![Stalin’s daughter was hidden away from the media in Switzerland, while her stay in the US immediately began with a press conference.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/titel-stalins-tochter-300x225.jpg)
Frau Staehelin, Stalin’s daughter
In spring 1967, Stalin’s daughter travelled to Switzerland. In the middle of the Cold War. The story of a diplomatic high-wire act.
![Svetlana Alliluyeva’s request for asylum in the United States...](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/asylantrag-von-usa-237x300.jpg)
![Willy Spühler at the 1959 Federal Council election.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/Bundesrat-Willy-Spuehler-300x300.jpg)
![Stalin’s only daughter Svetlana, seen here on a photo taken in 1935, left Western diplomats in a predicament.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/stalin-und-tochter-300x234.jpg)
Visit for ‘rest and recuperation’
![Svetlana Alliluyeva arriving at Geneva Airport, March 1967.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/Flughafen-Ankunft-300x217.jpg)
The interests of the state versus individual freedom
![Svetlana Alliluyeva’s fundamental rights as an individual...](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/alliluyeva-1970-205x300.jpg)
![Federal Councillor Nello Celio, 1966.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/nello-celio-300x289.jpg)
Press conference given by Svetlana Alliluyeva on arriving in the United States in April 1967. YouTube / British Pathé
This article by Thomas Bürgisser was first published in the WOZ newspaper in December 2011. It is based on documents from the Diplomatic Documents of Switzerland (Dodis) collection with additional material from another WOZ article of March 2017 and further Dodis documents.