On November 22nd, Lana Peters, the daughter of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin passed away in Wisconsin. She has been living there since she left the Soviet Union in 1967. She died of colon cancer at age 85. Since her death was reported there has been a bit of revival of her memory. Particularly her use as a propaganda piece. When she initially left the Soviet Union she did so by going to the US embassy in India to seek “political asylum”. There she struck a deal with the US to gain citizenship in exchange for slandering the Soviet Union and slandering her father.

Her leaving the Soviet Union was quite reasonable, after all she was leaving the the de-Stalinization period. Essentially everything Stalin was being trashed, his successful policies were being called failures and fraudulent stories about his personal life were being spread. All of this was being perpetuated by the revisionist Nikita Khrushchev. His plan from taking power was to dismantle socialism and was quite successful at it. Many pro-Stalin people (and pro-socialist) were persecuted during this time. Obviously Stalin’s own family was no different.

Its obvious that if she wanted US citizenship, she had to renounce the Soviet Union, which was easy considering how Khrushchev’s people were treating her, and renounce her father. Doing so she wrote four books (two memoirs) at the command of the US government. A good question is, if she hated the Soviet Union so much, why did she attempt to return to it in 1980? When she did she spoke passionately denouncing America for its crimes and its policies. Despite her willingness to completely change her position to go home, no on wanted to hear it. She returned to Russia for only a short time before feuding with family convinced her to leave. Apparently her family wasn’t happy about her slandering of her father.

During her life in America she was unable to get out form under the shadow of her father that Western imperialists had created. She was constantly referred to as “Stalin’s daughter”. Despite all her work to slander him and the Soviet Union, she was never accepted as an American.

Lana Peters’ death source:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-15931683