A really interesting account of Stalin's daughter, Svetlana Alliluyeva. She led a rough life, her mother committed suicide when she was young, around 6 & 1/2. She didn't find out till many years later that it was suicide though. She grew up during Stalin's reign of terror, where family members and family friends disappeared and executed or sent to prisons/gulags for years. She grew up learning as most did there at the time to talk about nothing and to not even whisper your feelings. Men she dated were scared off or sent away and she always had a body guard. After Stalin's death she was able to finish her education in literature and then when her 3rd husband died & her 2 kids were basically adults, she found an opportunity to leave and took it. She eventually made her way to the US and published a couple books that made enough so she could live on for a while. Married into basically the Frank Lloyd Wright commune in Taos and in her 40s had a baby girl, the marriage didn't last but her daughter probably kept her sane for the rest of her life. Reading this you truly get an idea of how conflicted and how tough any adjustment away from communism was for her. I really very interesting read about someone I knew nothing about.
There are 7 WL for it on PBS so I will post at some point & mail off for someone else to enjoy.
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