SVETLANA'S DRAMATIC STORY STALIN DAUGHTER'S ESCAPE ALMOST FAILS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00001R000400200004-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 2, 1999
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: September 5, 1967
• Content Type: NSPR

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Sanitized - Approved For ReB#S : WR
A New Series From Martin (bon's
Book . Start It Today On Page 4
Last April 21 Svetlana Aliluyeva, daughter of Joseph
Stalin, arrived in the United States to claim asylum
after an odyssey that began in India in February.
This is the first of a series of chapters excerpted
from "Svetlana: The Incredible Story of Stalin's Daugh-
ter" by Martin Ebon. The book' has just been published
by New American Library.
Ebon, author and lecturer on Communist history and
tactics, is a faculty member at the New School. for Social
Research.'
U
" Svetlana said, "and I Would t 'e
to speak with someone from the American .. .
Svetlana sat in a room adjacent to the 'reception hall
and waited. The consul, George O. Huey, was summoned to
the embassy. He received Mrs.. Alliluyeva in his office, and
when she had identified herself and told him she did not wish
to return to Russia, Huey telephoned Ambassador Chester
Bowles, who was ill and confined to his bed. Meanwhile,
Svetlana was given a chance to rest in the office of the first
secretary of the embassy, Joseph Greene.
A Diplomatic Choice
On Bowles's instructions, Huey was joined by other em-
bassy officials. They interviewed Svetlana, getting details on
By Martin Ebon
Clutching her suitcase with, one hand and pushing through
t: c revolving door with the other, Svetlana Alliluyeva Stalina,
the daughter of Joseph Stalin, entered the United States Em-
bassy in New Delhi. The Marine sergeant at the reception
de'k was directing two messengers, who were making en-
tries in the day book recording incoming and outgoing docu-
ments.
When, without a word, Mrs. Alliluyeva handed him her
Soviet passport, the.marine at first placed it quietly on his
desk, face 'down. As soon as the messengers had left, he
ricked up the passport and asked whether he could be of
her trip from Moscow to India, and contacted the State Dc-
partment for information and instructions. They had to make
a choice between quick action and diplomatic caution. Was
this really Stalin's daughter? She could be an impostor, a Rus-
sian propaganda trick-even some other refugee with a men-
cal aberration.
Ambassador Bowles made the affirmative interim decision,
in answer to Svetlana's request for protection and help in
arranging her departure. Technically, she did not ask for
"asylum" in the United States.?This would have required U.S.
authorities to advise the Indian government of her request,
whether or not they planned to grant it.
The embassy's decision, in quick consultation' with the
State Department in Washington, was to give Stalin's daughter
time to make firm plans for her future, but in an atmosphere
outside all possible pressure. Bowles instructed a Russian-
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