Helen Patricia Jones

Patricia J. Thompson (June 15, 1926 – April 1, 2016), also known as Yelena Vladimirovna Mayakovskaya (Russian: Елена Владимировна Маяковская), was an American philosopher and author of more than 20 books.[1] She was one of the two known children of the poet Vladimir Mayakovsky, the other being Gleb-Nikita Lavinsky (1921–1986). This fact was kept a secret until 1991.[2][3]

Biography

In summer 1925 Mayakovsky visited New York, where he met Russian émigré Elli Jones (born Yelizaveta Petrovna Zibert), an interpreter who spoke Russian, French, German and English fluently. They fell in love, for three months were inseparable, but decided to keep their affair secret. Soon after the poet's return to the Soviet Union, Elli gave birth to Patricia. Mayakovsky saw her just once, in Nice, France, in 1928, when she was three.[2][4]

By the time Thompson was born, her mother married George Jones, who treated Thompson as his own daughter, both privately and officially – Patricia had his last name in her youth. He taught English to Patricia, who then spoke a little bit of Russian, German and French. Later, when she gave birth to a son, she named him George after her stepfather.[2]

Thompson became a professor of philosophy and women's studies at Lehman College in New York. She published a book describing her parents' love affair, based on her mother's unpublished memoirs and their conversations.[5] In 1991, after the death of her mother and the collapse of the Soviet Union, she traveled to Russia with her son, where they were welcomed with respect. Since then she keeps a dual name, Patricia Thompson and Yelena Vladimirovna Mayakovskaya.[4] As of 2015 she wished to learn Russian, which she could not speak anymore, and obtain Russian citizenship.[1]

NEW YORK, July 2, 2015. /TASS/. The only daughter of famous Soviet poet Vladimir Mayakovsky, Patricia Thompson has told TASS in an exclusive interview on Thursday that she wants to learn Russian again and obtain the Russian citizenship. She also plans to give researchers the family archive about her father’s life.

"I spoke in Russian until I was five," Thompson, aged 89, said. "I still remember some words that I heard as a kid - ‘yes’, ‘no’, ‘thanks’, ‘please’, ‘stop’. However, I want to really remember the Russian language, to be closer to Russia. I have wanted to get a Russian passport for a long time. The process has already started, but then something stalled. And I would really like to have Russian citizenship," she continued.

Thompson has lived all her life in the US. She regularly cuts out articles about Russian from American newspapers and collects them in her private archive.

"Americans have a limited and in many ways distorted view at what is going on in Russia, at Russia’s achievements, including in the social sphere," Thompson, a distinguished professor of Lehman College at the City University of New York and author of more than 20 books, said. "I actually think that Russians are smarter than Americans. Without Russia, we would not have had helicopters, television, as those were invented by [aeronautic engineer ]Sikorsky and [engineer Vladimir] Zvorykin," she added.

The fact that neither US president nor state secretary attended the 70th anniversary of Victory Day in Moscow is deeply upsetting for Thompson. "I felt insulted. This decision was just unacceptable, considering what sacrifice the Soviet Union made for the future peace, including in the US. We could have been all talking in German by now," Maykovsky’s daughter noted.

At the same time, Thompson was surprised US state secretary mentioned Maykovsky in his congratulatory statement to Russians on Russia’s National Day celebrated in the country on June 12. "This year also marks the 90th anniversary of Vladimir Mayakovsky's epic journey through the United States, memorialized in his ‘My Discovery of America’. Mayakovsky's words are a powerful reminder of the importance of people-to-people ties in fostering mutual understanding and respect," Kerry said in a statement. Mayakovsky’s journey in the US is especially significant for Thompson, as that was when he met her mother - Russian immigrant Yelizaveta Zibert.

More: http://tass.ru/en/non-political/805409

https://bykm.ru/en/documents-doe/helen-patrisiya-tompson-glavnye-zh...

Американский философ и писатель Патрисия Томпсон ушла из жизни в минувшую пятницу, ей было 89 лет.

Как сообщил её сын, прощание состоится сегодня в семейном кругу и будет закрыто для прессы, публичная церемония пока намечена на июнь.

Патрисия Томпсон - дочь Маяковского и Елизаветы Зиберт (они познакомились в Штатах 1925-м) всегда подчёркивала, что, несмотря на то, что знаменитый отец видел её младенцем только однажды, она всегда хотела иметь российское гражданство.
https://www.1tv.ru/news/2016-04-04/299738-v_nyu_yorke_umerla_edinst...