Season 2: Ep16 Meet AlinaZ’s inspiration — her mom, Elena Masarsky, a Russian powerhouse who has overcome political and personal adversity and lights the way for other women to do the same

Today on the Questions Bar: Check out Ep16 of the show where we interview a woman who teaches that inner-knowing, and not taking shit, guides powerful women to live the life of their dreams!

In our podcast and video show sponsored by Inkandescent Women magazine, we invites you in to listen in on a chat with two girlfriends talking about topics of the day that touch their minds, bodies, spirits, souls, and hearts: AlinaZ in Los Angeles and Hope Katz Gibbs in Washington DC.

The mission of the show: To share tools and experiences to manage stress and find hope in our lives each and every day. In Season 1, the hosts engaged in some girlfriend therapy as they discussed issues that were challenging them, and found healthy solutions to transform the pain to joy (see some of the topics below).

In Season 2: Every Friday, Alina and Hope bring inspiring guests onto the show and ask them 3 Big Questions to mine deep into their hearts as they tell the stories of their lives:

• What is one miracle you can share to inspire others to believe in miracles when times are hard?
• How do you love yourself, even when you think you don’t look or feel good?
• If you were in charge of the country, what’s the first thing you would do — and why?

This week: Our guest is a woman the hosts have long been wanting to bring on the show, Alina’s mom — Elena Masarsky, a Russian powerhouse who has overcome political and personal adversity and lights the way for other women to do the same.

About our guest: Born in 1954 in St. Petersburg, Russia, from the age of nine, Elena Masarsky began to question the reality around her — from the Communist Party’s monopoly on power to the lack of human rights and freedom of religion. Her curiosity and bold questions often shocked her teachers and parents.

In 1976, she married, and in 1980 her daughter Alina was born. In 1979, Elena she a Master’s degree in Civil Engineering.

Then, when Mikhail Gorbachev (General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, 1985-1991) allowed private enterprise in 1988, Elena and her first husband opened a small company. They rented a basement, acquired some equipment, hired 15 employees, and started a family sewing business. A year later, they won a competition among nearly 2,000 companies and received a grant from a group of American businessmen. With that support, they renovated an abandoned military base and turned it into a sewing factory employing 350 people.

Thanks to successful marketing strategies, they expanded further — opening several additional sewing factories and other businesses.

Elena returned to college to study business, as private enterprise had been outlawed in Communist Russia and the concept of a free market was entirely new. In 1990, she earned a Master’s degree in Marketing.

By 1995, Vladimir Putin, then Vice Mayor of St. Petersburg, had begun consolidating power. Many citizens expressed nostalgia for a “strong hand” in leadership, and Elena recognized with fear that Russia might return to an authoritarian regime.

Determined to live in freedom, she decided to leave the country. In 1996, she left everything behind and moved to Maryland, near Washington, D.C. At that time, her daughter Alina was studying and living at a boarding school in the area. In 1998, Elena remarried.

The company she had built in Russia was eventually destroyed, leaving her in a difficult financial situation. She found work at Michael’s Arts and Crafts store, earning $6.25 per hour.

During this period, she began painting. By 2000, Elena was making a living as an artist, creating portraits and murals for private homes and businesses.

In 2003, after saving enough money to hire help for her ill mother, she returned to Russia for a visit. There, she discovered that part of her former business had survived but had been stolen. Since she still held shares in the company, she began a legal battle to reclaim them. After three years of intense court proceedings, she succeeded in selling her shares — a remarkable and risky achievement given the rampant corruption in Russia at the time.

What happened next? Don’t miss this powerful interview!

You are invited: Would you like to be on The Questions Bar? Let us know what’s going on in your world!