Book review: Stalin's daughter led a life in constant pursuit of happiness

"Wherever I go, whether to Australia or some island, I will always be the political prisoner of my father's name." Such was the lament of Svetlana Alliluyeva, whose life sentence it was to be the only daughter of Josef Stalin.

Born in 1926, she grew up with enormous privileges. Some called her the Princess of the Kremlin; there was even a perfume, Breath of Svetlana, named after her. To Stalin, she was his "little sparrow". Lavrenty Beria, the notorious head of the secret police, bounced her on his knee, and she in turn playfully bossed around Stalin's henchmen.

But grimness lurked all around, as the dictator signed death warrants and consigned millions to the gulag. Even her own relatives were not immune: uncles, aunts and cousins were executed or imprisoned. Her mother committed suicide in 1932 (an event still shrouded in some mystery) and a teenage boy with a crush on her was sent off to prison camp.

Svetlana spent a lifetime coming to terms with the cruelties wrought in her father's name. Her defection to the West in 1967 made her a cold war celebrity with a sinister pedigree. She could never quite escape the sobriquet "Stalin's daughter".

"You can't live your own life. You can't live any life. You exist only in reference to a name," she mused.