From whom Mayakovsky has a daughter. Mayakovsky's only daughter. Do you think Lilya had a bad influence on Mayakovsky?

Patricia Thompson and Vladimir Mayakovsky. Daughter and father.

“My two darlings Ellie. I already miss you ... 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 the biography of her father.

Patricia Thompson during a trip to Russia.

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.


Vladimir Mayakovsky and Ellie Jones.

Patricia Thompson in front of her father's portrait.

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.


Patricia Thompson in her office.

Elena Vladimirovna visited Russia in 1991. Then she communicated with interest with distant relatives, literary scholars, researchers, worked in the 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 textbooks, 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.

Mayakovsky in Manhattan.

Elena Vladimirovna's family life was successful. Her son is a successful lawyer Roger Thompson, in many ways he looks like his famous grandfather. Elena Vladimirovna Mayakovskaya lived for 90 years, after her death she bequeathed to scatter her ashes at the Novodevichy cemetery over her father's grave. She did a similar thing on her visit to Russia, then she brought part of the ashes of her own mother to bury it next to the grave of the Russian poet.


Portrait of Elena Vladimirovna Mayakovskaya.

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.

Mayakovsky's daughter with a T-shirt with a portrait of her father.

Portrait of the poet Vladimir Mayakovsky.

In turn, the Mayakovsky Museum, in honor of the celebration of the 120th anniversary of the poet's birth, presented Patricia Thompson with a gift of no less importance to her. The Mayakovsky family album published by the museum contains the poet's family tree, where his American passion Ellie Jones, their daughter Patricia (Elena Vladimirovna) and grandson Roger Sherman-Thompson appear for the first time. Thus, after many years of omissions, the American branch of Mayakovsky is officially recognized in Russia.

It so happened that it was the Itogi correspondent who had the honorable mission to personally present this album to Elena Vladimirovna Mayakovskaya ... However, everything is in order.

How to connect the dots?

Next to my father. Patricia Thompson in the studio of the artist B. Korzhevsky against the background of the painting "Last Minutes"

Visiting Patricia - this is how her name is pronounced in the American way - I visited for the first time six years ago. As before, she lives in Upper Manhattan, in the Washington Heights area. Her apartment is on the first floor of the beautiful Hudson View Gardens residential complex, which looks like a medieval fortress. Basketball growth, proud posture, large, sharp facial features, eyebrows spread apart, large, slightly protruding eyes. Well, just a copy of Vladimir Vladimirovich!

There are big changes in Ms. Thompson's life. Two years ago, when she turned 85, she retired from her longtime teaching job at Lehman College, City University of New York. She was honored with a lifetime honorary professorship. Alas, Patricia is seriously ill, therefore she appears less often than before.

Mayakovsky's portrait of Ellie Jones ...
Photo: V.V. Mayakovsky State Museum

The work table is littered with papers. The hostess wants, in her words, “to connect all the dots” and donate the archive to the V.V. Mayakovsky Museum in Moscow, about contacts with which she spoke warmly and with interest. Among the most valuable "points" are photographs of Ellie Jones of the Russian and American periods, drawings by Mayakovsky, publications in the American press dating back to the time of Mayakovsky's stay in America. The hostess proudly shows Mayakovsky's playful drawing, in which he shields Ellie Jones "from passers-by." This drawing, among others, is included in Patricia Thompson's book Mayakovsky in Manhattan, published in Moscow in 2003.

... and his own drawing, in which he closes his beloved from the views of other men (from the book "Mayakovsky in Manhattan. A love story") - the poet's own testimonies about the American novel

This is in the book - "from passers-by", and out loud she clarifies - "from other suitors": "My mother was young and beautiful, and he did not want someone to take his place in her life." And here is the picture on the cover of the book: "Under the lightning Ellie Jones Mayakovsky bows his head." Patricia values ​​them especially.

Despite her purely American name, Ellie Jones is Russian by blood. Her real name is Elizaveta Petrovna Siebert. She was born in 1904 in the village of Davlekanovo in Bashkiria into a wealthy family of descendants of German Protestants-Mennonites (this sect was invited to Russia by Catherine the Great). Her father owned a lot of real estate. On one of her visits to Russia, Patricia visited Ufa, found her grandfather's mansion. Elizabeth-Ellie was "slender, thin and well-built, with thick brown hair and huge expressive blue eyes" (I quote from the book Mayakovsky in Manhattan). After the revolution, she worked in Ufa and Moscow in humanitarian American organizations, where she met and married an English accountant George Jones. After some time, they left for London, and then for the USA.

More official materials tell about the American trip at the Mayakovsky Museum
Photo: Alexander Ivanishin
Mayakovsky the traveler set foot on American soil on July 27, 1925. He was 32 years old. A month later, at a party in Manhattan, the poet met Ellie Jones. The 20-year-old Russian émigré by this time was living separately from her English husband, although they remained friends.

“Yes, of course, Mayakovsky was amorous,” says Patricia. - A new feeling seized him instantly, he burned out with passion, did not find a place for himself, had to be close to the object of his feeling every hour, every second. This is exactly how, rapidly, in ascending order, his romance with my mother developed. She told me how they walked around New York all day and night, went to visit David Burliuk and other friends of Vladimir Vladimirovich, sat on benches, listened to Harlem jazz, went to the summer camp for workers' children "Nit Gedayge", to the zoo in the Bronx, dined in Russian and Armenian restaurants, quarreled, reconciled. "

Young Ellie Jones (Atlanta, 1924) Before meeting with Mayakovsky one more year ...
Photo: From the personal archive of Elena Vladimirovna.
Published for the first time.

The poet came up with affectionate nicknames for her - Lozochka, Yolka or Elkich. Ellie Jones recalled that when they had a close relationship for some time, he asked: "Are you doing anything - are you using contraception?" And she replied: "To love is to have children." To which Mayakovsky exclaimed: "Oh, you're crazy, baby!" He left America on October 28, 1925 and never returned. Many years later, Ellie found out that Mayakovsky was sailing to Russia in the worst, fourth grade. He spent his last dollars on flowers, spreading her bed with forget-me-nots goodbye.

Helen Patricia Jones was born on June 15, 1926 in Jackson Heights, New York. Agree, it is quite simple to "connect the dots" by remembering the dates of Mayakovsky's stay in New York.

Patricia Thompson's birth certificate
Photo: V.V. Mayakovsky State Museum
Patricia shows a photo of Ellie Jones on the beach in a bathing suit, holding her little daughter by the hand. The picture was taken in 1928 in Nice, where "two Ellies", as Mayakovsky affectionately called them, came to rest, and he came down from Paris to visit them. According to biographers, they could meet there the next year, at the end of March 29th, but, having arrived in Nice, Mayakovsky did not find Ellie and, upset, went to Monaco, where he lost (there is such evidence) every last centime. His notebook contains their Italian address. Did he plan to come there? Who knows...

Curiously, the second husband of the mother, Henry Peters, adopted "little" Ellie when she was already 50 years old. It was then that she adopted her current full name - Patricia J. Thompson. “I have a lot of blood and cultures mixed up,” she says. “My mother was born in Bashkiria, my father was in Georgia, my first stepfather is British, the second is German.”

Patricia graduated from Barnard College, worked as an editor in magazines. In 1954 she married Wayne Thompson-Sherman. He came from a noble American family. After twenty years of married life, they divorced. Wayne died eight years ago. Roger, her son by Wayne's marriage, is a lawyer and lives two blocks from his mother. They are very friendly and often communicate. Roger is married, but he did not have children, in the early 90s he and his wife traveled to Russia, they wanted to adopt a boy, but it did not work out. A voyage to Colombia for the same purpose turned out to be more successful: they brought a baby from there, who was named Logan. He is now 20 years old, he is studying business at the university. Grandma Patricia does not like him. Under her influence, at school, Logan wrote an essay about Mayakovsky. The grandmother jokingly calls the poet's great-grandson "a revolutionary on both sides."

Telling me about her professional activities, Patricia ended almost every tirade on Mayakovsky. "We have a common understanding of the metaphor with him." "In his poems there is also a struggle between the public and the intimate." "He loved children too."

DNA and "versions"

From the moment of the tragic shot in the 30s and until the early 90s in the Soviet Union, few people knew about the poet's American daughter. Well, the frantic Bolshevik Don Juan was kissing some overseas ladies, they reluctantly put up with this, but so that the children ... For many years, a deaf silence sanctioned from above was kept, protecting the glossy image of "the best, most talented poet of our Soviet era" (Stalin's wording) ... Is that in the poem of his close friend Nikolai Aseev "Mayakovsky begins" stumbled upon such strange lines: "Only weak versions circulate, rumors twirling road dust, as if somewhere, in distant Mexico, a child was lost from him."

But no evidence, no documents were found. They sinned on Lilya Brik, whose witchcraft magnetized the poet right up to the fatal shot. It was rumored that, they say, Lily came to the empty apartment of the poet and destroyed all "third-party" love letters and photographs. However, not only the jealousy of Lily Brik is the alleged reason for the paucity of documents, but also the then dangerous life itself, when, fearing to harm her beloved, Ellie urged "dear Vladimir" to tear all her letters. As for her, then, as Patricia says, "she was a lady and kept silent, told only her husband, and he also entered into a conspiracy of silence." It was only in the early 90s that Mayakovsky's American novel, along with his paternity, was transformed from a "weak version" into an immutable fact. In one of Mayakovsky's notebooks, on a completely blank page, only one word is written in pencil: "daughter."

During my first visit to Patricia, I had the imprudence to bring up the topic of genes. You can silence the skeptics once and for all, I said, with a DNA test that will confirm your biological relationship. “This is offensive to my mother, and I will never do it,” the hostess retorted, and I noticed that she was breathing intermittently. “It’s offensive to ask about it, you just have to look at me.” But after all, I continued, skeptics can interpret your reluctance to take the test as ... “I am not interested in their interpretations! Patricia screamed out loud. - I do not need them!" And with force she threw the book she was holding on the table. There was a sound like a shot. “They need me, I don't need them. It's cruel! This is not fair! I am a professor and have achieved something in my life myself! If I was materialistic, if I was interested in money, I would do what Francine du Plessis Gray did. She published a photo of my dead father in some idiotic magazine. For some reason, everyone thinks that his romance with Tatyana Yakovleva, Francine's mother, was great. She speculates on her mother's connection with Mayakovsky, she makes money on this! I have never done such things, my motives are disinterested. And please don't ask me this stupid question anymore! He enrages me. "

I felt uneasy. Her eyes flashed with lightning, like the ones that BB had drawn. But the anger subsided, and I no longer asked for trouble. On the one hand, it turned out awful: I stepped on a corn. On the other hand, I was convinced with my own eyes that her father's temperament and her face at the moment of rage were exactly the same as in the famous Rodchenkov photograph of the revolutionary poet, where a cigarette stuck to his lips. Patricia herself agrees that the explosive temperament is from her father: "If father is a cloud in his pants, then I am a thundercloud in a skirt."

"He was killed"

Ellie Jones never came to Russia again (she died in 1985). But her daughter, starting in 1991, with the onset of perestroika, began to visit the country, seemingly defeating the socialism glorified by her father, but continuing to appreciate, albeit without the former sovereign hysteria, the poet's genius. During several visits to Russia, Patricia studied the archives with scientific meticulousness, met with several people who knew Mayakovsky, participated in many scientific and social and cultural events dedicated to him. She displays the massive Order of Mikhail Lomonosov, which she has been awarded for strengthening Russian-American cultural and educational ties. “I am very proud of this honor, and especially the fact that the recipient of the award in the accompanying papers, I was named as Elena Vladimirovna Mayakovskaya.”

Did she notice a change in attitude towards Mayakovsky in Russia? “He advocated social justice, honesty, respect for work, for people who get their daily bread,” says Patricia. - Yes, he is an atheist, or claimed that he was, but, I believe, live longer, could change the attitude towards God. The communism he believed in was strikingly different from the communism that Stalin practiced. In the astonishing play The Bedbug, one can see his disillusionment with the revolution. After all, the ideas of equality and justice were never realized. It was Mayakovsky's tragedy. He devoted his immense talent and passion to the revolution, but at some point saw that ideals had collapsed. Failure of the jubilee exhibition "20 years of Mayakovsky's work", personal problems. Everything is layered. But he didn't commit suicide. I believe he was killed. "

But what, I ask, is the famous suicide note, where about a love boat that crashed into everyday life? “The note is hostage, untrue. He was clearly hiding something. He did not even mention in it that he left my mother and me without a livelihood. Mayakovsky could not commit suicide because of a woman, this is absurd. But even if he committed suicide, which I leave as a possible option, then he took his own life for other reasons. After all, he fell out of favor with the authorities. What I am convinced - a lot of fables are told about my father, and in many cases Lilya Brik is involved in them. He loved many women, including Lilya herself, loved the charming Polonskaya ... "

By the way, Patricia visited old Veronica Polonskaya, the poet's last love, at the House of Stage Veterans in Moscow. Then, at the meeting, she says, Polonskaya dropped: "Mayakovsky loved you and your mother." - "And why, having mentioned you in the suicide note, did not mention my mother and me?" “He mentioned me to protect him, and he didn't mention you because he didn't want to draw attention to you. He was not ashamed of you, he was afraid for you. " About the aforementioned daughter of Yakovleva, the writer Francine du Plessis Gray, it was also whispered at one time that she was flesh of the flesh of a loving Russian poet. But the dates do not agree in any way, it turns out some awkward 17 months of pregnancy. Francine herself joked: "Bearing an elephant."

According to the well-known version, which was voiced to me by Patricia, it was not without intrigue: the meeting between Mayakovsky and Tatyana in Paris was arranged by the sisters Lilya Brik and Elsa Triolet in order to distract him from Ellie Jones. Most of all, Brick feared the possible emigration of Mayakovsky to the United States, which would bring down her and Osip's well-being. But the date of this meeting and love at first sight is October 25, 1928, and a day later he writes a tender letter to “two Ellie”. “A lot of unexplained things were happening around my father,” says Patricia. - In America and in France they followed him, they knew his every step. In both New York and Paris, money was stolen from him. This does not happen often, some kind of strange coincidence. Khurgin, who received him in New York (Soviet worker Isaiah Khurgin, chairman of the board of Amtorg. - "Itogi"), drowned under suspicious circumstances in a lake near New York, where he was knee-deep. Something similar could have happened to him and to my mother. "

Several years ago, in the hall of the 92 Y Manhattan Center, Francine du Plessis Gray presented her memoir Them - about her mother and adoptive father Alex Lieberman, the legendary art director of Vogue magazine. I couldn't miss the event. In the crowded hall, Patricia waved her hand at me - they say, there is a place nearby, to the right of her. So I became a witness to her experiences. Francine talked about her parents, wonderful in many ways, and, of course, touched upon her mother's romance with Mayakovsky and, in general, his personality. My neighbor was indignant, then perplexed, then sighed, then - rarely - nodded approvingly. When Francine dropped that Mayakovsky had shot himself in the temple (made a reservation: he shot through the chest), you should have seen how violently Patricia reacted. She was whispering something in my ear, but I could not make out, because I was listening to the beneficiary. But Francine said dryly: "He obviously had and still has an American daughter, whose name I have forgotten (?!), She is a professor and lives in New York." "I'm here!" my neighbor announced loudly. Her hour has struck. "She's here!" shouted Julian Lowenfeld, Pushkin's New York lawyer and translator, who sat to Patricia's left. "And my mother is Russian!" Patricia added triumphantly. Heads turned in bewilderment in her direction, timid applause was heard ... The American daughter stretched out her hand to speak out, but the cautious organizers of the meeting "did not notice" her, apparently fearing excesses. At the end of the presentation, Patricia approached Francine for an autograph for the book, patiently standing in line. The Russian-American women, united by the love of the Russian poet for two beautiful women, their mothers, did not arrange any scandal, no duel of venerable age.

“Mayakovsky liked to feel like a father,” Patricia told me when we first met. “He liked to keep a little girl in his lap. In one of his manuscripts in the archive, I saw a flower he had drawn. Amazingly, these are the flowers I have painted since childhood. Here it is, genetic memory. I am not in competition with whom he loved more. But if they ask me who loved him more, then I say: my mother. She remained silent. She could have had an abortion and did not. And so I was born - evidence of her love for him ... "

The daughter is like her father so that all doubts are dispelled at first sight (Patricia Thompson in college, 1948)
Photo: V.V. Mayakovsky State Museum

The Mayakovsky Museum in Moscow contains things donated by Patricia Thompson during her visits to Russia. These are, for example, a shirt embroidered by Ellie Jones in the Russian style, a wooden spoon, her boots and an ashtray from the Nit Gedayge holiday camp, where they visited with VV. But the director of the museum, Nadezhda Morozova, believes that the gift offered by Patricia may be very important. In the meantime, the "American Corner" of the exposition looks rather modest. “In our several publications dedicated to the 120th anniversary of Mayakovsky, we, of course, refer to his American trip,” said Nadezhda Morozova. “I’m sure they would have been greatly embellished with details from Ellie Jones’s memoirs, photographs and documents from Patricia’s archives.” After all, it was Jones, as a translator, who accompanied the poet on his trips to America. Her memories of the poet, dictated to her daughter, are especially valuable to us. "

Returning from Moscow to New York, I stopped by Patricia. At the request of Nadezhda Morozova, he handed her an anniversary album with Mayakovsky's family tree, where now there is her mother, herself and her son. “My mommy,” she whispered in Russian and began to cry. Having calmed down a little, she said: “This is such an important moment in my life. Mom all the years, until her death, suffered greatly - from the inability to open up, because of the fear of jeopardizing my well-being. My two adoptive fathers knew this secret from her, but they also kept their mouths shut and treated me very tactfully and tenderly. Mayakovsky, my father, also protected us, kept everything connected with us in the strictest confidence. But I know he loved my mother very much. "

Moscow - New York

Elena Mayakovskaya (Patricia Thompson), the only daughter of the Russian poet Vladimir Mayakovsky, has died in New York. About this in his Facebook said the director of the State Museum named after Mayakovsky Alexei Lobov.

Friends ... with a heavy heart I report a great loss ... On Friday (April 1 - Ed.) Patricia Thompson (Elena Vladimirovna Mayakovskaya) died in New York ... Just two weeks ago we discussed a future exhibition ... talked about a new book ... made plans for her trip to Russia ... and now she's gone ... - wrote Lobov.

As her son Roger said in a comment to TASS, Patricia Thompson passed away in the morning.

Mayakovskaya did not live to see her 90th birthday for two and a half months. She was born on June 15, 1926. For the anniversary, the Moscow museum was preparing an exhibition, where it was planned to show things from her family archive.

Mayakovskaya is better known as Patricia Thompson. She is the daughter of Mayakovsky (1893-1930) and the Russian emigrant Elizabeth Siebert (1904-1985), whom the poet met in New York in 1925. Mayakovsky then came to his friend, artist David Burliuk. The couple met at one of the poetry evenings.

Siebert worked as a guide and translator. Her father Peter Henry Siebert was born in Ukraine, mother Helen Neufeldt was born in Crimea. Mayakovskaya told Russian journalists that her parents met for two months. Mayakovsky wanted to return to the United States, to see his beloved, but he was not released from the country.

After marriage and moving to the United States, Siebert's name was Ellie Jones. The translator's husband, Englishman George Jones, assigned the girl to himself. Mayakovsky saw only one time - in 1928 in Nice. Thompson (this is the name of her husband) was then just over two years old.

Now many are talking about which of the women Mayakovsky loved more than others. And it seems to me that the more important is which of them loved him the most. I'm sure it was my mother. She made great sacrifices for him. After all, she knew that he would leave, but did not have an abortion. And she never received help from him, - Thompson said in an interview with TASS.

Thompson was a professor of philosophy at Lehman College in New York and did not speak Russian. She dealt with the problems of feminism and sociology. She has written about 20 books, including "Mayakovsky in Manhattan" about the poet's journey to America. She also worked on an autobiographical book, which she wanted to call "Daughter".

In an interview with KP, Mayakovskaya said that her father did not kill himself.

My mission is to justify my father. I want everyone to know the main thing - my father Vladimir Mayakovsky did not commit suicide! He knew that he had a daughter, he strove to live, live for me and said to his friends, pointing to my photo: "This is my future!" When he realized that his dream of an ideal society was impracticable, he began to talk about it, stopped writing, and he was liquidated. Even if he did, it ended the dishonor in which the Soviets tried to involve him.

Mayakovskaya first visited Russia in 1991.

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 told me that he came to the door and said: "Here I am."

- Do you remember anything yourself?

All I remember are long legs. And also, 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, 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 my birth, 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. 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 origin?

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. The 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. The 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 famous 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 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 this.

- 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 are screaming 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. “From love you have to build bridges and give birth to children” - his professor says this.

- Mayakovsky knew that your mother was pregnant when he left America?

No, he did not know, and she did not 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. Nowadays, people forgive much more than an illegitimate child, but then everything was different.

She dreamed of learning Russian and obtaining Russian citizenship, but did not manage to implement her plans - the daughter of the poet Vladimir Mayakovsky, philosopher Patricia Thompson, who in recent years asked to call herself by her first name - Elena Vladimirovna, died on April 1, 2016. Separated from her father as a child, she wanted to be with him at least after death, and bequeathed to transport her ashes to Moscow.

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The desire to fulfill the last will of Elena Vladimirovna has already been expressed by her son, lawyer Roger Thompson, who has promised to come to Moscow to scatter the ashes of his mother over Mayakovsky's grave at the Novodevichy cemetery. "I would very much like to do this. If possible, in the coming months, in June," Roger said.

Thompson also announced that he wants to publish a book called "Daughter" about Vladimir Mayakovsky, on which his mother has been working all the time. “But you know, my mother left behind a lot - archives, documents, computer files. Unfortunately, we haven't got around to that yet,” TASS quotes the poet's grandson.

He explained that almost simultaneously with the death of his mother, his wife also fell seriously ill. "So everything piled up at once. But I would very much like, together with my son, Logan, to disassemble it all, open the computer, put it in order, see the readiness of the book and, if possible, be sure to publish it," added Roger ...

Patricia Thompson is the daughter of Mayakovsky and Elizabeth Siebert, whom the poet met in New York in 1925. The only time Mayakovsky saw his daughter was in 1928.