Ludmila Pachepsky

Ludmila Pachepsky passed away peacefully on February 12th 2019 at 5:45 am. She was surrounded by the love and support of her family and close friends in her transition. Ludmila was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer of unknown origin just three months earlier.

Ludmila was passionate, generous, and joyful. She loved to bite into ripe pears and feel the juice drip onto her hands. She loved the ocean’s power and beauty, and had a profound love for nature. She felt deeply, and appreciated art in all its forms - literature, poetry, music, and movies. Most of the time she had a sparkle in her eye because of a joke she was about to tell.

Ludmila was born in a small settlement, Yarega, in the Komi republic in the northern part of European Russia. Her mother Valentina was a geologist who worked at a mine for dense oil. The mine was a part of the Gulag, and Ludmila’s father was a Gulag prisoner. He was sent a thousand miles to Siberia as soon as it became known that Ludmila would be born. Ludmila was raised by her mom, grandma, and granddad in a semi-subsistence household, in an environment where −40 °F in winter was commonplace. The village was a place of exile for prominent members of the intelligentsia: Ludmila’s piano teacher was a former musical director of the best ballet troupe in the country. When Ludmila was a girl, her mom remarried Baudin, a Chechen, who had been sent to the Gulag because of his attempt to help his clan, which had been expelled from his homeland to frozen North Kazakhstan.

In 1959, at 13 years old, Ludmila was sent to Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, where she lived with the families of her new Chechen relatives. After two years, her mother, step-father, and a new step-brother Albert joined her in Grozny. She was sent to the best school of the city, and after a short but difficult period of adaptation, she showed outstanding talents in mathematics and chess. She became the champion of the Chechen Republic in chess, and became a student in the USSR’s most prestigious mathematics department at the Lomonosov Moscow State University.  Tutoring, coaching gymnastics, and working as a seamstress were among her part-time jobs during her student days.

She met her future husband Yakov as a classmate in her first year at university. Ludmila and Yakov married in 1968, just before the last year of university, and were married for over 50 years until Ludmila’s death. Ludmila was a deeply devoted wife, and was proud, protective, and caring of Yakov.

Ludmila was obsessed with applying mathematics in environmental science to understand and mitigate ecological decline. Following a period at graduate school studying gyroscope systems, she found a job in the Institute of Soil Science and Agrochemistry on the outskirts of the Moscow Region, where she spent 20 years working on the most consequential projects. Her work included a forecast of irrigation effects on soil salinity in the Southern Ukraine (awarded a State Prize), an analysis of the effects of water transfer from Siberia to Central Asia, an examination of agroforestry in Central Russia as a powerful drought-mitigating tool, and the first tea plantation model to assess the effects of overexploitation. Perestroika destroyed environmental scientific work in Russia, so Ludmila left the USSR in 1992 to continue research in the US. Working for the USDA, she completed several successful projects including a forecast of coca crop yield in Columbia, and a model of marijuana plant development.

Ludmila retired at 64, and devoted her time to pursuing the arts through essays, poetry, and cinema. She participated in making four films, and two of her films received prizes at a New York Russian film festival. She formed collaborations with Russian authors, and had an active correspondence online with the Russian literary community. She translated poetry and prose to and from English, Russian, and even from French. She enjoyed supporting and encouraging young authors.

Ludmila was a very warm and generous woman. She enjoyed guests, and was a fabulous cook. Ludmila fed and housed many: family, friends, colleagues, and collaborators (both hers and her husband’s). Her house was often filled with people, and with food for people, and presents from people.

Ludmila and Yakov had two daughters: Anna, an accomplished nurse, and Leeza, who is now a psychotherapist. Ludmila was a wonderful mother for her two daughters. She loved them fiercely, and gave them everything she could. By example, she taught them the best human qualities and countless skills. Her grandson Nikita, Anna’s son born in 2000, has a deep connection to her. Among many other gifts, Ludmila left him with a much better command of the Russian language and an excellent sense of humor. She was able to meet her granddaughter Jonsi, Leeza’s daughter, who was born in June 2018.

An incredibly versatile person, Ludmila had a remarkably accomplished life. She has given support and moments of profound happiness to so many people, and will never be forgotten.