Only One Year - by Svetlana Alliluyeva (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

"Among the great Russian autobiographical works: Herzen, Kropotkin, Tolstoy's Confession." --Edmund Wilson, The New Yorker

After the success of her New York Times bestselling childhood memoir Twenty Letters to a Friend, Josef Stalin's daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva--subject of Rosemary Sullivan's critically acclaimed biography Stalin's Daughter--penned this riveting account of her year-long journey to defect from the USSR and start a new life in America.

The story of Only One Year begins on December 19, 1966, as Svetlana Alliluyeva leaves Russia for India, on a one-month visa, in the custody of an employee of the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It ends on December 19, 1967, in Princeton, New Jersey, as she and two American friends join in a toast to her new life of freedom.

That year of pain, discovery, turmoil, and new hope reaches its climax with her decision to break completely from the world of Communism, to turn her back on her country, her children, and the legacy of her notorious father--Joseph Stalin. Why did she make such a drastic choice? This book, a detailed account of reality in the USSR, is her explanation.

Frank, fascinating, and thoroughly engrossing, Only One Year reveals life behind the Iron Curtain, the risks and subterfuge of defection, and one extraordinary woman's fight for her future.

From the Back Cover

In this remarkable memoir, Svetlana Alliluyeva reveals her struggle to break completely from the world of Communism and the legacy of her notorious father --Joseph Stalin-- by defecting from the USSR to the United States.

Only One Year begins on December 19, 1966, as Alliluyeva leaves Russia for India, on a one-month visa, in the custody of a staff member of the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It ends on December 19, 1967, in Princeton, New Jersey, as she and two American friends toast to her new life.

Why would a woman flee the only world she has ever known? Brutally honest and moving, Only One Year is the personal story of a dictator's daughter who, trapped behind the Iron Curtain, made the drastic decision to defect. And now--nearly fifty years after its initial publication--Alliluyeva's compelling narrative of suffering, sacrifice, and subterfuge becomes all the more poignant because
her escape ultimately did not bring her the freedom she so desperately sought.

Review Quotes

"Among the great Russian autobiographical works: Herzen, Kropotkin, Tolstoy's My Confession." -- Edmund Wilson, The New Yorker, ORIGINAL EDITION

"It's a rich and absorbing book that could be endlessly quoted, by...a woman who stands free in the sunlight." -- Saturday Review, ORIGINAL EDITION