1. Elena Nestorovna Mikhnenko was the daughter of the Ukrainian anarchist revolutionaries Nestor Makhno and Halyna Kuzmenko.
16 Facts About Elena Mikhnenko
1. 2.
Elena Mikhnenko was arrested by Soviet state security, which first imprisoned her for "anti-Soviet agitation" and then exiled her to the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic.
3.
Elena Mikhnenko lived and worked in Kazakhstan for the rest of her life.
4.
On 30 October 1922, Elena Mikhnenko was born in Warsaw's Pawiak prison, where her mother was being held, while her father was himself imprisoned in Mokotow Prison.
5.
Elena Mikhnenko spent most of her early years with her mother, rarely ever getting a chance to connect with her father.
6.
The families of French anarchists often looked after the young Elena Mikhnenko, giving her the Francised pet name of "Lucie".
7.
Elena Mikhnenko thus grew up speaking the French language, eventually forgetting how to speak Russian and never even learning how to speak Ukrainian.
8.
In 1929, Elena Mikhnenko was taken on holiday by her father to the southern coastal town of Aimargues, which was well-known for its relatively large anarchist community.
9.
In 1939, Elena Mikhnenko graduated from secondary school and got a job in textile manufacturing.
10.
Elena Mikhnenko was followed there by her mother, who tried unsuccessfully to return to Ukraine.
11.
Elena Mikhnenko was accused of collaboration with the Nazis, which she denied and which state security service could not prove.
12.
Elena Mikhnenko was often blocked from promotions, or even dismissed, after her employers learnt that her father was Nestor Makhno.
13.
On 12 September 1950, Elena Mikhnenko was released from her imposed exile.
14.
Elena Mikhnenko consciously decided not to have children, as she feared they would share her fate of ostracisation for the identity of her father, declaring that she did not want to "breed poverty".
15.
Elena Mikhnenko eventually graduated from Jambyl's Hydro-Melioration Institute, where she worked as an engineer for the rest of her life.
16.
In 1993, following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Elena Mikhnenko died in Jambyl, at the age of 70.