Husbands of Catherine Furtseva. The first husband of the Minister of Culture of the USSR Furtseva was a Kursk carpenter

Biography
In 1974, she was found dead in her own Moscow apartment on Alexei Tolstoy Street. But there is still no exact answer - how and why this, perhaps, the most amazing woman of the Soviet era, died ... There were rumors that the Minister of Culture was poisoned by potassium cyanide, and no one could save her. Because the true reason death could not be made public, as official version put forward another - the heart ...
She was born on December 7, 1910 in a village near Vyshny Volochok. Her father died in World War I. After graduating from the seven-year plan, fifteen-year-old Katya entered the weaving factory where her mother worked. At the age of twenty, the factory girl joined the party. The first party task soon followed: she was sent to the Kursk region to raise Agriculture. Then - Feodosia.
From the blessed south, the girl was sent to Leningrad, to the Higher Courses of Civil Aeroflot. Here she married - of course, a pilot. His name was Peter Ivanovich Petkov. Together with him, Furtseva left for Saratov, to teach at an aviation technical school, then to Moscow. Here she became an instructor of the student department in the apparatus of the Central Committee of the Komsomol ...
With the outbreak of war, my husband was mobilized. Katya was left alone with her mother, whom by that time she had discharged to Moscow. A young woman, along with everyone else, was on duty on the roof, extinguished incendiary bombs - she saved the capital. And suddenly - a gift of fate after a date with her husband: she is pregnant.
Svetlana was born in May 1942. Only four months after the birth of her daughter, her husband came on a visit. And ... announced that he was already living with another.
Disappointment followed disappointment. Ekaterina, after graduating from the institute, stopped in indecision: what to do? As an activist, she was offered to enter graduate school, and a year and a half later she was elected party organizer of the institute. She got into the world of "liberated" political workers. Science was done away with forever...
From 1950 to 1954, Furtseva was in close contact with Nikita Khrushchev. There were even rumors about their romance. Immediately after Stalin's death, she became the first secretary of the city party committee, and now all of Moscow was under her command.
In 1960, during the second half of Khrushchev's reign, many were unhappy with him, including Furtsev. Once upon a time telephone conversation Ekaterina Alekseevna "walked" on Nikita Sergeevich. At the next, extraordinary plenum of the Presidium, Ekaterina Alekseevna was removed from the post of secretary ...
Broken by betrayal, Furtseva went to the dacha in Barvikha and opened her veins. Fortunately, timely help brought her back to a life full of obstacles and struggle.
A month later, she was appointed Minister of Culture.
You can treat Furtseva differently. But one thing is certain: nothing human was alien to her. Ekaterina Alekseevna loved to skip a glass and relax to the fullest ... She especially liked informal communication with artists, musicians somewhere at the banquet table.
“There were, of course, moments when they wanted to make her drunk,” recalled the singer Lyudmila Zykina. - But when Furtseva was with me, I could absolutely guarantee that she would never be drunk. Because I always poured water into her glass instead of vodka.
Ekaterina Alekseevna did not deny herself the main female weakness - to show off in new outfits. Only, of course, she went for them not to a department store, but to the House of Models. She constantly looked after herself: every day she did gymnastics, played tennis, and ran. “A singer of your level must be chiselled!” - the Minister of Culture reproached the magnificent Lyudmila Zykina.
“This party activist, enthusiast, is a lady of rather heavy build, with a modest hairstyle – her hair is always combed back – usually dressed in a dark suit.” This is how she appears at the meetings of the Supreme Council, and among the members of the Presidium of the XX Party Congress. But everything changes if conditions are favorable.
On the evening of November 7, 1955, for example, when the Presidium held its first big reception in the brilliant halls of the Kremlin, the strict Madame Furtseva in a ball gown tirelessly waltzed with Voroshilov, Mikoyan, and Pervukhin. Only Khrushchev did not allow himself to be carried away to the dance floor.
“As head of the Communist Organization of the Capital since 1954, Madame Furtseva, now 45, occupies one of the most coveted posts in the party. This is the heir post. It was occupied at one time by Khrushchev. This, however, does not prevent this exceptionally active woman from having children, a husband and leading a private life ”(French newspaper France Soir, 1955).
Until now, her personality worries journalists and art historians. An example of this is the program about Furtseva in Vitaly Wulf's Silver Ball program, which caused fair claims from both viewers and critics.
“The audience, having heard at one time about the mystery of the death of the Minister of Culture of the USSR, would like to know the truth about her life,” writes Anri Vartanov. - Unfortunately, the author of the program remained true to his manner of conducting non-binding secular conversations from the screen. He said a lot about E. Furtseva's sympathy for some theaters, for outstanding figures in music. About the many decisions she made. But at the same time, I forgot to mention its capabilities: after all, none of the ministers of culture, either before or after it, was included in the top party leadership of the country.
However, he did not remember how she was gradually forced out of the party leadership. Humiliated by petty chicanery and persecution. Driven to despair. And those “glasses of good wine”, the abuse of which the presenter constantly speaks, became not so much a consequence of vice, but a sign of personal tragedy.
“What other epithets were not awarded to her by other authors of articles published after her death: an illiterate fool-woman, and a drunkard, and a psychopath, and the leader of a “destroyed, enslaved culture,” according to one of the current theater critics, Lyudmila Zykina is indignant. – Obviously, this critic is not aware that the Soviet young artists of Furtseva's time, participating in international competitions and festivals, won almost a hundred first prizes (not to mention other awards), becoming leaders in world art. At the time of Furtseva's tenure as minister, there were 360 thousand libraries, 125 thousand clubs and palaces of culture in the country! In what other country could such wealth be found and what does it look like now?
Furtseva really did a lot in her post for our culture. It was under her that the new premises were received by the Operetta Theater and the Theater. Moscow City Council, the Taganka Theater was born, and the Moscow Art Theater was headed by Oleg Efremov. Furtseva not only revived the Moscow International Film Festival, achieved the establishment of the Tchaikovsky Competition, the International Ballet Competition, became the soul of the construction of the stadium in Luzhniki and opened new cinemas in the outskirts of the capital, but also took an active part in the fate of her wards. The Minister of Culture helped many, including her favorite Galina Vishnevskaya. The singer simply did not get out of foreign tours, thanks to Furtseva she received many top awards, she was also awarded the Order of Lenin.
Once, dancers from the Beryozka ensemble came to the Ministry of Culture to complain about their leader, Nadezhda Nadezhdina. Ekaterina Alekseevna listened to them and cut her off: “There are no more people like Nadezhdina, there are many like you.”
At one of the receptions, a tipsy Oleg Efremov approached Furtseva and said: “You are a barrier on the path of Soviet art.” “You are drunk, Oleg Nikolaevich,” the Minister of Culture replied. “Of course,” agreed the actor. “If I were sober, I wouldn’t tell you this.” To the credit of Ekaterina Alekseevna, after that she did not change her good attitude towards Efremov.
And here is the opinion of the all-Union "cultural" boss Yuri Nikulin:
“Interesting woman. Maybe not very smart. But she knew how to command, she did not forget that she was a minister. She saved the "Prisoner of the Caucasus". Actor Etush played the role of "Comrade Saakhov" in this film. And the name of the party organizer of Mosfilm was Saakov. And the authorities rested: it is necessary to re-sound the film! And this is extra time, and most importantly, money. I went in a proven way to an appointment with Furtseva. At ten minutes to ten in the morning I was standing in the hallway outside her waiting room. She smiled: "Oh, what fates!" - I went into the office, there they gave her some injections, and they let me in. I told the whole story. Furtseva grabbed the phone, contacted the director of the studio: “What kind of idiocy is this ?!” He answered her: what are you, what are you, no one raised the question like that, apparently, some kind of misunderstanding, the film is already ready and will soon be released on the screens!
She supported Furtsev and Tovstonogov, touched David Oistrakh, and visited all his concerts. However, she was far from being so sensitive to everyone. It is said that, having taken a high position, she became even more demanding and adamant than before. She did not like to repeat her instructions twice, and people who answered her questions with “I don’t know” became the first candidates for dismissal.
Working with her was not easy at times. Especially when conflicts were provoked by her second husband, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR Nikolai Firyubin.
Firyubin, a professional diplomat, spoke English and French. He was a short, slender brown-haired man with a thoroughbred, expressive face. His former colleague Nikolai Mesyatsev described him as follows: "He knew how and wanted to please women."
At the beginning of their romance, Furtseva, at every opportunity, flew to him in Prague, then to Belgrade, where he was transferred as an ambassador. All this happened in front of everyone, but she was not going to hide. Firyubin was looking for a reason to break off the previous marriage, but Ekaterina Alekseevna did not demand anything from him and, perhaps, she attracted to herself precisely with this.
Five years later, when he returned to Moscow and became Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, they became husband and wife. And only then Ekaterina Alekseevna realized how wrong she was.
"N. Firyubin was a petty and envious man, - wrote Furtseva's deputy V.F. Kukharsky in his memoirs. - He was gnawed by the leadership of his wife in the family, the feeling of a complex of his secondary nature. Sitting with Ekaterina Alekseevna in the theater or at a concert, he constantly mumbled something obscene angrily. And, in order to soften relations with colleagues in which Firyubin liked to interfere, Furtseva, unfortunately, agreed with him, but we got it.
The strongest blow for Ekaterina Furtseva was her non-election at the end of 1973 as a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. To a proud and conceited woman, this seemed to be the collapse of her future career and, perhaps, even life.
Ekaterina Alekseevna experienced the second shock in the summer of 1974. Shortly before that, her only daughter Svetlana demanded that her mother build a house for the family own dacha- The Furtsevs had only a state one. The mother could not refuse anything to her beloved daughter, whose acquisitive instincts were proverbial, and bought Construction Materials. Of course, at discounted prices. When finishing the dacha, Svetlana advised her mother to take the parquet from the Bolshoi Theater, which was also done. Many other members of the Soviet elite usually got away with this, but Furtseva was treated differently. She was summoned to the Party Control Committee, to Pelsha, who suggested that Ekaterina Alekseevna put a party card on the table. At a meeting with the two first persons of the state - Brezhnev and Kosygin, she admitted that she "admitted blunder and is ready to suffer any punishment, ”and handed over the dacha to the state.
When everything seemed to calm down, Furtseva flew away on vacation to the south. She returned to Moscow in mid-September and, despite her outward smartness, seemed tired and aged to her deputy. On the evening of October 24, she was seen at a reception in honor of the anniversary of the Maly Theater. I didn’t drink or eat anything, I just took a few sips of Borjomi. She was lively. And the next day...
The civil memorial service in the building of the Moscow Art Theater was full of people. The entire color of the artistic intelligentsia, outstanding figures of science and technology, gathered. People from all over the country came to honor the memory of Ekaterina Furtseva. After the requiem - a commemoration in the Actor's House. Konstantin Simonov in his farewell speech emphasized:
“Ekaterina Alekseevna always had the courage to say “yes” - and did everything to support, help the new, sometimes only breaking through. She had the courage to say "no" - and her actions always corresponded to what was said. I agree, only a big, bright personality could speak and act like that.
After the death of his wife, Nikolai Firyubin could not stay in the apartment where she committed suicide. Therefore, he soon moved to his eldest grandson. His younger grandson, along with his father, had already lived in Switzerland for a long time and ran his own company. The then Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs had no common children with Ekaterina Alekseevna. Furtseva's daughter Svetlana also moved to her daughter in Germany, although she did not change her Russian citizenship. When from time to time he visits his homeland, he always visits his mother's grave ...

Ekaterina Furtseva. A woman who flew up in the terrible years when it was not easy to survive. A woman whom fate allowed very little to be a woman. Will we never know what she really was? Sovershenno sekretno columnist Irina MASTYKINA talks with the Minister of Culture's closest person, her daughter Svetlana FURTSEVA.

- Svetlana Petrovna, we have heard a lot about your mother's activities as Minister of Culture. And how did the life of Ekaterina Alekseevna develop immediately after she moved from Vyshny Volochok to Leningrad and Moscow?

In Vyshny Volochek, my mother, like my grandmother, worked at a weaving factory. But she was drawn to study further, and she decides to leave, to start an independent life - first in Leningrad, then in Moscow. In Moscow, my mother enters the Institute of Fine Chemical Technology. Then she was already over twenty, and had to catch up with all the difference in education. But she was a capable person. And when she graduated from the institute, she was left in graduate school. At the end of the thirties, my mother was a graduate student and at the same time secretary of the party organization of the institute. That is why later she becomes the secretary of the Frunzensky district party committee - this is one and the same organization.

And before Moscow, my mother studied in Leningrad at the Institute of Civil Aviation Engineers. It so happened that her path to Leningrad lay through Feodosia, where the famous gliding competitions were held at that time. Mom became interested in airplanes, then it was fashionable, and entered the institute associated with them. And in the thirtieth year I met there with my future father - Peter Ivanovich Bitkov. Both - students, lived hard. But despite this, they were happy. One of my mother's friends from Leningrad, when meeting with me, always remembered "Katin's silvery laughter." Eleven years my parents lived together: first in Leningrad, then in Moscow. All this time, my mother really wanted to give birth, but it did not work out.

And finally, just before the war, at the thirty-second year of her life, she became pregnant. My father was a professional military man, in the very first days of the war he went to the front. Mom was left alone, the time, you know what it was, and she did not dare to give birth. I wrote to my grandmother, who remained in Vyshny Volochek and always had the right to a decisive vote in the family. She said to her mother: “Well, how is it! So many years of waiting. What, we won’t raise one child?” And she came to Moscow. So she remained with us until the end of her days.

At this time, the evacuation began, and the pregnant mother and grandmother leave for Kuibyshev. There I was born. In four months we are returning to Moscow, to our communal apartment on Krasnoselskaya. And soon the father comes on a business trip from the front and with all the frankness declares to his mother that he met another woman whom he fell in love with. He was handsome and always enjoyed female attention ... Proud mother takes me, my grandmother and leaves. You could say nowhere. However, at that time she was the secretary of the Frunze District Party Committee. And they give her a small apartment - twenty-eight meters - not far from this district committee, in the house where APN is now. Mom continues to work, and my grandmother sits with me. And so for many years.

- Didn't your father help you in any way?

First, he was at the front until the end of the war. Secondly, my mother was always proud. But it seems to me that throughout their lives they have preserved a good relationship. My father visited me from time to time. And when I became an adult and had a daughter, he came to meet his granddaughter. I remember that then he suddenly told me that he had always loved only Katya, and we had buried my mother a year ago. Her father survived her very little. Came home - a stroke. Buried by his third wife...

- Third? Was your father already married before your mother?

Yes, and from this marriage his daughter grew up in Leningrad. We have a fifteen year age difference. I know almost nothing about her. Only my grandmother told me in childhood that her father brought a piano from Germany to that daughter ... She was very jealous with us and often reproached her father for the fact that the child was growing, and he would not even bring sweets.

- Were your parents registered?

No. In those days, it was not considered mandatory. I only know that they broke up right after I was born. So my mother gave me her last name. But I did not feel the absence of a father in childhood. We lived with my mother's brother's family. That's what I called him: Papa Seryozha. And most importantly, grandmother Matryona Nikolaevna lived with us - a strong, strong person. Since she was left a widow with two children in her arms at the age of twenty-six, she had hoped only for herself in life.

- Do you remember the other paternal grandmother?

Yes, she came to us, but not very often. Like her father, she was a Don Cossack. My father used to call me that sometimes. Probably, there really is something genetically Cossack in me, although I grew up with my grandmother and mother, so first of all, I think, I adopted everything from them.

- And who brought you up more: mom or grandmother?

Grandma, of course. Although the overall leadership was for my mother. And the older I got, the more active my mother was in my life. Despite the incredible employment, she was engaged in my education. And as a child, I was, as they say, my grandmother's granddaughter. She didn’t breastfeed me, as she sometimes liked to repeat. The grandmother herself, like all peasant women of that time, was uneducated, she did not know how to sign. But with all this, she had brilliant wisdom, saw through everyone and understood a lot intuitively. Well, how was it possible in those years, for example, to know that a child needs to study music, language? And she knew and found good teachers for me.

As for the punishments, if something was wrong with me at a regular or musical school, they didn’t let me go outside, they didn’t give me ice cream, twice for not obeying, my grandmother even walked over me with a clothesline. In general, she kept the child in strictness. I didn't forgive anything. She punished precisely in sore spots, which she knew very well. Once, as it seems to me now, as a punishment for something, I was sent to Artek. I have always been a home child, and there is drill, military discipline. And I didn’t get any pleasure from relaxing at sea ... Only when I myself had a daughter, my grandmother became a little warmer, thawed out.

- They say that your grandmother was a despot in relation to your mother.

This is the perception from outside, strangers. In fact, my grandmother was very kind person. Strictness showed only to me. And she had a completely different relationship with her mother. A lot of things in my mother come from my grandmother. A strong character, even I would say - some kind of power, absolutely not female clarity of thought and the ability to make decisions. And at the same time housekeeping and exceptional femininity.

- At the age of twelve, you first visited England with your mother, and after school you entered MGIMO. Was it your decision or did your mother choose the institute for you?

No, no, that's what I thought. Mom really wanted me to go to the institute, which she herself graduated from - fine chemical technology, and even several times took me to her favorite professor. But with chemistry, alas, I quarreled at school. Therefore, I stopped at the western faculty of MGIMO. Firyubin played a significant role in this decision of mine. An educated man, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, first in Prague, then in Belgrade. Well, I went to see him, plus England, plus the language that I loved. Of course, I knew that it was unrealistic to enter this institute just like that, so I studied with very good teachers. It would seem, take and dial the rector's phone number, mom. She would not be denied. But we didn't even talk about it. I could ask my mother, for example, to buy something, but to help with admission ... We did not accept this.

- Strange, according to the stories of many, your mother loved you so much that she did not refuse anything ...

Yes, I did, but in a smart way. And she never took pity on me. It happened only once, when I had already studied and worked at the APN. With a television group from Germany, I had to go to Yakutsk to shoot in the winter, where the temperature dropped to fifty degrees. And my mother got scared. She persuaded me to take the ballot. But I refused and still flew.

- Svetlana Petrovna, what has changed in your life after Ekaterina Alekseevna became a member of the Politburo?

Well, I was only fourteen at the time. And the life of the families of Politburo members in those years did not have the necessary paraphernalia that ten years later: foreign cars, jewelry, fur coats ... The first thing that changed was the dacha. Appeared separate house behind a separate fence. A completely new style for my eyes: a stable, a bathhouse, a greenhouse, boats and even an open car.

And, secondly, it became possible to watch the most inaccessible foreign films at home, get tickets to any theater, relax in the summer at sea and buy books or clothes in special stores ... But my mother was really a very modest, intangible person and, working from morning to night , practically did not use any special benefits. She always dressed elegantly. You can do fantastic things with your hands. Sewed, knitted. Changes in her clothes were more likely due to Firyubin. When he became ambassador to Yugoslavia, he often brought beautiful things to his mother. Well, some closed ateliers have also appeared, and the opportunities to dress well have expanded.

What about overseas trips?

They also made it easier. I went abroad for the first time at the age of twelve. Then Firyubin was the ambassador to Czechoslovakia and invited me to Prague for the winter holidays. And then my mother began to take me with her. She was sure of the need for new experiences. And in those years when any trips abroad stood out in the form of incentives and were a dream for many, my mother did everything so that I could see the world. So by the age of twenty I had already visited many countries in Europe and Asia.

- Your first trip at the institute was to India. From her, as far as I know, indirectly, your acquaintance with your future husband began.

There, together with us, was also a member of the Central Committee, Frol Romanovich Kozlov, and his wife. She probably liked me, and she wanted to introduce me to her son Oleg. In Moscow, I called several times, invited me somewhere. But to be honest, I tried to push it all somehow. I had my own company at the institute, and I didn’t really want to make new acquaintances. But Alexandra Konstantinovna was reputed to be a great theatergoer and chose some hit at the Satire Theater, which it was difficult for me to refuse. I ordered tickets, and Oleg and I met. I liked him right away: tall, with big green eyes, with beautiful hair, good manners. I studied at the Institute of Steel and Alloys, was four years older than me, and talked a lot and interestingly about Leningrad, which I loved and knew. And instead of the theater, we went to the Beijing restaurant. Since this all started.

- After how long did you get married?

We met at the end of March, a month later we applied. They did not take him, because I was not yet eighteen years old, I was born in May. But Oleg nevertheless achieved this. Our parents did not know about this for a long time. But two weeks before registration, I could not stand it and told my mother. She was shocked because she saw how much I wanted to study at the institute, and suddenly - marriage. She tried to dissuade me - after all, the first year, besides, Oleg and I were still little acquainted. She said all sorts of reasonable things, but at that moment I was carried away and did not give up.

- Where did they get married?

At the Kozlovs' dacha. Khrushchev arrived, p. Therefore, the wedding was, as it were, not mine. They drank mainly for Khrushchev, sometimes for the newlyweds, and there was nothing remarkable for me there. But everything looked very nice. Tables were set in the garden under white cherry blossoms. They sewed a lovely dress for me ... We spent our honeymoon in Magnitogorsk, where Oleg was sent for practice. Then they lived in the Kozlovs' mansion on Lengory - a small two-story house with a rather modest situation, state-owned, with inventory numbers ...

- When was your daughter born?

I was not yet twenty. When I first became pregnant, I immediately went to my mother. We discussed this topic for a long time, because by that time I did not quite believe in the stability of my marriage. Oleg and I had a difference not only in age. Something else separated us ... However, my mother was categorically against abortion. And I decided to give birth. It was difficult to give birth, but the child was born, as I was told, in a shirt - in grease. I weighed then forty-six kilograms, and Mariska almost five.

Due to childbirth and illness, I launched the winter session, and it was already difficult to return to the institute. In addition, I then completely immersed myself in the child, and everything else for me receded into the background. I moved to Moscow State University, to the faculty of journalism. Passed all the difference in twenty exams and was enrolled in the editorial department.

- And what did you do after journalism?

I heard that there was a TV news editorial office at APN, which worked mainly with foreign television companies, and I realized that I needed to go there. Then I asked my mother to help me, and they hired me as an editor. I worked at APN for three years, and in the last year I spent eight months on business trips. It was a very difficult period. Relations with my husband became complicated, my business trips also contributed to this.

- At this time, you met with your second husband - Igor?

Yes. And it was great love. He was married, raised a daughter, and our relationship was not easy. At this time, my mother insisted that I go to graduate school at Moscow State University, and I became a graduate student. After defending my dissertation, I had an internship in America, but, thank God, I didn’t go there - I didn’t want to part with my future husband. We often saw each other, but then he lived with his family. It was difficult for him to get a divorce because of his daughter. Yes, and he worked in an organization where divorce was tantamount to the collapse of a career.

And I got divorced. Mom was very worried about this and even once said about Igor: “Either I, or he.” Can you imagine my state? Probably, if everything was in order with Oleg, nothing like this would have happened. But ... the divorce was preceded by a period of showdown with her husband, then he left. And we stayed in the apartment on Kutuzovsky, where we moved after the birth of our daughter, with the nanny Klava. She lived with us almost from the birth of Mariska and to this day remains my best friend.

Mariska was then only five years old, and her mother, of course, was against the divorce. After leaving her father in forty-second, she remained single for ten years. And she knew what it was. But I, as always, went my own way and did not listen to my mother ... In general, there were a lot of experiences then. My mother's friend Nadya Leger helped me brighten up that difficult period of my life - a warm, simple woman. Literally the day after the divorce, she told me: “That's it! We stop tears, all experiences. We buy shoes with such heels and go to me - to paint. Nadia helped me a lot then: she constantly took me somewhere, introduced me to someone ...

- It's been three years. Igor Vasilyevich finally decided on a divorce?

Yes, we got married and he moved in with us. Gradually got used to Mariska and even adopted her. And he raised her, and educated her, dealt with her every day.

- Did Marina call Igor Vasilievich dad?

No, it's different. Igor, unfortunately, had health problems, he often lay in hospitals. And then one day, when he once again ended up in CITO, my daughter came up with a whole story about him, with pictures, in which for some reason she called him “Shakegust”, then shortened it to “Shake”. That's how, as a result, she began to call Igor. Well, she was still quite a girl ...

- It will soon be thirteen years since Igor Vasilyevich is no longer alive ...

Yes ... But for all the years that we were together, he managed to give Marina and me so much that we never forget him. When he was gone, and it happened suddenly - he returned from the forest and, before reaching the house, died, I felt desperate fatigue and emptiness.

- Where did you work then?

After defending my dissertation, I came to the Institute of Art History, in the sector of mass communication. She worked there for fourteen years. Two days a week we had to be present at work, and the rest were doing science at home. But after the death of my husband, it became hard for me to stay at home, and I decided to move to the position of deputy director at the All-Russian Research Institute for Advanced Training of Cultural Workers. Worked in administrative work.

- I know, Marina graduated from the ballet school ...

We sent her there at the age of five. We consulted with my mother and decided that ballet was the best fit for Marina. She had good data: plasticity, musicality ... However, after ten years of constant diets and hunger strikes, an open stomach ulcer forced her to change her profession. Marina entered GITIS at the theater department and after graduating she got a job in the literary department of the Bolshoi Theater. I was just happy: the same guys with whom I studied, the same scene. Already working in the theater, she married a lawyer. They knew each other for a long time - we were friends with families - but, unfortunately, they broke up a year later. Mariska was only eighteen, he was twenty-eight ... A few years later, the daughter met a man of a more practical profession - a dentist. (Igor Vladkovsky, detained in 1991 at customs for an illegal attempt to export works of art abroad. - I.M.) She married him, gave birth at twenty-five and said goodbye to her literary part forever.

- Did they live together for a long time with their second husband?

They divorced in 1992, when Katenka was already four. Three years ago, Marina remarried and left Russia. The first year she lived in Germany, then she moved to Spain and, it seems, settled there.

- What about your husband? Marina is married now?

She is an unpredictable person. He lives, as, indeed, I do, more with feelings than with reason. And her personal life is constantly changing. Of course, there is a loved one, but what kind of person do they have on this moment relationship, only she can say.

- Does Marina work in Spain?

At the school where Katya studies, she teaches ballet. But now she plans to create an independent ballet school. And my daughter knows how to achieve her goal.

- Marina lives near Malaga. Does she have her own apartment there?

have abroad own house very expensive, so my daughter has an apartment there. But the main thing is that both she and her granddaughter, thank God, are alive and well, the child goes to a good school and at the age of nine she knows two languages very well.

- Svetlana Petrovna, have you moved abroad permanently?

I don't live in Spain, but I visit my daughter there.

- Your husband died very early. In the thirteen years that he has been gone, have you remarried?

No, I was not married. I have some responsibilities to my family. I love Katerina very much, my love for her is absolutely incredible. In this, my mother and I are the same. She often repeated to me: “If it weren’t for you and Marishka, I wouldn’t have anything to live for.”

- Lyudmila Georgievna Zykina told me in an interview that Ekaterina Alekseevna suffered because no one needed her, even you ...

I have a very warm attitude towards Lyudmila Georgievna, but I think that, speaking of this loneliness, she meant the isolation in which my mother found herself at work. Due to the complexity of her family circumstances, my mother really did not have a team in the ministry, as they now call it. She herself tried to help everyone, but when it became difficult for her, there was no one to help. In this sense, Luda is right. But this only says that my mother was such an atypical leader for her time that she could not fit into her surroundings. And she couldn't adapt. As for me, even after my marriage and the birth of my daughter, there was not a day that my mother and I did not see each other. Unless, of course, she had gone somewhere. Most often I came to her ministry.

- Ekaterina Alekseevna's assistants told me that the Minister of Culture of the USSR was engaged in self-education a lot and never left work without books and newspapers.

Mom made herself all her life, otherwise she would not have become what she has become. Two technical educations were not enough for her, she wanted to get another humanitarian one and went to the Higher Party School.

- Maybe it was ambition that prevented her in relations with men? She was an attractive woman, and at the same time ten years of loneliness.

You know, it was just that time. In addition, my mother always looked a little inaccessible to men - she was above their usual idea of a woman-wife ... But I don’t think that she was not interested in female happiness ...

- How did Ekaterina Alekseevna captivate Firyubin, whom she married in the fifty-fourth year, already a member of the Politburo?

In our house it was not customary to discuss the affairs of adults with children, so I can only express my assumptions. Nikolai Pavlovich was an interesting man, and the fact that his mother was carried away by him was quite natural. But Grandma didn't like him. She turned me against it too. The fact is that Firyubin, while still the secretary of the city committee, also lived before us at the state dacha in Ilyichev, and there were various rumors about his family. It was said that one day his son quarreled with someone, took a grip and put a comrade to them. Yes, and Nikolai Pavlovich himself was known as a capricious and spoiled man. When he and his mother met, he worked in the Moscow City Council as deputy mayor and was aware of his importance. In general, the grandmother had to break something inside herself, taking Firyubin into the house. I also had a difficult relationship with him ...

- And Ekaterina Alekseevna, they said, always considered his children her own ...

No, it's not. But she did help them. You see, my mother treated everyone kindly. Our Katerina is now very similar to her great-grandmother. Here she sees a man and already loves him. I never heard a single hurtful word from her about others. Mom was the same. I do not remember the case when she, returning from business trips abroad, brought something for herself. And she never forgot the children of Nikolai Pavlovich - Rita and Nikolai.

I had little contact with them. I only heard that Nikolai was a translator in Switzerland, then, it seems, he stayed there. But Rita ... She never shied away from worldly pleasures. She worked as a radio correspondent, although she graduated from the Moscow Aviation Institute or MPEI, but this profession did not fascinate her. She was a very active woman, constantly looking for a pedestal for herself ...

- Tell me, when Ekaterina Alekseevna decided to connect her life with Firyubin, was he already divorced or divorced for your mother?

I think that the reason for the divorce of Nikolai Pavlovich was the love for my mother. In general, he was an enthusiastic person, but, in my opinion, he never knew how to value anything.

- I heard that at first they had a wonderful relationship, but then they went wrong.

Yes, indeed, they last years were difficult. Probably, then something happened, and it interfered with mutual understanding. First of all, because Firyubin aged very badly. There was practically no age difference between them, but Nikolai Pavlovich, unlike his mother, felt his years. He constantly tried to emphasize his importance and often not quite delicately liked to repeat: "It's bad to be a grandfather, but it's even worse to be a grandmother's husband." Frankly, it's hard for me to be objective about him. But he did not give women's happiness to his mother. Another thing is that she was always content with what she had. I was an optimist! She gave everything without a trace. And she loved life.

- Whence, then, these attempts to commit suicide? The last of the two ended tragically. Everyone is still convinced that your mother committed suicide with the help of potassium cyanide.

I have an official medical certificate stating that the death was caused by heart failure. It is difficult to discuss this issue with me ... I know what everyone else knows. Of course, you can build various versions, especially by analogy with the sixty-first year. (Then he took Furtseva out of the Politburo, and she tried to commit suicide by opening her veins. Fortunately, this attempt was not mortally dangerous. Furtseva was saved. In the same hospital on Granovsky, she was helped to cope with the strongest nervous stress. - I.M.) My mother and I never touched on this topic, but I’m sure that the reason for parting with life in the sixty-first was not ambition, as some now imagine, but a deep resentment from the betrayal of a person whom she believed ... But at seventy the fourth year, in the fall, the peak of experiences in my mother's life has already passed. Of course, I can have my own opinion on this matter. But to date, I do not have any reliable and serious information about the poisoning.

- Did you make a monument to your mother?

Of course. Firyubin, already in the second week after the death of his mother, remarried and immediately removed everything connected with her from himself. Although he lived with his mother for twenty years. I'm not talking about the material side, but he had more opportunities to get white marble, from which I planned to make a tombstone. It cost me so much! Okay, Kerbel helped. And he took out white marble, and made a high relief ... If anything else was needed, he took the telephone receiver, introduced himself: “Academician Kerbel speaks!” - and everything was done at once. I still have the warmest feelings for him.

- Did the closest friend of Ekaterina Alekseevna Nadya Leger also make a monument for your mother?

This is not entirely true. You obviously mean two mosaics - portraits of mother by Nadia Leger. But both of them were made during the life of my mother and have nothing to do with the monument.

- After the story with the dacha, which, according to rumors, was built at your insistence literally on the eve of the death of Ekaterina Alekseevna, she was returned the twenty-five thousand that she paid for the construction. How did she manage them?

We collected this money together. My husband received royalties for his screenplay and translations, I for my book. We have sold the car. That is, we had these twenty-five thousand. Didn't we have the right to our own dacha? I think yes. But my mother was a completely different person. Public opinion was very important to her.

When all this boom began - they say, they got into the pocket of the state, she asked for only one thing: give them the opportunity to create a commission and explain who is to blame - the builders or the customer. The commission, of course, was not created, because the precedent itself was important to Kirilenko. Mom was reprimanded, and the dacha - completely illegally - was decided to be taken away. And when the money was returned to us, we put it in the passbook. Mom immediately made a will. I wanted to be calm for the fact that when she is gone, this money will go to us. In recent years, she knew that after her death, I would not enter the apartment on Alexei Tolstoy, where they lived with Firyubin. And so it happened.

I don’t know, maybe I would like to buy our dacha and by law I had the right to do so. After all, every little thing there for my husband and I was connected with something. However, after everything I've been through, it's so difficult for me ...

Probably, if Ekaterina Alekseevna was alive, she would completely agree with her daughter. This small country house cost her too much, in which, contrary to rumor, there was nothing luxurious. Humiliating calls to the carpet, an offer to hand over a party card, vicious attacks by colleagues ... The beginning of the collapse of her career ... And - the end of her life.

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 Foreign Minister Nikolai Firyubin, according to the recollections of relatives, in the last years of his life together 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 towards career ladder. And it was in Korenevo that Furtseva joined the party.

The rural archive stores many documents reflecting the activities of the initiative first secretary of the regional committee of the Komsomol: "On the convening of a meeting of collective farm youth", "On the mobilization of forces for logging" ... Ten years later, she will have to solve issues of a different scale, and world-famous cultural figures will be her subordinates . 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.

Death Furtseva

In the summer of 1974, big troubles happened in Furtseva's life. At the insistence of her daughter, she built a dacha near Moscow. The building was registered as private, although the Minister of Culture also had a state dacha at his disposal. The new building turned out to be neither luxurious nor expensive, but the newspapers, at the instigation from above, inflated this story, convicting the minister of money-grubbing. The fact is that some building materials were purchased not at commercial, but at state prices.

Violation of this rule was taken quite seriously at the top. But the first to break it was Brezhnev, whose family slowly acquired country house. Then, then one minister, then another followed the example of the Secretary General. Yielding to the persistent requests of her daughter, Furtseva also went for it. But, to her credit, she carefully ensured that all purchased building materials and labor of workers were paid from personal funds.

However, she was gripped with a death grip. As a result, as the Minister of Culture of the USSR, she had to answer to the most formidable authority - the Party Control Commission under the Central Committee of the CPSU. And then Ekaterina Alekseevna decided to call Brezhnev. Apparently, she confessed to him that she took a sin on her soul - she started her own dacha. But you, they say, are good there: they attacked me, the only woman among you.

Brezhnev had no choice but to give the order to stop the investigation of the "dacha" case.

Kirilenko insisted on the creation of a commission to investigate the incident, but he failed. Furtseva was reprimanded, the dacha was decided to be taken away. The money was returned. The family put them in a passbook.

Much has already been said and written about the death of Ekaterina Alekseevna. Vasily Feodosevich and I arrived at the apartment of Furtseva and Firyubin in the morning, the day after her death. It should be noted that I have never been in this apartment before. It seemed to me very uncomfortable, almost official. I remember feeling kind of cold. Although the apartment is good, large windows, a winter garden at the entrance ... We sat either in the living room, or in the dining room ... Solid, expensive furniture, beautiful vases, but there was no feeling of comfort. There was no family warmth.

Firyubin said that the body was taken away immediately. He told in detail how Ekaterina Alekseevna returned from the theater, went to the shower. The doctors who arrived later explained that a sharp change in hot and cold could lead to cardiac arrest. cold water. Moreover, Ekaterina Alekseevna was in a state of very strong excitement. I remember Firyubin repeating that she did not complain about her heart, but lately she had been in some tense, nervous state.

Later, I realized the possible reason for what happened. The day before, Ekaterina Alekseevna was supposed to read a welcoming speech at the anniversary of the Maly Theater. But they didn’t let her make a speech, saying a few hours before the celebration that Podgorny would speak. A sensitive and femininely vulnerable person, she felt intrigue, bureaucratic intrigues. And I realized that tomorrow she could just be fired. All these events could lead to a heart attack ...

Kukharsky was shocked by this tragedy, he loved Furtseva very much. Sincerely. He knew her shortcomings, often argued with her, but friendly relations did not deteriorate from this. Although it happened that, having argued, they dispersed for several hours "in different angles". And the next day, when I called him at work, and I called through the secretary, and asked if it was possible to connect with Vasily Feodosevich, she jokingly said: “Now it’s impossible. He has Ekaterina Alekseevna, they are reconciled.

The husband noted the combination in Furtseva of strong charisma and female charm. And yet - the desire to understand, to know, to understand, to get to the bottom ... She did not behave like Mikhailov or Demichev, the previous and subsequent ministers of culture, who shunned those who just represented the culture of the country. Furtseva entered this environment immediately, and many musicians, writers, artists believed her ...

From the book Prince Felix Yusupov. Memoirs the author Yusupov Felix

CHAPTER 12 1928-1931 Death of Empress Maria Feodorovna - Our stolen goods sold in Berlin - Death of Grand Duke Nicholas - Loss of New York money - Calvi - Drawing monsters - Matushkin's move to Boulogne - Bibi's niece - Letter from Prince Kozlovsky - double headed eagle –

From Furtsev's book author Mlechin Leonid Mikhailovich

MAIN DATES OF LIFE AND ACTIVITY E. A. FURTSEVA 1910, November 24 (December 7) - was born in the city of Vyshny Volochek, Tver province. 1925–1928 - a student at a factory school. - Responsible secretary of the district council

From the book “I wish I could live another 20 years!” The last notes Beria author Beria Lavrenty Pavlovich

From the speech of the second secretary of the CPSU MGK E. Furtseva From the compiler and commentator: Below are some of the most striking and interesting places from the speech of Ekaterina Furtseva, the future Minister of Culture of the USSR, and then the second secretary of the Moscow City Party Committee. ... In Moscow from above

From the book of Eduard Streltsov. Perpetrator or victim? author Vartanyan Axel

Revenge of Ekaterina Furtseva? This version deserves more detailed consideration. “Evening Moscow”: “Furtseva (Ekaterina Alekseevna Furtseva in the second half of the 50s, secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, member of the Politburo, head of the Moscow Communists. - A.V.) dreamed of marrying her daughter to

From the book by Ekaterina Furtseva. Favorite Minister author Medvedev Felix Nikolaevich

Vishnevskaya about Furtseva ... sharply, irreconcilably, evil ... “... Millionaires, bankers, celebrities lived behind a high metal fence. The gates to the house where their apartment was located on the second floor were wide open. No locks, no bells, no dogs on a chain. I'm not a concierge either

From the book My collection author Razumovsky Lev Samsonovich

A pass to the grave of Furtseva Ekaterina Alekseevna came to the ministry with her secretaries and assistants. One of them, Tatyana Nikolaevna Savateeva, I knew well, since after Furtseva's death she became Kukharsky's secretary. Soft and very businesslike, clear in work,

From the book Notes on the Life of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol. Volume 2 author Kulish Panteleimon Alexandrovich

Tovstonogov: “I would move to Moscow, closer to Furtseva” From the diary of Vasily Kukharsky: “Ekaterina Alekseevna more than once had friction with party apparatchiks at meetings of the ideological commission of the Central Committee. Its head, Ilyichev, walked about Furtseva’s “arbitrariness,”

From Furtsev's book. Catherine the Third author Shepilov Dmitry Trofimovich

She made a career "in the world of men". Astrological portrait of Ekaterina Furtseva According to the people, astrologers know everything: about your today, and about your tomorrow, and about yours ... stop, but what about yesterday, the past? With what we think we all know?Authors

From the author's book

Biography, activities of E.A. Furtseva Ekaterina Alekseevna Furtseva was born in 1910 in the city of Vyshny Volochok, Tver province, in a working class family. In 1924 she joined the Komsomol. - at Komsomol work: secretary

From the author's book

Referent Furtseva June 1964. Pereslavl Zalessky. Vasya and I are at the creative dacha named after Kardovsky in a combined group of sculptors from Moscow, Leningrad and other cities of Russia. We lead a wonderful, heavenly life. We are fed, watered, given workshops,

From the author's book

XXXII. Return to Moscow. - Recent letters to family and friends. - Conversation with O.M. Bodyansky. - Death of Mrs. Khomyakova. - Gogol's disease. - Shit. - Burning of manuscripts and death. From Odessa, Gogol moved for the last time to his ancestral village and spent the last time there

From the author's book

Vishnevskaya about Furtseva Ekaterina Alekseevna, becoming a minister, really wanted to get close to actors, musicians, writers. As an inquisitive woman, talented in her own way, culture captured her. Before creative people she was in awe. For example, I know that business

From the author's book

Maya Plisetskaya about Furtseva Ballerina Maya Plisetskaya, in her book, also speaks rather harshly about Furtseva, although she admits that Ekaterina Alekseevna cannot be painted with just one paint, because she herself was a victim of the system that first elevated her to Olympus, and then

From the author's book

Edward Radzinsky about Furtseva And here is what Edward Radzinsky recalls about Furtseva: “I did not sleep all night. And I made up my mind. At half past nine I stood at the ministry, waiting. Finally, the director of Lenkom appeared ... He asked me: - Why did you come? I had the sense to answer: - And me

From the author's book

Oleg Tabakov about Furtseva If Furtseva's relationship with Taganka was not easy, then she helped Sovremennik a lot when they had serious problems. Immediately after she joined the ministry, it became clear that the new minister intended to defend the independence of his

From the author's book

Lyudmila Zykina about Furtseva Ekaterina Alekseevna was friends with Lyudmila Zykina for many years. Lyudmila Georgievna said that they met Furtseva at the airport: Ekaterina Alekseevna saw off her daughter and was very worried. Then Zykina felt how much she

History near and far

On the First Russian television channel showed the series "Furtseva". Many people liked the movie. The authors defined its genre as a historical melodrama. The film is artistic, and its creators fully used their right to speculation. They gave their interpretation of some very controversial facts related to the main character.

We are not going to analyze the series, it is not our task. Let's just say that the interest in the personality of Ekaterina Alekseevna Furtseva is quite large, and numerous responses on the Internet testify to this.

In 2011, the first complete political biography Furtseva, written by Leonid Mlechin. It was published in the series “Life of Remarkable People” (see: L. Mlechin. Furtseva. M., “Young Guard”, 2011). The centenary of the birth of Ekaterina Alekseevna is dedicated to the documentary film by Leonid Mlechin “Ekaterina Furtseva. Woman in a man's game.

Ekaterina Furtseva climbed to such a height in power that no woman had reached either before her in the USSR, or after her in the Russian Federation. Even more - since the time of Catherine the Second, there has not been such a high-ranking lady in Russia. She was a secretary and a member of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU (in 1952-1966, that was the name of the Politburo). She was even firmly entrenched in the nickname Catherine the Third.

It should be noted that during the period of Gorbachev's perestroika, some historians and cultural figures portrayed Furtseva as an illiterate weaver and "cook" who seized power. She supposedly demonstrated that cooks should be kept in the kitchen, otherwise they would “break wood” in such a way that then the consequences of their management would be felt for many decades. However, then they went to the other extreme - they declared her an outstanding statesman who did so much for the development of culture that no one in Russia can compare with her in this respect. In our opinion, as always, the truth lies in the middle.

Ekaterina Alekseevna Furtseva was born on December 7, 1910 in the city of Vyshny Volochek, Tver province, in a working-class family. Her father, in connection with the outbreak of the First World War, was mobilized into the army and died at the front. Mother worked as a weaver in a factory. Katya graduated from the seven-year school and the factory apprenticeship school (FZU), where she received the profession of a weaver. Since 1928, she worked as a weaver at the Bolshevichka factory in Vyshny Volochek. Even in the FZU, she showed herself as an active Komsomol member. At the factory, she was elected secretary Komsomol organization enterprises.

In 1929, by decision of the Central Committee of the Komsomol large group Komsomol activists from the industrial regions were sent to provide assistance to the rural areas of the Central Black Earth Region. Katya also got into this group. She was sent to the Kursk region. Here he was elected secretary of the Korenevsky district committee of the Komsomol. Collectivization had just begun, which Stalin declared a revolution in the countryside. The VLKSM was a reliable assistant to the party. Komsomol members often ran ahead of the party locomotive, driving the peasants to the collective farms, and were especially zealous in the fight against those peasants who were classified as rich, that is, kulaks. In 1930, Furtseva was accepted as a member of the Communist Party.

However, Catherine did not stay here for a long time. She was transferred to the Crimea. And now she is already the secretary of the Feodosia city committee of the Komsomol, then the head of the organizational department and a member of the bureau of the Crimean regional committee of the Komsomol. I often went to Koktebel, where the base of the first Soviet glider pilots was. She also became interested in gliding. And swimming. She was an excellent swimmer. In Koktebel I met the future designer spaceships S. P. Korolev. The regional committee of the party recommended her to the Aeroflot Higher Academic Courses, the lists of students of which were approved by the Organizing Bureau of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. She studied at these courses in Leningrad for three years. After graduation, she was sent to Saratov aviation college assistant chief of the political department for the Komsomol. Here she began an “official” romance with her boss P.I. Bitkov. And soon she married him.

In 1936, Bitkov was transferred to Moscow to the Aeroflot Political Directorate. Ekaterina was offered a job in the Central Committee of the Komsomol as an instructor in the student youth department.

On a Komsomol ticket, without a matriculation certificate, she entered the Moscow Institute of Fine Chemical Technology named after Lomonosov, from which she graduated in 1941. Received a degree in chemical engineering. She studied very mediocre, but excelled in social activities. She was elected the secretary of the party organization of the institute, entered the graduate school.

Furtseva's husband on the first day of the outbreak Patriotic War went to the front, to the active army, or rather to the active aviation. Ekaterina Alekseevna was pregnant, expecting a child. Together with the institute, she was evacuated to Kuibyshev, where she worked as an instructor in the city party committee. In May 1942, she gave birth to a daughter, Svetlana. Only four months after the birth of the child, P. Bitkov's husband arrived on a visit and announced that he now had another woman and another family.

In August 1942, Furtseva returned to Moscow. In November of the same year, she was elected secretary of the Frunze district party committee for personnel. In the months remaining before the end of the year, she became the second secretary and then the first secretary of this district committee. She lived then in a small room with a child, mother and brother, who was a drinker and got into unpleasant stories in connection with this.

Ekaterina Furtseva was strongly promoted by Pyotr Boguslavsky, then the first secretary of the district committee, he helped her start a party career and move up the career ladder. They had a close relationship with Ekaterina Alekseevna. He helped her survive the bitterness of parting with her husband, whom Furtseva loved. However, the “office romance” ended unexpectedly with the fact that she replaced Boguslavsky as the first secretary of the Frunzensky district party committee. In her personal life, too, there have been changes. Catherine met Nikolai Firyubin, whom she later married. He was two years older, worked as a secretary of the Moscow regional committee of the CPSU (b). They began a close relationship, but Firyubin was married and had two children. So they carefully concealed their love, met secretly, but soon it ceased to be a secret for the party public. Nikolai Firyubin was handsome and enjoyed success with women. He filed for divorce only in 1951, however, even after that he married Ekaterina Alekseevna far from immediately. The Kremlin Olympus did not like divorces, especially when it came to major party functionaries.

Having become the first secretary of the Frunze district committee, Ekaterina Alekseevna worked hard and hard on herself. I saw my shortcomings, which I tried to eliminate. At first, she read the reports written for her by the instructors of the district committee haltingly, misinterpreting words, confusing stresses. She began to memorize the texts of performances by heart, rehearsed in front of a mirror, as she once memorized roles in a school drama club, since she had an excellent memory. As a result, her performances were emotional, even somewhat artistic, without a piece of paper. They differed from the speeches of many functionaries who read the reports, burying themselves in the written text and being afraid to take their eyes off it. In 1948, Furtseva graduated in absentia from the Higher Party School under the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks.

Furtseva enjoyed the favor and support of the then First Secretary of the Moscow Regional Committee and the City Party Committee, Georgy Popov. He said to Ekaterina Alekseevna: “The doors of my office are always open for you. Always ready to help you.” And she often came through those doors. In 1949, Stalin carried out another purge of the party apparatus. Popov was replaced by Nikita Khrushchev, who was recalled from Ukraine.

On January 21, 1949, at a solemn mourning meeting dedicated to the 25th anniversary of Lenin's death, N. Shvernik introduced Furtsev to Stalin. The chief honored her with a compliment.

In January 1950, Furtseva made a presentation at a meeting of party activists in the Frunzensky district in connection with the decision of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks “On shortcomings in the work of Comrade. Popov, removed from the posts of the first secretary of the MK and MGK of the CPSU (b) ”and not sparing swear words, she furiously denounced her until recently“ talented leader and mentor ”. Khrushchev attended the Frunze district party conference, where he met Furtseva and fell in love with her. In 1950, he nominated her as the second secretary of the Moscow City Party Committee. She oversaw issues of ideology, culture and science, as well as administrative bodies. Ekaterina Alekseevna now works under the direct supervision of Khrushchev, is his deputy for the leadership of party organizations in Moscow. They communicate almost daily. Nikita Sergeevich is satisfied with Furtseva's work.

When the “Leningrad affair” arose, Furtseva purged Leningraders from the party and Soviet apparatus and even in universities. At the same time, they also removed those who had previously been considered trusted people of Popov. The new broom cleaned out the old footage.

When the “doctors' case” arose, she organized its propaganda support in Moscow, gave instructions to hold rallies, meetings, and publish angry responses from workers. Two days after the publication of the TASS report about the arrest of doctors, Furtseva reported to Khrushchev about the demands of labor collectives: “These cannibals, who have lost all human appearance, must be thrown into molten metal ...” (see: Book of historical sensations. M., 1993).

After Stalin's death, Nikita Khrushchev was elected First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee. Poorly educated, unable to write or read competently, he was, however, a cunning politician, a master of hardware games, who became adept at undercover fighting. He well mastered Stalin's thesis “cadres decide everything” and, having come to power, the first thing he began to place his people in key positions, whom he trusted.

March 29, 1954 Ekaterina Furtseva became the first secretary of the Moscow city committee of the CPSU. Khrushchev directly subordinated the capital's city committee to the Central Committee of the CPSU. He appointed his own man as the “mistress” of Moscow.

The popular rumor that Khrushchev and Furtseva had a close relationship and therefore he promoted her higher and higher (even some of the apparatchiks thought so) is a myth. Its spread was also facilitated by the fact that Khrushchev sent Firyubin far away - first as an ambassador to Czechoslovakia, and then to Yugoslavia. Furtseva, of course, could not go with him. Nikita Sergeevich had enough of his wife. Yes, and she complained to her close friend at the moment of revelation that Nikita Sergeevich had not touched her for many years. He seemed to be so tired of hardware games that he had neither the strength nor the desire for sexual ones. It was hard for Soviet people to believe that a woman could reach such heights only thanks to her abilities, character, and practical mindset. However, Ekaterina Alekseevna owed her career primarily to herself. She had novels and a rather stormy personal life, but this did not have a big impact on her career.

Heading the Moscow city committee, becoming the "mistress of the capital", Ekaterina Alekseevna plunged into business. For example, with its support, construction began in Moscow on a number of large medical centers. The construction of the Mossovet Theater, the operetta theater began, new cinemas appeared. The scale of housing and communal construction has expanded. In 1956-1960. was elected secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU.

Occupying high party posts, she carefully monitored her appearance. She was tall and slim. Beautiful. Every day I did gymnastics, ran, played tennis. She dressed according to the latest fashion of that time with great taste. She was constantly advised by the artist Nadezhda Leger. Some models for her were already made by Vyacheslav Zaitsev. On November 7, 1955, on the day of the anniversary of the October Revolution, the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU held the first big reception in the Kremlin. Furtseva came in a ball gown and waltzed with Voroshilov, Mikoyan and others.

At the famous Twentieth Congress of the CPSU, Furtseva was the first to speak in the debate on Khrushchev's report. Kept on the podium freely. Unlike other speakers, she almost did not look into the text prepared in advance.

In June 1957, a serious internal party crisis arose in the leadership of the CPSU. At a meeting of the Presidium of the Central Committee, Molotov, and then Malenkov, disrupting the discussion of current routine matters, unexpectedly raised the question of Khrushchev's removal from the post of first secretary. He was accused of ignoring the Presidium of the Central Committee, economic illiteracy, a tendency to impulsive, ill-considered actions.

They were supported by Kaganovich, Voroshilov, Bulganin, Pervukhin and Saburov. Molotov and Malenkov's proposal to remove Khrushchev from the post of first secretary passed by seven votes to four. However, Nikita Sergeevich said: “I will not obey this decision. I was elected by the plenum of the Central Committee. Let's call him” (see: D. Volkogonov. Seven Leaders. Book One. M., AST publishing house, 1999).

Khrushchev's supporters - Zhukov, Brezhnev, Furtseva, the then chairman of the KGB Serov and others - managed to ensure the convening of the plenum. Members of the Central Committee were taken by military aircraft to Moscow. Khrushchev was saved, and his opponents were declared an "anti-Party group." Ekaterina Alekseevna took the liveliest part in this acute struggle for power. Maybe even played a key role.

RIA Novosti political observer Nikolai Troitsky, in his article on the centenary of the birth of Furtseva, cites an interesting and piquant fact related to this struggle. Near the meeting room of the Presidium of the Central Committee there was only a men's toilet. The women's one was in the other wing of the building, the round trip took about ten minutes. Absent during the meeting was risky. Furtseva managed to use this circumstance as well. She asked permission to leave for natural reasons and called for help from supporters of Nikita Khrushchev.

However, in the Presidium of the Central Committee, even after the expulsion of the “anti-party group,” not everything was going smoothly. Khrushchev often undertook important actions without consulting anyone. In fact, he had all the power in his hands, and he often abused it.

In 1960, in a telephone conversation with Secretary of the Central Committee Aristov, Ekaterina Alekseevna spoke critically about Nikita Khrushchev, and he became aware of the content of their conversation. He got terribly angry.

In 1960, Furtseva was appointed Minister of Culture of the USSR and held this position until her death in 1974.

In October 1961, the XXII Congress of the CPSU was held. She became a member of the newly elected Central Committee. However, she was not elected a member of the Presidium and Secretary of the Central Committee. For Ekaterina Alekseevna, this was a terrible blow. So stubbornly climbed to the very top of power - and fly off from there. It was hard for her to come to terms with what had happened. Returning home after the meeting, she opened her veins. She lost a lot of blood, but the doctors saved her. As if in protest, she did not appear at the final meeting of the congress, provoking the wrath of Khrushchev. She was summoned for explanations to the Presidium of the Central Committee. What happened there, said the former secretary of the Central Committee N. Mukhitdinov, who was present at this meeting: “She could hardly speak from excitement and tears. Her husband Firyubin, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, who was elected at this congress as a candidate member of the Central Committee, was also summoned. It turned out that he, too, was not present at the final meeting of the congress. Nikita Sergeevich severely scolded him. He said: "As a party worker in the past, as a husband, you had to show the will, the mind - not only to come to the congress yourself, but also to prevent the shameful actions of your wife." He apologized, expressed remorse…” (see N. Mukhitdinov. The River of Times. M, 1995).

Although, compared with the post of secretary of the Central Committee, the post of minister of culture meant a clear demotion in the Soviet and party hierarchy, but for Furtseva it became her finest hour. Many have forgotten her former high position, but everyone remembers her as the Minister of Culture. She has held this position for 14 years. AT Soviet history there were other ministers of culture, for example Alexandrov, Mikhailov, Demichev. But who remembers them? And everyone remembered Furtseva.

In culture and art, Ekaterina Alekseevna did not really understand. Moreover, she could not penetrate into the subtleties. But she greatly appreciated specialists, connoisseurs and always listened to their opinion, to their recommendations. Furtseva was sent by the party, and she always acted in her interests. But, we repeat, I listened to the experts, I used their advice. For example, International musical competition named after Tchaikovsky - the first prize to the American pianist Van Cliburn; International Film Festival in Moscow - Grand Prize of Federico Fellini for the film "Eight and a Half". She did this with the help of pianist Emil Gilels in the first case and film director Grigory Chukhrai in the second. But there were influential “patriots” who argued that the competition in Moscow meant that our Soviet people should be the winner.

You can talk and write a lot about how much good and useful Ekaterina Alekseevna did. She was always remembered kind word such outstanding artists as Svyatoslav Richter, Oleg Efremov, Maya Plisetskaya and many others. How can I not remember the Taganka Theater, which she helped open, and the Sovremennik Theater, which she did not allow to be closed.

Furtseva made, for example, a contribution to the creation of the legendary comedy by Leonid Gaidai “Prisoner of the Caucasus”. Vladimir Etush told: “When the film “Prisoner of the Caucasus” was completed, then unexpectedly, at the first viewing of the picture in the studio, the secretary of the party organization caught the similarity between the names of the hero (Saakhov) and his own. After all, he is Sakov. His conclusion was categorical: “We must re-voice!”. Saved the situation Yuri Nikulin, who went to the Minister of Culture. Furtseva saw him in the waiting room and asked: “What fate? Come on in." To which Nikulin said: “You see, Ekaterina Alekseevna, because of petty ambitions, some people want to disrupt the production plan of the film studio, they didn’t like the surname - and immediately let’s re-voice it. Enormous public money can go down the drain at the whim of a single person. Furtseva grabbed the telephone receiver and barked at all not in a feminine way. “What kind of idiocy is this?” At the other end of the wire they answered: “What are you, what are you, no one raised the question.”

Although, of course, there was something else - rude reprimands, prohibitions and even persecution. We are not going to idealize the Soviet Minister of Culture Furtseva. She served the party and acted in full accordance with its ideology and policies. It could not have been otherwise. And yet, few of the leaders of the Soviet leadership were honored with such bright memories from outstanding cultural figures who were far from the political situation. The writer and art historian Vitaly Vulf said well about Furtseva: “All her struggle for the purity of ideology now looks dubious and insipid, and the originality of character and human talent, the ability to command and be understood seem to be a rare value in the current rational, cold and selfish world, from where he disappeared the most direct spirit of love for art, with which nature endowed Ekaterina Alekseevna Furtseva.

Of course, far from all cultural figures, she left warm memories. For example, Galina Vishnevskaya spoke sharply negatively about her.

In the last years of her life, Furtseva became indifferent to alcohol. There were disagreements in the family, she often quarreled with her husband.

Ekaterina Alekseevna died on October 24, 1974 from heart failure. That was the official message. There is a version that she returned in the evening from a banquet in honor of the anniversary of the Maly Theater and took potassium cyanide. The daughter categorically denies this version. She was found dead in own apartment on Alexei Tolstoy street. However, there is still no definite answer as to how and why this woman died, perhaps the most amazing woman of the Soviet era. She was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery.

Furtseva's husband, Nikolai Firyubin, shortly after her death, married Cleopatra Gogoleva, the widow of the former secretary of the Moscow regional party committee, Alexander Gogolev. Cleopatra, despite her royal name, never held any posts, but she was much younger than Furtseva. They lived in neighboring dachas.

Iosif TELMAN, Candidate of Historical Sciences

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