History Book - Stalin’s daughter rejects Russia

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Monday, April 18th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Up next, the WORLD History Book. Today a trip to outer space, plus a secret flight, and the first running of a famous foot race. Here’s Associate Correspondent Harrison Watters.

HARRISON WATTERS, ASSOCIATE CORRESPONDENT: During the first international Olympic Games in 1896—one of the 43 events caught the eye of a man from Boston.

CLIP: U.S. Olympic team manager John Graham, inspired by the marathon at the first modern Olympic Games in Athens in 1896, brought the race closer to his hometown.

John Graham organized the first Boston Marathon to run on the new state holiday of Patriot’s Day—celebrated on April 19th, 1897.

Fifteen athletes ran the 24.5 mile course through the city. John J. McDermott of New York finished the race in 2 hours, 55 minutes and 10 seconds. The distance was later adjusted to 26.2 miles in 1924 and race organizers introduced qualifying standards in 1970. Otherwise the only thing about the race that has changed in its 125 year history is who runs it.

The first women ran in the 1960s. The first wheelchair racer competed in 1975. And today many other athletes with physical limits compete. The number of contestants has also grown—to nearly 30,000 this year with half-a-million spectators along the route. Runners from across the globe crowd Boston’s streets every year to compete in one of the world's oldest annual marathons.

From running a race to running to another country. Fifty-five years ago this week, Joseph Stalin’s daughter defected to the United States.

CLIP: A woman once known as the little princess of the Kremlin arrives in America from Switzerland. Svetlana, the 42-year-old daughter of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, sought asylum here.

When her father died in 1953, Svetlana changed her last name to her mother’s maiden name: Alliluyeva. She had been married several times and was working as a lecturer and translator in Moscow. YouTuber The History Guy explains what life was like for Alliluyeva.

CLIP: A friend later said of her she was a very kind and warm-hearted person but it was impossible to escape her terrible heritage. She couldn't trust anyone. How could you, if you were Stalin's daughter?

In 1967, during a trip to India, Alliluyeva decided she wanted to leave Russia behind. After the Soviet government refused her request to stay in India, Alliluyeva visited the American Embassy in New Delhi.

CLIP: Ambassador Chester Bowles met with her two days before her scheduled return to the Soviet Union and after not hearing anything in response to his messages to Washington he arranged for her to board a Quantus flight to Rome just a few hours later.

From Rome to Switzerland and finally to New York. Once in the United States, Alliluyeva spoke at a press conference about the impact of her father’s death on her decision to leave Russia.

CLIP: He was always for me the authority which could not be – well, I loved him I respected him and when he was gone I have lost maybe a lot of faith.

Alliluyeva toured America and Great Britain, giving lectures and writing several books on her father and life in Russia. In 1984 she returned to the Soviet Union and renewed her citizenship, explaining she had become disenchanted with the West.

But just two years later, she returned, and had to walk back statements critical of the United States. Alliluyeva lived alternately in America and England under the name Lana Peters. She died on November 22, 2011 in Richland Center, Wisconsin, far away from Stalin’s shadow.

CLIP: Five, four, three, two, one and liftoff of the space shuttle Discovery with the Hubble Space Telescope: our window on the universe.

We end today with the famous telescope that defied all odds. NASA initially committed to launching a Large Orbiting Telescope in 1979. But budget cuts, production delays, and the Challenger space shuttle disaster delayed Hubble’s launch until April 24th, 1990. Just weeks into the mission, scientists discovered a problem. Deep Space TV explains:

CLIP: Spherical aberration, a flaw in the main mirror, meant that the telescope couldn't focus properly. Where Hubble's images should have been razor-sharp, astronomers instead struggle to make out the fine details of their observations.

Thanks to the Space Shuttle program, scientists were able to diagnose the problem and send astronauts to fix the mirror. NASA made several more repair missions in the 32 years since its launch to replace components and change batteries. Despite talk of retiring the telescope in 2004, Hubble continues to reveal God’s creative power in far-off galaxies.

With the James Webb Space Telescope now in orbit, scientists say Hubble will finally retire by 2025. But who knows? Maybe Hubble will continue to surprise us.

That’s this week’s WORLD History Book. I’m Harrison Watters.

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