Ambiguous Ekaterina Furtseva: Why did the USSR Minister of Culture pass away so early

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Today, the name of Ekaterina Furtseva is known to many, including thanks to the popular TV series dedicated to this extraordinary personality. But what was she really like? Someone considered her to be their friend and many doors really opened before this person. If she treated someone with coolness, she could easily forbid his performances. But what was Ekaterina Furtseva really like, and did she really decide to die?

Weaver from Vyshny Volochek

The life of Ekaterina Furtseva was greatly influenced by her parents. The fear of being abandoned haunted her from the very moment when her father died during the First World War. She was then only four years old, but all her life she was afraid to be left alone.

Mom Matryona Nikolaevna, left a widow with two children in her arms, was able to raise her son and daughter without outside help. She gave her daughter an incredible inner strength and the ability to make fateful decisions on her own. With age, Ekaterina Furtseva learned to hide her fears and complexes, but internally she always remained the same girl who is afraid of loss and loneliness.

After finishing seven classes, Catherine entered a working school, where she received the profession of a weaver, and at the age of 15 she began her career. When she becomes a big official, the contemptuous nickname "weaver" will stick to her forever. Enemies will emphasize her worker-peasant origin and reproach her for her inability to understand fine matters.

Very soon, Ekaterina Furtseva changed her work overalls to a business suit and assumed the post of secretary of the Korenevsky district committee of the Komsomol (Kursk region). From that moment on, her ascent up the career ladder began. She was young, beautiful and perky, full of hope and optimism. And she believed that she could succeed and would definitely become happy.

According to unverified data, at that time Ekaterina Furtseva married a simple guy who worked as a carpenter. However, this family lasted only three years. History has not preserved the name of the chosen one of Ekaterina Furtseva, and she herself never spoke about her first experience of family life.

With the hope of happiness

Her passion for gliding led Ekaterina Furtseva to the Higher Courses of Aeroflot, and her work at the Saratov Aviation College brought her together with Ivan Bitkov. The handsome pilot soon became her husband, but their marriage lasted only until the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. In Moscow, where Ivan Bitkov was transferred from Saratov, she received a higher education, but could not save her family.

The husband left to fight in the very first days of the war and never returned to his wife, and she gave birth to a daughter in 1942. There is no exact information about the reason for the divorce, some sources confidently call Furtseva's betrayal, which put an end to family relations, others are sure that Ivan Bitkov has found another woman for himself.

Whatever it was, but having learned about her pregnancy, Ekaterina Furtseva was even going to get rid of the child. If not for the intervention of the mother, who insisted on the birth of the baby, Ekaterina Furtseva could never have become a mother. Svetlana, the future Minister of Culture, gave birth to in the evacuation in Saratov, but very quickly returned to Moscow. Ivan Bitkov, despite parting with his wife, always maintained a relationship with his daughter.

Ekaterina Furtseva confidently climbed the career ladder. Her mother helped her to raise her daughter, and Furtseva herself had already worked under the supervision of Peter Boguslavsky. Ekaterina Alekseevna had a long-term personal relationship with him, but her lover was married for a long time and was not going to divorce. After the displacement of Boguslavsky, Ekaterina Furtseva took his place, becoming the first secretary of the Frunze district committee.

Successful but unhappy

She quickly mastered the male rules of the game and was not going to concede in anything to the representatives of the stronger sex. Furtseva was incredibly capable of working, was not afraid of responsibility and always kept her word. Ekaterina Alekseevna set clear goals and sought to achieve them at any cost, presenting the same requirements to her subordinates and to herself.

Her party career was developing successfully, she went from the deputy of the Supreme Soviet to the secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU. In 1954, Ekaterina Furtseva became the head of the Moscow City Committee. Because of this appointment, there were rumors about Furtseva's romance with Nikita Khrushchev. In fact, they had no foundation whatsoever. Ekaterina Alekseevna had many admirers, but Nikita Sergeevich was not among them.

In 1956, Furtseva seemed to regain personal happiness and ground under her feet. For her sake, diplomat Nikolai Firyubin left his first family, where two children were growing up. Ekaterina Alekseevna so desperately wanted to be happy and was so afraid of losing her husband that she diligently pleased him. He took full advantage not only of his wife's desire to save the family, but also her influence and connections. However, the presence of a family did not prevent Firyubin from starting a relationship on the side.

The appointment in 1960 to the post of Minister of Culture was, in fact, a step down. For the ambitious Ekaterina Alekseevna, this was unthinkable, but she pulled herself together and began to master a new field of activity. She did not always make correct and unambiguous decisions, tried to strictly follow the "party course" and mercilessly criticized, did not allow, eliminated. At the same time, Furtseva allowed Oleg Efremov to release the play "The Bolsheviks", although the censorship banned its showing. And she constantly spoke about the need for cultural exchange with different countries.

I will die as a minister

It was difficult for her, she tried to fight the impending old age, and with the desire to finally express everything that had accumulated over the years of marriage to her husband, who no longer tried to hide his connections on the side. Ekaterina Furtseva has already managed to bury her mother and is completely exhausted from constant scandals and intrigues. She even tried to commit suicide by cutting her veins. The minister began to feel depressed, she suffered from headaches and a feeling of fear did not allow her to breathe normally.

She did not want to believe the rumors about her upcoming dismissal from office, but she realized that she had too many ill-wishers and envious people. When the dismissal became only a matter of time, she told Lyudmila Zykina, with whom she was friends: whatever it may be, she will die as a minister. On the night of October 25, 1974, she was gone. The day before, she learned about the dismissal from Brezhnev.

The official cause of death is acute heart failure. However, even today it seems that this diagnosis hides a voluntary decision of Ekaterina Furtseva to die. She could not be rejected by everyone at once: her husband was going to leave the family, her career was over, and the role of a pensioner did not suit her at all. Those close to Furtseva were sure that she had committed suicide.

The USSR Minister of Culture, Yekaterina Furtseva, was treated differently. Some were friends with her, others skillfully found an approach to the wayward official. Still others were refused even a telephone conversation. It was in her power to prohibit concerts, refuse to release a record, and not allow them on a foreign business trip. There were also those for whom Ekaterina Furtseva actually broke their lives. What was the reason for the hostile attitude of the Minister of Culture towards the most popular performers of the Soviet stage?