On the homepage today, we publish a piece that appeared in our September 21 issue. It’s called “Stalin’s Daughter, Her Own Woman: The life and meaning of a remarkable, arguably great lady.” It is adapted from my new book, Children of Monsters: An Inquiry into the Sons and Daughters of Dictators.

Let me quote the opening of my piece, which may tickle you:

Svetlana Stalin merits a little space in this magazine. First, she was an important and fascinating figure of the 20th century. But second, she declared National Review her favorite publication — and gave to us financially. What would her father, Josef Stalin, have said? But that was the least of her offenses, from a Stalinist point of view.

At the end of my piece (and in my book), I say why I think Svetlana was great, or arguably so. A big reason is that she saw her father, the Soviet Union, and Communism for what they were, while others were in denial (to use a modern phrase). I’d like to expand on this here in the Corner. Consider a few things with me.

A niece of Svetlana’s, Gulia Dzhugashvili, would always worship the memory of Stalin — this despite the fact that his response to her father’s capture by the Nazis was to arrest and imprison her mother, who had a three-year-old child (Gulia). What’s more, Stalin had always treated her father, Yakov, abominably. Gulia had a half-brother, Yevgeny (alleged half-brother, really). He is as great a Stalin defender as there is.

Let me introduce you to Vladimir Alliluyev, a cousin of Svetlana’s. Stalin had his father killed. He sent his mother to the Gulag. In the 1990s, Alliluyev wrote a book advocating the return of Stalinism. In a letter to a Russian literary magazine, Svetlana wrote that the book had aroused in her “feelings of revulsion.” It was “a political tract whitewashing 70 years of Soviet history.”

Yevgeny Dzhugashvili filed a succession of lawsuits against individuals and institutions for damaging Stalin’s reputation (!). He was represented by a lawyer named Leonid Zhura. Here is a sampling of what Zhura told the press: Stalin presided over “a heroic epoch. It was the first time in human history that a society was founded on fair principles.” Stalin was “a kind, generous, and magnanimous man, a genius.” Under Stalin, “people were confident of the future. If he killed millions of people, why do so many people still love him?”

That is a very good question. In 2008, Stalin finished third in a Greatest Russian contest. (Not bad for a Georgian who spoke Russian with a heavy accent.) There was a nationwide poll, in which more than 5 million people participated. Stalin was in first place in early stages of the poll. But he wound up losing out by about 5,000 votes — to Alexander Nevsky, the medieval warrior-prince. In second place was Pytor Stolypin, the reformist prime minister who was assassinated in 1911. Pushkin came in fourth behind Stalin. Critics said that the results were rigged to keep Stalin out of first place. The charge rang true.

But Svetlana, Stalin’s lone daughter? She knew. She knew and told. That was more amazing, and more admirable, than I believe most people know.