Russia: Surprise from the Past

Svetlana Iosifovna Stalina was always the apple of her father's eye—but what an eye it was! Her dad was Iosif Stalin, and Svetlana was among the very few to whom he ever showed any real tenderness. In notes to her, full of fatherly affection, Stalin signed himself "Papochka" (little daddy). Even though he objected to her choice of a husband in 1951, the Soviet dictator staged a $500,000 czarist-style marriage feast that went on for two weeks, and was kept afloat by gallons of pink Crimean champagne, sweet Armenian brandy and vodka....