When we think of the Cold War, we think of checkpoints at Checkpoint Charlie, nuclear fallout shelters, and spy swaps on the Glienicke Bridge. We rarely think about estate planning .
The man at the center of this legal anomaly was , a Soviet trade representative who died suddenly in Manhattan. His case set a precedent that no one in the State Department had ever considered: What happens to a Communist official’s inheritance when it’s sitting in a capitalist bank? The Deceased: A Man of the State Vladimir Kirillin wasn't a defector or a dissident. He was a loyal Soviet bureaucrat working for Amtorg Trading Corporation, the USSR’s purchasing agency in New York. In the 1970s, détente was thawing relations, allowing more Soviet officials to live and work in the U.S. than ever before. first of a soviet citizen to undergo probate
When Kirillin passed away unexpectedly in 1978, he left behind a modest American bank account, a few personal effects, and a very big question: Who gets the money? When we think of the Cold War, we