Patricia J. Thompson (June 15, 1926 – April 1, 2016), also known as Yelena Vladimirovna Mayakovskaya (), was an American
philosopher
Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...
and author of more than 20 books. She was one of the two known children of the poet
Vladimir Mayakovsky
Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky ( – 14 April 1930) was a Russian poet, playwright, artist, and actor. During his early, Russian Revolution, pre-Revolution period leading into 1917, Mayakovsky became renowned as a prominent figure of the Ru ...
, the other being Gleb-Nikita Lavinsky (1921–1986). This fact was kept a secret until 1991.
Biography
In summer 1925, Vladimir 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
Nice ( ; ) is a city in and the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative city limits, with a population of nearly one million
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.
Thompson became a professor of philosophy and women's studies at
Lehman College
Lehman College is a public college in New York City, United States. Founded in 1931 as the Bronx campus of Hunter College, it became an independent college in 1967. The college is named after Herbert H. Lehman, a former New York governor, United ...
in New York. She published a book describing her parents' love affair, based on her mother's unpublished memoirs and their conversations. In 1991, after the death of her mother and during the final months of the
collapse of the Soviet Union
The Soviet Union was formally dissolved as a sovereign state and subject of international law on 26 December 1991 by Declaration No. 142-N of the Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. Declaration No. 142-Н of ...
by the end of the year, she traveled to Russia with her son, where they were welcomed with respect. From that point until her death, she kept dual names, Patricia Thompson and Yelena Vladimirovna Mayakovskaya. In 2015 she expressed her wish to learn Russian, which she could not speak anymore, and to obtain Russian citizenship.