Patricia Thompson

Patricia J. Thompson (June 15, 1926 – April 1, 2016), also known as Yelena Vladimirovna Mayakovskaya, was an American philosopher and author of more than 20 books. She was one of the two known children of the poet Vladimir Mayakovsky. This fact was kept a secret until 1991. In summer 1925, Vladimir Mayakovsky met Russian émigré Elli Jones in New York. They fell in love, 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. By the time Thompson was born, her mother married George Jones, who treated Thompson as his own daughter. 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 She published a book describing her parents' love affair, based on her mother's unpublished memoirs and their conversations. In 1991, she traveled to Russia with her son, where they were welcomed with respect. From that point until her death, she kept dual names. In 2015 she expressed her wish to learn Russian and to obtain Russian citizenship.