Ganoderma lucidum, a mold, a Soviet book about Lenin’s life

My family has a Soviet past and a russian surname, Kuznetsova, which is actually the most common surname in the world (other versions include Kovalenko and Smith). My professional name, Alena, is russian too, and that upsets me a bit. The name in my passport is even worse – Vladlena, a shortened version of Vladimir Lenin. What a perfect name in this day and age… I was joking recently with an artist friend about decommunisation. Sometimes you have to start with yourself, so we coined the slogan, ‘Decommunise yourself’, which is exactly what I did with my name.