Nadezhda was the daughter of revolutionary Sergei Alliluyev and his wife Olga, of German and Georgian ancestry. She first met Stalin as a child when her father, Sergei Alliluyev, sheltered him after one of his escapes from Siberian exile in 1911. After the revolution, Nadezhda worked as a confidential code clerk in Lenin`s office. She eschewed fancy dress, make-up and other trappings that she felt un-befitting of a proper Bolshevik. The couple married in 1919, when Stalin was already 41 years old. They had two children together: Vasilii, born in 1921, became a figher pilot at Stalingrad and Svetlana, their daughter, was born in 1926. According to her close friend, Polina Molotov, the marriage was strained, and the two constantly fought.

After a public spat with Stalin at a party dinner, Nadezhda was found dead in her bedroom, a revolver by her side. [2]. But it was officially announced that Nadezhda died from appendicitis. Two doctors, who refused to sign a certificate stating false conclusions about her death (Levin and Pletnev), were later convicted during the Trial of the Twenty-One and executed. Some claim the gun was found beside the hand she didn`t use, apparently pointing to a framed suicide; many in Russia allege that Stalin killed her himself.

She is much loved by some Russians; her grave at Novodevichy Cemetery is often covered in flowers, but her grave has also been vandalized.

Her daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva later emigrated from the Soviet Union and became a noted author