Table of contents:
- Seven-grade education and the amazing career of the provincial Furtseva
- Friendship with Khrushchev and the right hand of the first leader
- Demotion to ministers of culture and first suicide attempt
- Personal life on the chopping block of a career and a mysterious death
Video: How a weaver Ekaterina Furtseva became the "mistress of Moscow" and because of which she wanted to commit suicide several times
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
Ekaterina Furtseva held the highest posts in the USSR for many years in a row. An ordinary girl from a working-class village was elevated to the heights of power by luck, courage, chance and sympathy of powerful men. Ekaterina Alekseevna fought her way in a society where the nimble female career was condemned. For several years she was called the mistress of Moscow, later Furtseva conquered the party Central Committee, entering the presidium and secretariat. She forever remained a woman who determined the fate of a huge state. It was thanks to Furtseva that the Soviet Union saw the Mona Lisa and the La Scala performance.
Seven-grade education and the amazing career of the provincial Furtseva
In 1925, a girl from a working-class family, who grew up without a father, completed her seven-year school year. It was necessary to find something for life, and Catherine learned to be a weaver. At fifteen, she was already at the bench. Subsequently, the nickname “weaver,” disrespectful for the Minister of Culture, was stuck with Furtseva for a long time, despite the fact that in Moscow she became the owner of the diploma of a chemical engineer. Furtseva did not stand behind the machine for long.
Her life was changed by the Komsomol. Well-built, grippy and athletic, it was in keeping with the vectors of the era. For 16 months she served as secretary of the Korenevsky district committee of the Komsomol in today's Kursk region, after which she went for a promotion and left the village forever. In 1931, she met love and got married. In the first days of the war, the husband went to the front, and the pregnant Ekaterina was evacuated to Kuibyshev as an instructor of the city party committee. Just before childbirth, Furtseva broke up with her husband, who, as local historians assume, announced a new romance and an unwillingness to return to the family.
Friendship with Khrushchev and the right hand of the first leader
At the end of the 40s, the already experienced nomenklatura Furtseva became close to Khrushchev, quickly becoming his first deputy. In 1950, Ekaterina Alekseevna took the chair of the 2nd secretary of the city committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks in Moscow, and in 1954 - already the first. Now she was called "the mistress of Moscow." According to the stories of the staff of the apparatus, when Furtseva came to work every day, the first thing she did was to go to Khrushchev's office. Of course, for most of the witnesses, this was associated with a banal romance. But one thing was undeniable: personal loyalty to the leader was not subject to even the slightest doubt. During the internal party crisis (June 1957), Furtseva openly spoke in the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU in favor of the de facto deposed Nikita Sergeevich, which played in favor of his victory over the supporters of the Stalin line. She actually saved him from a conspiracy, risking his position and well-being.
Among the basic directions of Furtseva's work was cultural and ideological interaction with young people. An energetic secretary with a fashionable appearance easily won over everyone who had previously refused to listen to old, flabby party members. Furtseva's contemporaries unanimously noted that she always wore a hairstyle of pleasantly styled shining curls. This image was copied by many women, calling the hairstyle "Furtsev for the poor", and Ekaterina herself - Malvina. Ekaterina Alekseevna was distinguished by her beautiful figure. She constantly went in for sports, devoting her youth to gliding, and later giving preference to tennis, swimming and volleyball.
They also say that in any weather Furtseva always wore shoes. “Everything around should be beautiful,” she loved to repeat. The minister was served by the best tailors in the capital. She gave preference to tight fitting suits, not giving up dresses that were bold for the usual image of a Soviet woman. It was under Furtseva that the rise of Soviet tailoring began. Imitating her, Soviet women dressed up in fitted jackets and elegant skirts. It was rumored that Furtseva for the first time in the country decided on plastic surgery. She returned from vacation incredibly refreshed, so few people believed in the healing power of the sea.
Demotion to ministers of culture and first suicide attempt
But already in 1960, Furtseva became the Minister of Culture. This appointment was not growth, but demotion. The new post became a kind of consolation for the removal from a much more respectable position, which Furtseva held for 4 years. The reassignment was the result of a behind-the-scenes struggle in the circles of the Presidium of the Central Committee, during which Ekaterina Alekseevna fell out of favor with Khrushchev. It broke the woman. At home, drinking alcohol, she made an attempt to open her veins. But the suicide was unsuccessful, and her act was later publicly ridiculed in a rude manner by yesterday's patron Nikita Sergeevich. Having steadfastly survived the vicissitudes of the new realities, Furtseva, with her usual grip, took up a new business. In her hands was considerable power.
With one phone call, Furtseva decided the fate of a famous painting and an eminent exhibition. Nikulin came to her to bow, thanks to which "Prisoner of the Caucasus" came out in its original form. Oleg Efremov asked for help, after which the minister personally ordered to give the play "The Bolsheviks" rejected by the censors. It was Furtseva who achieved the partnership between the Bolshoi Theater and La Scala. The troupes were able to carry out mutual tours, and Soviet actors trained with Italian colleagues. The Moscow World Youth Festival in 1957, which brought together tens of thousands of participants from all over the world, was also a personal initiative of Ekaterina Alekseevna. With her submission, the capital's international film festival, which was attended by world stars, reached a serious level. And even the legendary show of "Mona Lisa" in Moscow is the work of Furtseva.
Personal life on the chopping block of a career and a mysterious death
People close to Furtseva did not hide the fact that for the sake of great deeds she sacrificed her personal happiness. And the consequences of this situation affected painfully even towards the end of her life. Having engaged in the construction of her own dacha, Furtseva was caught by well-wishers denouncing her use in the work of subordinate institutions. The case was taken up by the supreme body of the Inquisition - the Party Control Committee. Since personal property was considered anti-party, leaders of different ranks erected dachas in the names of loved ones.
Furtseva, for some reason, neglected her caution, for which she retired after the proceedings. She told her friend that she would die as a minister, no matter what happened. And she kept her word. Simultaneously with the news of the resignation, the second spouse of Furtseva announced that he had met another. And she could not stand it. The official diagnosis sounded like acute heart failure. But rumors persisted in the capital that this time she managed to commit suicide with her own hands.
But in that era a mud tsunami nearly destroyed Soviet Kiev.
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