 She married another Russian specialist in Arabic culture, Vadim Kirpichenko, who served as a KGB intelligence officer and resident in Tunisia and Egypt, while their son, Sergei Kirpichenko, was another Arabic specialist, this time in the diplomatic service, who had postings to several Middle Eastern countries, including as ambassador to Egypt.Kirpichenko was born on 11 January 1930 in Krasnogvardeysk, now the town of Gatchina, in Leningrad Oblast, part of the Russian SFSR, in the Soviet Union.She enrolled at the Moscow Institute of Oriental Studies, graduating in 1962.