March 9, 1967: Svetlana Alliluyeva, 41, Joseph Stalin's only surviving child, defects to the U.S. This was a huge deal at the time, with the fuss equal to what might have happened had Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr. or Princess Margaret gone Red.
A historian and professor, she had been married twice before. She converted to Catholicism, and married Wes Peters, an architect and an apprentice of Frank Lloyd Wright, and became known in the West as "Lana Peters." They divorced in 1973, and, disillusioned with the West, she returned to the Soviet Union in 1984.
But things had not changed enough for her, and she returned to the West in 1992, and eventually settled in Richland Center, Wisconsin, famous for its association with Wright. She died of colon cancer in 2011.
She had 3 children, 1 with each husband. Iosif Alliluyev was a cardiologist, who lived and practiced in Moscow, and died in 2008. Her daughter, Katya Zhdanova, is a volcanologist (studying volcanoes) in eastern Russia. And her daughter, Olga, manages a clothing store in Portland, Oregon, under the name Chrese Evans.
Stalin also had 4 sons. Yakov Dzughashvili, a son with his 1st wife, was captured by the Nazis in 1943, and died of an illness in a concentration camp. The Nazis offered Stalin a deal to release him, but he refused to take it.
From an affair, Stalin became the father of Konstantin Kuzakov, a journalist, who died in 1996. From another affair, Stalin became the father of Alexander Davydov. Stalin ignored him and refused to accept his paternity. Nevertheless, Alexander was decorated for heroism in World War II. He lived until 1987.
With his 2nd wife, Stalin became the father of Svetlana, and also of Vasily, who could do no right in anyone's eyes, least of all his father's. An alcoholic, he tried to commit suicide, but only grazed his head, leading his father to say, "He can't even shoot straight." He was named head of the Soviet Air Force, but was only a figurehead, and wasn't trusted to actually make decisions. He fell out of favor after his father's death, and died from his drinking in 1962.
Stalin's successor as Soviet dictator, Nikita Khrushchev, famously told the West, "We will bury you." Instead, his son, Sergei Khrushchev, also defected to the West, and, in accented but completely understandable English, taught at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.
Through Svetlana, Yakov, Konstantin and Alexander, Stalin has known living descendants. His arch-rival, Adolf Hitler, does not, as he is not known to have had any children. China's Mao Zedong is believed to have had 10 children, all of whom have stayed loyal to their country. Cuba's Fidel Castro is believed to have had 11. Juanita Castro, Fidel's sister, and Alina Fernández, his daughter, also defected to the U.S., and spoke out against him and his regime in Cuba.
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March 9, 1967 was a Friday. This was also the day the album The Velvet Underground and Nico was released. I have a separate entry for that event.
This was also the day that Star Trek aired the episode "The Devil In the Dark," introducing the silicon-based lifeform, the Horta. William Shatner (who played Captain Kirk) and Leonard Nimoy (Spock) both called this their favorite episode. It was groundbreaking in 2 ways: It suggested that life could be based on an element other than carbon, and it showed that the good guys might unintentionally become the bad guys. That might make it an allegory for Vietnam.
Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. And no games were scheduled for either the NBA or the NHL. So there were so scores on this historic day.
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