Her iron will was evident at every major turning point in her life — and never more so than in her decision in 1976, as a single mother, to move to America with her elderly mother and 6-year-old son in tow. Coming from the Brezhnev-era Soviet Union to the United States, she might as well have been moving to another planet. She didn’t know how to drive or how to act in a job interview. She didn’t even know what french fries were. But she learned fast.
Having taught English to Russians, she switched in the United States to teaching Russian to Americans — first at the University of California at Riverside, then at the University of California at Los Angeles.