Tank Girl! Josef Stalin's tattooed British-educated granddaughter whose mother 'abhorred' the murderous tyrant's dark past
With her tattoos, bleached blonde hair and ripped tank top, she looks like an all action tough girl.
But the woman slowly exhaling smoke from her thick painted red lips, with a gun casually slung over her shoulder, had the kind of privileged public school upbringing most can only dream of.
For this is evil dictator Josef Stalin's unconventional granddaughter - the youngest child of his much-adored daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva.
Exactly what the Soviet despot would have thought of Chrese Evans - described by her loving mother as being 'American as apple pie' - is anyone's guess.
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World's apart: Josef Stalin's granddaughter Chrese Evans could not be more different from the evil dictator, who oversaw the deaths of millions during his time as ruler of the Soviet Republic
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Different: Chrese, who was born Olga, now lives in Portland, Oregon, and has a penchant for tattoos
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Bond: Her mother Svetlana Alliluyeva was Stalin's only daughter, and youngest child - and was said to be the only person who could make his heart melt. She spent much of her life fleeing his legacy
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Chrese - who was born Olga, but chose to change her name - is the youngest of her mother's three children, the only child from Svetlana's third marriage to American architect William Wesley Peters.
Now 44, her life is a world away from the one her grandfather would have more than likely envisaged for her.
Chrese has chosen to spend her days in Portland, Oregon, a million miles away from the private apartments in the Krelmin where her mother, raised in the lap of luxury, would meet Winston Churchill as a young girl.
In the picture of her with the gun over her shoulder - a toy - she is posed as Tank Girl, a 1980s British comic strip character.
The British-educated Chrese, who is reported to have owned a small antique shop in Portland, Oregon, posted the pictures on her social media account.
She proudly boasts about her tattoos, writing of one example of her body art: 'This one took a few years but it was completed in 2007.'
Of another, on her fingers, she said: 'Tim Jordan nailed the 1800's savings bond font in my touch up on Friday, right in time for the photo shoot for the upcoming tattoo book. Thanks love!'
Chrese is the youngest of her mother's three children - the only child from Svetlana's third marriage, to American architect William Wesley Peters.
Her mother, who died from colon cancer five years ago aged 85, wed Peters after arriving in America having fled the country where she had lived a life of untold privilege as a Soviet princess in a state where everyone was supposed to be equal.
The union did not last more than three years, but by all accounts Svetlana - who had renamed herself Lana Peters - was a good mother to her daughter.
In a 2011 interview with the Daily Mail, she said: 'My mother's whole life has been about living this [her association with Stalin] down and trying to lead a new life of her own.'
'Of course, she abhors what Stalin did.
'But there was a period when so many people held her responsible for his actions that she actually started to think maybe it was true. It's so unjust.'
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Western: Chrese was born in America almost two decades after her grandfather's death, the product of her mother's third marriage to a U.S. architect in the early 70s
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Relationship: Chrese and her mother were incredibly close, and she has spoken publicly about the bond the two of them had. This picture was captioned 'Tattoo by Pedro Dorsey, shoes by Sketchers, me by Mom'
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Running: Svetlana died three years ago, having moved around the world - often with her daughter - and changed her name to Lana Peters in a bid to distance herself from her past
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Blame: Chrese has said at one point 'so many' people held her responsible for her father's action, that Svetlana began to believe it herself. Pictured: Svetlana and Stalin
Evans was also quoted as saying that despite an itinerant childhood in Britain and the States - not to mention a failed attempt to return to the USSR in 1984 after Svetlana denounced the West - she grew up as a 'kind of normal kid'.
The stay in Russia only lasted three years after the moody Svetlana fell out with her relatives - although it seems to have left its mark.
'My favourite Russian New Year wish to all of you: May you never forget what is worth remembering, nor remember what is best forgotten. *gulp Vodka here*'
She also posted a picture of homemade Russian soup.
'Borscht from scratch. Love making it, feels like Mom was right next to me,' she wrote.
But Evans, who was educated at the Friends' School, Saffron Walden, Essex, a Quaker independent school, moved back to America as an adult. where she worked at a Portland fashion boutique as a student which had seen her study tax law and accounting.
She had the option to work for the US government's Internal Revenue Service, or to start her own business.
'One had the prospect of excitement, the other one was cool,' said Chrese in a previous interview.
Last year she told PBS in America that her mother had shielded her from being constantly confronted with her grandfather's bloody reign of terror.
'It wasn't a part of my past at all, until I was a young teenager, because she kept me very, very sheltered from it,' said Evans.
'She always called me American as apple pie.
'She wanted me - she always wanted to protect me from the hardships that she had had to go through.
'We had a very special relationship, once I had become probably a young teenager.
'Sometimes, I was doing the parenting. Sometimes, she was.
'We were a little bit more of an equal partnership, sort of a super duo.'
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'Super-duo': Chrese, aged 15, with Svetlana. The two settled in England for a number of years, with Chrese attending the independent Friends' School in Essex, which was run by Quakers
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Escape: Svetlana first left Russia in the 1960s, more than a decade after her father - pictured here with her and her brother Vlasik - had died. She left behind her two older children
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Indecision: Later, she would return with Chrese, before falling out with her relatives and leaving once more. Pictured: Svetlana being interviewed in 2010, shortly before she died at her home in the States
Asked what part of her mother is most in her, she said: 'She had incredible faith.
'And I didn't really develop that sense of faith until actually after she passed away and that sense of her being with me.
'I have a sense of accomplishment that I didn't have before that I know that she left with me.
'She was always proud of me, when I hadn't even really accomplished anything, the unconditional love, which I haven't felt from anybody else, ever, because she was my mother, and that warmth of a friendship, which I probably will look for, for the rest of my life in other people.
'But I know that it's possible.'
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Partnership: Chrese revealed last year that, as she grew up, sometimes she would do the parenting and sometimes her mother would
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Hidden: Svetlana tried her hardest to shield her daughter from her grandfather's crimes as she grew up
+16
Pressure: Svetlana later said her father, who died in 1953, loved her - and always wanted her to be by his side
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Hatred: Svetlana also revealed she could never forgive her father. Her relationship with Chrese was entirely different - her daughter even has a tattoo which reads 'Mamma's girl' on her arm (pictured)
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Distance: Chrese's mother Svetlana, Stalin's beloved daughter, used to tell her she was 'American as apple pie'
At one point in her fugitive life, her mother Svetlana had retreated to a convent in Warwickshire, and later subsisted on the dole in the Cornish town of Helston.
Just as she discarded her father's Communist faith she also lost her religion.
'I've had too much of it. I don't need the church any more,' she said.
Svetlana's mother Nadezhda Alliluyeva had committed suicide in 1932, when Svetlana was just six, evidently after sinking into depression over Stalin's womanising.
Her death devastated Stalin and his daughter was the apple of his eye.
'You know, my father loved me,' she said as an old woman. 'And he always wanted me to be with him.'
In 1942 he introduced her to visiting fellow war leader Winston Churchill in Stalin's private apartments in the Kremlin.
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History: Chrese's mother Svetlana met Winston Churchill during the Second World War, who he later remembered as a 'handsome red-haired girl, who kissed her father dutifully'
The British premier said she was 'a handsome red-haired girl, who kissed her father dutifully'.
Churchill recorded that Stalin 'looked at me with a twinkle in his eye as if, so I thought, to convey 'You see, even we Bolsheviks have a family life'.'
But Svetlana said years later: 'There was a lot of tragedy in my family.'
She added: 'I don't forgive anybody anything. If he could kill so many people, I could never forgive him.'
- This is Chrese Evans, the 44-year-old granddaughter dictator Josef Stalin
- Mother was Svetlana Alliluyeva, the evil despot's beloved only daughter
- Chrese, who was named 'Olga' at birth, now lives in Portland, Oregon
- She is Svetlana's only child with her third husband, an American architect
- But social media posts reveal she has retained a love of Russian comforts
With her tattoos, bleached blonde hair and ripped tank top, she looks like an all action tough girl.
But the woman slowly exhaling smoke from her thick painted red lips, with a gun casually slung over her shoulder, had the kind of privileged public school upbringing most can only dream of.
For this is evil dictator Josef Stalin's unconventional granddaughter - the youngest child of his much-adored daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva.
Exactly what the Soviet despot would have thought of Chrese Evans - described by her loving mother as being 'American as apple pie' - is anyone's guess.
+16
World's apart: Josef Stalin's granddaughter Chrese Evans could not be more different from the evil dictator, who oversaw the deaths of millions during his time as ruler of the Soviet Republic
+16
Different: Chrese, who was born Olga, now lives in Portland, Oregon, and has a penchant for tattoos
+16
Bond: Her mother Svetlana Alliluyeva was Stalin's only daughter, and youngest child - and was said to be the only person who could make his heart melt. She spent much of her life fleeing his legacy
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Chrese - who was born Olga, but chose to change her name - is the youngest of her mother's three children, the only child from Svetlana's third marriage to American architect William Wesley Peters.
Now 44, her life is a world away from the one her grandfather would have more than likely envisaged for her.
Chrese has chosen to spend her days in Portland, Oregon, a million miles away from the private apartments in the Krelmin where her mother, raised in the lap of luxury, would meet Winston Churchill as a young girl.
In the picture of her with the gun over her shoulder - a toy - she is posed as Tank Girl, a 1980s British comic strip character.
The British-educated Chrese, who is reported to have owned a small antique shop in Portland, Oregon, posted the pictures on her social media account.
She proudly boasts about her tattoos, writing of one example of her body art: 'This one took a few years but it was completed in 2007.'
Of another, on her fingers, she said: 'Tim Jordan nailed the 1800's savings bond font in my touch up on Friday, right in time for the photo shoot for the upcoming tattoo book. Thanks love!'
Chrese is the youngest of her mother's three children - the only child from Svetlana's third marriage, to American architect William Wesley Peters.
Her mother, who died from colon cancer five years ago aged 85, wed Peters after arriving in America having fled the country where she had lived a life of untold privilege as a Soviet princess in a state where everyone was supposed to be equal.
The union did not last more than three years, but by all accounts Svetlana - who had renamed herself Lana Peters - was a good mother to her daughter.
In a 2011 interview with the Daily Mail, she said: 'My mother's whole life has been about living this [her association with Stalin] down and trying to lead a new life of her own.'
'Of course, she abhors what Stalin did.
'But there was a period when so many people held her responsible for his actions that she actually started to think maybe it was true. It's so unjust.'
+16
Western: Chrese was born in America almost two decades after her grandfather's death, the product of her mother's third marriage to a U.S. architect in the early 70s
+16
Relationship: Chrese and her mother were incredibly close, and she has spoken publicly about the bond the two of them had. This picture was captioned 'Tattoo by Pedro Dorsey, shoes by Sketchers, me by Mom'
+16
Running: Svetlana died three years ago, having moved around the world - often with her daughter - and changed her name to Lana Peters in a bid to distance herself from her past
+16
Blame: Chrese has said at one point 'so many' people held her responsible for her father's action, that Svetlana began to believe it herself. Pictured: Svetlana and Stalin
Evans was also quoted as saying that despite an itinerant childhood in Britain and the States - not to mention a failed attempt to return to the USSR in 1984 after Svetlana denounced the West - she grew up as a 'kind of normal kid'.
The stay in Russia only lasted three years after the moody Svetlana fell out with her relatives - although it seems to have left its mark.
'My favourite Russian New Year wish to all of you: May you never forget what is worth remembering, nor remember what is best forgotten. *gulp Vodka here*'
She also posted a picture of homemade Russian soup.
'Borscht from scratch. Love making it, feels like Mom was right next to me,' she wrote.
But Evans, who was educated at the Friends' School, Saffron Walden, Essex, a Quaker independent school, moved back to America as an adult. where she worked at a Portland fashion boutique as a student which had seen her study tax law and accounting.
She had the option to work for the US government's Internal Revenue Service, or to start her own business.
'One had the prospect of excitement, the other one was cool,' said Chrese in a previous interview.
Last year she told PBS in America that her mother had shielded her from being constantly confronted with her grandfather's bloody reign of terror.
'It wasn't a part of my past at all, until I was a young teenager, because she kept me very, very sheltered from it,' said Evans.
'She always called me American as apple pie.
'She wanted me - she always wanted to protect me from the hardships that she had had to go through.
'We had a very special relationship, once I had become probably a young teenager.
'Sometimes, I was doing the parenting. Sometimes, she was.
'We were a little bit more of an equal partnership, sort of a super duo.'
+16
'Super-duo': Chrese, aged 15, with Svetlana. The two settled in England for a number of years, with Chrese attending the independent Friends' School in Essex, which was run by Quakers
+16
Escape: Svetlana first left Russia in the 1960s, more than a decade after her father - pictured here with her and her brother Vlasik - had died. She left behind her two older children
+16
Indecision: Later, she would return with Chrese, before falling out with her relatives and leaving once more. Pictured: Svetlana being interviewed in 2010, shortly before she died at her home in the States
Asked what part of her mother is most in her, she said: 'She had incredible faith.
'And I didn't really develop that sense of faith until actually after she passed away and that sense of her being with me.
'I have a sense of accomplishment that I didn't have before that I know that she left with me.
'She was always proud of me, when I hadn't even really accomplished anything, the unconditional love, which I haven't felt from anybody else, ever, because she was my mother, and that warmth of a friendship, which I probably will look for, for the rest of my life in other people.
'But I know that it's possible.'
+16
Partnership: Chrese revealed last year that, as she grew up, sometimes she would do the parenting and sometimes her mother would
+16
Hidden: Svetlana tried her hardest to shield her daughter from her grandfather's crimes as she grew up
+16
Pressure: Svetlana later said her father, who died in 1953, loved her - and always wanted her to be by his side
+16
Hatred: Svetlana also revealed she could never forgive her father. Her relationship with Chrese was entirely different - her daughter even has a tattoo which reads 'Mamma's girl' on her arm (pictured)
+16
Distance: Chrese's mother Svetlana, Stalin's beloved daughter, used to tell her she was 'American as apple pie'
At one point in her fugitive life, her mother Svetlana had retreated to a convent in Warwickshire, and later subsisted on the dole in the Cornish town of Helston.
Just as she discarded her father's Communist faith she also lost her religion.
'I've had too much of it. I don't need the church any more,' she said.
Svetlana's mother Nadezhda Alliluyeva had committed suicide in 1932, when Svetlana was just six, evidently after sinking into depression over Stalin's womanising.
Her death devastated Stalin and his daughter was the apple of his eye.
'You know, my father loved me,' she said as an old woman. 'And he always wanted me to be with him.'
In 1942 he introduced her to visiting fellow war leader Winston Churchill in Stalin's private apartments in the Kremlin.
+16
History: Chrese's mother Svetlana met Winston Churchill during the Second World War, who he later remembered as a 'handsome red-haired girl, who kissed her father dutifully'
The British premier said she was 'a handsome red-haired girl, who kissed her father dutifully'.
Churchill recorded that Stalin 'looked at me with a twinkle in his eye as if, so I thought, to convey 'You see, even we Bolsheviks have a family life'.'
But Svetlana said years later: 'There was a lot of tragedy in my family.'
She added: 'I don't forgive anybody anything. If he could kill so many people, I could never forgive him.'
