She’s An American Girl

On a frosty winter morning in Leningrad, Russia more than three decades ago, Tatyana Mamonova was dragged out of bed by KGB agents along with her husband and toddler son. They were quickly stripped of their Soviet citizenship and exiled to Vienna, Austria.

Stateless since her exile, today the Westport resident is scheduled to  be sworn in as a U.S. citizen in a New York City Courthouse.

“I was very happy being a citizen of the world for all these years,” said Mamonova, who publishes Woman & Earth Almanac (Женщина и Земля) in English and Russian. “But, finally I realized that I had somehow managed to become an American — so I decided to make it official.”

A few weeks prior to the exile, Mamovova had been warned by government agents to stop publishing a samizdat (underground publication) for women that had led to the Russian feminist movement. But she ignored their warning. In the meantime, her artist husband was cautioned to stop all paintings that did not conform to Soviet guidelines. He, too, shrugged off their advice.

“They would look at the paintings and say, ‘but that is not Lenin,’” Mamonova said.

Worse than that — the paintings were sometimes irreverent, poking fun at Soviet authority figures and the Russian Orthodox Church.

The art was seized from galleries — but not before a number of them were smuggled out of the country by Western diplomats, along with copies of the forbidden samizdat.

New canvases were painted, and the duo began displaying them in their apartment.

Then on December 10, 1979 agents arrived unannounced and hauled the family off to KGB headquarters to await their fate.

Luck Be A Lady

Moscow had just been named as the site of the 1980 Summer Olympic games and the international press was permitted into the country to cover the joyous occasion. The date of the arrest also turned out to be International Human Rights Day (and Tatyana’s birthday) and the irony made for good newspaper headlines. Reporters clustered outside KGB headquarters and waited for the trio to be loaded into a black Volga bound for the gulag in Siberia.

However, Secretary General Breshnev didn’t want any bad press spoiling the Olympics. Additionally, the media had labeled Mamonova “the most dangerous woman in the USSR,” so the Soviet leader was concerned that she might be able to organize fellow prisoners to revolt against guards.

Breshnev made a sudden change of plans, ordering the family stripped of their possessions and citizenship and flown to Vienna, where other dissidents had been exiled in the past. Mamonova, however, was the first woman ever to have been exiled.

“Breshnev figured we could not survive stateless in a foreign country, but he was wrong,” recalled Mamonova.

Leaving Home

The stateless family ended up in Paris during the 1980s, where they received political asylum. In France, an anthology of Mamonova’s samizdats titled Femmes et Russie was published. Her American counterpart Gloria Steinem later invited Mamonova to the United States, where the French anthology was republished as Women & Russia (Beacon Press). She has since put out several books in the U.S. Her latest, Women’s Glasnost vs. Naglost, was published in Westport by Bergin & Garvey.

Not satisfied with living in Europe, Mamonova began travelling around the world lecturing and teaching Women’s Studies as a guest professor at various universities.

“I had always dreamed of seeing the world, but Soviet citizens were not permitted to travel,” she said. “I loved Paris but my new fame gave me the opportunity to go anywhere on Earth — so I did.”

Also an artist, Mamonova exhibited her paintings throughout Europe, Asia, Africa and in America.

When she went to the United States to appear on the cover of Ms. magazine, Steinem and Harvard University petitioned the U.S. government to grant her a Green Card.

But it wasn’t the only green card Mamonova coveted.

“Often at lectures, I would hold up my American Express card and say it was my real American green card,” Mamonova mused.

Keeping up with politics both here and in her homeland, Mamonova admired President Bill Clinton very much and also likes Barack Obama, although she would have preferred a Hillary Clinton presidency.

Back home, she was a big supporter of President Mikhail Gorbachev who, at one point during his term, offered Mamonova her citizenship back.

“But I didn’t want to be a citizen anywhere,” she said. “I wanted to be free.”

Last year, she was invited back to Russia to be named Woman of the Year by the Vishnevskaya Association.

Although many renowned Americans including late New York Congresswoman Bella Abzug, author Kate Millett and former Connecticut Congressman Chris Shays wrote letters of support for her to obtain “Exceptional Person” status to receive permanent residency here, Mamonova never attempted to become a U.S. citizen.

“I received a World Citizen passport from Gary Davis (who renounced his U.S. citizenship and founded the International Registry of World Citizens) in 1990,” said Mamonova. “But I have to go through so much trouble with travel documents every time I want to leave the country.”

Then, about six months ago, Mamonova contacted immigration attorney Sarah J. Pelud, who practices both in the U.S. and in Canada, and told her that she was ready to take the plunge.

“It has been an honor and a joy for me to assist Tatyana Mamonova in her quest for U.S. citizenship,” said Pelud, Membre du Barreau de l’Etat de New York seulement. “She now joins the ranks of famous American immigrants and through her writings and conferences will continue to make tremendous contributions to the betterment of our global society, no longer as a stateless person in exile, but as a naturalized U.S. citizen.”

Now Tatyana's son Phillippe, who lives in California and leads the rock band Passion Air (music available on iTunes), wants to become a U.S. citizen, too.

Mamonova began cramming to memorize The Pledge of Allegiance and The Oath of Allegiance a few days prior to the swearing-in ceremony.

“I never thought it would be a big deal,” Tatyana said of her U.S. citizenship. “But now suddenly it hit me — this is a BIG deal!”