Only One Year: How Joseph Stalin's Daughter Broke Through the Iron Curtain

by Svetlana Allilueva

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After the success of her New York Times-bestselling childhood memoir Twenty Letters to a Friend, Josef Stalin's daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva--subject of Rosemary Sullivan's critically acclaimed biography Stalin's Daughter--penned this riveting account of her year-long journey to defect from the USSR and start a new life in America.The story of Only One Year begins on December 19, 1966, as Svetlana Alliluyeva leaves Russia for India, on a one-month visa, in the custody of an employee of the show more Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It ends on December 19, 1967, in Princeton, New Jersey, as she and two American friends join in a toast to her new life of freedom.That year of pain, discovery, turmoil, and new hope reaches its climax with her decision to break completely from the world of Communism, to turn her back on her country, her children, and the legacy of her notorious father--Joseph Stalin. Why did she make such a drastic choice? This book, a detailed account of reality in the USSR, is her explanation.Frank, fascinating, and thoroughly engrossing, Only One Year reveals life behind the Iron Curtain, the risks and subterfuge of defection, and one extraordinary woman's fight for her future."Among the great Russian autobiographical works: Herzen, Kropotkin, Tolstoy's Confession."--Edmund Wilson, The New Yorker show less

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A compelling, captivating and honest memoir from the daughter of one of the most notorious tyrants in history, Stalin. You can hardly find more inside knowledge than this. Her cold misogynist father, the politics of the country, her own tormenting decision to escape and the actual process of her defection - all this is written with a skill of a person who truly knows herself, and, for me, the book is a fine answer to all the negative speculations that were abundant at the time when she broke all ties with her country. True, not every woman would leave her 2 children (17 and 22 at the time, the older one married) never to return (well, she did return much, much later, but it was not a successful return), but I also feel that we cannot show more judge her, we can only try to put ourselves in her shoes... show less

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4+ Works 572 Members

Some Editions

Chavchavadze, Paul (Translator)

Common Knowledge

Canonical title
Only One Year: How Joseph Stalin's Daughter Broke Through the Iron Curtain
Original publication date
1970

Classifications

Genres
Biography & Memoir, Nonfiction, General Nonfiction, History, Travel
DDC/MDS
914.7History & geographyGeography & travelGeography of and travel in EuropeRussia and neighbouring east European countries
LCC
DK275 .A4 .A33History of Europe, Asia, Africa and OceaniaRussia. Soviet Union. Former Soviet Republics – PolandHistory of Russia. Soviet Union. Former Soviet RepublicsHistorySoviet regime, 1918-1991
BISAC

Statistics

Members
159
Popularity
204,022
Reviews
1
Rating
½ (4.50)
Languages
8 — Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Russian, Swedish
Media
Paper, Ebook
ISBNs
7
ASINs
7