Svetlana lived a difficult life, with very little paternal love but an abundance of psychological pressure. The sudden death of the leader allowed Svetlana to fully appreciate the attitude toward her held by members of the Kremlin elite. To Beria and the other contenders for power in the country, she was merely an undesirable element, an extra card in the deck. The woman literally could not take a single step without constant surveillance. In such circumstances, it is difficult to build a personal life and accept a new reality in which the mighty figure of her father was no longer present.
Svetlana recalls the rare moments of happiness from her childhood, replaced by a joyless youth and an even sadder adulthood. By 1953, when her father was gone, she had already experienced two unsuccessful marriages, but the trials were only beginning. The woman has to deal not only with her own problems, but also help her brother Vasily, who has fallen out of favor with Stalin’s successors. Svetlana searches for her spot under the new government and hopes that she will still be able to find family happiness. The heroine continues this search until 1967—the last year she spent in the USSR before emigrating to the United States for the rest of her life.
