Who is the mother of Mayakovsky's daughter. What Mayakovsky's only daughter looked like. However, your mother didn't go with the whole family, did she?

- When Mayakovsky found out about your existence, did he want to return?

I am sure that Mayakovsky wanted to have a family, wanted to live with us. Everything that was written about him was controlled by Lilya Brik. It's not true that he didn't want children. He loved children very much, and it was not for nothing 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 didn’t want another woman to be 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 don't 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 Tatyana Yakovleva was Mayakovsky’s last love.

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

Only letters written to Lilya Brik have been preserved in Mayakovsky’s archive. Why do you think she destroyed correspondence with the other women?

Lilya was who she was. I think she wanted to go down in history alone. She had influence on the public. There is no denying that she was a very smart, experienced woman. But, in my opinion, she was also a manipulator. I didn’t know the Briks personally, but I think they built a career for themselves using Mayakovsky. They said he was rude and uncontrollable. But his mother told a completely different story 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 the Briks' role is very ambiguous. Osip helped him publish at the very beginning of his career. Lilya Brik, one might say, was included in the set. 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 defined his family in his suicide note as follows: mother, sisters, Lilya Brik and Veronica Polonskaya. Why didn't he say anything about you?

I thought about this a lot myself, this question tormented me. When I went to Russia, I met my father's last lover, Veronica Polonskaya. I visited her at a nursing home for actors. She treated me very warmly and gave me a figurine of my father. She told me that Mayakovsky talked to her about me, about how he missed me. He showed her the Parker pen that 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 this to protect us. He protected her when he included her in his will, but on the contrary, he did not mention us. I’m not sure that I would have lived peacefully until these days if then the NKVD had learned that the Soviet poet Mayakovsky was having a child in America with 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 Veronica 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 it was possible to 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 difficult it was for him not to raise own daughter. But when they printed a book of memoirs in Russia, they simply threw out 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 had not forgotten about you?

I made one amazing discovery when I was in St. Petersburg. I was sorting 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, I drew exactly the same as a child...

Tell me, do 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, public action. I think exactly the same. And I had this goal: to create textbooks, books from which children learn something about the world and themselves. I wrote textbooks on psychology and anthropology, history, and tried to present it all in a way that children could understand. I also worked as an editor at several major 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 paintings you painted hanging on your wall. Did you also inherit this talent from your father?

Yes, I love to draw. At the age of 15 she entered art school. Of course, I’m not a professional artist, but something works out.

-Can you call yourself a revolutionary?

I think my father's idea of revolution is the idea of bringing social justice. I myself am a revolutionary, in my own understanding, that is, in connection with the role of women in society and in the family. I teach feminist philosophy 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 the desire to save the family, to work for its benefit.

- Tell us about your family.

I have a wonderful son, Roger, an intellectual property lawyer. He is Mayakovsky's grandson. 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 creators of the Declaration of Independence). I have a grandson, Logan. He is now finishing school. He is 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 watch how he looks at Mayakovsky's portrait and wrinkles his forehead.

To be honest, I still really miss my father. It seems to me that if he knew me now, learned about my life, he would be pleased.

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

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 first born. My American godmother's name was Elena, and my grandmother's name was also Elena.

- Tell me, why do you hardly know the Russian language?

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 mother that I don’t want to speak all these useless languages, but I want to speak English. Then my stepfather, an Englishman, taught me. But Russian remained at the children's level.

And you didn’t 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 walked away from everything Russian. In addition, 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 can’t remain in your father’s shadow, be his cheap imitation. She taught me to be myself.

© From personal archive Elena Mayakovskaya

- Who do you feel more like, American or Russian?

I would say - Russian-American. Few people know that even during cold war I always tried to help Soviet Union and Russia. When I was an editor at Macmillan in 1964, I edited a test and selected photographs for the book Communism: What It Is. I specifically made several edits to the text so that Americans would understand what good people live in the USSR. After all, at that time the Americans were portrayed with a not entirely adequate image Soviet man. 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 freed the peasants even before the abolition of slavery in America. This 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?

Firstly, I would like to say that even if he committed suicide, it was not because of a woman. He had reasons to live. Burliuk told me that he believes Mayakovsky had bullets placed in a shoebox. In the Russian aristocratic tradition, receiving such a gift meant dishonor. Disgrace began for him with the boycott of the exhibition; simply no one came there. He understood what was happening. It was a message: if you don't behave, we won't publish your poems. 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 - this is 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 facts that I read translated into English biographies, clearly did not correspond to reality. My favorite book was by Swedish author Bengt Youngfeldt. The man really wanted to find previously unknown facts about my father, and he managed to unearth some.

Tell me, are you not going to write a biography of Mayakovsky for the Americans? Do people in America actually know who Mayakovsky is?

Educated people, of course, know. And they are always very interested when they find out that I am his daughter. But I won’t write a biography. But I would like a woman to write Mayakovsky’s biography. I think 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 until 1991... Why?

Can you imagine what would happen if the USSR learned that Vladimir Mayakovsky, the singer of the revolution, was raising 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-invented myth about Mayakovsky excluded me and my mother from his story. This missing piece of history must return.

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

Before my mother died in 1985, she told me that I had to make the decision myself. She told me the whole story of their love, and I recorded it on a tape recorder, it turned out to be six tapes. They later provided me with material for the book “Mayakovsky in Manhattan.” I think she would be happy to know that I wrote 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 to show my documents. I then said: look at me! And only then everyone believed it. And I am very proud that I became a professor and 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 had a daughter, all doors would be open to me. But there was nothing like that.

- Immediately after that you visited Russia?

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 were driving to the hotel, I saw the Mayakovsky statue on the square for the first time. My son and I asked the driver to stop. I couldn’t believe we were there... I was in his museum on Lubyanka Square, in the room where he shot himself. I was holding a calendar in my hands, open at the bottom of April 14, 1930... last day 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 at 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 and covered it with earth and grass. I think Mom hoped to one day be united with the person she loved so much. And with Russia, which has always been in her heart.

Face to face

It’s mind-boggling: Mayakovsky’s daughter lives in America! And not just in America, but in New York, Manhattan! As soon as I learned this, I used completely unimaginable means to get her phone number and arranged an interview for Russian Bazaar.
-Elena Vladimirovna, we know a lot about your father, “the best, most talented poet” Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky - we “went through it” at school. Who was your mother?
- My mother Elizaveta (Ellie) Siebert was born on October 13, 1904 in the city of Davlekhanov, in what is now Bashkortostan. She was the eldest child in a family that was forced to flee Russia after the revolution. Her father (and my grandfather), Peter Henry Siebert, was born in Ukraine, and her mother, Helene Neufeldt, in Crimea. Both were descendants of Germans who arrived in Russia at the end of the 17th century at the invitation of Catherine II. The way of life of the Germans in Russia was characterized by simplicity and religiosity; their values were self-sufficiency and independence. The Germans built their own churches, schools, hospitals. The German colonies in Russia flourished.
Ellie was a "country girl" who lived on the estates of her father and grandfather. She was flexible, slender and well-built, with huge, expressive blue eyes sparkling. She had a high forehead, a straight nose and a strong chin. Her lips, with their sensual curve, could express emotions without any words. Because of her slenderness, she seemed taller than she actually was. But more importantly, she was a woman of intelligence, character, courage and charm. She was educated at a private school and had private teachers. In addition to Russian, she spoke fluent German, English and French.
- How did a German girl from the distant Urals end up here in America and meet the first Soviet poet?
- October 1917 turned the prosperous world of the Siebert family upside down. By the time of the revolution, my grandfather had large land holdings in Russia and abroad. He could afford to travel with his family to Japan and California. It’s not hard to imagine what awaited this family in Soviet Russia. But they managed to move to Canada in the late 20s. My mother, in the post-revolutionary turmoil, managed to leave Davlekhanov and worked with street children in Samara. Then she became a translator in Ufa, at the American hunger relief organization (ARA). After some time, she left for Moscow. There Ellie Siebert became Ellie Jones - she met and married the Englishman George E. Jones, who also worked at ARA.
- Was it a real or fictitious marriage?
- Perhaps fictitious, since his main goal for my mother was to escape from Soviet Russia.
- What year was it?
- In May 1923, my mother married Jones, they soon left for London, and from there to America, where two years later, formally remaining a married woman, my mother met Mayakovsky, as a result of which I was born. I note that George Jones put his name on my birth certificate to make me “legitimate.” He became my legal father, to whom I have always felt gratitude.
- Please, tell me a little more about the meeting of your parents in New York...
- On July 27, 1925, immediately after his 32nd birthday, Mayakovsky set foot on the mountain for the first and last time. American soil. He was in his prime both as a poet and as a man (“tall, dark and handsome”). A month later, this genius met Elizaveta Petrovna, Ellie Jones, a Russian emigrant living separately from her husband. Mayakovsky's American life is reflected in his prose, poetry and sketches. He left the United States on October 28, 1925 and never returned to the country. For a brief two-month period, Mayakovsky and Ellie were lovers.
-Where did they meet?
- At a poetry evening in New York. But for the first time, according to her stories, my mother saw Mayakovsky back in Russia, standing in the distance on the station platform with Lilya Brik. She remembered then that Lily had a “cold” look. The mother’s first question to Mayakovsky at that party was: how are poems made? Her interest in art and the secrets of poetic skill inevitably had to arouse Mayakovsky's reciprocal interest in this charming and well-read young woman who came from the east of his native country. Most of the partygoers spoke English, so it was only natural that a conversation would strike up between the two Russians.
- And they fell in love with each other?
- Mom told me that Mayakovsky was very careful towards her, more than once asking if she was careful, in a certain sense. To which she replied: “The result of love is children!” The last words in my mother’s life that she heard from me were: “Mayakovsky loved you!” Mom died in 1985.
Mayakovsky himself believed that he was extremely productive during his meetings with my mother. He was proud of what he had done in America. From August 6 to September 20, 1925, he wrote 10 poems, including "Brooklyn Bridge," "Broadway," and "Camp Neath Gedaige." Isn’t there a connection between Mayakovsky’s feelings for my mother and the flowering of his poetic genius? Everyone who knew Mayakovsky knew him as a man of deep and lasting devotion, a romantic, never vulgar in his relationships with women.
- Elena Vladimirovna, weren’t you interested in whether anyone saw your parents in New York together? After all, everything did not happen in airless space...
- One day they brought me to the house of the writer Tatyana Levchenko-Sukhomlina. She told me her story. As the young wife of American lawyer Benjamin Pepper, she came to New York, where she studied at Columbia University's journalism school and worked in the theater. She saw Mayakovsky on the street close to Amtorg’s office and got into conversation with him. He was always happy to meet Russians on his travels, and asked her and her husband if they would like to go to his poetry evening. They were invited to a party in his apartment, where, according to Tatyana Ivanovna’s story, she saw Mayakovsky with a tall, slender, very pretty young woman, whom he called Ellie. It was clear to her that Mayakovsky was deeply in love with her. Thanks to Tatyana Ivanovna, I know that I truly am a child of love. I always believed this, but it was important to have “witness testimony” to confirm my intuitive belief.
- You mentioned Lilya Brik. Did she know about your existence? And if so, how did she treat you?
- A few days after Mayakovsky’s death, Lilya Brik ended up in his room in Lubyansky Proezd. Looking at her father's papers, she destroyed a photo of a little girl, his daughter... Lilya was the heir to Mayakovsky's copyright, so the existence of her daughter was absolutely undesirable for her. Since, as you know, she was connected with the NKVD, my mother was afraid all her life that Lilya would “get” us in America. But, fortunately, this cup has passed us by. I am not the illegitimate daughter of Mayakovsky. I am his biological daughter with 23 of his genes. I was born, I repeat, as a result of the ardent love that consumed the poet during his stay in New York in 1925. This circumstance was predetermined by fate beyond the control of my parents. Mayakovsky's love for my mother, Ellie Jones, ended his intimate relationship with Lilya Brik.
I never knew the Briks personally. As far as I can tell, the Briks built a career exploiting Mayakovsky's name. How many cruel things were said about him! That he is rude, uncontrollable, pathologically squeamish. And his friend David Burliuk said that he was, in essence, a kind, sensitive person, and he really was like that. Of course, when he was in public, that is, on stage, he was a sharp debater, quick to respond to any challenge, very smart and sarcastic. He could beat anyone if people started to catch him - when he felt good.
- Your father saw you once in his life, it seems, in Nice...
- In Mayakovsky’s notebook, on a separate page, only one word is written: “Daughter”... Yes, for the first and last time we saw our father in Nice, where my mother went not on purpose, but on her immigrant business. Mayakovsky happened to be in Paris at that time, and one of our friends told him where we were. He immediately rushed to Nice, went to the door and announced: “Here I am!” After visiting us, he sent a letter to Nice from Paris, which was perhaps my mother’s most precious possession. It was addressed to “the two Ellies,” the father asked for the possibility of meeting again. But, my mother believed, there should not have been a second visit! We moved to Italy, and Mayakovsky later came to Nice in the hope of meeting us there.
- In his suicide note, Mayakovsky identified his family: mother, sisters, Lilya Brik and Veronika Vitoldovna Polonskaya. And he asked the government to “arrange a tolerable life for them.” He didn't mention the woman he loved or you. Why?
- This was a question to which I myself did not have a satisfactory answer until I met Veronica Polonskaya during my first visit to Moscow in 1991. Our meeting was partially shown on Russian TV.
The delicate and fragile Mrs. Polonskaya, who was a charming ingénue when Mayakovsky knew her, greeted me kindly. We kissed and hugged in her small room at the retirement home for actors. On her bookshelf stood a small, but life-size, statue of Mayakovsky. She loved him too, I'm sure of that. She said that he told her about me: “I have a future in this child,” and that he had a Parker pen that I gave him in Nice. He proudly showed it to Veronica. The Mayakovsky Museum currently has two Parker pens, and one of them is undoubtedly mine.
I asked Mrs. Polonskaya the same question that you asked me: why did he mention my aunts, grandmother, Lilya Brik and her in his last letter? But not me and my mother? “Why you and not me?” - I asked Polonskaya directly. I wanted to know. She looked me in the eyes and answered seriously: “He did it to protect me and you too.” She was protected by being included, and my mother and I were protected by being excluded! Her answer is completely clear to me. How could he protect us after his death if he could not protect us while alive? Of course, he hoped that those he loved and trusted would find me. Many people tried to recruit me to be Polonskaya’s enemy, considering her to be involved in the death (in one way or another) of Mayakovsky. Yes, she was the last one famous person who saw him alive, yes, she stated her version of events. And I want to believe her!
- So, you came to Russia for the first time in 1991. How did you feel when you saw the monument to your father? Have you visited his grave?
- In the summer of 1991, my son Roger Sherman Thompson, a New York lawyer, and I arrived in Moscow, where we were welcomed into the circle of Mayakovsky’s family and beyond by his friends and admirers. When we were driving to the hotel, I first saw the monumental statue of Mayakovsky on Mayakovsky Square (currently the square is called in its old way: Triumphalnaya. - V.N.). My son and I asked the driver of our car to stop. I couldn't believe we were finally standing here! Noting that the poet's eyes were looking into the distance, Roger whispered: "Mom, I think he's looking for you."
Several times I visited my father’s grave at the Novodevichy Cemetery, in his huge museum on Lubyanka Square and in the small room inside this museum where he shot himself. My son and I went into it. How strange it was to be among my father's things with my son! (Mom always thought of him as Mayakovsky’s grandson.) I sat on his chair and touched his table, knocking on the worn wood. I remember placing my hand on the calendar, forever open to April 14, 1930, the day of his last breath on earth. It’s impossible to describe my feelings! When I opened the desk drawer to make sure it was empty, I felt that his hands had once touched the same wood. I felt like he was there with me. It was the first time I could touch things he used every day, everyday things. I felt exactly the same comfort when I sat in the red velvet chair in which my mother last years I did handicrafts, read books, listened to music and met friends who were interested in Russian culture.
At my father’s grave at the Novodevichy cemetery, at his tombstone, I knelt down and crossed myself in the Russian manner. I brought with me a small part of my mother's ashes. With my bare hands I dug up the ground between the graves of my father and his sister. There I placed the ashes, covered them with earth and grass, and watered the place with tears. I kissed the Russian soil that stuck to my fingers.
From the day my mother died, I hoped that someday a piece of her would be reunited with the person she loved, with Russia, which she loved until the end of her days. No force on earth could stop me from bringing my mother's ashes into Russian soil at Mayakovsky's family grave! Less than a month after my return to Moscow, I was shocked to learn that the Soviet government had assembled a collection of “great brains” for a 67-year-old scientific research, which aims to determine the anatomical roots of my father's genius. Mayakovsky's brain was among them, but no one in Russia told me about it.
- What education did you receive? Who did you work with?
- My father, as you know, drew well and studied at the Moscow Art School. (School of painting, sculpture and architecture. - V.N.) Apparently, I inherited this gift from him, because at the age of 15 I entered art school, then Barnard College, from which I graduated in June 1948. After graduating from college, I worked for a time as an editor for widely published magazines, reviewing movies, music records, and the like. I edited Westerns, romances, mysteries and science fiction - quite a suitable occupation for the daughter of a futurist. She wrote documentary essays on various topics under the name Pat Jones. I can imagine how much easier it would have been for me to publish under Mayakovsky’s name if I had chosen a career in the “world of letters.” But I gravitated towards other genres... I couldn’t be a poet, playwright, graphic artist or painter, because I would be compared to my father. I couldn't be a translator, linguist or language teacher like my mother. If I chose any of these activities, I would not be free. I wanted to forge my own path to fame and fortune. It may not have been fame, but I made a name for myself as a feminist theorist and as the author of school and college textbooks and theoretical books and articles in my chosen subject, home economics. It is certainly no coincidence that I found myself in a field that values women and women's work...
- You talked about the son, grandson of Vladimir Mayakovsky. Who is it from?
- In May 1954, I married Olin Wayne Thompson, who gave me another American name: Patricia Thompson. This marriage gave me access to the good genes of the American Revolution, which were passed on to my son along with my genes of the Russian Revolution. My husband refused to give our son a Slavic name (Svyatoslav), so he was named Roger Sherman - in honor of his father's ancestor, who signed the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution for the State of Connecticut. After my divorce (after 20 years of marriage), my mother's second husband adopted me. I was 50 years old at that time. My stepfather, who had no children of his own, took this step so that I would become his heir. It was the inheritance of my mother and my adoptive father that gave me the opportunity, decades later, to fly to Moscow in the company of my son and several friends to discover my roots. Now I am Pat in America, and Russians, Armenians, Georgians and others who still love and respect the memory of Mayakovsky call me Elena Vladimirovna.
- As far as I understand, Russian, German, possibly Ukrainian and Georgian blood flows in you. Who do you feel like?
- I am a Russian American, torn between Russia and Georgia, I love Armenia and Armenians, I feel nostalgia for the birthplace of my mother in Bashkortostan and the birthplace of my mother’s parents in Ukraine and Crimea. Add to this that my mother's family - Siebert and Neufeld - was of German origin. In my heart I carry a love for Russian and German heritage.
-Are you going to write a biography of your father?
- No, but I would like to see his biography written by a woman. I think that a woman scientist will understand better than most of the men who have written so much about him the peculiarities of his character and personality. Maybe the feminist in me is speaking again (laughs).
- Last question, Elena Vladimirovna. Yours favorite poem Mayakovsky?
- "A cloud in pants". And I’m a storm cloud in a skirt (laughs).
P.S. I express my sincere gratitude to Mark Ioffe, who helped me in the conversation with Elena Vladimirovna Mayakovskaya and in deciphering the tape recording.

To the poet's anniversary Vladimir Mayakovsky The reconstruction of the museum named after him in Lubyansky Proezd has not been completed, so the celebration of the 125th anniversary is taking place at other venues. One of them is the memorial “Apartment on Bolshaya Presnya”, one of the few surviving apartments that the Mayakovsky family rented in Moscow.

The Mayakovskys lived in this apartment on Krasnaya Presnya Street for a short time, only two years: from 1913 to 1915. In the eighties, it became a branch of the Mayakovsky Museum, thematic exhibitions were held here, and then this place turned into a book depository and fell out of the exhibition space for a long time. New life“Apartments on Bolshaya Presnya” begins with the exhibition “Daughter”.

For a long time, even the most meticulous researchers of the poet’s life knew nothing about Mayakovsky’s children. Only in the early nineties did an American make herself known Patricia Thompson: according to her data, she was the daughter of Mayakovsky and an emigrant from the USSR Ellie Jones(nee Elizaveta Siebert). The family hid this fact for a long time; Patricia was recorded as the daughter of Jones's ex-husband. But it is known that in 1928 Mayakovsky met with Ellie and her two-year-old daughter in Nice.

Patricia Thompson. 2003 Photo: RIA Novosti / Dmitry Korobeinikov

Patricia Thompson spent her entire life actively collecting various materials related to Mayakovsky and participated in the celebration of the centenary of the poet’s birth in 1993. She died at the age of 90 in 2016, bequeathing it to her son Roger scatter some of her ashes over Mayakovsky's grave at the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow. He has not yet been able to fulfill his mother's will, but he is determined to do so.

Roger, grandson

Roger Thompson now 63, he is a copyright lawyer. According to him, he was never told that he was the grandson of a famous Russian poet.

“I was about five years old when I found out that Mayakovsky was not married to my grandmother,” he answered AiF’s question. “But this was not a topic that adults would discuss with a little boy.” They discussed Mayakovsky very quietly, and I, of course, tried to eavesdrop. When I grew up, I already knew who Mayakovsky was and how I related to him. His name was always mentioned in our family, so I just knew it. It was just part of my personality."

Roger Thompson came to Russia several times: first with his mother, and then on his own. He regrets that his work does not allow him to devote more time to the “Mayakovsky issue,” but he promises to sort through the huge archive left by Patricia Thompson and prepare her book “Daughter” for publication. He considers himself a Russian-American.

“On my paternal side, my ancestor was Roger Sherman, one of the founding fathers of the United States. He helped write the Declaration of Independence and sign the Constitution. I was named after him. So I feel a strong connection to American history. But also with Russian history- Same. And with revolutions in both countries. My ancestors on all sides are full of revolutionaries and rebels,” he says.

Mayakovsky's DNA

The sculptor is also considered the son of Mayakovsky Gleb-Nikita Lavinsky(1921-1986). His relationship with the great poet became known in 2013, after the release of the documentary “The Third Odd One”.

A genetic examination of Mayakovsky’s descendants has never been carried out, as told by AiF director of the poet's museum Alexey Lobov.

“Patricia Thompson refused to take a DNA test: she feared that an incorrect examination would destroy her whole world. Roger is ready to participate in DNA analysis if there are materials for comparison,” he said.

The problem is precisely the lack of genetic material. The existing fragments of the poet's DNA (this is the blood on his clothes in which he died) are not suitable for analysis. Mayakovsky’s sisters also have no heirs, and if compared with distant relatives, the examination error will be very high.

“We state quite confidently about the relationship of Roger Thompson, because we have a large amount of documentary evidence,” says Lobov. - But, for example, Mrs. Lavinskaya says that she is Mayakovsky’s granddaughter, without having any documents in her hands.”

Elizaveta Lavinskaya, Moscow sculptor, granddaughter of the poet Vladimir Mayakovsky, against the background of a portrait of her grandfather. 1996 Photo: RIA Novosti / Oleg Lastochkin

New very interesting materials about Vl. Mayakovsky and the role of Lily Brik in his life and biography.

Anastasia Orlyanskaya · 29/11/2010
interview

Patricia Thompson: “To prevent Mayakovsky from leaving to join his mother and me in America, Lilya arranged a meeting for him with Tatyana Yakovleva”

The only daughter of the singer of the revolution, Vladimir Mayakovsky, is named Patricia Thompson, lives in Upper Manhattan and teaches feminism at New York University.
The Revolution Singer's only grandson is Roger Thompson, a fashionable New York lawyer from Fifth Avenue. When you look at Mayakovsky’s daughter, you feel uneasy. It seems that Mayakovsky himself has stepped down from his marble pedestal - a tall, thin figure and the same sparkling gaze, familiar from numerous portraits of the famous futurist. Her apartment is filled with portraits and sculptures of Mayakovsky. During the conversation, Patricia periodically glances at the small figurine of her father, given to her by Veronica Polonskaya, as if awaiting confirmation (“Really dad?”). 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 claims that Mayakovsky loved children and wanted to live with her and her mother. But history decreed differently. He was a singer of the Soviet revolution, and his beloved was 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, she was there solving some immigration 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 almost had a stroke. She didn't expect 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 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 touched he was 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 my hands. And Mayakovsky told her: “You should never hit a child.”

But you never met again?

No, this was the only meeting. But for him it was very important. After this meeting he sent us a letter. This letter was the most important treasure for my mother. It was addressed "To the two Ellies." Mayakovsky wrote: “My two dear Ellies. I already miss you. I dream of coming to you. Please write quickly. I kiss all eight of your 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 photograph stood on his father’s table all the time.

But Lilya Brik tore it 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 point is that Lilya was the heir to copyright, and therefore my existence was undesirable for her. However, one entry remained in his notebook. On a separate page there is written only one word “Daughter”.

But your mother was also 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 connected 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 stole Mayakovsky from Lily Brik, right?

I think at the time Mayakovsky came to America, his relationship with Lilya was in the past. My father's love for my mother, Ellie Jones, marked the end of their relationship.
- Mayakovsky’s biographer Solomon Kemrad found an entry in one of the poet’s “American” notebooks English language: 111 West 12th 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, she learned them at school, in Bashkiria, as a little girl. She worked with the American administration. My mother devoted her whole life to trying to explain to Americans what Russian culture is and who the Russian people are. She was a true patriot. And she taught me the same.

Is she German from Bashkiria by origin?

Yes, her Russian name- Elizaveta Siebert. The family history on my 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 them all freedom of religion. Grandfather was a successful industrialist. And then the revolution happened.

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

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

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

Yes, she spent some more time in Russia. Her mother worked for a charity 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 that the marriage was rather fictitious. The 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?

She first saw her father in Moscow, at the Rizhsky station. He stood with Lilya Brik. 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 traveled through France, Cuba and Mexico, and waited almost a month for permission to enter. When he arrived in New York, he was invited to a cocktail party with a famous lawyer. My mother was also there.

What did she say about this meeting?

Mom was interested in poetry and 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 any language. 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, and 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?

They appeared together at all receptions, met with journalists and publishers together. We went to the Bronx Zoo, we went to look at the Brooklyn Bridge. And the poem “Brooklyn Bridge” was written immediately after he visited it with his mother. She was the first to hear this poem.

You probably did some research when you were writing 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's side for a minute. This was very important to me, I wanted confirmation that I was born as a result of love, although internally I always knew this.

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

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

Is there 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: “Loving means having children.” At the same time, 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 of hers is used. “From love we must build bridges and give birth to children,” his professor says.

Letter from Mayakovsky 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 the ship bound for Europe. When she returned, she discovered that the bed in her apartment was strewn with forget-me-nots. He spent all his money on these flowers, which is why he returned to Russia fourth class, in the worst cabin. Mom found out that she was pregnant when Mayakovsky was already in the USSR.

When you were a child, your surname was Jones...

When I was born, my mother was still technically 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 was very helpful in general. My mother was not convicted of having an illegitimate child, and I now have American documents: he legally became my father, I am very grateful to him. Nowadays people forgive much more than a child born out of wedlock, but back then things were different.
- When Mayakovsky found out about your existence, did he want to return?

Many people think that Tatyana Yakovleva was Mayakovsky’s last love.

Only letters written to Lilya Brik have been preserved in Mayakovsky’s archive. Why do you think she destroyed correspondence with the other women?

Do you think Lilya had a bad influence on Mayakovsky?

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

And why weren't you in the will?

Was Veronica 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 it was possible to 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 spoke about me with another friend of his, telling how difficult it was for him not to raise his own daughter. But when they printed a book of memoirs in Russia, they simply threw out 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 had not forgotten about you?

Tell me, do you feel like Mayakovsky’s daughter? Do you believe in genetic memory?

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

Yes, I love to draw. At the age of 15 she entered art school. Of course, I’m not a professional artist, but something works out.

Can you call yourself a revolutionary?

Tell us about your family.

I have a wonderful son, Roger, an intellectual property lawyer. He is Mayakovsky's grandson. 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 creators of the Declaration of Independence). I have a grandson, Logan. He is now finishing school. He is from Latin America and 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 watch how he looks at Mayakovsky's portrait and wrinkles his forehead.

To be honest, I still really miss my father. It seems to me that if he knew me now, learned about my life, he would be pleased.

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

Tell me, why do you know almost no Russian?

And you didn’t speak Russian at all with your mother?

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 was an editor at Macmillan in 1964, I edited a test and selected photographs for the book Communism: What It Is. I specifically made several edits to the text so that Americans would understand what good people live in the USSR. After all, at that time the Americans were presented with a not entirely adequate image of the Soviet man. 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 freed the peasants even before the abolition of slavery in America. This is a historical fact, and I think it 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?

Firstly, I would like to say that even if he committed suicide, it was not because of a woman. He had reasons to live. Burliuk told me that he believes Mayakovsky had bullets placed in a shoebox. In the Russian aristocratic tradition, receiving such a gift meant dishonor. Disgrace began for him with the boycott of the exhibition; simply no one came there. He understood what was happening. It was a message: if you don't behave, we won't publish your poems. 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 - this is 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 was by Swedish author Bengt Youngfeldt. The man really wanted to find previously unknown facts about my father, and he managed to unearth some.

Tell me, are you not going to write a biography of Mayakovsky for the Americans? Do people in America actually know who Mayakovsky is?

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

Can you imagine what would happen if the USSR learned that Vladimir Mayakovsky, the singer of the revolution, was raising 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-invented myth about Mayakovsky excluded me and my mother from his story. This missing piece of history must return.

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

Who was the first person you revealed your secret to?

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 were driving to the hotel, I saw the Mayakovsky statue on the square for the first time. My son and I asked the driver to stop. I couldn’t believe we were there... I was in his museum on Lubyanka Square, in the room where he shot himself. I held the calendar in my hands, open to April 14, 1930... the last day of my father's life.

Have you been to the Novodevichy cemetery?

Vladimir Mayakovsky is known not only for his brilliant poetic talent, but also for his powerful charisma, which at one time broke many women’s hearts. Many love affairs and hobbies both in the poet’s poems and gave life to 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, what 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 gaze, striking straight to the heart. The poet was always surrounded by a crowd of 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, romance novels with Elizaveta Lavinskaya and Elizaveta Siebert (Ellie Jones) became in many ways fateful for the poet, forever occupying the niche of his memory and legacy.

A question of legacy

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

The 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 Brik could not have children. However, researchers are 99% sure that the poet has at least two heirs. And they came from two different women, on different continents. This is the son Gleb-Nikita Lavinsky and daughter Patricia Thompson.

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

Son

While working at Windows of ROST (1920), Vladimir Mayakovsky met the artist Lilia (Elizaveta) Lavinskaya. And although at that time she was a married young lady, this did not stop 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 documents under the name of Anton Lavinsky, his mother’s official husband. The boy Gleb-Nikita himself always knew who he was. Moreover, despite the lack of fatherly attention (Vladimir Mayakovsky’s children did not interest him, he was even afraid of them), he deeply loved the poet and with youth I read his poems.

Life

Nikita-Gleb's life was not easy. With living parents, the boy grew up in an orphanage until he was three years old. According to those social views, this was the most suitable place to raise children and accustom them to the team. Gleb-Nikita has few memories of his own father. Much later, he would tell his youngest daughter Elizaveta about one special meeting they had, when Mayakovsky took him on his shoulders, went out onto the balcony and read his poems to him.

Mayakovsky's son had a subtle artistic taste and an absolute ear for music. At the age of 20, Gleb-Nikita was called up to the front. All Great Patriotic War he passed as an ordinary soldier. Then he got married for the first time.

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

Resemblance to father

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

For his stepfather Anton Lavinsky, his son was always a living reminder of his wife’s infatuation and betrayal. Perhaps that is why the relationship between stepfather and stepson was rather cold. But friendship with Mayakovsky, on the contrary, was surprisingly warm and strong. Family archive I have preserved many photographs testifying to this.

American daughter

In the mid-1920s, things happened in the relationship between Mayakovsky and Liliya Brik, and the political situation in Russia itself was difficult for the revolutionary poet at that time. This became the reason for his trip to the USA, where he actively toured, visited a friend. There he also met Russian emigrant Ellie Jones (real name Elizaveta Siebert). She was a reliable comrade, a charming companion and translator for him in a foreign country.

This novel became very significant for the poet. He even seriously wanted to get married and 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 received the name Helen-Patricia Jones. The surname came from the emigrant mother's husband, George Jones. This was necessary so that the child could be considered legitimate and remain in the United States. In addition, the secret of birth saved the girl. Possible children of Mayakovsky could then come under persecution by the NKVD and Liliya Brik herself.

Fate

Helen-Patricia found out who her real father was at the age of nine. But this information remained a family secret for a long time and was inaccessible to the public. The girl inherited her father's creative talent. At the age of 15 she entered art college, after which she got a job as an editor at Macmillan magazine. There she reviewed films and music records, edited westerns, science fiction, and detective stories. In addition to her work in publishing houses, Helen-Patricia worked as a teacher and wrote books.

In 1954, Mayakovsky's daughter married an 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 I managed to get permission to travel to France. It was there, in Nice, that Ellie Jones and her daughter were vacationing. Patricia called him Volodya, and he constantly repeated “daughter” and “little Ellie.” Not yet realizing 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 brilliant poet. Now, unfortunately, they are no longer alive. But the line of memory is continued by 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 was named in honor of his poet father Vladimir, and the youngest daughter was named Elizaveta in honor of her mother. Mayakovsky's children followed in the footsteps of their ancestor and became honored creative figures (sculptors, artists, teachers). Information about their fate is presented rather sparsely and fragmentarily. It is only known that the poet’s eldest grandson and namesake (Vladimir) died in 1996, and his granddaughter runs a children’s art workshop. The Mayakovsky family is continued by five grandchildren of Gleb-Nikita (Ilya, Elizaveta, and Anastasia). Ilya Lavinsky works as an architect, Elizaveta works as a theater and film artist.

About Patricia Thompson information for Russian society was closed until the 1990s. However, with proof of kinship with the famous poet, the 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 does not have children of his own.

Mayakovsky's son received a double name due to parental disagreements in choosing a name for the boy. He received the first part - Gleb - 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, Channel One 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 between Mayakovsky and Lilia Brik, the possible reasons for the poet’s suicide, and also touched on the eternal topic - Mayakovsky’s children (briefly). It was this film that for the first time openly and conclusively announced the heirs of the poet.
The futurist poet has always been the center of women's attention. Despite his all-consuming love for Lilya Brik, many novels are attributed to him. 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 never received documentary or any other confirmation.
Patricia Thompson wrote 15 books during her life. She dedicated several of them to her father. Thus, the book “Mayakovsky in Manhattan, a love story” tells about her parents and their short but tender relationship. Patricia also started an autobiographical book, “Daughter,” but did not have time to finish it.
Already at an advanced age, Patricia became acquainted with her father’s archive (the library of St. Petersburg). On one of the pages she recognized her childhood drawings (flowers and leaves), which she had left during their first and only meeting.
At the request of Ellie Jones herself, the daughter cremated her mother’s body after her death and buried it in the grave of Vladimir Mayakovsky at the Novodevichy cemetery.
The poet’s granddaughter, Elizaveta Lavinskaya, writes the book “Son of Mayakovsky.” about her father, the son of a famous poet, his difficult relationship with his stepfather and selfless love for his own father, whom he never had time to consciously meet. 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 break off the marital relationship so abruptly for the sake of the poet-heartthrob. That's why 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 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 still live today, following their own creative path. And the memory of such a literary phenomenon as Mayakovsky will be openly carried by children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren for many years to come.