Inventory of the Meryle Secrest collection
Finding aid prepared by Hoover Institution Library and Archives Staff and Paige Minister
Hoover Institution Library and Archives
© 2009, 2014, 2015
434 Galvez Mall
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-6003
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Title: Meryle Secrest collection
Date (bulk): 1994-1994
Collection Number: 2001C50
Contributing Institution: Hoover Institution Library and Archives
Language of Material: In English with some items in Russian
Physical Description:
1 manuscript box, 3 card file boxes
(1.7 Linear Feet)
Abstract: Sound recordings, notes, writings, clippings, and photographs relating to Svetlana Allilueva, daughter of Joseph Stalin, compiled
by Meryle Secrest as working materials for an unfinished biography of Allilueva. Includes recorded interviews with Allilueva
conducted in 1994.
source:
Secrest, Meryle
Creator:
Allilueva, Svetlana, 1926-2011
Physical Location: Hoover Institution Library & Archives
Access
The collection is open for research; materials must be requested in advance via our reservation system. If there are audiovisual
or digital media material in the collection, they must be reformatted before providing access.
Use
For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
Acquisition Information
Acquired by the Hoover Institution Library & Archives in 2001.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Meryle Secrest collection, [Box no., Folder no. or title], Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
Biographical Note
Meryle Secrest is an award-winning biographer, mainly of artists and other prominent figures in the art world. She was born
on April 23, 1930 in Bath, England. She was educated there, but later immigrated to Canada with her family. Secrest worked
as a journalist for the
Hamilton News in Ontario, where she was named "Most Promising Young Writer" by the Canadian Women's Press Club. In 1964, Secrest began
writing profile interviews for the
Washington Post, but left in 1975 in order to write books full-time.
Secrest's catalog of published works includes biographies of Frank Lloyd Wright, Salvador Dali, Stephen Sondheim, and Elsa
Schiaparelli. She has received several awards for her work, including the American Library Association's George Freedley Memorial
Award in 1999 and the Presidential National Humanities Medal in 2006. Her biography
Being Bernard Berenson was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Awards. In 2007, she published an autobiography titled,
Shoot the Widow: Adventurers of a Biographer in Search of Her Subject.
Scope and Content of Collection
The Meryle Secrest collection contains sound recordings, notes, writings, clippings, and photographs compiled by Secrest as
working materials for an unfinished biography of Svetlana Allilueva. Included are Secrest's taped recordings of her interviews
with Allilueva as well as her handwritten notes regarding the interviews. Also included are news clippings about Allilueva,
Joseph Stalin, and Russia, photographs of Allilueva and her family, copies of autobiographical works by Allilueva, and copies
of works translated by Allilueva related to her father, Joseph Stalin.
Svetlana Allilueva, also known as Svetlana Alliluyeva, Svetlana Stalina, and Lana Peters, was the youngest child and only
daughter of Joseph Stalin and his second wife, Nadezhda Allilueva. In 1967, she defected to the United States after denouncing
the Soviet Union, causing an international uproar. She briefly returned to the Soviet Union in 1984 after denouncing the United
States, but eventually came back to the US. Allilueva passed away in 2011 in Richland Center, Wisconsin at the age of 85.
Arrangement Statement
Materials are not organized into series; however, similar items have been grouped together.
Separated Materials
The book
The Long Shadow: Inside Stalin's Family by Rosamon Richardson has been transferred to the Hoover Library.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Audiotapes
Stalin, Joseph, 1878-1953
Secrest, Meryle
box 1, folder 1-2
Interview notes
1994 March
Scope and Contents note
Two notebooks with Secrest's handwritten notes regarding recorded interviews with Svetlana Allilueva (Lana Peters), organized
by tape number. See Sound recordings section for information regarding use copies of the interview tapes.
box 1, folder 3
Clippings
1967-1994
Scope and Contents note
Newspaper and magazine clippings of articles on Russia, Stalin, and Svetlana Allilueva. Includes one article in Russian.
Collected writings of Svetlana Allilueva
1984-1993
box 1, folder 4
"A Book for Granddaughters,"
1989
Scope and Contents note
Typescript of an unpublished manuscript with edits throughout. Originally written in Russian and translated by Allilueva.
box 1, folder 5
Curriculum vitae
1993 October 29
Scope and Contents note
Typed copy of Allilueva's curriculum vitae created for Secrest. Includes handwritten notes from "L. P." (Lana Peters).
box 1, folder 6
The Faraway Music
1984
Scope and Contents note
Contains a photocopy of Allilueva's third book, sold only in India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, in which she discusses disappointment
with her American life after defecting from the USSR. Includes notes and annotations throughout. Also included is a copy of
an article from
The New York Times Book Review titled, "After the Crackup: Two Versions of Soviet History, Written with Anger and Enthusiasm."
box 1, folder 7
"Statement of Svetlana Allilueva Made in Writing in the USA Embassy on March 6, 1967, in Delhi, India,"
1984
Scope and Contents note
Photocopy of an excerpt from
The Faraway Music.
Works translated by Svetlana Allilueva
1994
box 1, folder 8
"Josef Is Infinitely Kind: Diary of Maria Onisimovna Svanidze,"
Scope and Contents note
An unpublished English translation of Maria Svanidze's diary, with edits and notes throughout. Maria Svanidze was the wife
of Alexander Semyonovich Svanidze, a personal friend of Stalin's and brother of Stalin's first wife, Ekaterine "Kato" Svanidze.
In 1937, Alexander Svanidze was arrested by Stalin and shot four years later while imprisoned.
box 1, folder 9
"To Nadezhda Sergeevna Allilueva Personally from Stalin," typescript
Scope and Contents note
Typescript of English translations of correspondence between Stalin and Nadezhda Allilueva, Svetlana Allilueva's mother, written
between 1928 and 1931. Also included is a photocopy of an article from a Russian newspaper with annotations.
box 1, folder 10-11
Photographs
1929-1994
Scope and Contents note
Contains various black-and-white images of Svetlana Allilueva and her family. Envelopes A-E are located in Folder 10 and envelopes
F-H in Folder 11. All images are copy prints with the exception of the photographs of Allilueva in London. Negatives of all
images are also included.
envelope A-B
Allilueva in London
1994 March
Scope and Contents note
Includes 11 prints plus duplicates and negatives.
envelope C
Carolina Til (housekeeper) and Alexandra Bychkova (nanny)
undated
envelope C
Gas mask drill at school
1935
Scope and Contents note
Envelope reads, "Last one in the front line is Gerchikov."
envelope C
Summer vacation with S.M. Kirov near Sochi
1934
envelope C
Allilueva with Katya (daughter) in the "House on the Embankment" apartment in Moscow
1965
envelope C
Allilueva with Stalin in Sochi
1934
envelope C
Allilueva (age 3) at Zubalova near Moscow
1929
envelope D
Allilueva and brother
1931
envelope D
"Kirov at mother's coffin,"
1932
envelope D
Allilueva in classroom
undated
envelope D
Allilueva on lion at Lipki
undated
envelope D
Allilueva as a child, in coat and beret
undated
envelope D
Kumar Brajesh Singh in Moscow
1965
envelope D
Olga (daughter) in Allilueva's apartment
undated
envelope E
Olga as a teenager
undated
envelope E
Allilueva with Olga (6 months) in Scottsdale
1971 November
envelope E
Allilueva with William Wesley Peters the day before their marriage
1970 April
envelope E
Portrait of Allilueva in Princeton, New Jersey
1968 June
envelope E
Olga and Allilueva
circa 1993-1994
envelope E
Allilueva with Katya and Joseph (son)
circa 1953-1954
envelope E
Nadezhda Allilueva's funeral
1932
envelope F
Allilueva (age 12) at Stalin's dacha at Kuntsevo
circa 1937-1938
envelope F
Svetlana and her best friend, Raya Levina
undated
envelope F
Anna Allilueva (aunt)
undated
envelope F
Allilueva (age 16)
undated
envelope F
Allilueva on a bicycle at Kuntsevo
circa 1936-1937
envelope F
Vyacheslav Molotov and Allilueva in the forest
undated
envelope F
Pavel Alliluyev (uncle)
undated
envelope G
Portrait of Allilueva
1954
envelope G
Ketevan Geladze (Stalin's mother)
undated
envelope G
Portrait of Allilueva
1943
envelope G
Nadezhda Allilueva (age 30)
undated
envelope G
Maria Svanidze and others
circa 1930-1931
envelope G
Allilueva with S.I. Hayakawa Scottsdale, Arizona
1972
envelope G
Nadezhda Allilueva and baby
undated
envelope H
Svetlana with Emmanuel d'Astier near Fribourg, Switzerland
1967 April
envelope H
Stalin and Nadezhda Allilueva at family picnic
1929
envelope H
Stalin with Allilueva in Sochi
1934
envelope H
Vasily Stalin (brother, age 13) and Allilueva (age 8)
1934
Sound recordings
1994
Scope and Contents note
Consists of microcassettes as well as compact cassette and compact disc copies of interviews with Svetlana Allilueva, conducted
by Meryle Secrest in March of 1994. The recordings have been digitized (see use copy reference numbers below) and are approximately
one hour each.
box 2
Tape 1
March 10
General note
Use copy reference number: 2001c50_a_0007768
box 2
Tape 2
March 10
General note
Use copy reference number: 2001c50_a_0007769
box 2
Tape 3
March 10
General note
Use copy reference number: 2001c50_a_0007770
box 2
Tape 4
March 10-11
General note
Use copy reference number: 2001c50_a_0007771
box 2
Tape 5
March 10-11
General note
Use copy reference number: 2001c50_a_0007772
box 2
Tape 6
March 11
General note
Use copy reference number: 2001c50_a_0007773
box 2
Tape 7
March 14
General note
Use copy reference number: 2001c50_a_0007774
box 2
Tape 8
March 14
General note
Use copy reference number: 2001c50_a_0007793
box 2
Tape 9
March 16
General note
Use copy reference number: 2001c50_a_0007775
box 2
Tape 10
March 16
General note
Use copy reference number: 2001c50_a_0007776
box 2
Tape 11
March 16
General note
Use copy reference number: 2001c50_a_0007777
box 2
Tape 12
March 17
General note
Use copy reference number: 2001c50_a_0007778
box 2
Tape 13
March 17
General note
Use copy reference number: 2001c50_a_0007779
box 2
Tape 14
March 17
General note
Use copy reference number: 2001c50_a_0007780
box 2
Tape 15
March 18
General note
Use copy reference number: 2001c50_a_0007781
box 2
Tape 16
March 18
General note
Use copy reference number: 2001c50_a_0007782
box 2
Tape 17
March 18
General note
Use copy reference number: 2001c50_a_0007783
box 2
Tape 18
March 21
General note
Use copy reference number: 2001c50_a_0007784
box 2
Tape 19
March 21
General note
Use copy reference number: 2001c50_a_0007785
box 2
Tape 20
March 21
General note
Use copy reference number: 2001c50_a_0007786
box 2
Tape 21
March 23
General note
Use copy reference number: 2001c50_a_0007787
box 2
Tape 22
March 23
General note
Use copy reference number: 2001c50_a_0007788
box 2
Tape 23
March 24
General note
Use copy reference number: 2001c50_a_0007789
box 2
Tape 24
March 25
General note
Use copy reference number: 2001c50_a_0007790
box 2
Tape 25
March 25
General note
Use copy reference number: 2001c50_a_0007791
box 2
Compact sound cassettes
Scope and Contents note
Contains one compact cassette copy of each microcassette.
box 3
CD sound discs
Scope and Contents note
Includes two CD copies of each microcassette.
