Portrait of Svetlana Alliluyeva

Birthday profile

Svetlana Alliluyeva

Svetlana Alliluyeva, Russian-American writer, daughter of Joseph Stalin (died 2011)

Born
February 28, 1926
Age in 2026
100
Zodiac sign
Pisces
Birth year
1926

About Svetlana Alliluyeva

Svetlana Iosifovna Alliluyeva (née Stalina; 28 February 1926 – 22 November 2011), later known as Lana Peters, was the youngest child and only daughter of the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin and his second wife, Nadezhda Alliluyeva. In 1967, she became an international sensation when she defected to the United States and, in 1978, became a naturalized American citizen. From 1984 to 1986, she briefly returned to the Soviet Union and had her Soviet citizenship reinstated. She was Stalin's last surviving child. == Early life == Svetlana Stalina was born on 28 February 1926. As her mother was interested in pursuing a professional career, Alexandra Bychokova was hired as a nanny to look after Alliluyeva and her older brother Vasily (born 1921). Alliluyeva and Bychokova became quite close, and remained friends for 30 years, until Bychokova died in 1956. On 9 November 1932, Alliluyeva's mother shot herself. To conceal the suicide, the children were told that she had died of peritonitis, a complication from appendicitis. It would be 10 years before they learnt the truth of their mother's death.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Career and life highlights

Svetlana Alliluyeva timeline

  1. Alliluyeva and Bychokova became quite close, and remained friends for 30 years, until Bychokova died in 1956.
  2. In 1967 she became an international sensation when she defected to the United States and, in 1978, became a naturalized American citizen.

The world when Svetlana Alliluyeva was born

Svetlana Alliluyeva was born in 1926. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1926

  • #1 song"Bye Bye Blackbird"
  • Top movieThe General (Buster Keaton)
  • Best-selling bookThe Sun Also Rises – Ernest Hemingway

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentGertrude Ederle swims the English Channel
  • Top headlineA.A. Milne publishes Winnie-the-Pooh
  • Technology milestoneFirst demonstration of television
  • Defining fadFlagpole sitting
  • Notable inventionPop-up toaster
  • World population2.01 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderCalvin Coolidge
  • Sports championSt. Louis Cardinals (World Series)
  • U.S. population117.4M

1926 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Svetlana Alliluyeva's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19262026
Gas$0.23$3.45/gal
Average home$6,000$435,000
Average income$3,620$67,500
Movie ticket$0.25$11.95
Postage stamp$0.02$0.73
Population117.4M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Library of Congress. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.