, takes a pistol out of her drawer, aims
at at the box around her heart and fires it speed.
(11:25):
Lana was always told that her mother died of appendicitis,
and she would believe that lie for the next ten years.
Her childhood was marked by secrets and lies and death,
all in the name of Stalin. Here's Grace Kennan Warnick,
who spent a good deal of time with feed Lana
when she first came over to the States. We'll learn
(11:45):
more about her in the next episode. Every member of
her mother's family was shot, I mean every single one
of them. Her uncle's killed in the bridges, her aunt
tried to eat glass to kill herself, her first great
love sent to the blueleg. You know, when I was sixteen,
I was so upset because for my birthday, my parents
gave me the same audio cassette tape of Terry Gross
(12:07):
interviews that they had given me the year before first
met Lana. Sixteen was marked by her father sending her
boyfriend to the Gulag, her oldest brother being captured in
a German concentration camp and rather than trade for his release,
Stalin let him be executed, and then finding out in
a contraband copy of Life magazine that her mother didn't
(12:28):
die appendicitis, but died by suicide. So what I'm saying
is we both suffered. Her father lied to her, Everyone
lied to her. So when she found out that her
mother committed suicion and she blamed her father, then it
must have been a kind of rebellion that lodged in
(12:48):
her pursuit of freedom. But it's a quiet rebellion, it
has to be. She tries standing up to her father
on behalf of friends and family who are imprisoned, but
he belittles her, calls her a fool, and she soon
stops trying to intervene, so instead she throws herself into
the world of books. Reading about other places, other stories,
(13:12):
other lives was the only escape she had. When set
Lana seventeen, she goes to the university to study history
and falls for a Jewish academic, hoping this man will
take her away from Kremlin life. They get married, but
Stalin refuses to meet him on the grounds that he's Jewish,
(13:33):
so after three years of that marriage, she divorces the
jew and marries the son of Stalin's right hand man.
I could spend hours on these two marriages alone, But
the thing that's interesting here is that in the first
marriage is that Lana tries to subvert her father, and
then in the second she gives him to him. By
her own account, she becomes passive and vulnerable, shy and
(13:57):
soft spoken, and her father's dictatorial it grows ever more deadly,
and then it's Stalin has a stroke. You've seen the film,
and the death of Stalin is here. I'm here. When
(14:18):
spent Lana gets word, she storms into her father's bedroom
to discover his maid and polyp Euro standing over him,
debating about what to do. The racist started, all right,
we need to stop waiting together the planet. They're all
either too afraid to call for help or too hopeful
that will finally kick the bucket and they can seize control.
(14:38):
No one does anything, and just like in that group
of friends where everyone's hungry yet no one wants to
decide where to eat, it ends in death stalinstead, no
the Stalin host. Now with her father gone, there's hope
that spent Lana will finally be free to do what
(15:00):
she likes to live inside of literature, hang out with
her academic friends, be out of the public eye, and
be free. And even with the KGB still lurking around
every corner. Stet Lana does, in fact, do three subversive things.
She's baptized as a Christian. She changes her last name
from the paternal Stalina to her mother's last name, and
(15:21):
how do you pronounce her? Last interesting question for me.
I try to avoid it, Lana. Here's spent Lana talking
about the name change. I changed it because I didn't
want my son to be Joseph Stylin. And the second
(15:43):
pany And the other thing that she does, and this
is a big one, is that she writes a memoir,
a memoir of her life growing up with Stalin as
her father. Now at this point St. Lana doesn't intend
to publish the book. She writes it as the so
beats would say for the drawer, because truth is still
(16:03):
a liability. The currency of Russia is still betrayal, so
she has to be very careful. But the memoir, which
she writes as a series of vignettes, calling it twenty
Letters to a Friend, flies out of her in a
couple of weeks. It must have been thoroughly cathartic. As
a playwright and screenwriter who often puts writers in his work,
(16:26):
I am well aware that the least dramatic thing you
can show is someone writing, because I know from the outside,
all it is is someone sitting at the keys, pressing
buttons the man. I wish I was there in her
apartment when she was writing her book. It's quiet here
Muscow breathing fire like the human volcano, with its smoldering
(16:50):
love of fashion. I wish I could see her press
her fingers to the keys. Musco sees and bubbles and
gasps for air, listened to the ding of the typewriter
as she reaches the edge of the page. I've never
been an actor on center stage. Well, my life was
(17:11):
spent behind the smell of fresh ink, the feel of
thick paper, the taste of burnt coffee or tea that
probably got old and stale as the days were on.
In tonight's To watch the suppressed history fly out of
her fingertips onto the page, that would have been something.
(17:33):
Sped Lana shares the manuscript with a friend, a literary critic,
who encourages her to publish abroad, but sped Lana refuses,
She's not ready yet. Who knows what danger that would bring.
It was this very same friend, the literary critic who
had offered to read her palm at a party. He'd
studied the thatched lines on her hand, looked up into
(17:55):
her eyes and proclaimed, the second half of your life
will be far more interesting than the first. This after
the break, Act two, a whole new world. I'm not
(18:19):
a particularly brave person, but I've been told that bravery
is like a muscle. You have to work it out
in small ways so that you can lift the big
dumbbells of valor at the weightlifting contest on the beach
of morality. So sped Lana is working out. She finds
her voice in her writing. She starts speaking out publicly
(18:41):
against the government, and she's reading previously banned books about
the terror of Stalin. When she goes to the hospital
to get her tonsils removed, she brings with her a
biography of Gandhi and as if it were destiny. While
recuperating from surgery, her eyes flit up from her book
and land on a most unusual type for a Soviet hospital,
(19:03):
a kind hearted, older Indian man wearing a beret on
his head with tampon stuffed in his nose. He either
had polyps removed from his nostrils, or his mother never
showed him where his vagina was. Most of the men.
She fell in love with a man of quality. I
have to say things. Sounds like quite a wonderful man.
(19:23):
After a day of the two of them making eyes
at one another, they started up a conversation. They spoke
of Gandhi, of Nehru, of politics of literature spanning Russia
and India and the great world beyond. When she finally
revealed to him who her father was, he merely shrugged
his shoulders and said, oh, Briges Singh didn't care about
(19:47):
speed Lana's dad. He only cared about speed Lana. Her
father had been dead for nearly a decade. She was
thirty six years old, thrice divorced, with two teenage children,
and now spent Lana Alujeva was in love, and it's
in love where sped Lana's bravery is tested. She asked
(20:11):
permission to marry him. She was refused. After a failed
attempt at liberalism following Stalin's death, Russia is closing back
up again, and spelled Lana is feeling it, pleading with
heads of state to recognize her marriage to an Indian Hindu.
After many refusals, she decides, fuck it, I'm calling him
(20:35):
my husband no matter what they say. And then there's
the issue of her book. The written word is under
attack and spent. Lana still has a manuscript all about
the intimacies and horrors of life under Stalin's rule. I
felt it was the help of my husband registering. We
felt both that it would be better to send the
(20:58):
book abroad with her per mission. Brigesh gives a copy
of the manuscript to an ambassador buddy of his living
in India. Remember this, it will become important. And then
Brigesh becomes ill again. She wanted to go back with
him to India because he was ill and she thought
maybe the Indian climate would be easier on him. She
(21:20):
was refused permission to go with him. He didn't want
to go without her, and eventually he died. Splana had
only seen one death before her father's. Angry tormented suffocating
for days of fist in the air, but Brigess knew
he was declining. Early one morning in October of nineteen
(21:41):
sixty six, he called her Specta, he said, using his
pet name for her. Specta in Sanskrit means light Specta.
I'm going to die today and by seven am, Brigesh
Singh was gone. I was attached to him, I loved him,
(22:06):
I respected him, and when he has finally died, I
felt that I have myself completely changed. Two years ago,
spied Lana had politely asked the government to marry Bridgess. Denied.
One year ago she begged to journey with him to India. Denied.
And now with nothing left to this man but an
(22:28):
urn filled with his ashes, she has a fire under
her ass. The next day, virtually she went to the
Kremlin and asked if she could take his ashes to India.
He wanted them spread on the game Jess, and she
was given permission to go to to all aboard. Pack
your bags, grab your dead lover's ashes. Kiss you're two teenagers. Goodbye,
(22:52):
We're going to India. Spent Lana is forty years old,
and this is the first time that she has ever
leaving Soviets soil. There's going to be a lot of
planes and countries in the next six months of spet
Lana's life, but she doesn't know that yet. For now,
she's leaving Russia behind for a short stay of a
few weeks. It's just her, a few bags, and her
(23:14):
handler Mrs Casarova. Now a short aside about Mrs Casarova.
I love Mrs Casarova, where spet Lana was excited about
this adventure, this breath of freedom. By all accounts, it
seems that Mrs Casarova was devastated to be leaving Russia.
She cried a lot and told spet Lana not to
(23:37):
go into the glittering, colorful, bustling metropolis that was Deli.
It's dirty, Mrs Casarova said, And then she probably cried
a lot because who wouldn't miss Soviet Russia? That Lana baby,
she loved Deli. She loved being immersed in the bazaars
and the spices and the saris and Deli in the
nineteen sixties, at least among the ruling class, was terribly modern,
(24:01):
she writes. Around me, I saw a variety of different eras, countries, influences.
Speed Lana was floored to see the televisions and record players,
modern music, modern literature, the sound of music. But the
Soviets were being fucking annoying. They forced that Lana to
(24:23):
stay in a hotel room without its own telephone, and
for two weeks they told spet Lana that she couldn't
actually go to Bridgessha's hometown for some political reason. How
many ways could the Soviets push her around? The way
I was treated in India by the Soviet embassy and
best Soviet officials, it made me feel exactly that I
(24:43):
am not human being at all, I am just a
piece of state property. Finally, after what seems to be
some pretty intense pouting, speed Lana is taken to Bridgessha's
village of colum kan Kar by the Ganges River. So
imagine it spent La not Alleluiva, standing on a terrace
and a white sorry looking down below, as a group
(25:05):
of solemn men carrying urn into a boat and roast
slowly through lilies and lotuses in the middle of the
Ganges River. The procession of mourners and white the young
boys weaving their way through the crowd on the shore,
the boat docking in the middle of the water, the
ashes of her husband being poured into the Ganges, his
(25:27):
soul returning to the home of his ancestors in Delhi.
Spent Lana is taken to the modern, vibrant New world,
and in Bragesh's village, she's taken to the ancient spiritual past,
and suddenly Russia felt like neither Here's grace. Kennan wernicky again.
(25:49):
She wants to stay longer in India, and there were
two kgb people there that were supposed to be kind
of looking making sure she didn't get into any trouble.
But she went to visit her lover's brother speed Lana
loves Singh's family. They talked deep into the night. They
drink tea on the terrace. She bathed in the Ganges
(26:09):
each morning. She loves the humid weather and the trees
and fruits, and she never wants to go back to Russia.
If I come back to Moscow, I'll become just a
I'll return back isn't completed enemy of the government, of
the state, of the way of life, of ideology. And
(26:29):
I didn't want to return that way because it would
be it would be then horrible life for my children,
and I knew it was wouldn't be possible to protest,
so I I prefer not to come back. But how
could she survive elsewhere? She had no money. She never
left the country, and even if she could get out,
(26:50):
what other country would want to be at the center
of a major diplomatic controversy. She needs some leverage for
the world outside to take her seriously. And that's where
her manuscript came in twenty letters to a friend, the
story of Stalin as told by his daughter. But speed
Lana would never have carried that book in her bags.
(27:10):
Now remember when Bragesh sent a copy of speed Lana's
manuscript to a buddy of his before he died. Well,
lucky for speed Lana, that buddy happens to be in
India and he has her book and he gives it
to her. So she's back in Delhi. She has her book.
And here's where it gets good. A few days before
(27:33):
spent Lana is supposed to go back to Moscow, it
happens to be International Women's Day and there's a big
party being held at the Russian Embassy in Delhi. Anyone
who's anyone will be there, all the handlers and the
diplomats and KGB officers. It's fabulous. Who would notice if
spent Lana was running late or that she didn't show
up at all. It's nighttime. Everyone is getting dressed up
(27:57):
making their way to the embassy, and spent Lana in
her hotel room without a phone, is laying out her luggage.
She has an idea. She'll put all her belongings on
her bed, tinkling bracelets for her daughter, gold embroidered slippers,
and a hookah for her son. But actually she packs
two other bags, one with some clothes, the other a
(28:20):
small red valise that holds her book. And as the
Russian men and women, diplomats and ambassadors all scurry to
and fro, spent Lana finds a telephone in the lobby
and rings for a taxi. She waits outside the hotel,
her heart pounding as Russians passed by her en route
(28:40):
to the party. Do they know? Can they see in
her eyes what she's plotting. When the taxi finally picks
her up and she asks to be taken to the
American embassy, the driver nods it's a straight shot, but
he seems to know that something's up and takes only
back roads until they land at the brutalist white structure.
(29:05):
Spent Lana marches up to the marine standing guard and
tells him that she is spent Lana Ali Lujeva. She
is Joseph Stalin's daughter and she would like to defect
to the United States of America more after the break
(29:29):
Act three coming to America, where you involved in the
name rerouting of Stalin's daughter, Oh, very much, I'm tell
him about that. It's a very funny story. Chester Bowls
was the ambassador to India for much of the nineteen sixties,
(29:51):
so he was the guy to talk to if say,
you were Stalin's daughter and you were trying to defect
the US from Delhi. In is bed with cases, very
brief cases flu and the office called, and so they
want to come and see me home. They came in
seven of talk and said that a person is scaring
(30:12):
yourself as talent. Daughter just drived the embassy Russian passport
and good order. How m should we do about it?
First thing I say, said, I don't think stal has
a daughter. Here's Rosemary again. First they think she's probably
uh mentally imbalanced. H They don't really believe her. But
(30:33):
she's carrying this book, this manuscript which is twenty letters
to a friend. So they take it, they assess it,
and they it's too authentic not to be real. And
so they say, well, we're not sure we can take
her in, but we've got to get her out. Of India,
because if she's found here, the consequences to her in
the Soviet Union may be severe. So Bulls is concerned.
(30:57):
He doesn't think so Atlanta has thought this. He asks, sir,
are you really sure that you want to leave home?
You've got your daughter and his son there, and it's
a terily big step to take. Have you already thought through?
And you could go back to Russian nebassy right now?
And she immediately said, if you forced me to do that,
I interruptrized, so we we're not forcing to do anything.
(31:18):
She said, well, if this is your decision, I will
go to Press tonight. I love this. This is a
very different spent Lana than we've seen ready and willing
to risk it all. The other night, I was in
bed with my husband, Jordan's, and it was late. He
was drifting off to sleep, and I was chattering about something,
(31:39):
probably myself, because I find myself endlessly fascinating. Anyway, I
started to get excited, which means that I was getting loud,
at which point Jordan's said, ow what I asked, my foot?
You're so loud it's making my foot hurt. I tell
this to you because I know that this is a podcast.
(32:00):
I know that you're probably listening to this with earbuds
in your ears. I know that I have producers and
sound engineers who will help modulate my volume. But still
the next part of the story is ridiculous, and I'm
gonna get excited, which means I'm gonna get loud. So
if you're Jordan's, hold onto your fee baby, because Dan
(32:21):
is gonna scream. Spent Lana and her Cia escort go
to Rome, from which they will fly directly to the US.
But no sooner do they arrive in the Eternal City
than word arrives that the US will not take speed Lana.
They're too deep into arms discussions with the Russians. Taking
(32:42):
Stalin's defecting daughter is too much of a liability. We're
still the Italian government has freaked the fuck out. Spent
Lana cannot be in Rome. Insert the following ridiculous international
diplomatic technicalities. Speed Lana has landed in the international wing
of the airport, which is technically not Rome, even though
(33:04):
it's in Rome, from which she was picked up and
taken directly to an international apartment complex, which is also
technically not Rome, even though it's in Rome. So now
she's locked in an apartment and waiting on the US
to figure out what to do next, knowing every hour
is another hour for the Russians to figure out she's
gone but not in Rome. But the US is still
(33:28):
dragging their feet, So it's up to the impartial Swiss
to take spent Lana. Because word is moving fast. A
New York Times reporter in Delhi figured out what happened,
and now articles are emerging that speed Lana defected. Worse,
it's coming to light that she is in Rome, but
not in Rome, because remember, technically she's not in Rome,
even though she is very much in Rome. When in Rome,
(33:51):
as they say, I still don't know what that means.
So the heat is turned up, and now sped Lana
and her escort have a flight to Switzerland. They hop
in a car and race to the airport, where they
are met by, in my humble and unbiased homosexual opinion,
the most important contribution the Italians have given to modern society,
the paparazzi. It's chaos. Spent Lana's escort slips out, but
(34:18):
Spent Lana stays in the car, which circles around the
airport until it finds an abandoned spot a loading dock
for luggage, and drops spent Lana off like a piece
of Russian baggage. The idea spent Lana will be smuggled
onto the plane with the rest of the suitcases. Hashtag brilliant,
hashtag life goals hashtag Russian luggage. So Stalin's daughter is
(34:39):
on a truck with a bunch of bags, cruise them
through the airport, when Italian officials race towards it, screaming,
she can't come this way. There are reporters everywhere. So
spent Lana is yanked off the bags and then putting
the stairwell, where she remains for several hours. Hashtag stairwell,
hashtag blast hashtag what happened to spent Lana's escort? Her
escort is on the plane, but it's been so long
(35:02):
he's worried, thinking that speed Lana has been arrested. He
gets off the plane and searches the airport, finally finding her,
but the two have missed their flight. Defeated, they go
back to the international apartment just the way they came,
except for one thing, spent Lana's red suitcase with the
manuscript that was the only thing that made it onto
(35:24):
the plane to Geneva. So spent Lana is still in Rome,
but not in Rome, and the Italians are still pissed.
They forced the Americans to pay for a private plane
for speed Lana and her escort to Geneva, and finally
the United States of America plays ball. Spent Lana makes
it to Geneva, where she has reunited with her book.
She stays in this new Swiss purgatory for a few
(35:44):
weeks until an agreement is hatched with a U. S.
State Department official named George Kennon, the publisher Harper in Row,
and a translator named Priscilla Johnson. McMillan will learn about
these folks in the next episode, but for now, sped
Lana has got herself a six month visa and a
book deal for one point five million dollars, which would
be roughly thirteen million dollars today according to the Internet.
(36:05):
That's more than the net worth of Tanya Harding and
Nancy Carragan combined. And so on April one, nineteen sixties seven,
spent Lanta Alla Lujeva, Joseph Stalin's daughter, exhausted and exhilarated
flies in an airplane across the Atlantic Ocean from Switzerland
to New York City, landing at a tarmac at John F.
(36:26):
Kennedy Airport. The throngs of reporters, photographers, diplomats, well wishers,
and probably also some random people who got lost in
JFK looking for where to pick up their uber Everybody,
We've brought spent Lana to America. We did it. Um.
It is a difficult to explane in fu. Oh why
(36:49):
I am he crown, I'm tired, and I'm just the
gay talking about it. But seriously, all of that, that
whole journey from childhood, mother suicide, Stalin's rule, family murdered, imprisoned,
four marriages to children, scattering ashes on the Ganges, secret defection, Delhi, Rome,
(37:11):
I mean not Rome, Switzerland, one point five million dollar
book deal, and now instant us celebrity. All of this, kiddos,
this was all the boring part of the story. Because
what happens next that ship is Craig Gray. Spent Lana's
(37:34):
fent Lana is a production of I Heeart Podcasts and
the documentary group I'm Your Host Dan Catrocer. The show
is written and produced by me Adam Webber, Alison Joy
and Catherine Isaac. We also serve as executive producers at
the Documentary Group. Our executive producer is Joe B. Silhouette's
with production oversight by Stacy Kleger and additional support from
(37:56):
Tom Yellen and Gabrielle tennantbau our I Heart Team is
supervising producer Casey Pegram and executive producer Maya Howard. Editing
assistants from producers Christina Loranger and Joey pat Original music
by Ellen Isakov. Production counsel by Slas eck House, Dasty
Haynes Locko, Clearance counsel by Ballard Spar Back checking assistance
(38:20):
by Megan Trout. Special thanks to my husband Jordan Siegel
and Rosemary Sullivan, author of the book Stalin's Daughter. Excerpts
from spet Lana Alujeva's books Twenty Letters to a Friend
and Only One Year are provided by Chris Evans and
performed by Cassie Greer
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