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.
I got to know Svetlana a bit, not in the flesh, but in preparing a new book, Children of Monsters: An Inquiry into the Sons and Daughters of Dictators. She is the most famous of all such sons and daughters, unless you count the sons who succeeded their father in “office.” I speak primarily of Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier in Haiti; Kim Jong-il in North Korea; Bashar Assad in Syria; and, back in North Korea, Kim Jong-un. Svetlana is famous for two reasons above all. The first is that she defected from the Soviet Union to the United States, causing a worldwide sensation. But the second is even more important: She was a memoirist, and a superb one. She got it all down, in three books, two of which should endure indefinitely, and the third of which is worthwhile.
Comments