# Lily Golden

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**Liya Oliverovna Golden** (Russian: Лия Оливеровна Голден; 18 July 1934 – 6 December 2010) was a Soviet and Russian historian and civil rights advocate. A national tennis player and pianist during her youth, she worked at the [Institute for African Studies](/source/Institute_for_African_Studies_(Russia)) and did research on [Black studies](/source/Black_studies). After moving to the United States after Mikhail Gorbachev's *[glasnost](/source/Glasnost)* and *[perestroika](/source/Perestroika)* reforms, she became a scholar-in-residence at [Chicago State University](/source/Chicago_State_University) and an advocate for racial equality.

## Biography

Liya Oliverovna Golden was born on 18 July 1934,[1] in [Tashkent](/source/Tashkent), [Uzbek SSR](/source/Uzbek_SSR).[2][3] Her father [Oliver Golden](/source/Oliver_Golden) was an African-American agronomist from the Southern United States, and her mother Bertha ( Bialek) was a Polish Jew from New York.[3] The couple had moved to the Soviet Union to pursue an interracial marriage.[4] After being unable to return to their native United States alongside her mother due to [anti-Black racism](/source/Anti-Black_racism) and [World War II](/source/World_War_II),[5] Golden remained in the Uzbek SSR, where she played tennis for the national team.[6][7] She was educated at the [State Conservatory of Uzbekistan](/source/State_Conservatory_of_Uzbekistan), winning a music competition at one point.[6] Following the encouragement of actor [Wayland Rudd](/source/Wayland_Rudd), she went to [Moscow State University](/source/Moscow_State_University), where she majored in African-American history and became their first Black student.[3][8]

Golden began working at the African studies department of the [Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences](/source/Institute_of_Oriental_Studies_of_the_Russian_Academy_of_Sciences), before becoming part of the newly-inaugurated [Institute for African Studies](/source/Institute_for_African_Studies_(Russia)) in 1958 and eventually serving as acting director.[8][5] Although [her academic research was ideologically controlled](/source/Censorship_in_the_Soviet_Union), she did some research on "officially disapproved" genres of contemporary Black music, as well as on [Abkhazians of African descent](/source/Abkhazians_of_African_descent).[8] In addition to her work on African music and the African diaspora of the Soviet Union, she worked on three Soviet documentaries about the [First World Festival of Negro Arts](/source/First_World_Festival_of_Negro_Arts) in 1966 with camera operator Georgy Serov,[9] and released an autobiography, *My Long Journey Home* (2002).[8]

In 1960, she married Prime Minister of Zanzibar [Abdullah Kassim Hanga](/source/Abdullah_Kassim_Hanga), whom she had met during the [6th World Festival of Youth and Students](/source/6th_World_Festival_of_Youth_and_Students) in 1957; they had a daughter, journalist [Yelena Khanga](/source/Yelena_Khanga), and the couple remained married until Hanga's execution in 1968.[3][5] She later married Boris Yagovlev, a [Vladimir Lenin](/source/Vladimir_Lenin) expert.[10]

In 1987, amidst Mikhail Gorbachev's *[glasnost](/source/Glasnost)* and *[perestroika](/source/Perestroika)* reforms, Golden visited the United States to find relatives at the invitation of [Center for Citizen Initiatives](/source/Center_for_Citizen_Initiatives) founder Sharon Tennison.[10] She moved to the country the next year,[3] and she also had her [birthright to United States citizenship](/source/Birthright_citizenship_in_the_United_States) upheld as the daughter of American parents.[4] After her daughter's appearance on the television program *[20/20](/source/20/20_(American_TV_program))* led to a relative in [Chicago](/source/Chicago) connecting with her, she reunited with more than a hundred of her father's relatives there in 1989.[4] She began working at [Chicago State University](/source/Chicago_State_University) in 1992, becoming a distinguished scholar-in-residence there,[5] as well as a translator of books on Russian history.[4] On 26 September 1992, she met both sides of her family in the United States for the first time as part of a reunion.[4]

Inspired by her multiethnic heritage, she became an advocate for racial equality while living in the United States, and she was known to be a "tower of strength, hope and source of inspiration" for [Afro-Russians](/source/Afro-Russians), especially with the rise of racism after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and for her advancements in Russia's relations with Africa.[3][5] She also was a United Nations representative for such NGOs as the [Center for Citizen Initiatives](/source/Center_for_Citizen_Initiatives) and founded the Golden Foundation of Russian-African Culture.[5]

Golden died on 6 December 2010 following a "long and serious illness".[11] In 2024, Kester Kenn Klomegah said that Golden "has a special place in history of the relations between Russia and Africa" and that her works are "still considered as foundations to multifaceted relations from the Soviet times until today".[5]

## References

1. "Golden, Lily". *Oxford African American Studies Center*. [doi:10.1093/acref/9780195301731.013.38859](https://doi.org/10.1093/acref/9780195301731.013.38859)

1. ["Лили ГОЛДЕН. Резюме."](https://africana.ru/Golden/info/resume.htm) (in Russian). *africana.ru*. [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20241202010543/https://africana.ru/Golden/info/resume.htm) 2 December 2024 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 24 November 2024.

1. Ali, Nassor Said (2009). ["A golden example: the history of Lily Golden, a Russian African-American professor of history, is an inspiration to those fighting against supremacists worldwide"](https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A194269703/GPS?u=wikipedia&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=f21c8578). *New African*. No. 481. Retrieved 24 November 2024. – via Gale General OneFile.

1. Abramowitz, Michael (28 September 1992). ["After 60 Years, Welcome at Last"](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1992/09/28/after-60-years-welcome-at-last/81adb078-1563-4335-838a-dd8b5f98e05f/). *[Washington Post](/source/Washington_Post)*

1. Klomegah, Kester Kenn (25 May 2024). ["Professor Lily Golden: Unforgettable African-Russian Academic and Social Influencer"](https://moderndiplomacy.eu/2024/05/25/professor-lily-golden-unforgettable-african-russian-academic-and-social-influencer/). *Modern Diplomacy*. [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20240621000711/https://moderndiplomacy.eu/2024/05/25/professor-lily-golden-unforgettable-african-russian-academic-and-social-influencer/) 21 June 2024 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 24 November 2024.

1. Golden, Lily. ["Лили ГОЛДЕН. Автобиография."](https://africana.ru/Golden/info/autobiography.htm) (in Russian). *africana.ru*. Retrieved 24 November 2024.

1. ["Елена Ханга – о специфике детско-юношеского тенниса в России и талантливых детях из малообеспеченных семей"](https://www.bolshoisport.ru/articles/elena-hanga-o-spetsifike-detsko-yunosheskogo-tennisa-v-rossii-i-talantlivyh-detyah-iz-maloobespechennyh-semey) [Elena Khanga – about the specifics of youth tennis in Russia and talented children from low-income families]. *Bolshoi Sport*. Vol. 10, no. 76. [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20240623022327/https://www.bolshoisport.ru/articles/elena-hanga-o-spetsifike-detsko-yunosheskogo-tennisa-v-rossii-i-talantlivyh-detyah-iz-maloobespechennyh-semey) 23 June 2024 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 24 November 2024.

1. Peterson, Dale E. (2004). ["Review of My Long Journey Home"](https://www.jstor.org/stable/3648823). *The Slavic and East European Journal*. **48** (4): 664–666. [ISSN 0037-6752](https://www.worldcat.org/issn/0037-6752). [JSTOR 3648823](https://www.jstor.org/stable/3648823). [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20240623022326/https://www.jstor.org/stable/3648823) 23 June 2024 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 24 November 2024.

1. Razlogova, Elena (Spring 2022). ["Paulin Soumanou Vieyra, the Soviet Union, and Cold War Circuits for African Cinema, 1958–1978"](http://dx.doi.org/10.2979/blackcamera.13.2.24). *Black Camera*. **13** (2): 451–473. [doi:10.2979/blackcamera.13.2.24](https://doi.org/10.2979/blackcamera.13.2.24). [ISSN 1947-4237](https://www.worldcat.org/issn/1947-4237)

1. Skipitares, Connie (9 October 1987). ["Soviet wants to hunt her kin in Mississippi"](https://www.newspapers.com/image/632869613/). *The Miami Herald*. pp. 11A. Retrieved 22 June 2024.

1. ["О Лили ГОЛДЕН."](https://africana.ru/Golden/Lily.htm) (in Russian). *africana.ru*. Retrieved 24 November 2024.

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Lily Golden](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lily_Golden) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lily_Golden?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.