Olga T. Lomakin

Olga T. Lomakin (nee Yamchuk) (1912-2009) was the wife of the Russian-Soviet diplomat Jacob M. Lomakin.

Graduate of the Textile Institute she married co-student Jacob M. Lomakin who in 1939 was summoned as TASS correspondent to USA. In New York Olga taught math and physics at the Russian school. . In March 1942 Jacob M. Lomakin was appointed Consul General in San Francisco. During the World War II Olga took active part in meetings of numerous anti-fascist organizations for raising funds to aid the victims of war and the Red Army.
In January,1943 Olga gave birth to a son, this event was noted in the San Francisco Chronicle with a large photo and article “Mrs. Lomakin tells of women’s share in the World”.
On June 9, 1943 Joseph A. Moore, owner of the Moore Dry Dock Company, of Olga’s impact in the Russian War Relief Program, granted her the honor of “baptizing” the freighter ship “Sovereign of the Seas”. (According to an old maritime “luck-bringing” tradition, the descent from the stocks, starts with the breaking of a bottle of champagne on the bow of the newly built ship).
On March 19, 1944 Olga’s speech at the Scottish Rite Auditoriumin San Francisco, organized by the Russian-American Society and Russian War Relief Program, was greeted with applause by an audience of two thousand people.
This is the only speech ever to be presented by the wife of a diplomat in front of such a huge audience. Soon after D-day Jacob Lomakin was ordered to return to Moscow. In July 1944 during the Pacific war the Lomakin family sailed to Nakhodka. It was a long, dangerous and stressful journey. Japanese jet fighters controlled all ships departing from the USA in order to identify their mission. Many ships were sunk. In March 1946 Jacob Lomakin was again summoned to the United States. In August 1948 the “immensely overheated by Mass media” Kasenkina Case broke out. The erratic behavior of a mentally unstable woman at the time of McCarthyism and the Berlin blockade “was promptly used as a welcome opportunity for effective anti-Soviet propaganda.” Kasenkina’s letter to Lomakin was kept classified for 50 years to accuse Lomakin of “kidnapping and holding her against her will”. Any news concerning the case was a well paid hot topic. Correspondents rushed to the families vacation rental in Rye, NY, but Olga and the children have left. On August 27, 1948 when the family departed from the USA correspondents failed to identify her as she boarded steamer “Stockholm”. Her fluent English and elegance appeared to defy the Soviet diplomats wife stereotype. For safety reasons the children and both parents had to board the ship separately.The family was photographed together only when the steamer docked in Sweden.
In Moscow Olga Lomakin went back to school. Her second diploma from the Moscow State Linguistic University together with her engineering expertise was an asset for teaching English to technical professionals with higher education. It also gave her income to support her two children after the early death of her husband.

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