* The stepdaughter of Ekaterina Alekseevna is sure that she had a tendency to suicide from her youth
* The heiress of a loud surname forgave her beloved husband of infidelity
* The son-in-law of the daughter of the Minister of Culture of the USSR was detained with icons at the border
40 years ago, Ekaterina FURTSEVA, the only woman in the top leadership of the USSR, passed away. For the last 13 years of her life, she served as Minister of Culture. Legends and myths still circulate around the name of Ekaterina Alekseevna. Columnist Natalia KORNEEVA, author of the book " Men's games Ekaterina Furtseva. Political melodrama, ”the daughter of Ekaterina Alekseevna Svetlana knew the last six years of her life. This story is about how the heiress of a high-ranking mother lived before and after her death.
Ekaterina Furtseva died on the night of October 25, 1974 under unclear circumstances. She was 63 years old. The night before, the Ministry of Culture, which she headed, received a telegram from the USSR Embassy in the Netherlands with a message about the sudden death of the famous violinist David Oistrakh. Ekaterina Alekseevna recently sent him to speak at talks on easing international tension.
Oistrakh was ill - his attending physician categorically objected to the trip. Furtseva insisted. The chair of the minister was already shaking under her, and she decided to show her will. Perhaps this telegram was the last straw. Furtseva ordered her assistant Tanya to prepare a letter addressed to a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU Alexei Kosygin with a request to be allowed to bury the musician at the Novodevichy cemetery, not suspecting that she herself would be there in three days.
Returning at about ten in the evening from Kosygin, Ekaterina Alekseevna gave Tanya a letter for execution, changed clothes in the rest room and went home, warning her daughter Sveta by phone that she was going to go to bed early.
When Furtseva's husband, diplomat and party leader Nikolai Firyubin, returned from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs late in the evening, he found his wife dead. Svetlana lived separately from her mother and was almost the last to know about her death.
When I was collecting material for the book, I found Margarita, Firyubin's daughter from her first marriage, abroad, and she assured that her stepmother had committed suicide by opening her veins.
Rita, according to her, arrived at the apartment of her father and Furtseva just at the moment when the body of Ekaterina Alekseevna was carried out, covered with a bloody sheet.
Svetlana did not believe in her mother's suicide:
- She could not leave us with Marinka (granddaughter. - N.K.)!
Sveta received a conclusion in her hands that death was due to acute heart failure.
But Margarita Firyubina believed that Furtseva had a tendency to suicide from her youth and that she committed suicide on the third attempt. About the previous one, when she opened her veins, is now known. This happened after Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev removed Furtseva from the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee in 1961. It was the collapse of her dizzying party career. She was miraculously rescued...
The sudden death of the Minister of Culture was officially hushed up. There was a short report in the newspaper, and her name was immediately consigned to oblivion. But rumors circulated in Moscow about Furtseva's suicide.
I met my daughter Svetlana Furtseva in the late 90s, when she returned from Spain, where she had lived for almost ten years. Arriving in Moscow, Svetlana wanted to establish a foundation named after her mother with the aim of reviving culture and helping the actors of the Soviet theater and cinema. She spent evenings in memory of Furtseva, achieved the installation of a memorial plaque on a house near Central Telegraph on Tverskaya, where they once lived.
Now Sveta has settled outside the city, in a house built by the architect Leonid Aranauskas. It was he who designed the dacha in Zhukovka for Ekaterina Alekseevna, who was taken away from her with a scandal.
In those days, party leaders lived in government dachas. Of course, they also built their own, but out of harm's way they recorded them on relatives. When Furtseva was denounced, the Party Control Committee seized her with a stranglehold. As soon as the dacha was confiscated, there were rumors that someone from the Politburo liked this house. Until the end of her days, Svetlana did not leave the thought of returning the property in Zhukovka, but she could not do anything.
Furtseva's daughter told me more than once how she and her mother lived at state facilities. First in the village of Zavety Ilyich, then in Pushkino. But the dacha in the same Zhukovka turned out to be surprisingly chic when Furtseva became the first secretary of the CPSU MGK in 1954. Then she was given the house of Stalin's son, Vasily, whom Khrushchev ordered to arrest after the death of the "father of the peoples".
The gingerbread house, as Svetlana shared with me, she immediately liked. Imported furniture sets were beautiful interior. Crockery - old Saxon services "Blue swords". Sauna, greenhouses, a garage with Vasily's sports foreign car, stables, but no horses. And a cinema. Sveta already saw the film Gone with the Wind, which we all watched only during the years of perestroika.
After the death of her mother, she immediately felt that everything around her was changing.
- The cap flew off my head, - she sighed, - and life stood up in all its reality. Svetlana, according to her, was helped by two things to survive: happy marriage and, most importantly, education in the spirit of Soviet morality, received from Ekaterina Alekseevna. “Don’t move your chair,” her mother reprimanded her, “people live downstairs.”
When Sveta, after graduating from Moscow State University, came to work at the Novosti Press Agency, the daughter of the writer Valentin Kataev, Zhenya, who was friends with her, was surprised that the heiress Furtseva did not have a car.
But what kind of passenger car is there, if a high-ranking mother even forbade Svetlana to wear sunglasses that quickly became fashionable, noting that this was a bad form and a sign of bourgeoisness. And grandmother Matryona, the mother of Ekaterina Alekseevna, a semi-literate village woman, under whose supervision Sveta grew up, acted even cooler. She, for example, could not stand her granddaughter's girlfriends in trousers and scolded them, not embarrassed in expressions. And when the grown-up Sveta began to walk late in the summer at the dacha, Matrena once guarded her and retreated lower back with a clothesline.
However, some of Minister Furtseva's entourage considered these methods of education necessary for Sveta. They called her eccentric and spoiled. But, having entered the circle of her friends, I personally did not notice anything like that.
Of course, Svetlana tried to lead the country lifestyle that she had long been accustomed to. In her large three-level village house, comfort and hospitality reigned. The architect Aranauskas, who was already under 90, often visited Sveta. Surprisingly cute, intelligent, linguist Human. I wondered if he remembered the dacha in Zhukovka, which he designed for Ekaterina Alekseevna. And the architect immediately drew a plan of that house, modest by today's standards.
Sveta, by the way, was very funny pimping. Once it occurred to her that, since Leonid Semenovich is a widower, I could make him a couple. A friend, quite sincerely, was going to arrange my personal life, saying:
- You'll be behind him like a stone wall. He will fix your apartment.
One day I arrive at a dinner party, and a stranger is sitting on the sofa in the living room. While Svetlana was busy in the kitchen, the man got up and introduced himself:
- Count Witte.
And when Sveta again began to advise me not to lose sight of the elderly architect Aranauskas, I had to remark with a smile:
- In my opinion, the count suits me better.
“Fool,” Svetlana interrupted me. - With your devastation, you need not a count, but an architect!
Leonid Semenovich sometimes drove me home from Svetlana in his thirty-year-old Zhiguli. With all the intelligence and respectable age behind the wheel, Aranauskas turned into Schumacher. So drove along the Rublevsky Hills that I was dying of fear: the car was shaking.
Once I asked:
- Leonid Semenovich, why don't you buy a new car?
- What for? - He answered phlegmatically. - This one goes.
Svetlana was an excellent cook, but if funds allowed, she kept a housekeeper. A lot of things from Ekaterina Alekseevna remained in the house: furniture, paintings, vases, books, a white piano - and this created the feeling that Furtseva Sr. was here. Especially when Sveta and I sat at dusk in the fireplace room and talked about her.
She was tormented by guilt. Svetlana did not get along all her life with her stepfather, her mother's second husband, Firyubin, but one day she confessed to me:
- But Nikolai Pavlovich was a good person. I ruined my mom's life.
Svetalana often remembered her late husband. It was a love marriage, although Igor Kochnov, by her own admission, was not faithful to her. Nevertheless, Svetlana spoke only good things about him and missed him very much. Igor died of a heart attack in 1988.
The first husband of Svetlana was the son of a member of the Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU Frol Kozlov - Oleg. She jumped out for him at the age of 17, because she dreamed of independence. After all, when her mother was at the top of the party and they lived on Granovsky Street, they were served by servants from the 9th KGB Directorate. In addition to the control of the special services, my mother's and grandmother's hedgehogs were very burdensome. But I wanted freedom.
Once Svetlana fell in love with a foreigner during a business trip abroad with her mother. But she ended the relationship in the bud. Then Svetlana decided to slip away in marriage at the first opportunity. However, she miscalculated and again fell behind a high fence into the mansion of a party leader, where there was exactly the same control.
Her father-in-law, Frol Kozlov, was burdened by his relationship with Furtseva. As Olga, the sister of Svetlana's first husband, told me, my father did not even go to meet the young people from the registry office. But two weeks later, he nevertheless threw a wedding banquet for them at his state dacha. The celebration was attended by Mikoyan, Khrushchev, and Brezhnev was even a toastmaster.
In this marriage, a daughter, Marina, was born, but this did not save her from divorce. Svetlana met home love of his life - that same Igor Kochnov. He even adopted a baby. And Oleg Kozlov died young: they say he drank.
The fund established by Svetlana lay on its side. Sveta lacked organizational skills, but she did not quit what she started. She wanted to leave the business to her girls.
Marina grew up, also became a mother - she gave birth to Katya. When the little girl turned three, a large family headed by Svetlana decided to go abroad. First to Germany, then to Spain. It was the idea of Marina's husband, a dentist. Sveta sold her apartment, rented out the house, and together with her daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter went to new life. But there was an unpleasant incident at the border. At the dentist, when examining luggage, they found icons. Svetlana had to raise all her connections in order to save her son-in-law from arrest. Perhaps this shock gave impetus terrible disease, which soon overtook my friend ...
The most senior woman in the USSR committed suicide out of desperation?
Ekaterina Furtseva, exactly 100 years old since her birth, is the only woman who has held the highest positions in our state. What brought the girl from Vyshny Volochok to the pinnacle of power? Outstanding personal qualities, chance, luck, sympathy of leaders for beautiful woman? Ekaterina Alekseevna had to make her way in a society that did not encourage fast-moving women's careers. Furtseva is an exception.
She was the mistress of Moscow for several years, then took a place on the party Olympus - she became a member of the presidium and secretariat of the CPSU Central Committee. At a turning point in the history of our country, she belonged to those few who determined the fate of our state.
On October 24, 1974, she suddenly passed away. Furtseva did not complain about her health, and death seemed unexpected and inexplicably early. She was a month short of sixty-four. In Moscow, they started talking about the fact that the Minister of Culture voluntarily passed away. In the family, the version of suicide was flatly rejected. However, the family was not very trusted. Because once Ekaterina Alekseevna has already opened her veins. This cheerful, major woman with a bright temperament and a strong character could not bear one thing - when she was rejected, both in her personal life and in her political life.
But why did she try to kill herself? What sad secret was making her unhappy? Leonid Mlechin devoted his new book to the dramatic fate of Furtseva, which is published by the Young Guard publishing house in the ZhZL series.
Ekaterina Alekseevna Furtseva (1910-1974), Minister of Culture of the USSR.
WEAVING CAREER
Ekaterina Alekseevna Furtseva was born in the city of Vyshny Volochok, Tver province. Her father, Alexei Gavrilovich, a metal worker, was drafted into royal army, as soon as the world war began, and died in the first battles. The loss of a father is a trauma that left an imprint on Ekaterina Alekseevna's entire future life. She was afraid of being abandoned, rejected, abandoned. Ekaterina Furtseva was highly dependent on relatives, friends, girlfriends and beloved men; she was always afraid to be alone.
Mother, Matrena Nikolaevna, never remarried. She raised her son and daughter alone. She was illiterate, but in Vyshny Volochek she enjoyed authority. Ekaterina Alekseevna inherited from her mother the character, the ability to make decisions independently, inner strength. And yet, a carefully hidden sense of helplessness remained in her forever.
In 1925 she graduated from the seven-year school and entered the school of factory apprenticeship, learned to be a weaver. At the age of fifteen, she began to work on the machine. She was given the nickname “weaver”, offensive for the future minister of culture. Ekaterina Alekseevna will always be remembered for working at the machine - and arrogantly contemptuously, although the need to start working early does not cause anything but respect and sympathy. Ekaterina Furtseva did not stand behind the machine for long. Komsomol changed her life.
Well-developed, athletic, Ekaterina Furtseva met the expectations of the era. True, the twenties and thirties were the time of puritanism. Sexuality is not a topic for discussion.
And she is unable to hide her femininity, the desire to love and be loved. So she will be torn between the desire not to yield to the stronger sex in anything and the unconscious desire to meet a real man, next to whom she will feel calm and secure.
For sixteen months she worked as secretary of the Korenevsky district committee of the Komsomol in the current Kursk region, then she accepted a new appointment and never returned to the village. Local historians claim that they have revealed the biggest secret of her personal life: on August 25, 1931, the Korenevsky village council registered her marriage with a local carpenter. But after three months the marriage broke up. Local historians hide the name of Furtseva's first husband.
PLUS PERSONAL HAPPINESS
In 1931, a promising worker was transferred to Feodosia as secretary of the Komsomol city committee. In Koktebel, she became interested in gliding and made sure that the regional committee of the party recommended her to the Aeroflot Higher Academic Courses. After the courses, Furtseva was sent to Saratov as an assistant to the head of the political department of the aviation technical school for the Komsomol.
But here her first great love came to her. She fell in love with the pilot Pyotr Ivanovich Bitkov, who served in Saratov. In the thirties, pilots, surrounded by a romantic halo, enjoyed particular success with women. Flight instructor Petr Bitkov, they say, was a prominent, interesting man. Ekaterina Alekseevna instinctively looked for a person who would serve as protection and support, capable of giving what she was deprived of in childhood and adolescence.
In 1936, Petr Bitkov was transferred to the political department civil aviation, and the young family moved to Moscow. Furtseva was taken to the Central Committee of the Komsomol as an instructor in the student youth department, although she herself did not have a higher education and did not know student life. And in the thirty-seventh, they were sent to study at the Institute of Fine chemical technology named after Lomonosov. Ekaterina Alekseevna did not study well, because she immediately went along the social line. She was elected secretary of the institute's party committee. The chemical engineer Furtseva received a diploma of higher education in the forty-first year, on the eve of the war. She did not manage to work in her specialty.
The beginning of the Great Patriotic War for Furtseva turned out to be doubly tragic. Her husband went to the front in the very first days of the war. But he also left the family. They no longer lived together, although it was during the war that they had a long-awaited child.
Ekaterina Alekseevna dreamed of children, and became pregnant only in the thirty-second year, after eleven years of marriage. Like so much in Furtseva's life, the circumstances surrounding the birth of her daughter were overgrown with rumors and myths. It was rumored that it was not the husband who was the father of the child at all, which is why the offended Peter Bitkov left the family ...
They also say something else. Peter Ivanovich, as happened with many young men who went into the army, cut off from their wives for a long time, met another woman at the front, fell in love. He was reciprocated. And he started new family. This is more like the truth, because Peter Ivanovich did not refuse his daughter, on the contrary, he retained paternal feelings for Svetlana until the end of his life.
THE MOST DIFFICULT YEARS
The collapse of the first marriage left a heavy scar. Furtseva will never be able to forget this. The young woman, fearing loneliness and uncertainty, was ready to get rid of the child. But her mother supported her: “We have been waiting for so many years. What, we won’t raise one child?” Leaving a child during those first war months, the most difficult and dangerous for Muscovites, was not an easy and courageous decision.
Pregnant Furtseva was evacuated to Kuibyshev (Samara), where the main people's commissariats and foreign embassies were located. The birth was successful. Ekaterina Alekseevna gave the girl her last name. They did not stay long in Kuibyshev. Unlike many other Muscovites who were not allowed to return to the city until the end of the war, Furtseva, a party worker, was expected in Moscow.
The forty-second year was memorable for Ekaterina Alekseevna in all respects. She had a daughter, Svetlana, and she was offered new job. The growing young worker was noticed by the first secretary of the Frunze District Party Committee, Pyotr Vladimirovich Boguslavsky, and took him into his office. Thus began a successful party career Furtseva, which will lead her to the pinnacle of power.
Perhaps a successfully launched party career helped to cope with a personal drama. Furtseva developed a special relationship with the first secretary of the district committee, Boguslavsky. They say that he appreciated not only her business, but also feminine virtues. Young Furtseva was very good - bright, slender, with a stormy temperament. It is difficult to discuss what happened between Peter Vladimirovich and Ekaterina Alekseevna. This is not a story that is shared even with close people.
Office romances are like one another like two drops of water. General work brought together and enjoyed. But such a romance can hardly suit a woman. Years go by, and he is not going to leave his wife. A man is happy to have both a wife and a mistress. And women do not want to remain in this role forever. They need a real family. So, as a rule, office romances end as soon as a man and a woman stop working together ...
1961 Gagarin and Furtseva at a reception at the Ministry of Culture on the occasion of the 2nd Moscow International Film Festival with its guests - Italian actresses Gina Lollobrigida (left) and Marisa Merlini (second from right). Photo: RIA-news
FIRST SECRETARY
Ekaterina Alekseevna Furtseva quickly learned the basic rules for achieving success in the party apparatus and advanced to the first roles. She replaced Boguslavsky as first secretary of the district committee. To prove her right to be the mistress of the district, she had to learn many of the habits and mannerisms of male leaders. She learned not to be shy in the men's team, not embarrassed by jokes known property, could decently drink and, if necessary, send to mother.
At the same time, she did not forget that an attractive woman also has other means of influencing the male team. Organized, demanding, collected and efficient, Furtseva invariably fulfilled the promise. She was valued as a master of mass events. Whether it was about clearing the district apparatus of immigrants from the Northern capital in the midst of the gloomy "Leningrad case", or about propagandistic support for the equally shameful "doctors' case", Ekaterina Alekseevna invariably outstripped her fellow secretaries.
For example, she “demanded the institutions located in the region to fulfill socialist obligations by certain dates: by May 1, to invent a vaccine and completely eradicate cancer, by November 7 to release an effective drug against tuberculosis. Studying childhood measles? Work so that by the next bureau of the district committee there will be no measles ... ”
In the party leadership of those years, everyone was dogmatic. But Ekaterina Furtseva was sorely lacking common culture and education, so her speeches on ideological topics made a particularly gloomy impression.
From July 28 to August 11, 1957, under the slogan “For Peace and Friendship”, the World Festival of Youth and Students was held in Moscow, which became a huge event. There has never been such a wide and almost uncontrolled communication with foreigners. The various bosses, accustomed to living behind the Iron Curtain, were themselves frightened and frightened others.
On the eve of the festival, Ekaterina Furtseva warned Moscow officials:
- There are rumors that they will bring infectious diseases. So they started vaccinating. But there have already been four cases of some kind of injections made in stores, when a girl was standing in line for groceries, a man comes up, makes an injection in her hand ... The victims are in the hospital, their condition is good. This is done by enemies to create panic instead of triumph...
Furtseva's career was helped by major changes in the Moscow leadership, when Stalin returned Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev to Moscow and put him at the head of the capital. Among the secretaries of the city committee, he needed one woman. Nikita Sergeevich chose the energetic and businesslike Furtseva.
In the party apparatus, women were promoted with difficulty. It was believed that only strong men could cope with leadership work. At the plenum of the Central Committee on March 18, 1946, Stalin said: "The People's Commissar must be a beast." Putting Nikolai Konstantinovich Baibakov in charge of the oil industry, he asked him a question:
- What properties should a Soviet people's commissar have?
Baibakov began to list. The leader stopped him:
- The Soviet people's commissar needs, first of all, bullish nerves plus optimism.
Bullish nerves Ekaterina Alekseevna Furtseva was clearly lacking. She was too emotional person.
THE MISTRESS OF THE CITY
A little over a year after Stalin's death, on May 26, 1954, Ekaterina Furtseva was approved as the first secretary of the city party committee. No woman before her had led such a large party organization. Ekaterina Alekseevna became the rightful mistress of a huge city.
There was nothing personal about Khrushchev towards Furtseva, no matter what they said then. The bed rarely played a decisive role in career growth women, perhaps because the party apparatus, as if on purpose, selected ladies who were not very attractive. Ekaterina Alekseevna was an exception in this sense.
“First of all, we saw in her a woman,” Valery Kharazov told me, at that time the secretary of the Stalin District Party Committee of Moscow, “tidy, looking after herself, amazingly dressed. Ekaterina Alekseevna made a strong impression on us, we admired her.
But unlike Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev, Khrushchev remained faithful to his wife and established exclusively business relations with persons of the opposite sex. By the way, he did no condescension to anyone and asked women the same way as men.
WEDDING WITH DOWRY
Service success was supplemented by finally found personal happiness. When Ekaterina Alekseevna worked in the Moscow party apparatus, she fell in love with a colleague secretary, Nikolai Pavlovich Firyubin. He was only two years older than her. He was considered capricious and spoiled by female attention.
Roman Furtseva and Firyubin was the subject of gossip in Moscow. In those days, divorce was not encouraged. A woman should play one role - a selfless wife and mother. Love is a negative concept. Nikolai Pavlovich Firyubin was in no hurry to break with his former life, to leave his family. Ekaterina Alekseevna was worried, although most of all she tried not to show her weakness. In the house, her message that she was marrying Nikolai Firyubin was met, to put it mildly, without enthusiasm. His mother-in-law and stepdaughter immediately disliked him. Of course it was jealousy. Neither Matrena Nikolaevna nor Svetlana wanted to share Ekaterina Alekseevna with anyone.
As soon as Ekaterina Alekseevna and Nikolai Pavlovich began to live together, big politics intervened, interfering with their happiness. In the first days of May 1953, Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov, newly appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs, asked that party workers be sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. So the future chairman of the KGB, Yuri Andropov, and Nikolai Firyubin, Furtseva's husband, became diplomats.
In January 1954 he was made ambassador to Czechoslovakia. The ambassador is always accompanied by his wife. She, among other things, plays an important role in the work of the mission, helps the ambassador in organizing receptions, and builds relationships with diplomats from other countries. But Ekaterina Alekseevna did not want to sacrifice her career and be satisfied with the role of a wife. She did not go with her husband to Prague. Given the special situation, the Central Committee allowed Firyubin to live alone, which was not allowed to other diplomats.
For marriage, a long separation is not good. Furtseva was worried, did not want to let her husband go for a long time. But it was impossible to refuse the embassy appointment. Of course, Nikolai Pavlovich would have preferred to see his wife nearby. But being married to Furtseva herself also flattered his pride. Ekaterina Alekseevna could definitely be called the first lady of the country, since the wives of state leaders remained in the shadows.
At the same time, in relations with his wife, Firyubin was confident or, as people in the know say, self-confidently. This is a characteristic of powerful and self-appreciating men, the desire to be the master in the family. He is used to his wife pleasing him. She valued her husband very much and wanted to keep a good relationship. It seemed to her that making him happy was her goal. The world was not nice when her husband sulked at her.
Memorial plaque on house number 19 on Tverskaya Street in Moscow, where Ekaterina Furtseva lived.
MATRIARCHY, PATRIARCHY AND SECRETARIAT
The 20th Party Congress played a special role in the life of our country. For Ekaterina Furtseva, the congress turned out to be doubly important - she was elevated to the top political power. Khrushchev made her secretary of the Central Committee and included her in the list of candidates for members of the presidium. V Soviet times The importance of the secretariat of the Central Committee did not need to be explained to anyone. Once Stalin joked in a narrow circle:
- History is divided into three periods - matriarchy, patriarchy and secretariat ...
V practical life no appointment of any importance was made apart from the secretariat of the Central Committee. Not a single ministry or department in the country could do anything without the prior consent of the secretariat of the Central Committee. The appearance of a woman in the top leadership of the country was an event. But not everyone liked the election of Ekaterina Alekseevna. It was a reflection of the era of male chauvinism ...
Nikita Sergeevich considered Furtseva his man and promoted. On June 29, 1957, he made Furtseva a full member of the Presidium of the Central Committee. It was a high-profile appointment. The next time a woman will join the Politburo is already under Gorbachev.
Khrushchev gave her a gift - he returned her husband to Ekaterina Alekseevna: Nikolai Firyubin was appointed Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. Now nothing prevented Nikolai Pavlovich and Ekaterina Alekseevna from living together. At the 20th Congress, Nikolai Pavlovich Firyubin was elected a candidate member of the Central Committee of the CPSU. So she and Furtseva were the only married couple who attended the plenums of the Central Committee. Of course, Firyubin did not really like that his wife occupied a higher position. For a Soviet family, this was not typical.
CUT VEINS
Only three years Furtseva was at the pinnacle of power. On May 4, 1960, Nikita Sergeevich unexpectedly ordered the dismissal of several people from the post of Secretary of the Central Committee at once, including Ekaterina Alekseevna. She was appointed Minister of Culture. What was the reason for the mass purge of the top echelon of the party leadership? Why did Khrushchev disperse his closest aides in one day? He himself selected and nominated them ...
It is believed that the Chekists recorded the free conversations of several secretaries of the Central Committee, which they had in their rest rooms, drinking tea or stronger drinks. They did not say anything seditious, they only allowed themselves to critically evaluate the behavior of Nikita Sergeevich. There is another explanation. Khrushchev was an enthusiastic person. He could lift the employee he liked to a dizzying height, but, disappointed, with the same ease parted with a recent favorite and promoted a new one.
For more than a year, Furtseva remained a member of the Presidium of the Central Committee, the highest authority in the country. But at the XXII Congress, she was not included in the Presidium of the Central Committee. This was a terrible blow for her. Furtseva and Firyubin did not come to the evening session of the congress. Ekaterina Alekseevna tried to die.
“Having drunk heavily with grief,” writes Sergey Khrushchev, “and Ekaterina Alekseevna abused alcohol, she tried to open her veins. But the hand trembled, and the suicide failed. Perhaps she was not going to part with her life, but simply, as a woman, she tried in this way to attract attention to herself, to arouse sympathy, but her act had the opposite effect.
Yes, there were few ready and able to sympathize ...
Ekaterina Alekseevna painfully perceived the loss of the attributes of her former life. But most of all she was worried, thinking about how people around her rejoice at her fall and gloat ... As for morals in the political elite, she was not mistaken.
What makes major politicians like Furtseva commit suicide? Somehow, all this does not fit with the appearance of these people, resolute, tough, capable of overcoming any obstacles. As a rule, such people are able to withstand any stress. But there are other factors at work as well. It is unlikely that we are able to understand what was the last straw for each of them.
BETWEEN HAMMER AND ANVIL
Furtseva was almost the only person in the country's leadership who was sincerely interested in cultural exchange with other states, in having our masters go on tour abroad, and in Soviet Union foreign singers, musicians, artists came, brought exhibitions from the best world museums.
Foreign tours were extremely beneficial to the state, outstanding masters, after returning home, handed over large sums in foreign currency to the treasury. Therefore, the Ministry of Culture, at least for departmental reasons, was a supporter of the tour. And the party apparatus and the state security system believed that it was better not to let anyone out anywhere. Worthy to go to other countries considered only themselves.
Ekaterina Alekseevna Furtseva discovered the world with pleasure. Even for the secretary of the Central Committee, the trip was rare. The Minister of Culture, on the other hand, had to travel the world due to her direct duties. Abroad, a woman minister invariably aroused great interest.
In the hands of the Minister of Culture was considerable power. But every decision was fraught with a threat to a career. The ideological situation in the country, the atmosphere of prohibitions practically put an end to everything that seemed like a dangerous deviation from the general line. The system was such that it was in Furtseva’s interests to ban, not allow, because a director or artist would get praise for a successful performance. And for the "mistakes" to answer her.
There were many who wanted to ban it, but no one wanted to take responsibility and allow it. Sometimes she went against censorship, took responsibility for herself. But more often she had to - or wanted to - prevent the appearance on the stage of what was considered unlawful. And not much was allowed.
But Ekaterina Alekseevna was not a big face. In addition to party attitudes, she was often guided by personal likes and dislikes. On the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the October Revolution, the chief director of the Sovremennik Theater, Oleg Nikolayevich Yefremov, staged Mikhail Filippovich Shatrov's play Bolsheviks. The censor banned it. The Minister of Culture allowed the performance.
Six months - an unprecedented deal! The play was performed without the permission of the censors. There is not a single empty seat in the auditorium of Sovremennik. Furtseva was not afraid and did not retreat. The play was allowed.
Furtseva and Sophia Loren.
WHAT IS IT LIKE TO BE A GRANDMA'S HUSBAND?
How did all this happen? Why was there talk that Ekaterina Alekseevna Furtseva was being removed from the post of minister, what awaited her bleak retirement life - and, perhaps, even a lonely retirement life, since not only her political career was collapsing, but also her relationship with her husband?
Neither by age nor by mood, she was not going to leave at all. Probably, I could not even imagine myself in retirement. But it looks like her ministerial days were numbered. And she did not have to rely on the mercy of her party comrades. There are no real human relations in the political world, there is a merciless struggle for power or for the illusion of power.
It is said that she herself could be cruel and merciless. I got used to the role of the arbiter of fate and to power over people. It is strange that she was not dubbed the "Iron Lady". Although this concept itself was born later, after Furtseva's departure from life. Yes, she was not iron! She was perhaps too sensitive.
Already not at a young age, Ekaterina Alekseevna continued to excite the male imagination. There was an undoubted erotic motive in the desire to serve the minister. Society admired her strength, but yearned to see traces of carefully hidden female weakness.
Ekaterina Furtseva was friends with Lyudmila Zykina. They assured that at the dacha of the singer the minister drank heavily. At the table, when they asked what to pour for her, Ekaterina Alekseevna answered the same way:
- I'm always with men, I drink vodka.
In 1972, her mother, Matrena Nikolaevna, died. For Ekaterina Alekseevna it was a blow. She depended on her mother, needed her constant approval. They say that girls marry their fathers, that is, they instinctively look for a man with familiar character traits. Furtseva, perhaps, married her mother! Her mother forced her to live at a frantic pace: do not allow yourself to rest and relax, move from good to better. The relationship with her husband was the same. She needed his affection. I understood with my mind that I was not able to please him in everything, but I tried. It turned out that the only way to make him be gentle was to guess and fulfill all his desires ...
Her friends knew that her heart was restless. She said that no one understands her, that she is lonely and no one needs her. It must be understood that she meant her husband. How true are these accusations? Nikolai Pavlovich himself did not talk about his relationship with Ekaterina Alekseevna. At least in public. He died before journalists had the opportunity to ask personal questions.
LONELINESS OF A WOUNDED SOUL
Furtseva took up construction own dacha and asked for help from “subordinate institutions”. Those wishing to assist the Minister with building materials and labor force turned out to be many. At the same time, one of the insiders wrote a denunciation: Furtseva, violating state discipline and party ethics, acquired at preferential prices Construction Materials at the Bolshoi Theatre.
The case was examined by the highest inquisition - the Party Control Committee under the Central Committee of the CPSU, which was led by the former head of Soviet Latvia, a member of the Politburo, Arvid Yanovich Pelshe. Personal property was considered an anti-Party affair. Therefore, the leaders of the country circumvented this ban and built dachas in the name of relatives and friends. Furtseva acted imprudently, writing down the cottage in her name.
Ekaterina Alekseevna admitted that she allowed blunder, handed over the cottage. She was returned twenty-five thousand rubles. She put them on a book and wrote a will in favor of her daughter. But they decided to retire her anyway. And she said to her friend:
“No matter what happens, no matter what they say about me, I will die a minister.
And so it happened...
Now it’s impossible to find out what exactly happened on the late evening of October 24, when Furtseva returned home. She and Firyubin lived on Alexei Tolstoy Street. They say that it was on that day that it became known that a pension awaited her, and Nikolai Pavlovich met another woman. Ekaterina Alekseevna could not stand the double blow. The dreary life of a pensioner abandoned by her husband was not for her ...
Probably, many times she mentally wondered if she could live without a job and without a husband? Emotionally, she was completely dependent on her position in society, on how others looked at her. And, of course, from my husband! Loneliness seemed the most terrible. She could not even think of breaking up with him and starting over with another person.
It is not so easy to find peace for a wounded soul. How to return from the depths of misfortune to normal life? This is a mystical journey. Feelings and fears experienced in childhood remain forever and return again and again, especially when we are unable to cope with our problems. She probably understood that the loss of her father was all a long time ago, but some part of the brain still perceives the world as if she was still a little girl left without a dad. The fear of being abandoned made it impossible for her to see things realistically.
After midnight, Nikolai Pavlovich Firyubin called Svetlana:
- Mom is no more.
When the daughter and her husband arrived, the resuscitation team was still in the apartment. The doctor tried to calm Svetlana:
“Even if it happened in the hospital, the doctors would not be able to help.
The diagnosis is acute heart failure. But in Moscow there was talk that she again decided to commit suicide. And this time the attempt was successful.
Her first husband, Pyotr Ivanovich Bitkov, told his daughter at the funeral that he loved only Ekaterina Alekseevna all his life. He briefly survived Furtseva. Nikolai Pavlovich Firyubin went to Cleopatra Gogoleva, the widow of Alexander Vasilyevich Gogolev, the late secretary of the Moscow regional party committee. They lived in neighboring dachas. Cleopatra Gogoleva, whom her acquaintances called Claire, was much younger than Furtseva.
Over the years, Ekaterina Alekseevna Furtseva is being talked about better and better. The bad is forgotten. There are memories of a living and sincere person.
Having climbed to the top of the political Olympus with great difficulty, the Minister of Culture of the USSR Ekaterina Furtseva preferred not to remember what was left at its foot. But three decades after her death, the archives of the village of Korenevo revealed one of the secrets of a powerful woman. And the official biography of "Catherine III" has changed.
The first marriage lasted three months
Even the authors of the most famous books about Furtseva claim that the first lady of the USSR got married twice. And both times failed. The woman, on whose decisions the life of the country largely depended, was unable to change her own destiny. The first husband, pilot Peter Bitkov, left the family immediately after the birth of his daughter. "I'm tired of living with your job!" he said to Furtseva before slamming the door. The second husband, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Nikolai Firyubin, according to the recollections of relatives, in last years joint life did not miss the opportunity to humiliate his wife. And a month after Furtseva's death, he married another. There were also rumors about the special relationship of the first lady of the USSR with Khrushchev.
It is not surprising that among the representatives of the party elite, biographers did not notice the Korenev carpenter - Furtseva's first husband. However, so that no one would know about him, Ekaterina Alekseevna herself tried a lot. However, it was not possible to delete it from the archives.
“A year after starting work in Korenevo, Furtseva got married. The marriage was registered on August 25, 1931 in our village council,” says Korenev local historian Valentin PISARYUK. “True, they did not live long - only 3 months. Furtseva left for Moscow, and from there to Crimea. Then she said that her first husband was Bitkov. She didn’t even like to remember her work in Korenevo, so that the fact of an unsuccessful marriage would not accidentally surface.
If Ekaterina Furtseva chose to forget about the Kursk outback and the mistakes of her youth, then the inhabitants of Korenevo, on the contrary, carefully store documents associated with the name of an influential woman. In 2006, by decision of the head of the administration, the regional house of culture was named after Furtseva. It was in this building, the former regional committee of the Komsomol, that the future member of the Politburo took her first steps up the career ladder. And it was in Korenevo that Furtseva joined the party.
The rural archive stores many documents reflecting the activities of the proactive first secretary of the regional committee of the Komsomol: "On the convocation of a meeting of collective farm youth", "On the mobilization of forces for logging" ... Ten years later, she will have to deal with issues of a different scale, and her subordinates will be world-famous cultural figures . Most of them will remember Furtseva with gratitude. Even though she did not cut through a "window to Europe" for the creative intelligentsia, she nevertheless opened the "window" a little. Weeks of Italian and French cinema, exhibitions of French impressionists opened in Moscow. A new building of the ballet school, a new Moscow Art Theater, a children's musical theater under the direction of Natalia Sats, the Obraztsov Theater and Sovremennik were built.
Iosif Kobzon is going to Korenevo
On December 7, 2006, the memorial hall of Ekaterina Furtseva was solemnly opened in Moscow. Yuri Luzhkov gave her name to one of the libraries in the capital. The Korenev delegation was also invited to the celebration. Valentin Pisyaryuk, whose speech was stormily applauded by Iosif Kobzon, handed over to his granddaughter Furtseva a photo of her famous grandmother at the district congress of collective farmers, spoke about the opening of a memorial plaque at farmhouse culture. Upon learning that the institution was named after the Minister of the USSR, Iosif Kobzon promised its leaders the support of the state and the Ekaterina Furtseva Foundation. And he even expressed a desire to come to Korenevo personally.
The guests also visited the Novodevichy Cemetery, where the ashes of the one who was once known as "the woman on the Mausoleum" are buried. “On the marble slab there is only the name and years of life,” says Vasily Pisaruk. “It seems that someone deliberately made such an inconspicuous tombstone so that people would not think about who she was during her lifetime, or about her death.”
The death of Ekaterina Furtseva really raised many questions. The official reason is heart failure. However, many believe that the Minister of Culture passed away on her own, without waiting for her to "leave" her high post. "Whatever it is, no matter what they say about me, I will die a minister!" - said " Catherine III"Shortly before her death. And so it happened. Furtseva died at the end of October 1974, a month before her sixty-fourth birthday.
Today Ekaterina Furtseva they like to present themselves as liberals: they say, it was she who allowed the opening of the new Sovremennik theater in Moscow, broke through the international Tchaikovsky competition and built a circus on Vernadsky Avenue. I do not argue: Furtseva did something useful for culture. But there were many more restrictions. This woman first of all loved power, and secondly - imposing men. Everything else was for her in the background. For the sake of power, she constantly went to a series of betrayals, including her beloved men. And it was the culture that suffered from this.
Ekaterina Alekseevna Furtseva was born in 1910 in the Tver province in Vyshny Volochek. At the age of eighteen, she got behind the loom. But the prospect of spending her whole life in weavers did not suit her. Another thing is the Komsomol, endless meetings, primitive agitation. It seems not dusty, but honorable.
In 1933, Furtseva entered the Moscow Institute of Fine Chemical Technology. But, apparently, she needed the institute not to broaden her horizons, but solely because of the crust. She wasn't going to be a technologist. The former weaver already linked her future only with the Komsomol and the party. It is no coincidence that already in 1942 she was elected secretary of the Frunze District Party Committee.
It is worth noting that Furtseva sacrificed her personal life for the sake of her career. She had a wonderful first husband - a pilot Petr Bitkov(from him she gave birth to a daughter, Svetlana, in 1942). Bitkov loved her madly. He so wanted family comfort. But it turned out that he married not a beautiful woman, but a careerist, for whom growth along the party line turned out to be above all. It is no coincidence that Bitkov then found another girlfriend.
After the war, Furtseva was patronized by the First Secretary of the Frunze District Party Committee Peter Boguslavsky th. At some point, the two secretaries were inflamed with feelings for each other. They began an office romance. However, in the authorities, when they heard about the hazing, let’s say, relationship between Furtseva and Boguslavsky, they demanded to break up the sweet couple. But Furtseva did not want to go into the shadows. She stepped over her patron and lover, and in 1947 she ensured that, instead of Boguslavsky, the district committee was entrusted to her.
By the way, later the situation was somewhat repeated, but already in the city committee of the party and with another secretary. To clarify: Furtseva was transferred to the city committee in 1950. There her attention was attracted Firyubin who had his own family. Furtseva did not have to twist new novel. When it became impossible to hide the relationship of the two secretaries, Khrushchev first he ordered Firyubin to be removed to the Moscow City Council, and then he gave the command to send him as ambassador to Czechoslovakia, and on the contrary, he promoted Furtseva and approved him as the first secretary of the Moscow city committee of the CPSU.
In the photo in the center - Ekaterina FURTSEVA and Nikita Khrushchev
In 1956, Furtseva also became the secretary of the CPSU Central Committee and a candidate member of the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee. At first, without a husband (Firyubin was acting ambassador to Yugoslavia at that time), she began to show feminine attention to the USSR Foreign Minister Dmitry Shepilov. Soon, the two party comrades also had common interests. Both of them were dissatisfied with Khrushchev's voluntarism. Furtseva agreed with Shepilov throughout the spring of 1957. But already in June 1957, fortune betrayed Shepilov, and Furtseva was the first to renounce her colleague, stigmatizing him. For this, Khrushchev on June 29 transferred her from candidate to member of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU. However, she no longer aroused complete confidence in the leader. It is no coincidence that Khrushchev soon removed Furtseva from the leaders of Moscow. He retained for her only the post of secretary of the Central Committee, while instructing another secretary to observe her activities - Mikhail Suslov.
On January 3, 1958, Furtseva was included in the Commission of the Central Committee of the CPSU on Ideology, Culture and International Party Relations (besides her, this commission included Suslov, Kuusinen, Mukhitdinov and Pospelov). In her new capacity, she was actively involved in the creation and development of the literary newspaper Literature and Life.
In the spring of 1958, it was Khrushchev who instructed Furtseva to finally decide on the new editor of the magazine " New world". She had to speak to Tvardovsky and submit documents to the poet
to the Secretariat of the Central Committee.
In 1959, ill-wishers tried to compromise Furtseva in the eyes of Khrushchev. The reason for the attacks was the arrest of her brother. However, this scenario was destroyed by the investigator for special important matters Prosecutor's Office of the RSFSR A. Romanov. July 29, 1959
he sent a letter to Khrushchev, in which he spoke in detail about who and how tried to put pressure on the investigators in order to cast a shadow of suspicion
in corruption on Furtseva.
In 1960, Khrushchev initiated the transfer of Furtseva from the Central Committee to the government. She was appointed Minister of Culture of the USSR.
Furtseva was very upset by the demotion. But she hoped that she could retain her membership in the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU. However, in last days of the 22nd Party Congress, she learned that she would not be nominated to the Presidium of the Central Committee. It finally finished her off.
On November 2, 1961, Khrushchev was reported by the chairman of the KGB about what happened next. A.Shelepin. "Yesterday,
November 1 of this year, - Shelepin wrote, - doctors of the medical sector of the MK CPSU vols. Sokolov and Antonova reported to me that in the afternoon Furtseva E.A., being
in the dacha in the bedroom, she opened her veins with a razor in both arms in the elbows and at the hands. The first to notice this was her daughter, who quickly applied tourniquets and called the doctors. Doctors found her in a bad, semi-conscious state and provided timely medical assistance. When the KGB became aware of this, doctors were urgently sent to Furtseva.
4 Directorates of the Ministry of Health of the USSR - the therapist Borisova (her attending physician) and the surgeon Molodchik. However, Furtseva's husband, Firyubin, did not let them go to her, saying: "If you do not want to injure her, harm her and cause a nervous shock, then leave." After such a statement, the doctors were forced to leave. Later, the head of the 4th Directorate of the USSR Ministry of Health, Professor Markov, went to Furtseva's dacha, who insisted on examining Furtseva. As a result of the examination, he fully confirmed the fact of opening her veins. Her general state of health is satisfactory; there is no danger to life. According to the doctor, Comrade Antonova, Firyubin and Furtseva's daughter begged her to do everything so that no one would know about what had happened. I also consider it necessary to report to you that Firyubin in a conversation with me behaved insincerely, impudently hypocritically, categorically denied the fact of opening Furtseva's veins in order to hide this outrageous, cowardly, unworthy of the title of a member of the party act from the Central Committee of the CPSU "(RGANI, f. 3, op. 62, d. 188, l. 10).
Furtseva went to work only on the morning of November 14, 1961. But she was immediately summoned to the Central Committee. Suslov said that she was temporarily suspended from the duties of the minister. Then Furtseva had a brief and also very unpleasant conversation with another secretary of the Central Committee - Frol Kozlov. Furtseva was required written explanations her misbehavior.
On November 15, Furtseva wrote an explanation on a notebook sheet to the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU with a red pen.
“Recently,” she noted, “I suffered from headaches, insomnia and pain in the heart. Literally a few days before the congress, while working, I had a severe attack - spasms of cerebral vessels, during which I was unconscious for about 4 hours (this was recorded in the case history of the Moscow City Clinical Hospital by the doctors Antonova K.V., Budagosskaya G., who were present at the same time). A. and nurse Yanovskaya V.A.). During the congress, I also felt bad, I was very worried about work, for speaking at the congress. Therefore, I asked T.T. Kozlov F.R. and Suslov M.A. give me an opportunity to speak sooner. On October 31, the day the congress ended, after the Plenum, I felt very bad: I was worried about heart pains and a headache. I decided to go to the country, to stay a little fresh air. But the condition worsened so much that I had to go to bed and call a doctor, who stated a hypertensive crisis, which led to a loss of consciousness for several hours on the night of October 31 and November 1. In this state, the hands were injured "(RGANI, f. 3, op. 62, d. 188, ll. 24-25).
The party elite at first decided to punish Furtseva severely. A resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU "On the insufficient behavior of a member of the Central Committee of the CPSU Comrade Furtseva E.A." was prepared. But at the last moment, Khrushchev decided to take pity on his comrade-in-arms. An entry has been preserved in the archive: “Question<о Фурцевой>from the protocol<Президиума
The Central Committee of the CPSU> withdrawn (instruction of Comrade Malin. 24.XI.61) "
(RGANI, f. 3, op. 62, d. 188, l. 30).
What kind of minister was Furtseva? The singer spoke about this at one time Galina Vishnevskaya. She claimed: “Furtseva, by the way, had very good acting skills, she knew how to listen convincingly, she was really imbued. When I came with questions about the theater, Ekaterina Alekseevna, without blinking, looked into her eyes, did not miss a word, and at the end of the conversation she would certainly add: “Work calmly, Galina Pavlovna, don’t worry about anything. I'll do everything. I swear on my honor!" She had such a saying: on any occasion she gave an oath promise. I left reassured, and then every time the opposite happened to what we agreed on. But I didn’t want to be offended by Furtseva, she played the role so skillfully. Not every professional actor boasts such charm! And Ekaterina Alekseevna knew how to drink. It's also a well-known fact."(“Itogi”, 2010, No. 44).
Vishnevskaya claimed that Furtseva, as a minister, took bribes. She said that she personally gave Furtseva four hundred dollars on tour in Paris. When journalists asked Vishnevskaya: “Why?”, She replied: “To let me go abroad on personal contracts, I didn’t put up any obstacles! After all, how many times it happened: they invite Vishnevskaya, and another one goes to sing ... That evening, Furtseva and I were going to have dinner together, I went into Ekaterina Alekseevna’s room, took a breath and said without preamble: “Buy something for your daughter as a gift.” And handed out bills. She stood in a sweat, afraid to think what would happen if Furtseva refused to take the money. Probably would have died of fear and shame! After all, Slava and I discussed the situation in advance, he did not advise taking risks. But I tried. Furtseva, without flinching, swallowed the bait, as if it was a common thing. I even thanked(“Itogi”, 2010, No. 44).
In the spring of 1974, Furtseva was accused of abuse of office during the construction of a dacha outside Moscow. It turned out that she used the labor of builders and building materials for free. Her case was then taken up by the Party Control Committee under the Central Committee of the CPSU.
Artist Eliy Belyutin wrote in his diaries:
"May 29. Radio from behind the “hillock” broadcast about the beginning of a criminal case against Furtseva (using
official position).
May 31. Radio from behind the “hillock”: limitation of the case
Furtseva party recovery.
June 3rd. Furtseva died.<…>
June 5th Furtseva was put in the new Moscow Art Theater
on Tverskoy Boulevard. In the morning, under the windows, a megaphone: “There is no turning left! Drive only to the right!”
But it seems that Belyutin (or the publishers of his diary) got something wrong. Furtseva died later. She passed away on October 24, 1974. The next day, the issue of organizing her funeral was discussed at a meeting of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee. Party elders decided
October 29 to install the coffin with the body of Furtseva in the premises of the new building of the Moscow Art Theater. And to bury Furtseva was
decided at the Novodevichy cemetery.
Later there were rumors that Furtseva was allegedly helped to leave for the next world. But it's not. After the investigation conducted by the Party Control Committee on the construction of Furtseva's personal dacha, the Politburo began to decide what to do next. Some suggested that Furtsev be removed from his job and expelled from the party. Others wanted to limit themselves to half measures and quietly send Furtseva to retire. At the same time, the Politburo had already chosen a successor: Furtseva was to be replaced as minister by the secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU for propaganda Petr Demichev.
Furtseva knew about the first and second options, but none suited her. And she could not insist on any other solution. And then Furtseva decided that in any case she would die as a minister. Already in 2001, the former chairman of the State Security Committee Kryuchkov told reporters: "All who knew her [ Furtsev . - V.O.] comrades claimed that she committed suicide in the bathroom
own apartment."
Vyacheslav OGRYZKO
How is the rating calculated?early years
The only child of a prominent member of the Soviet government was born in 1942. The girl's father was a professional military Peter Bitkov, who took part in the Great Patriotic war in the first days of the offensive of the Nazi troops. The meeting with Svetlana's mother took place in the 30s of the last century. Parents first lived in Leningrad, then moved to Moscow. Svetlana's mother could not get pregnant for a long time, this happened only after eleven years of marriage. By that time, Ekaterina Furtseva was 32 years old. She gave birth to a daughter while being evacuated in Kuibyshev. The young mother had a hard time in those conditions, but her grandmother was of great help. Together they lifted the baby to her feet.
Unexpectedly, Svetlana's father came from the front with a short visit, who told his wife that everything was over between them. Peter Bitkov was not bad-looking, so he could not complain about the lack of female attention. The man from the threshold said that he met another woman with whom he intends to connect his further fate. With the new chosen one, he allegedly lived for four months.
Proud Ekaterina Furtseva let him go and decided to rebuild her personal life. It should be noted that Svetlana's mother occupied an important post in the Soviet political system, namely, the secretary of the Frunzensky district party committee. It was, perhaps, the largest cell of the CPSU in the capital. Party work replaced Ekaterina Alekseevna's family. She came home only late in the evening, preferring to dine at the House of Scientists located not far from the district committee.
Thanks to the position, Furtseva received her own living space, which was a small apartment in the vicinity of the Krasnoselskaya metro station. But women were also happy with such a solution to the housing problem.
CONTINUED BELOW
Svetlana Furtseva admitted to reporters that, due to her mother's constant employment, the main burdens of her upbringing fell on the shoulders of her grandmother, Matrena Nikolaevna. The mother of Ekaterina Alekseevna, a simple illiterate village woman, was everything for the girl.
After the death of her mother, Svetlana had to face another reality, the existence of which she had previously paid no attention to. The strict Soviet morality instilled by her parent, as well as a happy marriage, helped her not to get lost in that world.
Family life
The chosen one of 17-year-old Svetlana Furtseva was Oleg, the son of the secretary of the Central Group, Frol Kozlov. The eminent wedding was attended by all the top Soviet leadership, headed by the First -. The future head of the country acted as the toastmaster.
The marriage soon broke up. development family relations even the appearance of Marina's daughter did not help. The next husband of Svetlana Furtseva was Igor Kochnov, an employee of the APN.
Labor activity
After graduating from Moscow University, Svetlana got a job at the Novosti press agency. Colleagues were surprised to note the fact that the daughter of a high-ranking party leader, who bore the title of the first secular lady, did not even have her own car.
They were unaware that a powerful woman raised her child in full accordance with the communist ideology. In particular, she did not allow her child to flaunt sunglasses, considering them to be some kind of manifestation of hateful bourgeoisism. And the grandmother mercilessly criticized Svetlana's friends.
Svetlana Petrovna passed away in October 2005.
