Khakamada was born to a Japanese father , Mutsuo Hakamada , a communist who defected to the Soviet Union in 1939 . Her mother - Nina Sinelnikova , with Russian and Armenian roots , school English teacher who lost her father to the Stalinist purges and her mother to suicide following the family 's forced relocation to Khabarovsk
Stalinist purges
Great Purge
Irina Khakamada