1
00:00:00,320 --> 00:00:04,040
Speaker 1: In two thousand eleven, a woman named stet Lana died

2
00:00:04,160 --> 00:00:08,320
Speaker 1: unceremoniously in a nursing home in rural Wisconsin at the

3
00:00:08,440 --> 00:00:12,959
Speaker 1: age of her obituary in the New York Times reads

4
00:00:13,039 --> 00:00:15,880
Speaker 1: like a novel. When I first read it, I was

5
00:00:15,920 --> 00:00:18,479
Speaker 1: struck by the story of a woman who was born

6
00:00:18,560 --> 00:00:22,599
Speaker 1: a princess and died a pauper, who grew up godless

7
00:00:22,680 --> 00:00:26,880
Speaker 1: and then was subsumed by mysticism, a woman who captured

8
00:00:26,920 --> 00:00:30,960
Speaker 1: the attention of the world and then died in obscurity.

9
00:00:31,160 --> 00:00:35,400
Speaker 1: It was the most triumphantly tragic obituary I'd ever read.

10
00:00:36,040 --> 00:00:41,160
Speaker 1: Oh and her dad was Joseph Stalin, Soviet dictator, murderer

11
00:00:41,200 --> 00:00:48,320
Speaker 1: of millions. My obituary will say this homosexual jew dankatrocer

12
00:00:48,760 --> 00:00:52,319
Speaker 1: spent the entirety of his twenties performing for children as

13
00:00:52,320 --> 00:00:56,040
Speaker 1: a giant frog in Times Square, while performing for adults

14
00:00:56,160 --> 00:00:59,160
Speaker 1: as Patti LuPone in drag in back rooms and bars

15
00:00:59,200 --> 00:01:02,640
Speaker 1: in the East Village, all the while hoping someone would

16
00:01:02,640 --> 00:01:06,560
Speaker 1: take him seriously as a playwright. He died as he lived,

17
00:01:06,880 --> 00:01:12,080
Speaker 1: with severe anxiety and mild inflammation. And my dad is

18
00:01:12,120 --> 00:01:16,039
Speaker 1: not a mustachio tyrant, but a former attorney and present

19
00:01:16,120 --> 00:01:19,800
Speaker 1: day clown. Do you like my red nose? What do

20
00:01:19,840 --> 00:01:26,840
Speaker 1: you have there? A tire wow on our surfaces. Sped

21
00:01:26,920 --> 00:01:29,959
Speaker 1: Lana and I couldn't be more different. For example, she

22
00:01:30,160 --> 00:01:33,240
Speaker 1: is dead, but from the moment I read about her,

23
00:01:33,480 --> 00:01:35,959
Speaker 1: I couldn't get her off my mind. I spent the

24
00:01:36,000 --> 00:01:40,040
Speaker 1: next few years telling her messy, wild and weird story

25
00:01:40,160 --> 00:01:43,560
Speaker 1: obsessively to anyone who would listen. I knew it had

26
00:01:43,600 --> 00:01:47,040
Speaker 1: to be my next play, so I wrote it, and

27
00:01:47,080 --> 00:01:50,080
Speaker 1: I really thought I nailed it. I can't believe this

28
00:01:50,200 --> 00:01:54,440
Speaker 1: is all started and quit the fire. So thank you all.

29
00:01:54,720 --> 00:01:57,720
Speaker 1: You're brilliant already, and I can't wait for us to

30
00:01:58,440 --> 00:02:01,920
Speaker 1: do the show. But where along the way, my actress,

31
00:02:02,040 --> 00:02:05,680
Speaker 1: my spent Lana, told me she didn't understand her character,

32
00:02:06,600 --> 00:02:10,600
Speaker 1: and then she dropped out of my production. Truth is

33
00:02:11,280 --> 00:02:15,240
Speaker 1: she was right. I was so lost in the plot.

34
00:02:15,800 --> 00:02:21,880
Speaker 1: I had lost svent Lana somewhere inside of it. I

35
00:02:21,919 --> 00:02:25,760
Speaker 1: needed to be there at the tarmac at JFK Airport when,

36
00:02:25,760 --> 00:02:28,840
Speaker 1: at forty years old, spent Lana braved her way over

37
00:02:28,880 --> 00:02:31,959
Speaker 1: the Iron Curtain and arrived in America as the Cold

38
00:02:32,000 --> 00:02:38,440
Speaker 1: War's most famous defector. I am very hip here. I

39
00:02:38,480 --> 00:02:41,440
Speaker 1: needed to know how she got lost in the middle

40
00:02:41,520 --> 00:02:44,960
Speaker 1: of the desert, in the middle of Arizona, absorbed into

41
00:02:45,000 --> 00:02:49,200
Speaker 1: a free laboring fellowship of Frank Lloyd Right Disciples. If

42
00:02:49,240 --> 00:02:53,000
Speaker 1: I do just have like a big question, was the

43
00:02:53,080 --> 00:03:00,640
Speaker 1: fellowship occult? Ah, it's pretty complicated. I needed to understand

44
00:03:00,840 --> 00:03:04,079
Speaker 1: why the hell she married a man whose dead wife's

45
00:03:04,160 --> 00:03:08,000
Speaker 1: name was also sped Lana, as if the name itself

46
00:03:08,080 --> 00:03:13,679
Speaker 1: implied some sort of Balkan destiny. Just my wife Ago,

47
00:03:14,040 --> 00:03:17,600
Speaker 1: And why, oh why did speed Lana become wrapped up

48
00:03:17,639 --> 00:03:21,040
Speaker 1: in the clutches of a Montenegrin mystic who believed the

49
00:03:21,160 --> 00:03:27,840
Speaker 1: key to immortality was dance. What began as a pang

50
00:03:27,919 --> 00:03:32,680
Speaker 1: of artistic inspiration has ultimately become my never ending obsession.

51
00:03:33,639 --> 00:03:36,360
Speaker 1: We're going to follow speed Lana through her many attempts

52
00:03:36,400 --> 00:03:39,880
Speaker 1: to start over. But when Joseph Stalin is your dad,

53
00:03:41,320 --> 00:03:49,160
Speaker 1: can you ever really break free? My name is Dan Catrocer,

54
00:03:49,560 --> 00:03:57,480
Speaker 1: and this is sped Lana's feed Lana. You wake up

55
00:03:58,120 --> 00:04:03,320
Speaker 1: in the morning, you live your day, and then you

56
00:04:03,520 --> 00:04:14,240
Speaker 1: do it tomorrow, and over and over again and over

57
00:04:14,960 --> 00:04:43,200
Speaker 1: again again. Act one, The Princess of the Kremlin Good

58
00:04:44,279 --> 00:04:48,200
Speaker 1: On April one, the only daughter of Joseph Stalin, got

59
00:04:48,240 --> 00:04:51,680
Speaker 1: off a Swiss airliner at Kennedy Airport, walked up to

60
00:04:51,760 --> 00:04:54,680
Speaker 1: the cameras and microphones as if she'd been facing them

61
00:04:54,720 --> 00:04:58,320
Speaker 1: all her life, which she had not, and said, Oh, everybody,

62
00:04:58,400 --> 00:05:03,240
Speaker 1: I'm very glad to be who be here. Look, all

63
00:05:03,320 --> 00:05:05,880
Speaker 1: I want to do is start here on the tarmac

64
00:05:05,960 --> 00:05:09,880
Speaker 1: at JFK, because this is a huge moment speed. Lana's

65
00:05:09,920 --> 00:05:13,160
Speaker 1: father ran the most antagonistic governing body to the US

66
00:05:13,200 --> 00:05:16,280
Speaker 1: of all time, and now his daughter is defecting to

67
00:05:16,360 --> 00:05:21,360
Speaker 1: the United States. I'm watching this newsreel from fifty six

68
00:05:21,480 --> 00:05:23,960
Speaker 1: years ago, and the thing that strikes me is that

69
00:05:24,680 --> 00:05:29,320
Speaker 1: Lana is positively giddy. She bounces down the stairs to

70
00:05:29,400 --> 00:05:33,440
Speaker 1: the microphones like a red rubber ball. Behind her is

71
00:05:33,520 --> 00:05:36,480
Speaker 1: the Swiss airplane that took her across the Atlantic, and

72
00:05:36,600 --> 00:05:40,320
Speaker 1: before her is a crowd, electric with excitement, swarming on

73
00:05:40,400 --> 00:05:43,359
Speaker 1: the tarmac, more people than we're here for the Beatles

74
00:05:43,440 --> 00:05:48,400
Speaker 1: a few years earlier. If it's a plane and few,

75
00:05:51,800 --> 00:05:54,840
Speaker 1: there are sharp shooters on the buildings. There are diplomats

76
00:05:54,920 --> 00:05:58,280
Speaker 1: waiting eagerly in the crowd. The whole place is buzzing.

77
00:05:59,680 --> 00:06:03,080
Speaker 1: Whole next week, I will be able to meet you

78
00:06:03,480 --> 00:06:05,960
Speaker 1: at the press confidence and I will be able to

79
00:06:06,440 --> 00:06:10,280
Speaker 1: answer more questions which you will will be interested off.

80
00:06:11,480 --> 00:06:17,119
Speaker 1: Thank you very much. The problem with starting the story

81
00:06:17,279 --> 00:06:20,280
Speaker 1: here is that set Lana is already forty years old.

82
00:06:20,960 --> 00:06:23,200
Speaker 1: We can start the story here, I mean, I guess

83
00:06:23,200 --> 00:06:25,520
Speaker 1: I just did, but we still have to learn about

84
00:06:25,600 --> 00:06:29,000
Speaker 1: the buyers. She was forged in. So as much as

85
00:06:29,080 --> 00:06:31,280
Speaker 1: I want us to hang out with fet Lana at JFK,

86
00:06:31,640 --> 00:06:34,720
Speaker 1: and don't worry, we'll get there, for now, we have

87
00:06:34,960 --> 00:06:37,680
Speaker 1: to rewind a bit to the very beginnings of the

88
00:06:37,800 --> 00:06:52,520
Speaker 1: USSR picture Russia. The stars are out, the Bolsheviks are in,

89
00:06:53,160 --> 00:06:56,719
Speaker 1: beloved leader Vladimir Lenin dies from a stroke, and Joseph

90
00:06:56,760 --> 00:07:01,159
Speaker 1: Stalin want to be priest. Turned Soviet thug sees his control.

91
00:07:02,640 --> 00:07:07,840
Speaker 1: Stalin decrees mass annihilation, deportation to Siberia, a brooting of

92
00:07:07,920 --> 00:07:14,480
Speaker 1: whole communities, mass liquidation. Look, Stalin's not the nicest guy

93
00:07:14,520 --> 00:07:17,320
Speaker 1: at the bar Mitzvah. He was mean to everyone while

94
00:07:17,320 --> 00:07:20,480
Speaker 1: he was trying to consolidate power, including his own family.

95
00:07:21,040 --> 00:07:23,480
Speaker 1: But there was one member of his family who Stalin

96
00:07:23,520 --> 00:07:27,760
Speaker 1: adored above all others. She was his little sparrow. Sped

97
00:07:27,920 --> 00:07:31,000
Speaker 1: Lana Here spent Lana talking about her dad in an

98
00:07:31,040 --> 00:07:34,400
Speaker 1: interview from any t Journal shortly after landing in America.

99
00:07:35,440 --> 00:07:39,240
Speaker 1: The same person who was in the same time merciless

100
00:07:39,320 --> 00:07:42,000
Speaker 1: to his political enemies, he could be at the same

101
00:07:42,080 --> 00:07:47,320
Speaker 1: time rather kind and tender. Was his favorite child. Look,

102
00:07:47,520 --> 00:07:50,720
Speaker 1: we all think we have complicated relationships with our parents,

103
00:07:51,000 --> 00:07:53,320
Speaker 1: but nothing is going to be like growing up as

104
00:07:53,440 --> 00:07:57,000
Speaker 1: Joseph Stalin's daughter. I want to imagine it, I really do,

105
00:07:57,360 --> 00:08:01,800
Speaker 1: but to a certain degree, it's an imaginable Hello, Hello,

106
00:08:03,040 --> 00:08:07,840
Speaker 1: and then hi, Mry, Okay, here we are. Oh my god,

107
00:08:07,920 --> 00:08:11,320
Speaker 1: I just have to say. Those ear rings, those ear

108
00:08:11,400 --> 00:08:16,280
Speaker 1: rings are everything. Rosemary Sullivan wrote a fabulous biography of

109
00:08:16,360 --> 00:08:21,280
Speaker 1: spet Lana called Stalin's Daughter. She's everything. I'm not brilliant,

110
00:08:21,520 --> 00:08:25,600
Speaker 1: prolific Canadian. I have a big girl crush on Rosemary.

111
00:08:26,680 --> 00:08:28,760
Speaker 1: Is it all right if we dive into the woman

112
00:08:28,840 --> 00:08:33,040
Speaker 1: of the hour? Of course, let's dive into her. What

113
00:08:33,280 --> 00:08:38,640
Speaker 1: was spet Lana's childhood like the first six years until

114
00:08:38,720 --> 00:08:41,800
Speaker 1: she was six and a half? Uh she called it

115
00:08:42,000 --> 00:08:45,240
Speaker 1: her you know, her blessed childhood. That it took place

116
00:08:45,320 --> 00:08:48,920
Speaker 1: at the dacha in the summers with the extended family,

117
00:08:49,080 --> 00:08:54,200
Speaker 1: her grandparents, whom she loved, her aunts and uncle's. Visiting dignitaries.

118
00:08:54,800 --> 00:08:58,240
Speaker 1: Winston Churchill met her, he called her cute. Little girls

119
00:08:58,280 --> 00:09:01,120
Speaker 1: throughout Russia are named after her. Her picture is in

120
00:09:01,280 --> 00:09:06,520
Speaker 1: every paper, like Northwest or Oprah's Dogs. If Oprah has dogs.

121
00:09:07,000 --> 00:09:09,840
Speaker 1: She's waited on hand and foot and watches as her

122
00:09:09,880 --> 00:09:14,240
Speaker 1: father consolidates power at the dinner table. Meanwhile, left and

123
00:09:14,400 --> 00:09:17,880
Speaker 1: right people are starving, or being imprisoned or being murdered.

124
00:09:18,440 --> 00:09:21,040
Speaker 1: You see, the Soviets decided that the only way for

125
00:09:21,160 --> 00:09:24,559
Speaker 1: communism to work was for one person to lead the charge,

126
00:09:24,920 --> 00:09:27,760
Speaker 1: and so it fell to Stalin to bend fifteen different

127
00:09:27,800 --> 00:09:31,120
Speaker 1: republics and a hundred and seventy million people to his will.

128
00:09:32,000 --> 00:09:35,480
Speaker 1: Everyone had to follow the orders, including his wife. S

129
00:09:35,559 --> 00:09:40,040
Speaker 1: fed Lana's mother, Nadia. Bet Lana writes about how much

130
00:09:40,080 --> 00:09:42,280
Speaker 1: she loved her mother, about how much she yearned for

131
00:09:42,360 --> 00:09:46,640
Speaker 1: her mother, But was she a maternal presence when she

132
00:09:46,840 --> 00:09:49,439
Speaker 1: was alive. When seed Lana was asked about her mother,

133
00:09:49,559 --> 00:09:51,360
Speaker 1: she said, the only thing I remember is the smell

134
00:09:51,440 --> 00:09:53,439
Speaker 1: of her perfume when she said good night to me

135
00:09:54,920 --> 00:09:57,800
Speaker 1: one night after sed Lana had gone to bed the

136
00:09:57,920 --> 00:10:00,840
Speaker 1: door to her room crept open. It was her mother

137
00:10:01,200 --> 00:10:05,040
Speaker 1: sneaking in and spooning her daughter. While the two lay

138
00:10:05,120 --> 00:10:08,480
Speaker 1: there in a hush silence, sped Lana remembers her mother

139
00:10:08,679 --> 00:10:12,200
Speaker 1: tracing a box around her heart and whispering into her

140
00:10:12,240 --> 00:10:17,480
Speaker 1: little girl's ear. This box, spent, Lana, This is where

141
00:10:17,520 --> 00:10:21,760
Speaker 1: you keep all your secrets. At a young age, spent

142
00:10:21,880 --> 00:10:25,560
Speaker 1: Lana learns that truth is a liability and you must

143
00:10:25,640 --> 00:10:28,280
Speaker 1: keep it close to your chest. And then her mother

144
00:10:28,320 --> 00:10:35,079
Speaker 1: committed suicide. As the story goes, and it's very cinematic,

145
00:10:35,520 --> 00:10:38,600
Speaker 1: Stalin is throwing a huge party in the Kremlin. People

146
00:10:38,640 --> 00:10:41,719
Speaker 1: are drinking, music is playing, and even though Nadia is

147
00:10:41,840 --> 00:10:45,280
Speaker 1: right there, Stalin is flirting with his hairdresser. I know

148
00:10:45,360 --> 00:10:48,800
Speaker 1: what you're thinking, Stalin needed a hairdresser. Well, mustaches don't

149
00:10:48,840 --> 00:10:54,160
Speaker 1: just comb themselves. Stalin demands that everyone raised their glasses

150
00:10:54,200 --> 00:10:57,240
Speaker 1: to toast the Soviet Union. All the glasses fly up

151
00:10:57,280 --> 00:11:01,200
Speaker 1: to the ceiling, all except for Naja's. Hey. He yells

152
00:11:01,240 --> 00:11:04,360
Speaker 1: across the room to his wife, raise your glass. She

153
00:11:04,559 --> 00:11:08,240
Speaker 1: spits back at him, my name is not hey. Ah.

154
00:11:08,840 --> 00:11:12,719
Speaker 1: What a line. Nadia rushes out the door, races to

155
00:11:12,800 --> 00:11:16,000
Speaker 1: her bedroom, takes a pistol out of her drawer, aims

156
00:11:16,000 --> 00:11:24,959
Speaker 1: at at the box around her heart and fires it speed.

157
00:11:25,040 --> 00:11:28,880
Speaker 1: Lana was always told that her mother died of appendicitis,

158
00:11:29,679 --> 00:11:32,360
Speaker 1: and she would believe that lie for the next ten years.

159
00:11:33,080 --> 00:11:36,880
Speaker 1: Her childhood was marked by secrets and lies and death,

160
00:11:37,320 --> 00:11:40,880
Speaker 1: all in the name of Stalin. Here's Grace Kennan Warnick,

161
00:11:41,120 --> 00:11:43,160
Speaker 1: who spent a good deal of time with feed Lana

162
00:11:43,200 --> 00:11:45,600
Speaker 1: when she first came over to the States. We'll learn

163
00:11:45,679 --> 00:11:48,280
Speaker 1: more about her in the next episode. Every member of

164
00:11:48,360 --> 00:11:51,880
Speaker 1: her mother's family was shot, I mean every single one

165
00:11:51,960 --> 00:11:55,160
Speaker 1: of them. Her uncle's killed in the bridges, her aunt

166
00:11:55,480 --> 00:11:58,319
Speaker 1: tried to eat glass to kill herself, her first great

167
00:11:58,440 --> 00:12:02,040
Speaker 1: love sent to the blueleg. You know, when I was sixteen,

168
00:12:02,280 --> 00:12:04,800
Speaker 1: I was so upset because for my birthday, my parents

169
00:12:04,880 --> 00:12:07,680
Speaker 1: gave me the same audio cassette tape of Terry Gross

170
00:12:07,760 --> 00:12:10,880
Speaker 1: interviews that they had given me the year before first

171
00:12:10,920 --> 00:12:14,360
Speaker 1: met Lana. Sixteen was marked by her father sending her

172
00:12:14,440 --> 00:12:17,959
Speaker 1: boyfriend to the Gulag, her oldest brother being captured in

173
00:12:18,040 --> 00:12:21,520
Speaker 1: a German concentration camp and rather than trade for his release,

174
00:12:21,600 --> 00:12:24,880
Speaker 1: Stalin let him be executed, and then finding out in

175
00:12:24,960 --> 00:12:28,480
Speaker 1: a contraband copy of Life magazine that her mother didn't

176
00:12:28,559 --> 00:12:32,760
Speaker 1: die appendicitis, but died by suicide. So what I'm saying

177
00:12:32,960 --> 00:12:38,479
Speaker 1: is we both suffered. Her father lied to her, Everyone

178
00:12:39,040 --> 00:12:41,800
Speaker 1: lied to her. So when she found out that her

179
00:12:41,800 --> 00:12:44,439
Speaker 1: mother committed suicion and she blamed her father, then it

180
00:12:44,600 --> 00:12:48,760
Speaker 1: must have been a kind of rebellion that lodged in

181
00:12:48,920 --> 00:12:54,319
Speaker 1: her pursuit of freedom. But it's a quiet rebellion, it

182
00:12:54,480 --> 00:12:57,280
Speaker 1: has to be. She tries standing up to her father

183
00:12:57,440 --> 00:13:00,199
Speaker 1: on behalf of friends and family who are imprisoned, but

184
00:13:00,360 --> 00:13:03,520
Speaker 1: he belittles her, calls her a fool, and she soon

185
00:13:03,640 --> 00:13:08,600
Speaker 1: stops trying to intervene, so instead she throws herself into

186
00:13:08,640 --> 00:13:12,440
Speaker 1: the world of books. Reading about other places, other stories,

187
00:13:12,520 --> 00:13:18,120
Speaker 1: other lives was the only escape she had. When set

188
00:13:18,200 --> 00:13:21,520
Speaker 1: Lana seventeen, she goes to the university to study history

189
00:13:21,800 --> 00:13:25,160
Speaker 1: and falls for a Jewish academic, hoping this man will

190
00:13:25,240 --> 00:13:28,679
Speaker 1: take her away from Kremlin life. They get married, but

191
00:13:28,840 --> 00:13:31,800
Speaker 1: Stalin refuses to meet him on the grounds that he's Jewish,

192
00:13:33,000 --> 00:13:35,959
Speaker 1: so after three years of that marriage, she divorces the

193
00:13:36,080 --> 00:13:39,000
Speaker 1: jew and marries the son of Stalin's right hand man.

194
00:13:39,640 --> 00:13:43,120
Speaker 1: I could spend hours on these two marriages alone, But

195
00:13:43,240 --> 00:13:45,720
Speaker 1: the thing that's interesting here is that in the first

196
00:13:45,800 --> 00:13:48,959
Speaker 1: marriage is that Lana tries to subvert her father, and

197
00:13:49,120 --> 00:13:52,640
Speaker 1: then in the second she gives him to him. By

198
00:13:52,679 --> 00:13:56,839
Speaker 1: her own account, she becomes passive and vulnerable, shy and

199
00:13:57,000 --> 00:14:01,840
Speaker 1: soft spoken, and her father's dictatorial it grows ever more deadly,

200
00:14:04,120 --> 00:14:12,200
Speaker 1: and then it's Stalin has a stroke. You've seen the film,

201
00:14:12,360 --> 00:14:18,480
Speaker 1: and the death of Stalin is here. I'm here. When

202
00:14:18,559 --> 00:14:22,000
Speaker 1: spent Lana gets word, she storms into her father's bedroom

203
00:14:22,080 --> 00:14:25,160
Speaker 1: to discover his maid and polyp Euro standing over him,

204
00:14:25,440 --> 00:14:29,600
Speaker 1: debating about what to do. The racist started, all right,

205
00:14:29,680 --> 00:14:32,520
Speaker 1: we need to stop waiting together the planet. They're all

206
00:14:32,600 --> 00:14:35,520
Speaker 1: either too afraid to call for help or too hopeful

207
00:14:35,560 --> 00:14:38,120
Speaker 1: that will finally kick the bucket and they can seize control.

208
00:14:38,680 --> 00:14:42,360
Speaker 1: No one does anything, and just like in that group

209
00:14:42,400 --> 00:14:44,840
Speaker 1: of friends where everyone's hungry yet no one wants to

210
00:14:44,920 --> 00:14:50,560
Speaker 1: decide where to eat, it ends in death stalinstead, no

211
00:14:51,640 --> 00:14:58,200
Speaker 1: the Stalin host. Now with her father gone, there's hope

212
00:14:58,240 --> 00:15:00,640
Speaker 1: that spent Lana will finally be free to do what

213
00:15:00,760 --> 00:15:03,920
Speaker 1: she likes to live inside of literature, hang out with

214
00:15:04,040 --> 00:15:06,840
Speaker 1: her academic friends, be out of the public eye, and

215
00:15:07,000 --> 00:15:10,840
Speaker 1: be free. And even with the KGB still lurking around

216
00:15:10,880 --> 00:15:14,680
Speaker 1: every corner. Stet Lana does, in fact, do three subversive things.

217
00:15:15,280 --> 00:15:18,440
Speaker 1: She's baptized as a Christian. She changes her last name

218
00:15:18,560 --> 00:15:21,640
Speaker 1: from the paternal Stalina to her mother's last name, and

219
00:15:21,720 --> 00:15:26,480
Speaker 1: how do you pronounce her? Last interesting question for me.

220
00:15:28,000 --> 00:15:34,680
Speaker 1: I try to avoid it, Lana. Here's spent Lana talking

221
00:15:34,760 --> 00:15:39,320
Speaker 1: about the name change. I changed it because I didn't

222
00:15:39,400 --> 00:15:43,000
Speaker 1: want my son to be Joseph Stylin. And the second

223
00:15:43,040 --> 00:15:45,920
Speaker 1: pany And the other thing that she does, and this

224
00:15:46,160 --> 00:15:49,080
Speaker 1: is a big one, is that she writes a memoir,

225
00:15:50,080 --> 00:15:53,160
Speaker 1: a memoir of her life growing up with Stalin as

226
00:15:53,200 --> 00:15:57,200
Speaker 1: her father. Now at this point St. Lana doesn't intend

227
00:15:57,240 --> 00:15:59,800
Speaker 1: to publish the book. She writes it as the so

228
00:16:00,000 --> 00:16:03,600
Speaker 1: beats would say for the drawer, because truth is still

229
00:16:03,760 --> 00:16:08,040
Speaker 1: a liability. The currency of Russia is still betrayal, so

230
00:16:08,200 --> 00:16:11,960
Speaker 1: she has to be very careful. But the memoir, which

231
00:16:12,000 --> 00:16:14,880
Speaker 1: she writes as a series of vignettes, calling it twenty

232
00:16:14,960 --> 00:16:17,320
Speaker 1: Letters to a Friend, flies out of her in a

233
00:16:17,400 --> 00:16:22,120
Speaker 1: couple of weeks. It must have been thoroughly cathartic. As

234
00:16:22,280 --> 00:16:25,960
Speaker 1: a playwright and screenwriter who often puts writers in his work,

235
00:16:26,520 --> 00:16:29,200
Speaker 1: I am well aware that the least dramatic thing you

236
00:16:29,240 --> 00:16:32,400
Speaker 1: can show is someone writing, because I know from the outside,

237
00:16:32,440 --> 00:16:34,800
Speaker 1: all it is is someone sitting at the keys, pressing

238
00:16:34,880 --> 00:16:39,640
Speaker 1: buttons the man. I wish I was there in her

239
00:16:39,680 --> 00:16:44,000
Speaker 1: apartment when she was writing her book. It's quiet here

240
00:16:44,880 --> 00:16:50,680
Speaker 1: Muscow breathing fire like the human volcano, with its smoldering

241
00:16:50,840 --> 00:16:54,040
Speaker 1: love of fashion. I wish I could see her press

242
00:16:54,120 --> 00:16:58,640
Speaker 1: her fingers to the keys. Musco sees and bubbles and

243
00:16:58,880 --> 00:17:01,960
Speaker 1: gasps for air, listened to the ding of the typewriter

244
00:17:02,080 --> 00:17:07,159
Speaker 1: as she reaches the edge of the page. I've never

245
00:17:07,280 --> 00:17:11,399
Speaker 1: been an actor on center stage. Well, my life was

246
00:17:11,440 --> 00:17:14,840
Speaker 1: spent behind the smell of fresh ink, the feel of

247
00:17:15,000 --> 00:17:18,359
Speaker 1: thick paper, the taste of burnt coffee or tea that

248
00:17:18,480 --> 00:17:21,080
Speaker 1: probably got old and stale as the days were on.

249
00:17:21,160 --> 00:17:24,920
Speaker 1: In tonight's To watch the suppressed history fly out of

250
00:17:24,960 --> 00:17:29,080
Speaker 1: her fingertips onto the page, that would have been something.

251
00:17:33,000 --> 00:17:36,399
Speaker 1: Sped Lana shares the manuscript with a friend, a literary critic,

252
00:17:36,560 --> 00:17:40,480
Speaker 1: who encourages her to publish abroad, but sped Lana refuses,

253
00:17:40,960 --> 00:17:44,160
Speaker 1: She's not ready yet. Who knows what danger that would bring.

254
00:17:45,960 --> 00:17:49,359
Speaker 1: It was this very same friend, the literary critic who

255
00:17:49,400 --> 00:17:52,320
Speaker 1: had offered to read her palm at a party. He'd

256
00:17:52,359 --> 00:17:55,400
Speaker 1: studied the thatched lines on her hand, looked up into

257
00:17:55,480 --> 00:17:58,880
Speaker 1: her eyes and proclaimed, the second half of your life

258
00:18:00,000 --> 00:18:06,720
Speaker 1: will be far more interesting than the first. This after

259
00:18:06,800 --> 00:18:19,639
Speaker 1: the break, Act two, a whole new world. I'm not

260
00:18:19,760 --> 00:18:23,960
Speaker 1: a particularly brave person, but I've been told that bravery

261
00:18:24,280 --> 00:18:26,800
Speaker 1: is like a muscle. You have to work it out

262
00:18:26,840 --> 00:18:29,160
Speaker 1: in small ways so that you can lift the big

263
00:18:29,320 --> 00:18:33,280
Speaker 1: dumbbells of valor at the weightlifting contest on the beach

264
00:18:33,480 --> 00:18:37,919
Speaker 1: of morality. So sped Lana is working out. She finds

265
00:18:37,960 --> 00:18:41,080
Speaker 1: her voice in her writing. She starts speaking out publicly

266
00:18:41,119 --> 00:18:45,040
Speaker 1: against the government, and she's reading previously banned books about

267
00:18:45,080 --> 00:18:48,600
Speaker 1: the terror of Stalin. When she goes to the hospital

268
00:18:48,680 --> 00:18:51,280
Speaker 1: to get her tonsils removed, she brings with her a

269
00:18:51,359 --> 00:18:54,960
Speaker 1: biography of Gandhi and as if it were destiny. While

270
00:18:55,040 --> 00:18:58,640
Speaker 1: recuperating from surgery, her eyes flit up from her book

271
00:18:59,000 --> 00:19:02,640
Speaker 1: and land on a most unusual type for a Soviet hospital,

272
00:19:03,160 --> 00:19:06,840
Speaker 1: a kind hearted, older Indian man wearing a beret on

273
00:19:06,960 --> 00:19:10,840
Speaker 1: his head with tampon stuffed in his nose. He either

274
00:19:10,960 --> 00:19:14,040
Speaker 1: had polyps removed from his nostrils, or his mother never

275
00:19:14,080 --> 00:19:17,320
Speaker 1: showed him where his vagina was. Most of the men.

276
00:19:17,400 --> 00:19:19,119
Speaker 1: She fell in love with a man of quality. I

277
00:19:19,200 --> 00:19:22,280
Speaker 1: have to say things. Sounds like quite a wonderful man.

278
00:19:23,200 --> 00:19:25,440
Speaker 1: After a day of the two of them making eyes

279
00:19:25,480 --> 00:19:29,199
Speaker 1: at one another, they started up a conversation. They spoke

280
00:19:29,280 --> 00:19:33,960
Speaker 1: of Gandhi, of Nehru, of politics of literature spanning Russia

281
00:19:34,040 --> 00:19:38,479
Speaker 1: and India and the great world beyond. When she finally

282
00:19:38,600 --> 00:19:41,760
Speaker 1: revealed to him who her father was, he merely shrugged

283
00:19:41,800 --> 00:19:47,359
Speaker 1: his shoulders and said, oh, Briges Singh didn't care about

284
00:19:47,440 --> 00:19:53,200
Speaker 1: speed Lana's dad. He only cared about speed Lana. Her

285
00:19:53,280 --> 00:19:55,920
Speaker 1: father had been dead for nearly a decade. She was

286
00:19:56,040 --> 00:19:59,600
Speaker 1: thirty six years old, thrice divorced, with two teenage children,

287
00:20:00,119 --> 00:20:06,080
Speaker 1: and now spent Lana Alujeva was in love, and it's

288
00:20:06,119 --> 00:20:11,600
Speaker 1: in love where sped Lana's bravery is tested. She asked

289
00:20:11,640 --> 00:20:18,959
Speaker 1: permission to marry him. She was refused. After a failed

290
00:20:18,960 --> 00:20:23,640
Speaker 1: attempt at liberalism following Stalin's death, Russia is closing back

291
00:20:23,720 --> 00:20:27,040
Speaker 1: up again, and spelled Lana is feeling it, pleading with

292
00:20:27,200 --> 00:20:30,840
Speaker 1: heads of state to recognize her marriage to an Indian Hindu.

293
00:20:31,480 --> 00:20:35,520
Speaker 1: After many refusals, she decides, fuck it, I'm calling him

294
00:20:35,600 --> 00:20:39,120
Speaker 1: my husband no matter what they say. And then there's

295
00:20:39,200 --> 00:20:42,400
Speaker 1: the issue of her book. The written word is under

296
00:20:42,440 --> 00:20:45,960
Speaker 1: attack and spent. Lana still has a manuscript all about

297
00:20:46,040 --> 00:20:49,800
Speaker 1: the intimacies and horrors of life under Stalin's rule. I

298
00:20:50,000 --> 00:20:54,280
Speaker 1: felt it was the help of my husband registering. We

299
00:20:54,440 --> 00:20:58,040
Speaker 1: felt both that it would be better to send the

300
00:20:58,160 --> 00:21:01,960
Speaker 1: book abroad with her per mission. Brigesh gives a copy

301
00:21:02,000 --> 00:21:04,680
Speaker 1: of the manuscript to an ambassador buddy of his living

302
00:21:04,720 --> 00:21:09,560
Speaker 1: in India. Remember this, it will become important. And then

303
00:21:10,280 --> 00:21:13,600
Speaker 1: Brigesh becomes ill again. She wanted to go back with

304
00:21:13,760 --> 00:21:16,560
Speaker 1: him to India because he was ill and she thought

305
00:21:16,640 --> 00:21:19,920
Speaker 1: maybe the Indian climate would be easier on him. She

306
00:21:20,119 --> 00:21:22,400
Speaker 1: was refused permission to go with him. He didn't want

307
00:21:22,400 --> 00:21:28,040
Speaker 1: to go without her, and eventually he died. Splana had

308
00:21:28,160 --> 00:21:33,240
Speaker 1: only seen one death before her father's. Angry tormented suffocating

309
00:21:33,320 --> 00:21:36,760
Speaker 1: for days of fist in the air, but Brigess knew

310
00:21:36,800 --> 00:21:40,959
Speaker 1: he was declining. Early one morning in October of nineteen

311
00:21:41,040 --> 00:21:45,639
Speaker 1: sixty six, he called her Specta, he said, using his

312
00:21:45,720 --> 00:21:50,760
Speaker 1: pet name for her. Specta in Sanskrit means light Specta.

313
00:21:52,040 --> 00:21:56,400
Speaker 1: I'm going to die today and by seven am, Brigesh

314
00:21:56,520 --> 00:22:06,199
Speaker 1: Singh was gone. I was attached to him, I loved him,

315
00:22:06,280 --> 00:22:09,800
Speaker 1: I respected him, and when he has finally died, I

316
00:22:10,080 --> 00:22:15,400
Speaker 1: felt that I have myself completely changed. Two years ago,

317
00:22:15,840 --> 00:22:20,000
Speaker 1: spied Lana had politely asked the government to marry Bridgess. Denied.

318
00:22:20,880 --> 00:22:24,880
Speaker 1: One year ago she begged to journey with him to India. Denied.

319
00:22:25,760 --> 00:22:28,199
Speaker 1: And now with nothing left to this man but an

320
00:22:28,320 --> 00:22:31,520
Speaker 1: urn filled with his ashes, she has a fire under

321
00:22:31,560 --> 00:22:37,760
Speaker 1: her ass. The next day, virtually she went to the

322
00:22:37,840 --> 00:22:41,040
Speaker 1: Kremlin and asked if she could take his ashes to India.

323
00:22:41,520 --> 00:22:44,080
Speaker 1: He wanted them spread on the game Jess, and she

324
00:22:44,200 --> 00:22:47,960
Speaker 1: was given permission to go to to all aboard. Pack

325
00:22:48,040 --> 00:22:51,959
Speaker 1: your bags, grab your dead lover's ashes. Kiss you're two teenagers. Goodbye,

326
00:22:52,320 --> 00:22:56,960
Speaker 1: We're going to India. Spent Lana is forty years old,

327
00:22:57,119 --> 00:22:59,040
Speaker 1: and this is the first time that she has ever

328
00:22:59,200 --> 00:23:01,720
Speaker 1: leaving Soviets soil. There's going to be a lot of

329
00:23:01,800 --> 00:23:04,160
Speaker 1: planes and countries in the next six months of spet

330
00:23:04,280 --> 00:23:07,240
Speaker 1: Lana's life, but she doesn't know that yet. For now,

331
00:23:07,600 --> 00:23:10,000
Speaker 1: she's leaving Russia behind for a short stay of a

332
00:23:10,080 --> 00:23:13,959
Speaker 1: few weeks. It's just her, a few bags, and her

333
00:23:14,119 --> 00:23:19,360
Speaker 1: handler Mrs Casarova. Now a short aside about Mrs Casarova.

334
00:23:19,920 --> 00:23:24,800
Speaker 1: I love Mrs Casarova, where spet Lana was excited about

335
00:23:24,840 --> 00:23:28,560
Speaker 1: this adventure, this breath of freedom. By all accounts, it

336
00:23:28,680 --> 00:23:32,760
Speaker 1: seems that Mrs Casarova was devastated to be leaving Russia.

337
00:23:33,359 --> 00:23:37,280
Speaker 1: She cried a lot and told spet Lana not to

338
00:23:37,359 --> 00:23:40,920
Speaker 1: go into the glittering, colorful, bustling metropolis that was Deli.

339
00:23:41,400 --> 00:23:45,520
Speaker 1: It's dirty, Mrs Casarova said, And then she probably cried

340
00:23:46,000 --> 00:23:50,480
Speaker 1: a lot because who wouldn't miss Soviet Russia? That Lana baby,

341
00:23:50,880 --> 00:23:54,399
Speaker 1: she loved Deli. She loved being immersed in the bazaars

342
00:23:54,480 --> 00:23:57,280
Speaker 1: and the spices and the saris and Deli in the

343
00:23:57,359 --> 00:24:01,280
Speaker 1: nineteen sixties, at least among the ruling class, was terribly modern,

344
00:24:01,960 --> 00:24:10,280
Speaker 1: she writes. Around me, I saw a variety of different eras, countries, influences.

345
00:24:11,400 --> 00:24:14,560
Speaker 1: Speed Lana was floored to see the televisions and record players,

346
00:24:14,720 --> 00:24:19,119
Speaker 1: modern music, modern literature, the sound of music. But the

347
00:24:19,320 --> 00:24:23,200
Speaker 1: Soviets were being fucking annoying. They forced that Lana to

348
00:24:23,280 --> 00:24:26,240
Speaker 1: stay in a hotel room without its own telephone, and

349
00:24:26,400 --> 00:24:28,879
Speaker 1: for two weeks they told spet Lana that she couldn't

350
00:24:28,880 --> 00:24:33,439
Speaker 1: actually go to Bridgessha's hometown for some political reason. How

351
00:24:33,520 --> 00:24:36,360
Speaker 1: many ways could the Soviets push her around? The way

352
00:24:36,520 --> 00:24:40,200
Speaker 1: I was treated in India by the Soviet embassy and

353
00:24:40,320 --> 00:24:43,480
Speaker 1: best Soviet officials, it made me feel exactly that I

354
00:24:43,560 --> 00:24:45,720
Speaker 1: am not human being at all, I am just a

355
00:24:45,800 --> 00:24:49,960
Speaker 1: piece of state property. Finally, after what seems to be

356
00:24:50,119 --> 00:24:53,440
Speaker 1: some pretty intense pouting, speed Lana is taken to Bridgessha's

357
00:24:53,520 --> 00:24:58,040
Speaker 1: village of colum kan Kar by the Ganges River. So

358
00:24:58,200 --> 00:25:02,600
Speaker 1: imagine it spent La not Alleluiva, standing on a terrace

359
00:25:02,680 --> 00:25:05,800
Speaker 1: and a white sorry looking down below, as a group

360
00:25:05,880 --> 00:25:09,800
Speaker 1: of solemn men carrying urn into a boat and roast

361
00:25:09,880 --> 00:25:13,040
Speaker 1: slowly through lilies and lotuses in the middle of the

362
00:25:13,080 --> 00:25:17,400
Speaker 1: Ganges River. The procession of mourners and white the young

363
00:25:17,520 --> 00:25:19,800
Speaker 1: boys weaving their way through the crowd on the shore,

364
00:25:20,400 --> 00:25:23,000
Speaker 1: the boat docking in the middle of the water, the

365
00:25:23,119 --> 00:25:27,080
Speaker 1: ashes of her husband being poured into the Ganges, his

366
00:25:27,240 --> 00:25:31,919
Speaker 1: soul returning to the home of his ancestors in Delhi.

367
00:25:32,320 --> 00:25:35,760
Speaker 1: Spent Lana is taken to the modern, vibrant New world,

368
00:25:36,560 --> 00:25:40,800
Speaker 1: and in Bragesh's village, she's taken to the ancient spiritual past,

369
00:25:41,960 --> 00:25:49,080
Speaker 1: and suddenly Russia felt like neither Here's grace. Kennan wernicky again.

370
00:25:49,359 --> 00:25:52,000
Speaker 1: She wants to stay longer in India, and there were

371
00:25:52,040 --> 00:25:55,280
Speaker 1: two kgb people there that were supposed to be kind

372
00:25:55,359 --> 00:25:58,280
Speaker 1: of looking making sure she didn't get into any trouble.

373
00:25:59,080 --> 00:26:03,280
Speaker 1: But she went to visit her lover's brother speed Lana

374
00:26:03,400 --> 00:26:06,719
Speaker 1: loves Singh's family. They talked deep into the night. They

375
00:26:06,800 --> 00:26:09,600
Speaker 1: drink tea on the terrace. She bathed in the Ganges

376
00:26:09,680 --> 00:26:12,959
Speaker 1: each morning. She loves the humid weather and the trees

377
00:26:13,119 --> 00:26:16,000
Speaker 1: and fruits, and she never wants to go back to Russia.

378
00:26:16,320 --> 00:26:19,600
Speaker 1: If I come back to Moscow, I'll become just a

379
00:26:20,200 --> 00:26:25,159
Speaker 1: I'll return back isn't completed enemy of the government, of

380
00:26:25,280 --> 00:26:29,119
Speaker 1: the state, of the way of life, of ideology. And

381
00:26:29,760 --> 00:26:32,760
Speaker 1: I didn't want to return that way because it would

382
00:26:32,800 --> 00:26:35,639
Speaker 1: be it would be then horrible life for my children,

383
00:26:35,720 --> 00:26:39,160
Speaker 1: and I knew it was wouldn't be possible to protest,

384
00:26:40,600 --> 00:26:44,640
Speaker 1: so I I prefer not to come back. But how

385
00:26:44,720 --> 00:26:47,600
Speaker 1: could she survive elsewhere? She had no money. She never

386
00:26:47,680 --> 00:26:49,760
Speaker 1: left the country, and even if she could get out,

387
00:26:50,040 --> 00:26:51,880
Speaker 1: what other country would want to be at the center

388
00:26:51,960 --> 00:26:55,520
Speaker 1: of a major diplomatic controversy. She needs some leverage for

389
00:26:55,560 --> 00:26:58,600
Speaker 1: the world outside to take her seriously. And that's where

390
00:26:58,600 --> 00:27:02,200
Speaker 1: her manuscript came in twenty letters to a friend, the

391
00:27:02,320 --> 00:27:07,119
Speaker 1: story of Stalin as told by his daughter. But speed

392
00:27:07,200 --> 00:27:09,480
Speaker 1: Lana would never have carried that book in her bags.

393
00:27:10,440 --> 00:27:13,760
Speaker 1: Now remember when Bragesh sent a copy of speed Lana's

394
00:27:13,800 --> 00:27:17,040
Speaker 1: manuscript to a buddy of his before he died. Well,

395
00:27:17,200 --> 00:27:20,480
Speaker 1: lucky for speed Lana, that buddy happens to be in

396
00:27:20,600 --> 00:27:24,600
Speaker 1: India and he has her book and he gives it

397
00:27:24,680 --> 00:27:29,320
Speaker 1: to her. So she's back in Delhi. She has her book.

398
00:27:29,960 --> 00:27:33,119
Speaker 1: And here's where it gets good. A few days before

399
00:27:33,160 --> 00:27:35,520
Speaker 1: spent Lana is supposed to go back to Moscow, it

400
00:27:35,680 --> 00:27:39,240
Speaker 1: happens to be International Women's Day and there's a big

401
00:27:39,359 --> 00:27:42,800
Speaker 1: party being held at the Russian Embassy in Delhi. Anyone

402
00:27:42,920 --> 00:27:45,520
Speaker 1: who's anyone will be there, all the handlers and the

403
00:27:45,640 --> 00:27:50,280
Speaker 1: diplomats and KGB officers. It's fabulous. Who would notice if

404
00:27:50,320 --> 00:27:53,040
Speaker 1: spent Lana was running late or that she didn't show

405
00:27:53,119 --> 00:27:56,879
Speaker 1: up at all. It's nighttime. Everyone is getting dressed up

406
00:27:57,080 --> 00:28:00,200
Speaker 1: making their way to the embassy, and spent Lana in

407
00:28:00,320 --> 00:28:03,560
Speaker 1: her hotel room without a phone, is laying out her luggage.

408
00:28:04,200 --> 00:28:07,119
Speaker 1: She has an idea. She'll put all her belongings on

409
00:28:07,200 --> 00:28:11,520
Speaker 1: her bed, tinkling bracelets for her daughter, gold embroidered slippers,

410
00:28:11,600 --> 00:28:15,560
Speaker 1: and a hookah for her son. But actually she packs

411
00:28:15,680 --> 00:28:19,879
Speaker 1: two other bags, one with some clothes, the other a

412
00:28:20,000 --> 00:28:23,960
Speaker 1: small red valise that holds her book. And as the

413
00:28:24,080 --> 00:28:28,000
Speaker 1: Russian men and women, diplomats and ambassadors all scurry to

414
00:28:28,160 --> 00:28:31,560
Speaker 1: and fro, spent Lana finds a telephone in the lobby

415
00:28:32,080 --> 00:28:36,399
Speaker 1: and rings for a taxi. She waits outside the hotel,

416
00:28:37,040 --> 00:28:40,440
Speaker 1: her heart pounding as Russians passed by her en route

417
00:28:40,480 --> 00:28:44,200
Speaker 1: to the party. Do they know? Can they see in

418
00:28:44,280 --> 00:28:50,760
Speaker 1: her eyes what she's plotting. When the taxi finally picks

419
00:28:50,760 --> 00:28:53,120
Speaker 1: her up and she asks to be taken to the

420
00:28:53,160 --> 00:28:57,000
Speaker 1: American embassy, the driver nods it's a straight shot, but

421
00:28:57,120 --> 00:28:59,600
Speaker 1: he seems to know that something's up and takes only

422
00:28:59,680 --> 00:29:04,000
Speaker 1: back roads until they land at the brutalist white structure.

423
00:29:05,080 --> 00:29:08,600
Speaker 1: Spent Lana marches up to the marine standing guard and

424
00:29:08,760 --> 00:29:12,720
Speaker 1: tells him that she is spent Lana Ali Lujeva. She

425
00:29:13,040 --> 00:29:16,640
Speaker 1: is Joseph Stalin's daughter and she would like to defect

426
00:29:16,920 --> 00:29:25,280
Speaker 1: to the United States of America more after the break

427
00:29:29,840 --> 00:29:35,160
Speaker 1: Act three coming to America, where you involved in the

428
00:29:36,960 --> 00:29:43,920
Speaker 1: name rerouting of Stalin's daughter, Oh, very much, I'm tell

429
00:29:44,000 --> 00:29:48,280
Speaker 1: him about that. It's a very funny story. Chester Bowls

430
00:29:48,360 --> 00:29:51,200
Speaker 1: was the ambassador to India for much of the nineteen sixties,

431
00:29:51,640 --> 00:29:53,480
Speaker 1: so he was the guy to talk to if say,

432
00:29:53,720 --> 00:29:56,120
Speaker 1: you were Stalin's daughter and you were trying to defect

433
00:29:56,240 --> 00:30:02,800
Speaker 1: the US from Delhi. In is bed with cases, very

434
00:30:02,960 --> 00:30:07,280
Speaker 1: brief cases flu and the office called, and so they

435
00:30:07,320 --> 00:30:09,560
Speaker 1: want to come and see me home. They came in

436
00:30:09,680 --> 00:30:12,040
Speaker 1: seven of talk and said that a person is scaring

437
00:30:12,080 --> 00:30:15,960
Speaker 1: yourself as talent. Daughter just drived the embassy Russian passport

438
00:30:16,040 --> 00:30:18,960
Speaker 1: and good order. How m should we do about it?

439
00:30:22,600 --> 00:30:24,520
Speaker 1: First thing I say, said, I don't think stal has

440
00:30:24,560 --> 00:30:28,200
Speaker 1: a daughter. Here's Rosemary again. First they think she's probably

441
00:30:29,200 --> 00:30:33,760
Speaker 1: uh mentally imbalanced. H They don't really believe her. But

442
00:30:33,840 --> 00:30:37,560
Speaker 1: she's carrying this book, this manuscript which is twenty letters

443
00:30:37,600 --> 00:30:40,040
Speaker 1: to a friend. So they take it, they assess it,

444
00:30:40,160 --> 00:30:43,400
Speaker 1: and they it's too authentic not to be real. And

445
00:30:43,520 --> 00:30:46,600
Speaker 1: so they say, well, we're not sure we can take

446
00:30:46,680 --> 00:30:48,920
Speaker 1: her in, but we've got to get her out. Of India,

447
00:30:49,040 --> 00:30:53,320
Speaker 1: because if she's found here, the consequences to her in

448
00:30:53,400 --> 00:30:57,320
Speaker 1: the Soviet Union may be severe. So Bulls is concerned.

449
00:30:57,760 --> 00:31:01,160
Speaker 1: He doesn't think so Atlanta has thought this. He asks, sir,

450
00:31:01,360 --> 00:31:04,200
Speaker 1: are you really sure that you want to leave home?

451
00:31:04,360 --> 00:31:06,440
Speaker 1: You've got your daughter and his son there, and it's

452
00:31:06,520 --> 00:31:09,520
Speaker 1: a terily big step to take. Have you already thought through?

453
00:31:10,400 --> 00:31:12,320
Speaker 1: And you could go back to Russian nebassy right now?

454
00:31:12,400 --> 00:31:15,320
Speaker 1: And she immediately said, if you forced me to do that,

455
00:31:16,200 --> 00:31:18,320
Speaker 1: I interruptrized, so we we're not forcing to do anything.

456
00:31:18,960 --> 00:31:21,920
Speaker 1: She said, well, if this is your decision, I will

457
00:31:22,080 --> 00:31:26,040
Speaker 1: go to Press tonight. I love this. This is a

458
00:31:26,240 --> 00:31:29,680
Speaker 1: very different spent Lana than we've seen ready and willing

459
00:31:29,800 --> 00:31:32,800
Speaker 1: to risk it all. The other night, I was in

460
00:31:32,920 --> 00:31:35,760
Speaker 1: bed with my husband, Jordan's, and it was late. He

461
00:31:35,880 --> 00:31:38,800
Speaker 1: was drifting off to sleep, and I was chattering about something,

462
00:31:39,360 --> 00:31:43,240
Speaker 1: probably myself, because I find myself endlessly fascinating. Anyway, I

463
00:31:43,320 --> 00:31:46,200
Speaker 1: started to get excited, which means that I was getting loud,

464
00:31:46,640 --> 00:31:51,360
Speaker 1: at which point Jordan's said, ow what I asked, my foot?

465
00:31:52,120 --> 00:31:56,120
Speaker 1: You're so loud it's making my foot hurt. I tell

466
00:31:56,200 --> 00:31:59,440
Speaker 1: this to you because I know that this is a podcast.

467
00:32:00,040 --> 00:32:02,400
Speaker 1: I know that you're probably listening to this with earbuds

468
00:32:02,400 --> 00:32:05,040
Speaker 1: in your ears. I know that I have producers and

469
00:32:05,160 --> 00:32:08,680
Speaker 1: sound engineers who will help modulate my volume. But still

470
00:32:09,320 --> 00:32:12,840
Speaker 1: the next part of the story is ridiculous, and I'm

471
00:32:12,880 --> 00:32:17,600
Speaker 1: gonna get excited, which means I'm gonna get loud. So

472
00:32:17,800 --> 00:32:21,160
Speaker 1: if you're Jordan's, hold onto your fee baby, because Dan

473
00:32:21,560 --> 00:32:28,640
Speaker 1: is gonna scream. Spent Lana and her Cia escort go

474
00:32:28,760 --> 00:32:31,640
Speaker 1: to Rome, from which they will fly directly to the US.

475
00:32:32,080 --> 00:32:35,280
Speaker 1: But no sooner do they arrive in the Eternal City

476
00:32:35,960 --> 00:32:38,800
Speaker 1: than word arrives that the US will not take speed Lana.

477
00:32:39,240 --> 00:32:42,400
Speaker 1: They're too deep into arms discussions with the Russians. Taking

478
00:32:42,480 --> 00:32:46,240
Speaker 1: Stalin's defecting daughter is too much of a liability. We're

479
00:32:46,320 --> 00:32:50,720
Speaker 1: still the Italian government has freaked the fuck out. Spent

480
00:32:50,840 --> 00:32:55,520
Speaker 1: Lana cannot be in Rome. Insert the following ridiculous international

481
00:32:55,600 --> 00:33:00,880
Speaker 1: diplomatic technicalities. Speed Lana has landed in the international wing

482
00:33:01,000 --> 00:33:04,760
Speaker 1: of the airport, which is technically not Rome, even though

483
00:33:04,920 --> 00:33:07,640
Speaker 1: it's in Rome, from which she was picked up and

484
00:33:07,720 --> 00:33:12,120
Speaker 1: taken directly to an international apartment complex, which is also

485
00:33:12,360 --> 00:33:16,280
Speaker 1: technically not Rome, even though it's in Rome. So now

486
00:33:16,680 --> 00:33:19,320
Speaker 1: she's locked in an apartment and waiting on the US

487
00:33:19,400 --> 00:33:22,040
Speaker 1: to figure out what to do next, knowing every hour

488
00:33:22,200 --> 00:33:24,840
Speaker 1: is another hour for the Russians to figure out she's

489
00:33:24,880 --> 00:33:28,520
Speaker 1: gone but not in Rome. But the US is still

490
00:33:28,640 --> 00:33:31,560
Speaker 1: dragging their feet, So it's up to the impartial Swiss

491
00:33:31,640 --> 00:33:35,080
Speaker 1: to take spent Lana. Because word is moving fast. A

492
00:33:35,160 --> 00:33:38,080
Speaker 1: New York Times reporter in Delhi figured out what happened,

493
00:33:38,360 --> 00:33:42,040
Speaker 1: and now articles are emerging that speed Lana defected. Worse,

494
00:33:42,440 --> 00:33:44,720
Speaker 1: it's coming to light that she is in Rome, but

495
00:33:45,000 --> 00:33:47,520
Speaker 1: not in Rome, because remember, technically she's not in Rome,

496
00:33:47,960 --> 00:33:50,880
Speaker 1: even though she is very much in Rome. When in Rome,

497
00:33:51,040 --> 00:33:52,960
Speaker 1: as they say, I still don't know what that means.

498
00:33:53,720 --> 00:33:56,120
Speaker 1: So the heat is turned up, and now sped Lana

499
00:33:56,200 --> 00:33:58,920
Speaker 1: and her escort have a flight to Switzerland. They hop

500
00:33:58,960 --> 00:34:01,000
Speaker 1: in a car and race to the airport, where they

501
00:34:01,000 --> 00:34:04,920
Speaker 1: are met by, in my humble and unbiased homosexual opinion,

502
00:34:05,400 --> 00:34:09,400
Speaker 1: the most important contribution the Italians have given to modern society,

503
00:34:09,840 --> 00:34:18,680
Speaker 1: the paparazzi. It's chaos. Spent Lana's escort slips out, but

504
00:34:18,800 --> 00:34:21,440
Speaker 1: Spent Lana stays in the car, which circles around the

505
00:34:21,520 --> 00:34:24,640
Speaker 1: airport until it finds an abandoned spot a loading dock

506
00:34:24,719 --> 00:34:27,320
Speaker 1: for luggage, and drops spent Lana off like a piece

507
00:34:27,440 --> 00:34:31,280
Speaker 1: of Russian baggage. The idea spent Lana will be smuggled

508
00:34:31,320 --> 00:34:34,680
Speaker 1: onto the plane with the rest of the suitcases. Hashtag brilliant,

509
00:34:34,760 --> 00:34:39,480
Speaker 1: hashtag life goals hashtag Russian luggage. So Stalin's daughter is

510
00:34:39,520 --> 00:34:41,719
Speaker 1: on a truck with a bunch of bags, cruise them

511
00:34:41,760 --> 00:34:45,120
Speaker 1: through the airport, when Italian officials race towards it, screaming,

512
00:34:45,400 --> 00:34:49,239
Speaker 1: she can't come this way. There are reporters everywhere. So

513
00:34:49,400 --> 00:34:52,000
Speaker 1: spent Lana is yanked off the bags and then putting

514
00:34:52,040 --> 00:34:55,560
Speaker 1: the stairwell, where she remains for several hours. Hashtag stairwell,

515
00:34:55,680 --> 00:34:59,040
Speaker 1: hashtag blast hashtag what happened to spent Lana's escort? Her

516
00:34:59,320 --> 00:35:02,439
Speaker 1: escort is on the plane, but it's been so long

517
00:35:02,600 --> 00:35:05,600
Speaker 1: he's worried, thinking that speed Lana has been arrested. He

518
00:35:05,760 --> 00:35:08,920
Speaker 1: gets off the plane and searches the airport, finally finding her,

519
00:35:09,239 --> 00:35:12,560
Speaker 1: but the two have missed their flight. Defeated, they go

520
00:35:12,760 --> 00:35:15,759
Speaker 1: back to the international apartment just the way they came,

521
00:35:16,320 --> 00:35:20,400
Speaker 1: except for one thing, spent Lana's red suitcase with the

522
00:35:20,480 --> 00:35:23,960
Speaker 1: manuscript that was the only thing that made it onto

523
00:35:24,040 --> 00:35:27,239
Speaker 1: the plane to Geneva. So spent Lana is still in Rome,

524
00:35:27,400 --> 00:35:30,040
Speaker 1: but not in Rome, and the Italians are still pissed.

525
00:35:30,320 --> 00:35:32,840
Speaker 1: They forced the Americans to pay for a private plane

526
00:35:32,880 --> 00:35:35,800
Speaker 1: for speed Lana and her escort to Geneva, and finally

527
00:35:35,920 --> 00:35:39,319
Speaker 1: the United States of America plays ball. Spent Lana makes

528
00:35:39,360 --> 00:35:41,879
Speaker 1: it to Geneva, where she has reunited with her book.

529
00:35:42,160 --> 00:35:44,680
Speaker 1: She stays in this new Swiss purgatory for a few

530
00:35:44,719 --> 00:35:47,200
Speaker 1: weeks until an agreement is hatched with a U. S.

531
00:35:47,239 --> 00:35:50,879
Speaker 1: State Department official named George Kennon, the publisher Harper in Row,

532
00:35:51,200 --> 00:35:54,520
Speaker 1: and a translator named Priscilla Johnson. McMillan will learn about

533
00:35:54,560 --> 00:35:57,319
Speaker 1: these folks in the next episode, but for now, sped

534
00:35:57,400 --> 00:35:59,759
Speaker 1: Lana has got herself a six month visa and a

535
00:35:59,760 --> 00:36:02,480
Speaker 1: book deal for one point five million dollars, which would

536
00:36:02,480 --> 00:36:05,760
Speaker 1: be roughly thirteen million dollars today according to the Internet.

537
00:36:05,920 --> 00:36:08,080
Speaker 1: That's more than the net worth of Tanya Harding and

538
00:36:08,200 --> 00:36:14,920
Speaker 1: Nancy Carragan combined. And so on April one, nineteen sixties seven,

539
00:36:15,200 --> 00:36:19,959
Speaker 1: spent Lanta Alla Lujeva, Joseph Stalin's daughter, exhausted and exhilarated

540
00:36:20,120 --> 00:36:23,759
Speaker 1: flies in an airplane across the Atlantic Ocean from Switzerland

541
00:36:23,800 --> 00:36:26,600
Speaker 1: to New York City, landing at a tarmac at John F.

542
00:36:26,719 --> 00:36:31,640
Speaker 1: Kennedy Airport. The throngs of reporters, photographers, diplomats, well wishers,

543
00:36:31,960 --> 00:36:34,360
Speaker 1: and probably also some random people who got lost in

544
00:36:34,440 --> 00:36:38,480
Speaker 1: JFK looking for where to pick up their uber Everybody,

545
00:36:39,040 --> 00:36:44,160
Speaker 1: We've brought spent Lana to America. We did it. Um.

546
00:36:44,719 --> 00:36:49,080
Speaker 1: It is a difficult to explane in fu. Oh why

547
00:36:49,200 --> 00:36:55,360
Speaker 1: I am he crown, I'm tired, and I'm just the

548
00:36:55,440 --> 00:36:59,200
Speaker 1: gay talking about it. But seriously, all of that, that

549
00:36:59,360 --> 00:37:05,160
Speaker 1: whole journey from childhood, mother suicide, Stalin's rule, family murdered, imprisoned,

550
00:37:05,200 --> 00:37:10,919
Speaker 1: four marriages to children, scattering ashes on the Ganges, secret defection, Delhi, Rome,

551
00:37:11,080 --> 00:37:14,239
Speaker 1: I mean not Rome, Switzerland, one point five million dollar

552
00:37:14,320 --> 00:37:18,480
Speaker 1: book deal, and now instant us celebrity. All of this, kiddos,

553
00:37:19,640 --> 00:37:24,200
Speaker 1: this was all the boring part of the story. Because

554
00:37:24,239 --> 00:37:34,440
Speaker 1: what happens next that ship is Craig Gray. Spent Lana's

555
00:37:34,480 --> 00:37:37,320
Speaker 1: fent Lana is a production of I Heeart Podcasts and

556
00:37:37,440 --> 00:37:41,359
Speaker 1: the documentary group I'm Your Host Dan Catrocer. The show

557
00:37:41,600 --> 00:37:44,799
Speaker 1: is written and produced by me Adam Webber, Alison Joy

558
00:37:44,960 --> 00:37:49,000
Speaker 1: and Catherine Isaac. We also serve as executive producers at

559
00:37:49,040 --> 00:37:52,600
Speaker 1: the Documentary Group. Our executive producer is Joe B. Silhouette's

560
00:37:52,719 --> 00:37:56,680
Speaker 1: with production oversight by Stacy Kleger and additional support from

561
00:37:56,760 --> 00:38:00,560
Speaker 1: Tom Yellen and Gabrielle tennantbau our I Heart Team is

562
00:38:00,640 --> 00:38:05,399
Speaker 1: supervising producer Casey Pegram and executive producer Maya Howard. Editing

563
00:38:05,440 --> 00:38:10,280
Speaker 1: assistants from producers Christina Loranger and Joey pat Original music

564
00:38:10,520 --> 00:38:15,080
Speaker 1: by Ellen Isakov. Production counsel by Slas eck House, Dasty

565
00:38:15,160 --> 00:38:20,120
Speaker 1: Haynes Locko, Clearance counsel by Ballard Spar Back checking assistance

566
00:38:20,160 --> 00:38:23,920
Speaker 1: by Megan Trout. Special thanks to my husband Jordan Siegel

567
00:38:24,239 --> 00:38:28,640
Speaker 1: and Rosemary Sullivan, author of the book Stalin's Daughter. Excerpts

568
00:38:28,680 --> 00:38:31,719
Speaker 1: from spet Lana Alujeva's books Twenty Letters to a Friend

569
00:38:31,880 --> 00:38:35,080
Speaker 1: and Only One Year are provided by Chris Evans and

570
00:38:35,239 --> 00:38:36,920
Speaker 1: performed by Cassie Greer