Svetlana Hasn’t Asked to Go Along : Stalin’s Granddaughter Gets British Visa

Josef Stalin’s 14-year-old American granddaughter has been granted a visa to return to Britain, 18 months after her defector mother secretly brought her to the Soviet Union, the British Embassy said today.

An embassy official in Moscow said a student visa was issued for Olga Peters at the request of Soviet authorities.

A spokesman said the visa will be valid for 12 months, and she can apply for renewal. Olga, who was born in the United States, moved to Britain with her mother in 1982 and then two years later was taken to Moscow. The British government said Svetlana Alliluyeva has not asked for a visa to accompany her daughter.

Alliluyeva, who became one of the most celebrated Soviet defectors when she fled to the United States in 1967, slipped back into her native land in October, 1984, to resume life as a Soviet citizen.

She brought along Olga, who did not speak any Russian and had been studying at a Quaker boarding school in Essex, England. Olga is expected to resume her education there.

The 1984 return to Moscow by Alliluyeva was not noticed until Olga failed to appear for school. Her mother was spotted by Western reporters in Moscow and finally gave a news conference, saying she had become disillusioned with the West.

Although she said Olga would have to follow her wishes, stories have circulated that the daughter was unhappy in her new home in the southern republic of Georgia, Stalin’s native region.

Alliluyeva, 60, and Olga were both given Soviet citizenship when they arrived in Moscow. However, the United States emphasized that Olga remained a U.S. citizen.

Alliluyeva startled the world by defecting to the United States while on a visit to New Delhi, and in 1970 she married William Wesley Peters, chief architect of the Lloyd Wright Foundation in Arizona.

At age 45, she gave birth to Olga on May 20, 1971, in San Francisco. Alliluyeva later divorced Peters and in 1982 she and her daughter moved to Britain.