“My two darlings Ellie. I miss you already ... I kiss you all eight paws ”- this is an excerpt from a letter from Vladimir Mayakovsky, addressed to his American love - Ellie Jones and their common daughter Helen Patricia Thompson. The fact that the revolutionary poet has a child overseas became known only in 1991. Until then, Helen kept a secret, fearing for her safety. When it became possible to speak openly about Mayakovsky, she visited Russia and devoted her further life to studying her father's biography.

The Russian name of Patricia Thompson is Elena Vladimirovna Mayakovskaya. At the end of her life, she preferred to call herself that way, because she finally had the legal right to declare that she was the daughter of a famous Soviet poet. Elena was born in the summer of 1926 in New York. By this time, Mayakovsky's American trip to the United States came to an end, and he was forced to return to the USSR. Overseas, he had a three-month romance with Ellie Jones, a Russian-speaking translator, German by birth, whose family first came to Russia on the orders of Catherine, and then emigrated to the United States when the revolution broke out.

At the time of Ellie's acquaintance with Vladimir, she was in a fictitious marriage with the Englishman George Jones (he helped her emigrate from Russia, first to London, then to America). After the birth of Patricia, Jones showed concern and gave the girl his last name, so she acquired American citizenship.

Patricia was convinced all her life that her mother kept the secret of her origin, fearing persecution by the NKVD. For the same reason, it seems to her, the poet himself did not mention them in his will. Patricia met her father only once, she was then only three years old, they came with her mother to Nice. Her childhood memories preserved touching moments of the meeting, the joy that the poet experienced when he saw his own daughter.

Elena Vladimirovna visited Russia in 1991. Then she talked with interest with distant relatives, literary scholars, researchers, worked in archives. I read the biographies of Mayakovsky and came to the idea that she was very similar to her father, she also devoted herself to enlightenment, serving people. Elena Vladimirovna was a professor, lectured on emancipation, published several teaching aids, edited science fiction novels and worked for several publishing houses. All the memories told about Mayakovsky by her mother were preserved by Elena Vladimirovna as audio recordings. Based on this material, she prepared the publication Mayakovsky in Manhattan.

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Roger hopes that he will have enough time to eventually publish a book about his mother, the name for her already exists - "Daughter". It is this word that is the only mention of Elena in Mayakovsky's diaries. Once Elena Vladimirovna let slip that Lilya Brik did everything possible to destroy any evidence of American history. But, leafing through the archives, she managed to find a surviving sheet in one of the diaries, on which only this word was written.

Vladimir Mayakovsky is known not only for his genius poetic talent, but also for his powerful charisma, which at one time broke many women's hearts. Many love stories and hobbies both in the poet's poems and gave life real people... Mayakovsky's children are one of the main questions for researchers of the poet's biography. Who are they, the heirs of the great futurist genius? How many children does Mayakovsky have, how was their fate?

Personal life of the poet

Vladimir Mayakovsky was a very charming, intelligent and prominent man. Almost no woman could resist his piercing, heart-beating gaze. The poet was always surrounded by a crowd of female fans, and he himself easily threw himself into the ocean of love and passion. It is known that his special, ardent feeling and affection were associated with Lilya Brik, but this did not limit his passion for other women. So, love affairs with Elizabeth Lavinsky and Elizabeth Siebert (Ellie Jones) became in many ways fateful for the poet, forever occupying a niche in his memory and heritage.

Legacy issue

Mayakovsky's children, their fate - this question arose especially acute after the death of the poet. Of course, poems, memoirs of contemporaries, diaries, letters, documentary records are very valuable for the history of Russian literature, but the issue of posterity and heritage is much more significant.

A living continuation of the memory and history of the brilliant futurist, who are the children of Mayakovsky, is shrouded in secrets, doubts and inaccuracies. Lilia Brick could not have children. However, researchers are 99% sure that the poet has at least two heirs. And they appeared from two different women, on different continents. This is the son of Gleb-Nikita Lavinsky and the daughter of Patricia Thompson.

For a long time, information about them was not disclosed, and only close people knew the details of their birth stories. Now the children of Mayakovsky (their photos and documents are kept in the museum archives) are an approved fact.

A son

While working in the "ROST Windows" (1920), Vladimir Mayakovsky met the artist Lilia (Elizaveta) Lavinskaya. And although at that time she was a married young lady, this did not prevent her from being carried away by the stately and charismatic poet. The fruit of this relationship was their son, who received the double name Gleb-Nikita. He was born on August 21, 1921 and was recorded in the documents under the name of Anton Lavinsky, the official husband of his mother. The boy Gleb-Nikita himself always knew who he was.Moreover, despite the lack of paternal attention (the children of Vladimir Mayakovsky were not interested, he was even afraid of them), he deeply loved the poet and from a young age read his poems.

Life

The life of Nikita-Gleb was not an easy one. With living parents, a boy up to three years old grew up in an orphanage. According to those social views, this was the most suitable place for raising children and teaching them to the team. Gleb-Nikita has few memories of his own father. Much later, he will tell his youngest daughter Elizabeth about one special meeting between them, when Mayakovsky took him on his shoulders, went out onto the balcony and recited his poems to him.

Mayakovsky's son had a delicate artistic taste and an absolute ear for music. At the age of 20, Gleb-Nikita was drafted to the front. The whole great World War II he passed by an ordinary soldier. Then he got married for the first time.

After the victory of 1945, Mayakovsky's son entered the Surikov Institute and became his most significant and outstanding work - a monument to Ivan Susanin in Kostroma (1967).

Father resemblance

In 1965, literary critic E. Guskov visited the studio of the sculptor Gleb-Nikita Lavinsky. He was struck by the external resemblance of a man to Vladimir Mayakovsky, his deep, low voice, the manner of reading poetry as the poet himself did.

The son for Anton Lavinsky's stepfather has always been a living reminder of his wife's infatuation and betrayal. Perhaps that is why the relationship between the stepfather and stepson was rather cold. But friendship with Mayakovsky was, on the contrary, surprisingly warm and strong. Family archive saved a lot of photographs testifying to this.

American daughter

In the mid-1920s, relations between Mayakovsky and Lilia Brik occurred, and the very political situation in Russia at that time was difficult for the revolutionary poet. This was the reason for his trip to the United States, where he toured extensively, visited a friend.There he also met the Russian emigrant Ellie Jones (real name - Elizabeth Siebert). She was a reliable companion, a charming companion and translator for him in a foreign country.

This novel has become very significant for the poet. He even seriously wanted to get married, to create a calm family haven. However, his old love (Lilia Brik) did not let him go, all impulses quickly cooled down. And on June 15, 1926, Ellie Jones gave birth to a daughter from the poet, Patricia Thompson.

At birth, the girl was named Helen-Patricia Jones. The surname came from the husband of the emigrant mother, George Jones. This was necessary so that the child could be considered legitimate and remain in the United States. In addition, the secret of the birth saved the girl. Potential children of Mayakovsky could then fall under persecution from the NKVD and Lilia Brik herself.

Fate

Helen-Patricia found out who the real father is at the age of nine. But this information remained a family secret for a long time and was not available to the public. The girl inherited her father's creative talent. At the age of 15, she entered the art college, after which she got a job as an editor in the magazine "Macmillan". There she reviewed films and music recordings, edited westerns, science fiction, detective stories. In addition to working in publishing houses, Helen-Patricia worked as a teacher, wrote books.

In 1954, Mayakovsky's daughter married American Wayne Thompson, changed her last name and left the second part of her double name - Patricia. After 20 years, the couple divorced.

Meeting with father

When Patricia was three years old, she met her father for the first and only time. The news of the birth of his daughter made Mayakovsky very happy, but he could not get a visa to the United States. But they managed to get permission to travel to France. It was there, in Nice, that Ellie Jones and her daughter rested. Patricia called him Volodya, and he constantly repeated "daughter" and "little Ellie". Not realizing yet who was in front of her, the girl still retained warm and tender memories of this meeting.

Grandchildren

Mayakovsky's children, their fate is a separate chapter in the history of the genius poet. Now, unfortunately, they are no longer alive. But the line of memory is continued by the grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

It is known for sure that Mayakovsky's son - Gleb-Nikita - was married three times. From these marriages, he had four children (two sons and two daughters). The first-born son is named after his father-poet Vladimir, and the youngest daughter is named after his mother - Elizabeth. Mayakovsky's children followed in the footsteps of their ancestor and became honored artists (sculptors, artists, teachers). Information about their fate is presented rather scanty and fragmentary. It is only known that the poet's eldest grandson-namesake (Vladimir) died in 1996, and the granddaughter is keeping a children's art workshop. The Mayakovsky family is continued by the five grandchildren of Gleb-Nikita (Ilya, Elizaveta, and Anastasia). Ilya Lavinsky works as an architect, Elizaveta works as a theater and film artist.

Until the 1990s, information about Patricia Thompson was closed to Russian society. However, with the proof of kinship with the famous poet, a reasonable question of procreation arose. Does Mayakovsky's daughter have children? As it turned out, Patricia Thompson has a son, Roger, he works as a lawyer, is married, but has no children of his own.

• Mayakovsky's son received a double name due to parental differences in choosing a name for the boy. The first part - Gleb - he received from his stepfather, the second part - Nikita - from his mother. Mayakovsky himself did not take part in raising his son, although he was a frequent guest of the family in the first few years.
• In 2013, the First Channel released the film "The Third Extra", dedicated to the 120th anniversary of the poet's birth. The documentary was based on the story of the fatal love of Mayakovsky and Lilia Brik, the possible reasons for the poet's suicide, and the eternal theme was also touched upon - the children of Mayakovsky (briefly). It was this film that for the first time openly and conclusively declared about the heirs of the poet.
• The futurist poet has always been in the center of female attention. Despite his all-consuming love for Lilya Brick, he is credited with many novels. And what happened after, in most cases, history is simply silent. However, Gleb-Nikita Lavinsky once mentioned that Mayakovsky has another son who lives in Mexico. But this information has not received its documentary or any other confirmation.
• Patricia Thompson has written 15 books in her life. She dedicated several of them to her father. So, the book "Mayakovsky in Manhattan, a love story" tells about her parents and their short-lived but tender relationship. Also, Patricia began an autobiographical book "Daughter", but did not have time to finish it.
• Already in old age, Patricia got acquainted with her father's archive (St. Petersburg library). On one of the pages, she recognized her children's drawings (flowers and leaves), which she left during their first and only meeting.
• At the request of Ellie Jones herself, her daughter cremated her mother's body after her death and buried it in the grave of Vladimir Mayakovsky on Novodevichy cemetery.
• The poet's granddaughter, Elizaveta Lavinskaya, writes the book "The Son of Mayakovsky". about her father, the son of a famous poet, his uneasy relationship with his stepfather and selfless love for his own father, whom he never had time to get to know consciously. After all, Gleb-Nikita was only eight years old when Mayakovsky died.
• Pregnant from Mayakovsky was his last love - Veronica Polonskaya. But she was married and did not want to cut off so abruptly conjugal relationship for the poet-heartthrob. Therefore, Polonskaya had an abortion.

P.S.

Did Mayakovsky have children? Now we know for sure that yes. And although he was never officially married, now that all the prohibitions and dangers of persecution have been lifted, we know that there were at least two heirs of the great revolutionary poet. Moreover, his descendants live today, walking on their own creative way... And the memory of this literary phenomenon like Mayakovsky, children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren will openly carry it through many more years.

P at r and s and I T o m p son: “What would M ayak ovskoy not e h a lkn m s m a m o AMERIKU, LILEYA PODS TROILAEMU in the end of the "
The only daughter of revolutionary singer Vladimir Mayakovsky is Patricia Thompson, lives in Upper Manhattan and teaches feminism at New York University.
The only grandson of the singer of the revolution is named Roger Thompson, a trendy New York lawyer on Fifth Avenue. When you look at Mayakovsky's daughter, it becomes uncomfortable. It seems that Mayakovsky himself descended from his marble pedestal - a tall, thin figure and the same sparkling look, familiar from numerous portraits of the famous futurist. Her apartment is lined with portraits and sculptures of Mayakovsky. During the conversation, Patricia periodically glances at the small statuette of her father, presented to her by Veronica Polonskaya, as if waiting for confirmation ("Isn't it daddy?"). It seems that these two would understand each other without words. She is now 84 years old. In 1991, she revealed her secret to the world and now asks to call herself Elena Vladimirovna Mayakovskaya. She assures that Mayakovsky loved children and wanted to live with her and her mother. But history ordered it differently. He was a singer Soviet revolution, and his beloved - the daughter of a kulak who escaped from the revolution.
- Elena Vladimirovna, you met your father only once in your life ...
- Yes. I was only three years old. In 1928, my mother and I went to Nice, where she was solving some immigrant issues. And Mayakovsky was in Paris at that time, and our mutual friend told him that we were in France.
- And he came to you right away?
- Yes, as soon as he found out that we were in Nice, he immediately rushed over. My mother nearly had a stroke. She hadn't expected to see him. Mom said that he came to the door and said: "Here I am."

Young in Manhattan
- Do you yourself remember anything?
- All I remember are long legs. And yet, you may not believe me, but I remember how I sat on his lap, his touch. I think it's kinesthetic memory. I remember how he hugged me. My mother also told me how he was moved when he saw me sleeping in the crib. He said: "There is probably nothing more attractive than a sleeping child." There was another case when I was rummaging through his papers, my mother saw this and slapped me on the hands. And Mayakovsky told her: "You should never beat a child."
- But you never met again?
- No, it was the only meeting. But she was very important to him. After this meeting, he sent us a letter. This letter was the most important treasure for my mother. It was addressed to Two Ellies. Mayakovsky wrote: “My two dear Ellies. I already miss you. I dream to come to you. Please write quickly. I kiss you all eight paws ... ". It was a very touching letter. He never wrote such letters to anyone else. The father asked for a new meeting, but it did not happen. My mother and I went to Italy. But Mayakovsky took my photograph taken in Nice with him. His friends said that this photo was on his father's table all the time.

Entrance to Mayakovskaya's apartment in Manhattan
- But Lilya Brik tore her, didn't she?
- I know from authoritative sources that when he died, Lilya Brik came to his office and destroyed my photographs. I think the fact is that Lilya was the heir to copyright, and therefore my existence was undesirable for her. However, one entry in his notebook remained. On a separate page there is written only one word "Daughter".
“But your mother, too, was in no hurry to talk about your existence.
- My mother was very afraid that the authorities in the USSR would find out about my existence. She said that even before I was born, some nasal commissar came to her and asked who she was pregnant with. And she was very afraid of Lily Brik, who, as you know, was associated with the NKVD. My mother was afraid all her life that Lilya would get us even in America. But, fortunately, this did not happen.
- Your mother actually took Mayakovsky away from Lily Brik, right?
- I think at the time when Mayakovsky came to America, his relationship with Lilya was in the past. My father's love for my mother, Ellie Jones, put an end to their relationship.


Books written by Mayakovskaya
- Mayakovsky's biographer Solomon Kemrad in one of the "American" notebooks of the poet found an entry on English language: 111 West 12 st. Elly Jones. Did your mother live there?
- Yes, my mother Ellie Jones had an apartment in Manhattan. In terms of money, she always felt free. My grandfather was a successful businessman, a wealthy man. In addition, her mother worked as a model and translator: she knew five European languages, learned them at school, in Bashkiria, as a little girl. She worked with the American administration. Mother devoted her whole life to trying to explain to the Americans what Russian culture is, who the Russian people are. She was a real patriot. And she taught me the same.
- Is she German from Bashkiria by birth?
- Yes, her Russian name- Elizabeth Siebert. The history of the family from the mother's side is generally amazing. My ancestors came from Germany to Russia on the orders of Catherine the Great. Then a lot of Europeans came to develop Russia, Catherine promised all of them freedom of religion. My grandfather was a successful industrialist. And then there was a revolution.
- How did your grandfather manage to take his family out at the height of the revolution?
- It was unsafe to stay in Russia. If they had not left, at best they would have been dispossessed and sent to the camps. The mother's family lived in Bashkiria in big house... It is quite far from Moscow, and revolutionary sentiments did not reach there immediately. When the revolution took place in the capital, one of my grandfather's friends advised him to leave the country, said that soon people would come with weapons. My grandfather had enough money to take everyone to Canada. My personal opinion is that if the so-called kulaks were not persecuted in the Soviet Union, they were not exiled, but they were given the opportunity to work, then this would have greatly helped to develop the Soviet economy.

Mayakovskaya in her youth
“However, your mother didn't go with the whole family, did she?
- Yes, she spent some more time in Russia. Mother worked for a charitable organization in Moscow, no one knew about her kulak origin. Then she met the Englishman George Jones, who worked for the same organization; married him and went to London and then to New York. I think the marriage was rather fictitious. Mother wanted to go to her family, George Jones helped her. By the time she met Mayakovsky, she no longer lived with her husband ...
- How did she meet Mayakovsky?
- For the first time she saw her father back in Moscow, at the Rizhsky railway station. He stood with Lilya Brick. Mother said that she was struck by Lily's cold and cruel eyes. The next meeting, in New York, took place in 1925. Then Mayakovsky miraculously managed to come to America. It was impossible to get directly to the United States, he was traveling through France, Cuba and Mexico, he was waiting for permission to enter for almost a month. When he arrived in New York, he was invited to a cocktail party with a well-known lawyer. My mother was there too.
- What did she tell about this meeting?
- Mom was interested in poetry, read it in all European languages. She was generally very educated. When she and Mayakovsky were introduced to each other, she almost immediately asked him: “How do you write poetry? What makes poetry poetry? " Mayakovsky almost did not speak foreign languages; naturally, he liked the smart girl who speaks Russian. In addition, the mother was very beautiful, she was often invited to work as a model. She had a very natural beauty: I still have a portrait by David Burliuk, taken when they were all together in the Bronx. Mayakovsky, one might say, fell in love with my mother at first sight, after a few days they almost never parted.


Mayakovsky and his young daughter
- Do you know where they went most often? What were Mayakovsky's favorite places in New York?
- They appeared together at all receptions, together they met with journalists and publishers. We went to the zoo in the Bronx, went to look at the Brooklyn Bridge. And the poem "Brooklyn Bridge" was written right after he visited him with his mother. She was the first to hear this poem.
- You probably conducted an investigation when you wrote a book about Mayakovsky in America. Has anyone seen your parents together?
- Yes. Once I was visiting the writer Tatyana Levchenko-Sukhomlina. She told me how in those years she met Mayakovsky on the street and got into conversation with him. The poet invited her and her husband to his evening. There she saw Mayakovsky with a tall and slender beauty, whom he called Ellie. Tatyana Ivanovna told me that she had the impression that Mayakovsky had very strong feelings for his companion. He never left my mother for a minute. It was very important to me, I wanted confirmation that I was born as a result of love - although internally I always knew it.


Mayakovsky and Ellie Jones
- Was your mother the only woman in Mayakovsky's life at that time?
- Yes, I'm pretty sure of that. Mom told me that he was very careful with her. He told her: “Be faithful to me. As long as I am here, you are the only one. " Their relationship lasted all three months while he was in New York. The mother said that he called her every morning and said: “The maid has just left. Your hairpins scream about you! " Even a drawing made by Mayakovsky after a quarrel has been preserved: he drew his mother, with sparkling eyes, and below his head, humbly bowed.
- There is not a single poem directly dedicated to your mother?
- She said that once he told her that he was writing a poem about them. And she forbade him to do this, said: "Let's save our feelings only for us."
- You weren't a planned child, were you?
- Mayakovsky asked his mother if she was using protection. She then answered him: "To love is to have children." However, she had no doubt that they could never be together. He then told her that she was crazy. However, in one of the plays this phrase is used. “It is necessary to build bridges from love and give birth to children” - his professor says this.

Mayakovsky's letter to two Ellies
- Mayakovsky knew that your mother was pregnant when he left America?
“No, he didn’t know, and she didn’t know. They parted very touchingly. She accompanied Mayakovsky to a ship bound for Europe. When she returned, she found that the bed in her apartment was strewn with forget-me-nots. He spent all his money on these flowers, and therefore returned to Russia in fourth class, in the worst cabin. Mom found out that she was pregnant when Mayakovsky was already in the USSR.
- As a child, you bore the name Jones ...
- When I was born, my mother was still formally married to George Jones. And the fact that she was pregnant was a very delicate situation, especially for those times. But Jones was very kind, he gave me his name for the birth certificate and generally helped us a lot. Mom was not condemned for an illegitimate child, and I got American documents: he became legally my father, I am very grateful to him. Today, people forgive much more than a child born out of wedlock, but things were different then.
- When Mayakovsky found out about your existence, did he want to return?
-I'm sure that Mayakovsky wanted to have a family, wanted to live with us. Everything that is written about him was controlled by Lilya Brik. It is not true that he did not want children. He loved children very much, it was not in vain that he wrote for them. Of course, there was a very difficult political situation between the two countries. But there was also a personal moment. When Lilya found out about us, she wanted to divert his attention ... She did not want another woman next to Mayakovsky. When Mayakovsky was in Paris, Lilya asked her sister Elsa Triolet to introduce Mayakovsky to some local beauty. She turned out to be Tatyana Yakovleva. A very attractive woman, a charming woman from a good family. I do not deny this at all. But I have to say that it was all Brick's game. She wanted him to forget the woman and child in America.

Tatiana Yakovleva
- Many people think that it was Tatyana Yakovleva who was Mayakovsky's last love.
- Her daughter, the American writer Francis Gray, came to Russia long before me. And everyone thought that she was Mayakovsky's daughter. Francis even published an article in the New York Times about Mayakovsky's last muse, about her mother. She says that on October 25, he talked about his endless love for Tatyana Yakovleva. But I have a letter to my mother dated October 26, he asked her to meet. I think he wanted to cover up politically dangerous relationship with my mother a high-profile romance with Yakovleva.
- Only letters written by Lilya Brik have survived in Mayakovsky's archive. Why do you think she destroyed the correspondence with the other women?
- Lilya was who she was. I think she wanted to go down in history alone. She had an impact on the public. It cannot be denied that she was a very intelligent, experienced woman. But, in my opinion, she was also a manipulator. I did not know Brikov personally, but I think that they built a career for themselves using Mayakovsky. They said he was rude and uncontrollable. But his mother told something completely different about him, and his friend, David Burliuk, said that he was very sensitive and kind person.
- Do you think Lilya had a bad influence on Mayakovsky?
- I think that the role of Briks is very ambiguous. Osip helped him publish at the very beginning of his career. Lilya Brik, one might say, was included in the kit. When Mayakovsky met her, he was very young. And the adult, mature Lilya was, of course, very attractive to him.

Father's figurine in Mayakovskaya's house
- Elena Vladimirovna, tell me why Mayakovsky is in suicide note defined his family as follows: mother, sisters, Lilya Brik and Veronica Polonskaya. Why didn't he say anything about you?
- I myself thought about it a lot, this question tormented me. When I went to Russia, I met my father's last beloved, Veronica Polonskaya. I visited her at the actor's nursing home. She treated me very warmly, gave me a statuette of her father. She said that Mayakovsky talked to her about me, about how he misses. He showed her a Parker pen, which I gave him in Nice, and told Polonskaya: "My future is in this child." I'm sure she loved him too. Charming woman. So, I asked her this very question: why?
- And why were you not in the will?
- Polonskaya told me that my father did it to protect us. He defended it when he included it in the will, and on the contrary, without mentioning us. I'm not sure that I would have lived quietly until these days if the NKVD then learned that the Soviet poet Mayakovsky in America is growing a child from the daughter of a kulak.
I know that he loved me, that he was happy to become a father. But he was afraid. It was not safe to be the wife or child of a dissenter. And Mayakovsky became a dissenter: if you read his plays, you will see that he criticized the bureaucracy and the direction in which the revolution was moving. His mother didn't blame him, and I don't blame him.

Mayakovskaya with a portrait of her mother
- Was Veronika Polonskaya the only one to whom Mayakovsky told about your existence?
- Another friend of my father, Sophia Shamardina, wrote in her memoirs about what Mayakovsky told her about his daughter in America: “I never thought that one could miss a child so much. The girl is already three years old, she is sick with rickets, and I can't do anything for her! " Mayakovsky talked about me with another friend of his, told how hard it was for him not to raise his own daughter. But when a book of memoirs was published in Russia, they simply threw away these fragments. Perhaps because Lilya Brik did not want to publish it. In general, I think that there are still many blank spots in my father's biography, and I consider it my duty to tell the truth about my parents.
- When you came to Russia, did you find any other documentary evidence that Mayakovsky did not forget about you?
- I made one amazing find when I was in St. Petersburg. I went through my father's papers and found there a drawing of a flower made by a child's hand. I think this is my drawing, as a child I drew exactly the same ...
- Tell me, you feel like the daughter of Mayakovsky. Do you believe in genetic memory?
- I understand my father very well. When I first read Mayakovsky's books, I realized that we look at the world in the same way. He believed that if you have talent, then you should use it for social, social action. I feel the same way. And I had this goal: to create textbooks, books from which children learn something about the world and about themselves. I wrote textbooks on psychology and anthropology, history, tried to present all this in such a way that children would understand. I also worked as an editor for several of the largest American publishing houses. She edited fiction, including Ray Bradbury. It seems to me that an excellent activity for the daughter of a futurist is to work with science fiction writers.

Mayakovskaya with the picture she painted
- You have pictures on your wall. Did you also inherit this talent from your father?
- Yes, I like to draw. At the age of 15 she entered an art school. I, of course, am not a professional artist, but something turns out.
- Can you call yourself a revolutionary?
“I think my father’s idea of ​​revolution is the idea of ​​bringing social justice. I am a revolutionary myself, in my own understanding, that is, in connection with the role of women in society and in the family. I teach philosophy of feminism at New York University. I am a feminist, but not one of those who seeks to belittle the role of men (which is typical of many American feminists). My feminism is my desire to keep my family together, to work for its good.
- Tell us about your family.
- I have a wonderful son Roger, a lawyer in the field intellectual property... He is Mayakovsky's grandson. An amazing blood flows in his veins - the blood of Mayakovsky and the blood of a fighter for American independence (my husband's ancestor was one of the founders of the Declaration of Independence). I have a grandson, Logan. He is finishing school now. He's from Latin America, Roger adopted him. And although he is not Mayakovsky's own great-grandson, I notice that he has exactly the same wrinkle on his forehead as my father. It's funny to see how he looks at the portrait of Mayakovsky and wrinkles his forehead.
To be honest, I still miss my dad very much. It seems to me that if he knew me now, if he knew about my life, he would be pleased.
- You have lived almost all your life under the name Patricia Thompson, and now you have the name Elena Mayakovskaya on your business card.
- I have always had two names: Russian - Elena and American - Patricia. My mother's friend was Irish Patricia, and she helped her when I was born. My American godmother was called Elena, and my grandmother was also called Elena.
- Tell me, why do you hardly know Russian?
- When I was little, I did not speak English. I spoke Russian, German and French. But I wanted to play with American children, and they didn't play with me because I was a foreigner. And I told my mom that I didn't want to speak all these useless languages, but I wanted to speak English. Then my stepfather, an Englishman, taught me. And Russian has remained at the children's level.
- Did you speak Russian at all with your mother?
- I resisted, refused to read in Russian. Maybe because for me the death of my father was a tragedy, and I unconsciously left everything Russian. Besides, I have always been an individualist, I think I inherited this from my father. My mother also supported me in this, she was a very strong, courageous woman. It was she who explained to me that you cannot remain in the shadow of your father, be his cheap imitation. She taught me to be myself.

Mayakovskaya with her son in Moscow at the monument to his father gives autographs
- Who do you feel more like, American or Russian?
- I would say - Russian American. Few people know that even during the Cold War, I always tried to help The Soviet Union and Russia. When I worked as an editor at Macmillan in 1964, I edited a test and selected photographs for the book Communism: What It Is. I deliberately made several edits in the text so that Americans understand what good people live in the USSR. After all, then the Americans were drawn not quite an adequate image of a Soviet person. When choosing photographs, I tried to find the most beautiful ones; show how Soviet people know how to enjoy life. And when I was working on a children's book about Russia, I emphasized that the Russians liberated the peasants even before the abolition of slavery in America. it historical fact and I think this is an important fact.
- Elena Vladimirovna, you assure that you feel and understand your father. Why do you think he committed suicide? Do you have any thoughts on this?
- First, I would like to say that even if he committed suicide, it was not because of the woman. He had reasons to live. Burliuk told me that he believed that Mayakovsky had been planted with bullets in a shoebox. In the Russian aristocratic tradition, receiving such a gift meant dishonor. The dishonor for him began with a boycott of the exhibition; no one came there. He understood what was happening. It was a message: if you don’t behave yourself, we will not publish your poetry. This is a very painful topic for creative person- to be free, to have the right. He was losing his freedom. Mayakovsky saw in all this a prediction of his fate. He simply decided that there was only one way - death. And this is most likely the only reason for his suicide. Not a woman, not a broken heart - that's absurd.
- Tell me, do you like biographical books written about your father?
- I, of course, did not read everything that was written. I'm not his biographer. But some of the facts that I read in the biographies translated into English were clearly not true. My favorite book is by Swedish author Bengt Yangfeldt. The man really wanted to find earlier unknown facts about my father, and he managed to unearth something.
- Tell me, are you going to write a biography of Mayakovsky for the Americans? In general, in America, do they know who Mayakovsky is?
- Educated people, of course, know. And they are always very interested when they find out that I am his daughter. And I will not write a biography. But I would like a woman to write a biography of Mayakovsky. I think that it is a woman who is able to understand the peculiarities of his character and personality in a way that no man can understand.
- Your parents decided not to tell anyone about your existence, and you kept a secret right up to 1991 ... Why?
- Can you imagine what would have happened if the USSR had learned that Vladimir Mayakovsky, the singer of the revolution, had an illegitimate daughter in bourgeois America?
- And why did you decide to reveal the secret of your mother and Mayakovsky?
- I considered it my duty to tell the truth about my parents. The well-made myth about Mayakovsky excluded my mother and me from his story. This missing piece of history must return.

Ellie Jones in his youth
- How do you think your mother, Ellie Jones, would react to your decision to tell this secret?
- Before her death, in 1985, my mother told me that I must make a decision myself. She told me the whole story of their love, and I recorded it on a tape recorder, it turned out six cassettes. They later served as material for my book Mayakovsky in Manhattan. I think she would be glad to know that I have written a book about their love story.
- To whom did you first reveal your secret?
- I first told the poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko about this when he was in America. He didn’t believe me and asked for my documents. I then said: look at me! And then everyone believed. And I am very proud to become a professor, to have published 20 books. I did all this myself, no one knew that I was Mayakovsky's daughter. I think that if people knew that Mayakovsky has a daughter, all doors would be open for me. But there was nothing like that.

With his son at the monument to his father
- Did you visit Russia immediately after that?
- Yes, in 1991 I came to Moscow with my son Roger Sherman Thompson. We met with Mayakovsky's relatives, with the descendants of his sisters. With all friends and admirers. When we drove to the hotel, I first saw the statue of Mayakovsky on the square. My son and I asked the driver to stop. I could not believe that we were there ... I was in his museum on Lubyanskaya Square, in the room where he shot himself. I was holding in my hands the calendar opened at the day of April 14, 1930 ... the last day of my father's life.
- Have you been to the Novodevichy cemetery?
- I brought with me to Russia part of my mother's ashes. She loved Mayakovsky all her life, until her death. Her last words were about him. At my father's grave in the Novodevichy cemetery, I dug up the ground between the graves of my father and his sister. There I placed some of my mother's ashes, covered it with earth and grass. I think my mother hoped someday to connect with the person she loved so much. And with Russia, which has always been in her heart.

ANASTASIA ORLYANSKAYA

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Patricia Thompson - American daughter of the great Russian poet

Patricia Thompson, daughter of the poet Vladimir Mayakovsky. Photo from the personal archive of Patricia Thompson

No one has ever questioned the fact of her relationship with the great Russian poet Vladimir Mayakovsky. Unless Evgeny Yevtushenko somehow demanded documents from her. Standing up to her full height, inherited from her father, she made Yevtushenko embarrassed. “Yes, there is definitely something,” he admitted. No one called her an impostor - neither the researchers of Mayakovsky's work, nor his executors. In one of the Moscow museums there is a notebook with the poet's hand written "Daughter" next to its American address. When she was in Moscow for the first time, she burst into tears when she saw this recording ...

Ellen Patricia Thompson asks to be called Elena Vladimirovna Mayakovskaya. She admits that she is unlikely to ever change the typical American surname, received at birth, to a Russian, loud, recognizable in the world of Russian poetry, because she was born and lived all her life in the New World. In New York, her mother, an emigrant from Russia Ellie (Elizabeth) Siebert was a guide and translator for Mayakovsky, who came to the United States in 1925 on a creative business trip. A year later, Ellen Patricia was born, in the first and last time who saw her father at the age of 3 in French Nice, where she went with her mother on vacation. The girl found out who her real dad was at the age of 6 and was silent about it for more than half a century. She says that her mother, until her death, asked her not to reveal the main family secret to the world: “She always avoided all conversations about her romance with Mayakovsky. Plus, I didn't want to betray my stepfather, who was a wonderful person. "

Professor Patricia Thompson recently retired from teaching to retire. Her academic career has focused on issues of feminism and sociology. She is the author of 15 books, the main of which, by her own admission, is a book about her father, who would have turned 120 this year, “Mayakovsky in Manhattan”. She is proud to be Russian by her father and mother. I am convinced that the 21st century will become the century of Russia.

P.T. My father is known, remembered and loved not only in Russia. Just the other day I received a letter from Buenos Aires, in Argentina, it turns out, there are also his admirers. Why is he remembered? Perhaps not least because he was a handsome man.

But after all, his work was part of the Soviet ideology ...
My mother met Mayakovsky when she was 20 years old. It was a meeting of two young hearts, and not a mouthpiece of the era and its admirer. The poetic talent of his father appeared to the world not thanks to socialism, he was born with him, long before October revolution... I keep the last letter from my father that he wrote to us, and I think that in all his legacy there is nothing like this touching monologue in which he wept his heart out. I really like him love lyrics... Especially Cloud in Pants.

Why didn't Mayakovsky stay in America?
The NKVD followed him. If he had expressed a desire to stay abroad, he would have been liquidated.

Perhaps one of the main reasons why he always wanted to go home to Russia was his muse Lilya Brik?
I have complex attitude to Leela. She was a very experienced woman and manipulated my father. Her husband Osip - he, yes, was a mentor of Mayakovsky, in the good sense of the word, that is, a mentor - helped him, guided him.

Have you tried to establish contacts with Lilya, her stepson - a researcher of Mayakovsky's work, Vasily Katanyan?
Somehow it didn't work out. Lilya, after all, for a long time was the main heiress and executor of Mayakovsky. I did not receive a penny and achieved everything in this life myself. They say that Lilya tried to find us, but my stepfather gave me his last name, and it was pointless to look for me.

You consider yourself Russian, but don't speak Russian ...
I have a Russian soul! When I was little, I talked to my mother in Russian, French and German. Mom knew four foreign languages, she had a good education... Yes, I have lived in America all my life, most of which has passed outside the Russian-speaking community. Everything turned out in the world in such a way that we were just sure that we would never return home. Plus, in America, sympathizing with Russia was dangerous for decades.

During one of my visits to Russia, I visited Bashkiria, Davlekanovo, where the house where my grandfather and grandmother lived, in which my mother was born, has survived. Having entered it, I felt that I had returned home. Later she wrote the book “My Discovery of Bashkiria”, having arranged a kind of roll call with my father, who wrote “My Discovery of America”.

Do you consider yourself to be Russian Americans or Russian emigrants?
My mother was a kind of people's diplomat, a conductor of Russian culture in New York. So, in my declining years, after the Iron Curtain fell, I realized that I could also do a lot in this direction and became an activist of the Russian-American Cultural Center "Heritage", which is actively working in the Big Apple City. I never miss a meeting of World War II veterans, I always try to touch their military orders and medals and say "thank you." Many Americans don't know that the US has never fought with Russia. The Cold War, yes, there was, there was no other.

Do you consider yourself to be patriots of Russia?
I am a patriot of Russia, and you can be a patriot if you live outside your homeland. I remember that when I worked in one of the academic publishing houses, I edited textbooks, in which then they wrote about Russia for any reason only in negative tones. I have done so more than once or twice that, in the end, everything sounded completely different. I remember in one of the chapters describing the history of slavery in the United States, I wrote: in Russia, peasants were freed from serfdom much earlier than slavery was abolished in America. I even chose the most beautiful illustrations for textbooks about Russia, so that no one would think that bears and communists roam the streets of Russian cities. This is how I then defended the homeland of my ancestors. In order to be a patriot, it is not at all necessary to become a spy; it is enough just to be an intellectual. Is it good or bad? An intellectual is definitely not a capitalist. And a modest pension - the only and last source of my income - is one of the reasons why I have not been to Russia for a long time.

Have you chosen a certain mission for yourself in this life?
My whole life is survival, and I have lived a long life. I have a wonderful son, a wonderful grandson. By the way, my son Roger's wife is Jewish. Dealing with issues of feminism, I never considered myself a woman who does not like men. I have written several books on this topic. The first stage of feminism is the idea of ​​gender equality. I stopped at this stage ... A woman has great power over a man, but this does not mean that she should exploit him.

My father left, my mother could not talk about him, then she reasonably feared for our lives, because many of my father's close friends began to disappear in New York without a trace. But, we must admit, many people in the name of Mayakovsky have made a career, and many researchers say that he did not shoot himself.

Patricia Thompson - American daughter of the great Russian poet

"... My mission is to justify my father. I want everyone to know the main thing - my father Vladimir Mayakovsky did not commit suicide! Even if he did it, he put an end to the dishonor in which the Soviets tried to involve him."
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New very interesting materials about Vl. Mayakovsky and the role of Lily Brik in his life and biography.

Anastasia Orlyanskaya 11/29/2010
interview

Patricia Thompson: "Lily arranged for him to meet with Tatyana Yakovleva so that Mayakovsky would not go to my mother and me in America"

The only daughter of revolutionary singer Vladimir Mayakovsky is Patricia Thompson, lives in Upper Manhattan and teaches feminism at New York University.
The only grandson of the singer of the revolution is named Roger Thompson, a trendy New York lawyer on Fifth Avenue. When you look at Mayakovsky's daughter, it becomes uncomfortable. It seems that Mayakovsky himself descended from his marble pedestal - a tall, thin figure and the same sparkling look, familiar from numerous portraits of the famous futurist. Her apartment is lined with portraits and sculptures of Mayakovsky. During the conversation, Patricia periodically glances at the small statuette of her father, presented to her by Veronica Polonskaya, as if waiting for confirmation ("Isn't it daddy?"). It seems that these two would understand each other without words. She is now 84 years old. In 1991, she revealed her secret to the world and now asks to call herself Elena Vladimirovna Mayakovskaya. She assures that Mayakovsky loved children and wanted to live with her and her mother. But history ordered it differently. He was the singer of the Soviet revolution, and his beloved was the daughter of a kulak who had escaped from the revolution.

- Elena Vladimirovna, you met your father only once in your life ...

Yes. I was only three years old. In 1928, my mother and I went to Nice, where she was solving some immigrant issues. And Mayakovsky was in Paris at that time, and our mutual friend told him that we were in France.

And he came to you right away?

Yes, as soon as he found out that we were in Nice, he immediately rushed over. My mother nearly had a stroke. She hadn't expected to see him. Mom said that he came to the door and said: "Here I am."

Do you remember anything yourself?

All I remember are long legs. And yet, you may not believe me, but I remember how I sat on his lap, his touch. I think it's kinesthetic memory. I remember how he hugged me. My mother also told me how he was moved when he saw me sleeping in the crib. He said: "There is probably nothing more attractive than a sleeping child." There was another case when I was rummaging through his papers, my mother saw this and slapped me on the hands. And Mayakovsky told her: "You should never beat a child."

But you never met again?

No, that was the only meeting. But she was very important to him. After this meeting, he sent us a letter. This letter was the most important treasure for my mother. It was addressed to Two Ellies. Mayakovsky wrote: “My two dear Ellies. I already miss you. I dream to come to you. Please write quickly. I kiss you all eight paws ... ". It was a very touching letter. He never wrote such letters to anyone else. The father asked for a new meeting, but it did not happen. My mother and I went to Italy. But Mayakovsky took my photograph taken in Nice with him. His friends said that this photo was on his father's table all the time.

But Lilya Brik tore her up, didn't she?

I know from authoritative sources that when he died, Lilya Brik came to his office and destroyed my photographs. I think the fact is that Lilya was the heir to copyright, and therefore my existence was undesirable for her. However, one entry in his notebook remained. On a separate page there is written only one word "Daughter".

But your mother, too, was in no hurry to talk about your existence.

My mother was very afraid that the authorities in the USSR would find out about my existence. She said that even before I was born, some nasal commissar came to her and asked who she was pregnant with. And she was very afraid of Lily Brik, who, as you know, was associated with the NKVD. My mother was afraid all her life that Lilya would get us even in America. But, fortunately, this did not happen.

Your mother actually took Mayakovsky away from Lily Brick, right?

I think at the time when Mayakovsky came to America, his relationship with Lilya was in the past. My father's love for my mother, Ellie Jones, put an end to their relationship.
- Mayakovsky's biographer Solomon Kemrad in one of the "American" notebooks of the poet found an entry in English: 111 West 12 st. Elly Jones. Did your mother live there?

Yes, my mother Ellie Jones had an apartment in Manhattan. In terms of money, she always felt free. My grandfather was a successful businessman, a wealthy man. In addition, her mother worked as a model and translator: she knew five European languages, learned them at school, in Bashkiria, as a little girl. She worked with the American administration. Mother devoted her whole life to trying to explain to the Americans what Russian culture is, who the Russian people are. She was a real patriot. And she taught me the same.

Is she German from Bashkiria by birth?

Yes, her Russian name is Elizaveta Siebert. The history of the family from the mother's side is generally amazing. My ancestors came from Germany to Russia on the orders of Catherine the Great. Then a lot of Europeans came to develop Russia, Catherine promised all of them freedom of religion. My grandfather was a successful industrialist. And then there was a revolution.

How did your grandfather manage to take his family out at the height of the revolution?

It was not safe to stay in Russia. If they had not left, at best they would have been dispossessed and sent to the camps. The mother's family lived in Bashkiria in a large house. It is quite far from Moscow, and revolutionary sentiments did not reach there immediately. When the revolution took place in the capital, one of my grandfather's friends advised him to leave the country, said that soon people would come with weapons. My grandfather had enough money to take everyone to Canada. My personal opinion is that if the so-called kulaks were not persecuted in the Soviet Union, they were not exiled, but they were given the opportunity to work, then this would have greatly helped to develop the Soviet economy.

However, your mother didn't go with the whole family, did she?

Yes, she spent some more time in Russia. Mother worked for a charitable organization in Moscow, no one knew about her kulak origin. Then she met the Englishman George Jones, who worked for the same organization; married him and went to London and then to New York. I think the marriage was rather fictitious. Mother wanted to go to her family, George Jones helped her. By the time she met Mayakovsky, she no longer lived with her husband ...

How did she meet Mayakovsky?

For the first time she saw her father back in Moscow, at the Rizhsky railway station. He stood with Lilya Brick. Mother said that she was struck by Lily's cold and cruel eyes. The next meeting, in New York, took place in 1925. Then Mayakovsky miraculously managed to come to America. It was impossible to get directly to the United States, he was traveling through France, Cuba and Mexico, he was waiting for permission to enter for almost a month. When he arrived in New York, he was invited to a cocktail party with a well-known lawyer. My mother was there too.

What did she say about this meeting?

Mom was interested in poetry, read it in all European languages. She was generally very educated. When she and Mayakovsky were introduced to each other, she almost immediately asked him: “How do you write poetry? What makes poetry poetry? " Mayakovsky hardly spoke foreign languages; naturally, he liked the smart girl who speaks Russian. In addition, the mother was very beautiful, she was often invited to work as a model. She had a very natural beauty: I still have a portrait by David Burliuk, taken when they were all together in the Bronx. Mayakovsky, one might say, fell in love with my mother at first sight, after a few days they almost never parted.

Do you know where they went most often? What were Mayakovsky's favorite places in New York?

Together they appeared at all receptions, together they met with journalists and publishers. We went to the zoo in the Bronx, went to look at the Brooklyn Bridge. And the poem "Brooklyn Bridge" was written right after he visited him with his mother. She was the first to hear this poem.

You must have been investigating when you wrote the book about Mayakovsky in America. Has anyone seen your parents together?

Yes. Once I was visiting the writer Tatyana Levchenko-Sukhomlina. She told me how in those years she met Mayakovsky on the street and got into conversation with him. The poet invited her and her husband to his evening. There she saw Mayakovsky with a tall and slender beauty, whom he called Ellie. Tatyana Ivanovna told me that she had the impression that Mayakovsky had very strong feelings for his companion. He never left my mother for a minute. It was very important to me, I wanted confirmation that I was born as a result of love - although internally I always knew it.

Mayakovsky and Ellie Jones
- Was your mother the only woman in Mayakovsky's life at that time?

Yes, I'm pretty sure of that. Mom told me that he was very careful with her. He told her: “Be faithful to me. As long as I am here, you are the only one. " Their relationship lasted all three months while he was in New York. The mother said that he called her every morning and said: “The maid has just left. Your hairpins scream about you! " Even a drawing made by Mayakovsky after a quarrel has been preserved: he drew his mother, with sparkling eyes, and below his head, humbly bowed.

There is not a single poem directly dedicated to your mother?

She said that once he told her that he was writing a poem about them. And she forbade him to do this, said: "Let's save our feelings only for us."

You weren't a planned child, were you?

Mayakovsky asked his mother if she was using protection. She then answered him: "To love is to have children." However, she had no doubt that they could never be together. He then told her that she was crazy. However, in one of the plays this phrase is used. “It is necessary to build bridges from love and give birth to children” - his professor says this.

Mayakovsky's letter to two Ellies
- Mayakovsky knew that your mother was pregnant when he left America?

No, he didn't know, and she didn't know. They parted very touchingly. She accompanied Mayakovsky to a ship bound for Europe. When she returned, she found that the bed in her apartment was strewn with forget-me-nots. He spent all his money on these flowers, and therefore returned to Russia in fourth class, in the worst cabin. Mom found out that she was pregnant when Mayakovsky was already in the USSR.

As a child, you bore the name Jones ...

When I was born, my mother was still formally married to George Jones. And the fact that she was pregnant was a very delicate situation, especially for those times. But Jones was very kind, he gave me his name for the birth certificate and generally helped us a lot. Mom was not condemned for an illegitimate child, and I got American documents: he became legally my father, I am very grateful to him. Today, people forgive much more than a child born out of wedlock, but things were different then.
- When Mayakovsky found out about your existence, did he want to return?

I am sure that Mayakovsky wanted to have a family, he wanted to live with us. Everything that is written about him was controlled by Lilya Brik. It is not true that he did not want children. He loved children very much, it was not in vain that he wrote for them. Of course, there was a very difficult political situation between the two countries. But there was also a personal moment. When Lilya found out about us, she wanted to divert his attention ... She did not want another woman next to Mayakovsky. When Mayakovsky was in Paris, Lilya asked her sister Elsa Triolet to introduce Mayakovsky to some local beauty. She turned out to be Tatyana Yakovleva. A very attractive woman, a charming woman from a good family. I do not deny this at all. But I have to say that it was all Brick's game. She wanted him to forget the woman and child in America.

Many people think that it was Tatyana Yakovleva who was Mayakovsky's last love.

Her daughter, the American writer Francis Gray, came to Russia long before me. And everyone thought that she was Mayakovsky's daughter. Francis even published an article in the New York Times about Mayakovsky's last muse, about her mother. She says that on October 25, he talked about his endless love for Tatyana Yakovleva. But I have a letter to my mother dated October 26, he asked her to meet. I think that he wanted to cover up a politically dangerous relationship with my mother with a high-profile romance with Yakovleva.

Only letters written by Lilya Brik have survived in Mayakovsky's archives. Why do you think she destroyed the correspondence with the other women?

Lilya was who she was. I think she wanted to go down in history alone. She had an impact on the public. It cannot be denied that she was a very intelligent, experienced woman. But, in my opinion, she was also a manipulator. I did not know Brikov personally, but I think that they built a career for themselves using Mayakovsky. They said he was rude and uncontrollable. But his mother told something completely different about him, and his friend, David Burliuk, said that he was a very sensitive and kind person.

Do you think Lilya had a bad influence on Mayakovsky?

I think that the role of the Briks is very controversial. Osip helped him publish at the very beginning of his career. Lilya Brik, one might say, was included in the kit. When Mayakovsky met her, he was very young. And the adult, mature Lilya was, of course, very attractive to him.

Elena Vladimirovna, tell me why Mayakovsky, in his suicide note, defined his family as follows: mother, sisters, Lilya Brik and Veronica Polonskaya. Why didn't he say anything about you?

I myself thought a lot about this, this question tormented me. When I went to Russia, I met my father's last beloved, Veronica Polonskaya. I visited her at the actor's nursing home. She treated me very warmly, gave me a statuette of her father. She said that Mayakovsky talked to her about me, about how he misses. He showed her a Parker pen, which I gave him in Nice, and told Polonskaya: "My future is in this child." I'm sure she loved him too. Charming woman. So, I asked her this very question: why?

And why weren't you in the will?

Polonskaya told me that my father did it to protect us. He defended it when he included it in the will, and on the contrary, without mentioning us. I'm not sure that I would have lived quietly until these days if the NKVD then learned that the Soviet poet Mayakovsky in America is growing a child from the daughter of a kulak.

I know that he loved me, that he was happy to become a father. But he was afraid. It was not safe to be the wife or child of a dissenter. And Mayakovsky became a dissenter: if you read his plays, you will see that he criticized the bureaucracy and the direction in which the revolution was moving. His mother didn't blame him, and I don't blame him.

Was Veronika Polonskaya the only one to whom Mayakovsky told about your existence?

Another friend of her father, Sofya Shamardina, wrote in her memoirs about what Mayakovsky told her about his daughter in America: “I never thought that one could miss a child so much. The girl is already three years old, she is sick with rickets, and I can't do anything for her! " Mayakovsky talked about me with another friend of his, told how hard it was for him not to raise his own daughter. But when a book of memoirs was published in Russia, they simply threw away these fragments. Perhaps because Lilya Brik did not want to publish it. In general, I think that there are still many blank spots in my father's biography, and I consider it my duty to tell the truth about my parents.

When you came to Russia, did you find any other documentary evidence that Mayakovsky did not forget about you?

I made one amazing find when I was in St. Petersburg. I went through my father's papers and found there a drawing of a flower made by a child's hand. I think this is my drawing, as a child I drew exactly the same ...

Tell me, you feel like Mayakovsky's daughter. Do you believe in genetic memory?

I understand my father very well. When I first read Mayakovsky's books, I realized that we look at the world in the same way. He believed that if you have talent, then you should use it for social, social action. I feel the same way. And I had this goal: to create textbooks, books from which children learn something about the world and about themselves. I wrote textbooks on psychology and anthropology, history, tried to present all this in such a way that children would understand. I also worked as an editor for several of the largest American publishing houses. She edited fiction, including Ray Bradbury. It seems to me that an excellent activity for the daughter of a futurist is to work with science fiction writers.

You have pictures on your wall. Did you also inherit this talent from your father?

Yes, I love to draw. At the age of 15 she entered an art school. I, of course, am not a professional artist, but something turns out.

Can you call yourself a revolutionary?

I think my father's idea of ​​revolution is the idea of ​​bringing social justice. I am a revolutionary myself, in my own understanding, that is, in connection with the role of women in society and in the family. I teach philosophy of feminism at New York University. I am a feminist, but not one of those who seeks to belittle the role of men (which is typical of many American feminists). My feminism is my desire to keep my family together, to work for its good.

Tell us about your family.

I have a wonderful son, Roger, an intellectual property lawyer. He is Mayakovsky's grandson. An amazing blood flows in his veins - the blood of Mayakovsky and the blood of a fighter for American independence (my husband's ancestor was one of the founders of the Declaration of Independence). I have a grandson, Logan. He is finishing school now. He's from Latin America, Roger adopted him. And although he is not Mayakovsky's own great-grandson, I notice that he has exactly the same wrinkle on his forehead as my father. It's funny to see how he looks at the portrait of Mayakovsky and wrinkles his forehead.

To be honest, I still miss my dad very much. It seems to me that if he knew me now, if he knew about my life, he would be pleased.

You have lived almost all your life under the name Patricia Thompson, and now the name Elena Mayakovskaya is also on your business card.

I have always had two names: Russian - Elena and American - Patricia. My mother's friend was Irish Patricia, and she helped her when I was born. My American godmother was called Elena, and my grandmother was also called Elena.

Tell me, why do you hardly know Russian?

When I was little, I didn't speak English. I spoke Russian, German and French. But I wanted to play with American children, and they didn't play with me because I was a foreigner. And I told my mom that I didn't want to speak all these useless languages, but I wanted to speak English. Then my stepfather, an Englishman, taught me. And Russian has remained at the children's level.

Did you speak Russian at all with your mother?

I resisted, refused to read Russian. Maybe because for me the death of my father was a tragedy, and I unconsciously left everything Russian. Besides, I have always been an individualist, I think I inherited this from my father. My mother also supported me in this, she was a very strong, courageous woman. It was she who explained to me that you cannot remain in the shadow of your father, be his cheap imitation. She taught me to be myself.

Who do you feel more like, American or Russian?

I would say - Russian American. Few people know that even during the Cold War, I always tried to help the Soviet Union and Russia. When I worked as an editor at Macmillan in 1964, I edited a test and selected photographs for the book Communism: What It Is. I deliberately made several edits in the text so that Americans understand what good people live in the USSR. After all, then the Americans were drawn not quite an adequate image of a Soviet person. When choosing photographs, I tried to find the most beautiful ones; show how Soviet people know how to enjoy life. And when I was working on a children's book about Russia, I emphasized that the Russians liberated the peasants even before the abolition of slavery in America. This is a historical fact, and I think this is an important fact.

Elena Vladimirovna, you assure me that you feel and understand your father. Why do you think he committed suicide? Do you have any thoughts on this?

First, I would like to say that even if he committed suicide, it was not because of the woman. He had reasons to live. Burliuk told me that he believed that Mayakovsky had been planted with bullets in a shoebox. In the Russian aristocratic tradition, receiving such a gift meant dishonor. The dishonor for him began with a boycott of the exhibition; no one came there. He understood what was happening. It was a message: if you don’t behave yourself, we will not publish your poetry. This is a very painful topic for a creative person - to be free, to have the right. He was losing his freedom. Mayakovsky saw in all this a prediction of his fate. He simply decided that there was only one way - death. And this is most likely the only reason for his suicide. Not a woman, not a broken heart - that's absurd.

Tell me, do you like biographical books written about your father?

I, of course, did not read everything that was written. I'm not his biographer. But some of the facts that I read in the biographies translated into English were clearly not true. My favorite book is by Swedish author Bengt Yangfeldt. The man really wanted to find previously unknown facts about my father, and he managed to unearth something.

Tell me, are you going to write a biography of Mayakovsky for the Americans? In general, in America, do they know who Mayakovsky is?

Educated people, of course, know. And they are always very interested when they find out that I am his daughter. And I will not write a biography. But I would like a woman to write a biography of Mayakovsky. I think that it is a woman who is able to understand the peculiarities of his character and personality in a way that no man can understand.

Your parents decided not to tell anyone about your existence, and you kept the secret right up to 1991 ... Why?

Can you imagine what would have happened if the USSR had learned that Vladimir Mayakovsky, the singer of the revolution, had an illegitimate daughter in bourgeois America?

And why did you decide to reveal the secret of your mother and Mayakovsky?

I considered it my duty to tell the truth about my parents. The well-made myth about Mayakovsky excluded my mother and me from his story. This missing piece of history must return.

How do you think your mother, Ellie Jones, would react to your decision to tell this secret?

Before her death, in 1985, my mother told me that I must make a decision myself. She told me the whole story of their love, and I recorded it on a tape recorder, it turned out six cassettes. They later served as material for my book Mayakovsky in Manhattan. I think she would be glad to know that I have written a book about their love story.

Who was the first person you revealed your secret to?

I first told the poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko about this when he was in America. He didn’t believe me and asked for my documents. I then said: look at me! And then everyone believed. And I am very proud to become a professor, to have published 20 books. I did all this myself, no one knew that I was Mayakovsky's daughter. I think that if people knew that Mayakovsky has a daughter, all doors would be open for me. But there was nothing like that.

Did you visit Russia immediately after that?

Yes, in 1991 I came to Moscow with my son Roger Sherman Thompson. We met with Mayakovsky's relatives, with the descendants of his sisters. With all friends and admirers. When we drove to the hotel, I first saw the statue of Mayakovsky on the square. My son and I asked the driver to stop. I could not believe that we were there ... I was in his museum on Lubyanskaya Square, in the room where he shot himself. I was holding in my hands the calendar opened at the day of April 14, 1930 ... the last day of my father's life.

Have you been to the Novodevichy cemetery?

I brought some of my mother's ashes with me to Russia. She loved Mayakovsky all her life, until her death. Her last words were about him. At my father's grave in the Novodevichy cemetery, I dug up the ground between the graves of my father and his sister. There I placed some of my mother's ashes, covered it with earth and grass. I think my mother hoped someday to connect with the person she loved so much. And with Russia, which has always been in her heart.