Marlen Spindler

His parents named him Marlen by creating a portmanteau word from Marx and Lenin.

He grew up all over Central Asia, in Samarkand, Tashkent and Alma-Ata.

[1] As a painter, Spindler refused to paint in the officially endorsed genre of socialist realism.

He was dismissed from his job and sentenced to 15 years in prison and exile.

He eventually gained freedom with the fall of Soviet Communism.