Elena Alekseevna Karpukhina is a retired rhythmic gymnast who competed for the Soviet Union.
Background
Karpukhina was born in Butyrka prison, in Moscow where her mother Ludmila Bulatova was serving a sentence after being convicted in the late 1940s. She spent the first two years of her childhood living in prison with her mother, who was pardoned in 1953.
Education
Russian State University of Physical Culture, Sport, Youth and Tourism.
Career
Karpukhina took up ballet at nine years of age and started rhythmic gymnastics training in 1962. She was coached by Tamara Vartanova and Maria Lisitzian who also coached other Soviet stars such as Ludmila Savinkova and Tatiana Kravtchenko. In 1972 she graduated from the State Central Order of Lenin Institute of Physical Culture as a rhythmic gymnastics instructor and physical therapist.
In 1976, she became a coach in a number of sports associations of the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics. Since 1995 she began teaching in additional education in the secondary school number 397 in Moscow.
She later ran as a candidate in the Moscow City Duma. The Communist Party submitted her name as a candidate for deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation in 2003.
April 12, 2011 Karpukhina transferred all her medals to the Butyrka museum.
Membership
She became a member of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation in 1998.