Family secrets of the Furtsevs. Biography, activities of E.A. Furtseva

Few people would believe that a provincial woman with a seven-grade education and a background as a weaver could become the Minister of Culture. Meanwhile, this happened. When asked what qualities a Soviet leader should have, Stalin answered: “Bullish nerves plus optimism.” Ekaterina Furtseva, who also became the only woman on the Presidium of the Central Committee, besides these two, also had beauty and the ability to preserve femininity.

This combination masculine qualities and boundless charm will be decisive in her fate. It is this that will bring Furtseva fantastic professional success, and in return it will completely devastate her personal life.

MALVINA WITH SOVIET HARDENING

Raisa Gorbachev is considered to be the style icon of the Soviet elite. Ekaterina Furtseva was in no way inferior to the wife of the last Secretary General of the Central Committee. Gracefully dressed, wearing shoes, even if it’s raining outside, with a chignon on her head (this hairstyle will be copied by the people, jokingly calling it “Furtseva for the poor”). And certainly - with a smile. She loved Arpege perfume, dressed from Vyacheslav Zaitsev and even managed to get things from Lanvin. A minister with the appearance of Malvina - that’s what Ekaterina Alekseevna was called on the sidelines of the ministries.

In London, the British osteopath and artist by vocation, Stephen Ward, even gave the female minister a portrait in memory of their 15-minute acquaintance. Ward had a passion for surrounding himself with beautiful women, and this could not help but be felt in his artistic mood. In the portrait there is Ekaterina Alekseevna, but clearly younger than her 52 years. And not statesman, and the flirtatious lady is by no means from the puritanical times of the Soviet Union.

In her native Vyshny Volochyok - a city in the Tula province - Katya completed her seven-year education. Immediately after school I started working at the machine. At the age of 20 she joined the party, a year later she went to Feodosia as secretary of the Komsomol city committee, and from there to Leningrad. Further - progressively: acquaintance with Stalin, Khrushchev, in 1954 she became the first secretary of the Moscow City Committee, and in 1957 - already a member of the Presidium of the Central Committee. She was Minister of Culture for 14 years, and most will remember her in this position. A career boost for Ekaterina Furtseva will be membership in the Politburo.

The fact that in Soviet times high-ranking positions were occupied by “their own” was no secret - the Stalinist expression about cadres is still alive today. Ekaterina Furtseva was no exception here. While Molotov and Malenkov were inciting others to move Khrushchev, she, having gone “out”, called the generals from her personal office and begged them to come and disrupt the impending coup. Through her efforts, members of the Central Committee were summoned to the capital as if on a military alert: by military aircraft. This ensured a happy outcome of the plenum for Khrushchev, and Furtseva herself - the patronage of the Secretary General. She could not even imagine that three years later, having lost her job, she would cut her wrists. Desperate gesture former member The Central Committee, Khrushchev called Furtseva’s attempt to commit suicide a menopause, and appointed Ekaterina Alekseevna herself as Minister of Culture in 1960. In the 70s, envious people began to systematically survive her. Furtseva was almost expelled from the party. Sensing a change in mood in the party, Ekaterina Alekseevna loved to repeat: “No matter what happens, no matter what they say about me, I will die as a minister.” And the position of minister will remain with her until her death.

SECRETARIAT TIME

Once Stalin joked in a small circle: “History is divided into three periods - matriarchy, patriarchy and secretariat...”. The secretariat period was associated with the name of Ekaterina Furtseva. While still secretary of the Moscow City Committee, she took control of construction at Luzhniki, reconstructed the VDNKh complex, and launched the construction of Khrushchev apartment buildings. It was thanks to Furtseva’s workaholism and inexhaustible energy that it became possible to resettle millions of residents of communal apartments into separate, albeit small, apartments, which seemed to people a real paradise.

In the midst cold war this woman helped Van Cliburn award First Prize at the International P.I. Competition. Tchaikovsky, resumed the Moscow International Film Festival, thanks to personal connections in the artistic world, returned to Soviet Union legacy of the Roerichs.

MISTRESS OF MOSCOW

They said a lot about the “mistress” of Moscow. There were rumors about her stormy personal life and numerous patrons, an affair with Khrushchev, and gaps in education and not too broad an outlook became the subject of evil jokes. From time to time, Furtseva really got carried away. She could, for example, demand the invention of a vaccine against cancer by May 1, and the release of a drug against tuberculosis by November 7. What she lacked in general knowledge she more than made up for in perseverance. Her instructions had to be carried out unquestioningly and on time. And they were fulfilled. The pace of housing construction in Moscow stunned even advanced Western European countries. At the very as soon as possible a stadium was built in Luzhniki - on the very spot where there had previously been a huge pit with a landfill.

The Minister of Construction Materials Industry, Pavel Yudin, said: “I would not be a minister if I did not support the leader of the Moscow Communists, and I would not be a man if I let such a charming woman down.”

Why was Ekaterina Furtseva removed from the Politburo? Khrushchev’s beginning of his “corn epic” is associated with her appointment as first secretary; There are opinions that Ekaterina Alekseevna had the courage to criticize the Secretary General and paid for it. Someone believes that Khrushchev periodically removed people who did not meet his expectations, and about the first secretary he did not hesitate to say: “a fool.” Somewhere she really lacked intelligence, somewhere - tact, but Ekaterina Furtseva will remain in the post of Minister of Culture for 14 (!) years. During this time he will break a lot of wood, but he will do much more useful things.

…THIS IS THE MINISTRY OF CULTURE

Many probably remember the Soviet joke about the laundry. For those who don’t know, he owes his appearance to Ekaterina Furtseva. Not being a hostage to party guidelines, having become a minister, she immediately made it known what party leadership was. At its meetings, which were traditionally held on Mondays, employees of the Ministry of Culture gathered as if for an execution. We knew that we would not avoid a blowout. The minister scolded deputies and heads of departments so much that they left the office as if they were leaving a bathhouse – red and with swollen eyelids; but she was kind to her subordinates.

Her unbridled ardor also affected transformations. Just as she selflessly participated in the persecution of Pasternak, banned Rastropovich and censored the exhibition of avant-garde artists in the Manege, so she brought the works of Sorin and Benois to the country, favored Zykina, Magomayev, Vishnevskaya, and did not allow Oleg Efremov, for whom she had platonic feelings, to fall into disgrace. His play “Bolsheviks” was banned by censorship, but with the permission of Ekaterina Alekseevna, it was staged at Sovremennik for six months and even went on tour to Bulgaria, where it was an incredible success.

ALL GODDESSES ARE LIKE TOADSBELLS...

Furtseva was not devoid of artistry. Valery Zolotukhin, for example, caught the Maretskaya school in her oratorical style: “If I didn’t know that it was Furtseva who was going broke in the hall, I would have thought of Vera Petrovna - the same affectionate, aspirated intonations, absolutely the same emotional jerk, bordering on rudeness, and then again there is languor in the voice - you are my dears...” Furtseva was not favored at the Taganka Theater. Andrei Voznesensky wrote during one of her visits: “All goddesses are like toadstools before the women from Taganka!” This inscription was displayed across only the plastered wall in Yuri Lyubimov’s office. Ekaterina Alekseevna felt negative sentiments towards herself, but as a minister she did not take it out on the offenders, and if she forbade something, it was because she could not do otherwise. Whatever they say, there was much more human in her than party.

PERSONAL TRAGEDY

When they say that Ekaterina Furtseva died of a heart attack, it’s hard to believe. Apparently, her long-standing attempt to commit suicide leaves its mark. Adored by fans and successful, she was terribly lonely in her personal life. She divorced her first husband, pilot Pyotr Bitkov, after he found out that his daughter Svetlana was not his own. She lived in a marriage with diplomat Nikolai Firyubin for 18 years. Firyubin, apparently, used Ekaterina Alekseevna for his career interests. He always felt that he was inferior and in his old age he often repeated: “It’s bad to be a grandfather, but it’s even worse to be the husband of a grandmother.” Ekaterina Alekseevna tried to please Firyubin in everything and continued to live with him, even knowing about his young mistress and constant betrayals.

It was important for Ekaterina Furtseva to keep her face. It seemed to her that many of those around her were waiting for a sign of weakness on her part, and she tried with all her might not to show it. Having learned about her expulsion from the Politburo, she tried to open her veins, but then she was saved. Presumably, on the day of her death, she should have learned that she was being removed from the post of minister and sent to retirement, and Firyubin was leaving the family. In her close circle there was talk about her unhappy affair with the director of La Scala, Antonio Ghiringheli - another injury - and even about alcohol abuse.

There were different versions of her death. The fact that the minister decided to commit suicide and swallowed potassium cyanide is perhaps the most common. But there were also those who assumed that Furtseva had suffered a heart attack. One way or another, the official version remains acute heart failure. “Bullish nerves” and “optimism,” which never failed Ekaterina Furtseva in her work, turned out to be treacherously powerless in her personal life.

Minister of Culture Ekaterina Furtseva I had been standing under the windows of the maternity hospital on Vesnina Street for almost an hour. The November wind came in gusts, trying to whip sleet into her eyes, and she was completely chilled in her thin French coat. The time was approaching midnight. Finally, a nurse came out and said it wouldn’t be long yet. Ekaterina Alekseevna turned around, got into the car and drove home.

Peter and Catherine

In the morning Svetlana, overcoming weakness, rose from the bed and walked to the window. From the height of the third floor she saw a familiar fur hat, a black coat with a small fur collar. “Mom, dear mommy, she’s here, nearby.” Svetlana felt a surge of extraordinary tenderness for her mother. Now she, Svetlana, has become a mother, now there are three of them, and a new strong knot has begun between them.

In the Kremlin maternity hospital, the rules were even more draconian than in the ordinary one, so Ekaterina Alekseevna could not see either her daughter or granddaughter, but only made sure that the birth went well.

Mother in law Alexandra Konstantinovna I never wanted my granddaughter to be named Ekaterina, and when Svetlana and her newborn appeared at home, the name was already ready: Marina.

- If a boy were born, you wouldn’t name him Frol? - said the mother-in-law to Svetlana, referring to her husband, a member of the Politburo Frol Romanovich Kozlov.

Svetlana and her husband Oleg lived with his parents. Childbirth slowed down her studies at the university, Svetlana developed “tails” in some disciplines, and she was in no hurry to get rid of them. But one morning I heard phone call and her mother’s cheerful, but at the same time demanding voice sobered her up:

“Do you think that if you left me and now live behind a high fence, then I won’t get you?” Come on, hand over all the “tails” immediately!

Svetlana was always surprised how her mother, with such busyness and responsibility in the service, managed to keep abreast of her life and promptly support, advise, and help. Even when Sveta was little, tangerines that were rare at that time or a lovely French fur coat suddenly appeared in the house - while her mother was not even in Moscow, she was abroad. Sveta always felt her invisible, affectionate presence.

Furtseva did not visit the Kozlovs often. Having arrived to congratulate Svetlana on the birth of her daughter, Ekaterina Alekseevna, looking with tenderness at Marinka sleeping in a blanket, said: “Let her have my last name, she will help her...” Furtseva knew what she was saying.

Svetlana was a baby when she returned from the front - this was in 1942 - on leave Petr Bitkov and stunned his wife with the news: he was leaving her, at the front he “fell in love with someone else.” And an eleven-year marriage, built on reciprocity, trust, and common interests, collapsed overnight. Peter and Ekaterina met at the Higher Flight Courses in Leningrad, where Furtseva was sent to study through the Komsomol. In the thirties, young people were raving about airplanes and flying was very prestigious. Catherine and Peter soon got married. But their mutual love was overshadowed by only one thing: time passed, and there were no children. Ekaterina Alekseevna did not blame her husband for ruining her life, although in essence it was so, she left him a room on Krasnoselskaya and, swaddling four-month-old Svetlana, left with a suitcase wherever she looked, hoping that fate would still smile on her. Catherine was thirty-two and had to start her life over. At that time, she experienced changes not only in her personal life. Leaving science, she graduated from the institute and graduate school of the Faculty of Fine Arts chemical technology, - Furtseva went to party work, becoming the second secretary of the Frunzensky district party committee.

Borsch at the Khrushchevs'

Svetlana was washed, combed, a huge pink bow placed on her head, and dressed in a new pink dress. All this meant that he and his mother were going to visit. Ekaterina Alekseevna explained to her seven-year-old daughter how she should behave at the table. They were going to lunch Khrushchev. Svetlana will remember for the rest of her life the incredibly delicious Ukrainian borscht with pampushki, which the hospitable person treated them to at the table. Nikita Sergeevich.

After death Stalin, when Khrushchev led the country, Ekaterina Furtseva played a very important role in his destiny. In 1957, a group of party comrades, led by the trio Kaganovich — Malenkov — Molotov, organized a conspiracy to remove Khrushchev from the post of First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee. Ekaterina Furtseva - then the first secretary of the Moscow City Committee and a candidate member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee - sincerely believed in Khrushchev as a progressive leader of the party and the country and saved him. She very quickly, within two hours, gathered everyone in the Kremlin who could support Khrushchev, and the plot failed. Furtseva then became a member of the Politburo. In 1960, Ekaterina Alekseevna married her daughter to the son of Politburo member Kozlov, and the entire party elite walked at this wedding.

The Kozlovs saw Svetlana for the first time in the spring of the same year, when the government delegation arrived in India. Furtseva took her daughter with her. She always did this when circumstances allowed - she wanted to show her the world. Alexandra Konstantinovna Kozlova really liked the white, graceful, well-mannered Svetlana, and a plan arose in her mind to introduce her son Oleg to her.

Upon returning to Moscow, the young people met, and Svetlana was instantly captivated by the tall, dark-haired young man. Oleg looked after her beautifully and gave bouquets. It was warm April, they walked until late, saying goodbye for a long time at the entrance to Granovsky Street, where Ekaterina Furtseva then lived with her second husband, a diplomat. They said goodbye until the grandmother called Svetlana home from the balcony. Oleg proposed two weeks later. Furtseva took the news as a mother should: “Think, daughter. What are your plans for the future?

“But,” recalls Svetlana, “at that moment, it seems, I completely lacked the ability to think.”

The wedding took place at the state dacha. Svetlana was wearing a small, waist-length, pastel-colored dress made of the most beautiful Indian fabric, decorated with small, small stones. Among the guests were Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev with wife and daughter Galey, Anastas Mikoyan with daughter-in-law Eley, Khrushchev with his wife, daughter Rada and son-in-law Alexey Adzhubey, a famous journalist. Nikita Sergeevich presented Svetlana with a bottle of French perfume and a young lady doll in a luxurious long white dress.

Domostroy

As soon as Peter left the family, her mother, grandmother, came to Furtseva Matryona- and began to raise her granddaughter. Ekaterina Alekseevna gave Svetlana a brilliant education for those times: music, English. Svetlana and her grandmother were rarely on Granovsky Street; more often they lived at a government-owned dacha - the presence of their stepfather introduced some dissonance into their tight-knit group of women. Nikolai Pavlovich Firyubin he believed that Catherine loved her daughter “too much,” and besides, he was annoyed by his mother-in-law, who was never able to love her new son-in-law. His wife was the Minister of Culture and a member of the Politburo, but at home her husband tried to be in charge. “Katya, salt,” he expressively pointed with his eyes at the salt shaker, which stood at a distance from him on the table. And yet Svetlana loved the apartment on Granovsky, the living room, upholstered in damask, the fireplace - her mother knew how to make it cozy. The happiest days were when her mother took her on vacation. Then she belonged entirely to Svetlana. They sometimes even slept in the same bed, because there was so much to say to each other that the day was not enough and they did not want to be separated even for a few hours of sleep.

It happened that while we were going down to the sea—Furtseva was relaxing in the sanatorium of the CPSU Central Committee in Sochi—counting down one hundred and fifty steps, Svetlana managed to ask all the questions and get answers. And downstairs, acquaintances and friends were already waiting. Svetlana lay on the beach and, through the slits of her closed eyelids, watched her mother, who was deep in conversation with her actress friend Lyubov Orlova. They talked about their own things, about women’s things, about how it’s good for your figure to swim three hours a day and play tennis every day, and if necessary, you can take radical measures - get facial plastic surgery. Svetlana looked secretly at both of them, so long-legged, tanned, slender, and thought from the height of her fifteen years: “Well, if at that age you can look like your mother or Lyubov Petrovna, then I still have my whole life ahead of me.”

Svetlana had never seen her mother’s tears. Only during the days of the conspiracy was there a strong, alarming tension felt at home. Furtseva fenced off her daughter from everything, and Svetlana saw only the ceremonial side of her life. Joint trips to Yugoslavia, India, Japan, England, France looked like a fairy tale: mother, beautiful, elegant, next to the top officials of the states, surrounded by celebrities.

Italian actresses Gina Lollobrigida (left) and Marisa Merlini, USSR Minister of Culture Ekaterina Furtseva during the II Moscow International Film Festival. Photo: RIA Novosti / Mikhail Ozersky

Betrayal

Literally a year after Khrushchev attended Svetlana’s wedding, he betrayed Furtseva. Ekaterina Alekseevna learned that she had been removed from the Politburo when the new list of its members was read out at the next XXII Congress of the CPSU. Her name was not there. Perhaps, only at that moment did she fully realize how she then, in 1957, risked herself, Svetlana. After all, she stood alone against the conspirators, there was no one behind her: no friends, no strong patron. Svetlana was the last to learn that her mother tried to commit suicide by opening her veins. Ekaterina Alekseevna saw her daughter in the hospital when the threat to her life had passed and she was already in complete control of herself.

“The worst thing in life, daughter, is betrayal,” Furtseva said quietly and sadly.

While Ekaterina Alekseevna was in the hospital, her family was kicked out of the state dacha, their car was taken away and their privileges were deprived. Furtseva was “entrusted” only with the post of Minister of Culture. This was a demotion from the power she had enjoyed as a member of the Politburo. Frol Romanovich Kozlov suffered a stroke at that time and was partially paralyzed. Looking at his one-year-old granddaughter crawling on the carpet, he became younger at heart, and his strength returned to him again. One day he told his family:

— Brezhnev called, changes must have occurred. Previously he called and asked permission to come, but now he simply stated that he was going.

The assumption turned out to be correct; soon they “asked” Frol Romanovich from the Politburo. Ahead was the same procedure for depriving her of her dacha, car and privileges as Furtseva. Soon after this, Kozlov suffered a second stroke and did not live long...

Close to film stars

Khrushchev was also removed. And Furtseva, as Minister of Culture, remained as independent, influential and independent as in high party positions. Ekaterina Alekseevna quickly recovered from the shock, and, looking at her, no one could have imagined how much she had to endure. She made herself: she dressed in Paris, played tennis, and in 1965 she decided to plastic surgery. I had the operation in Moscow and immediately flew off on vacation to Sochi. She returned tanned, rejuvenated, and no one even suspected anything. Moving among the stars of world cinema, constantly being in the public eye, attending receptions with kings and queens, Furtseva behaved very naturally. She boldly took pictures with film stars, without fear that she would look worse than them.

The cultural life of the country under the leadership of Furtseva has transformed. Ekaterina Alekseevna loved cinema very much and, having become acquainted with French art in Paris, fell in love with both the city and its inhabitants. Weeks of French and Italian cinema have begun in Moscow. The public, hungry for premieres, flocked to the cinemas. It has become good practice to understand the art of Western cinema. The famous Milan opera house La Scala came on tour. Exhibitions of French impressionists opened in Moscow. On Furtseva’s initiative, during these years a new ballet school building, a new Moscow Art Theater, a Circus on Vernadsky Avenue, and a Children’s Musical Theater under the direction of Natalia Sats. Perhaps this period was the happiest in her life.

She still took her daughter with her. Svetlana easily ran to her mother at the ministry in a free minute. An interesting group gathered at her dacha in Peredelkino: a close friend Vera Maretskaya- Ekaterina Alekseevna knew how to make friends, she kept her friends for many years, - close friends of the writer Konstantin Simonov, actor Rostislav Plyatt, director Yuri Zavadsky. Ekaterina Alekseevna went on vacation to Valdai. There she did not live in a sanatorium, but, taking a tent and a boat, settled in nature, by the lake, and spent hours fishing for fish, from which the entire sanatorium was then treated to fish soup.

After five years of marriage, Svetlana suddenly met true love. Igor just like her, he worked at the APN, translated from English, and wrote poetry. A mutual feeling arose between them, but Igor also had a family, and for three years the lovers tormented each other, not daring to take the last step.

“Look at yourself,” Ekaterina Alekseevna said to her daughter, “you’ve already completely dissolved in him, you’re no longer there.”

She, of course, understood her daughter, because she herself married Svetlana’s father out of great love. But at the same time, in a purely feminine way, she tried to warn: “Svetlana, I was alone for ten years, I know what loneliness is, when you’re alone all the holidays, all the weekends.” And when Svetlana finally left her husband, Ekaterina Alekseevna said: “There can’t even be any talk of any alimony. Are we not capable of raising one child?” Having married Igor, Svetlana moved somewhat away from her mother - now she all belonged to her beloved. Ekaterina Alekseevna was upset by this, she was sad, because her second marriage was not very happy. She felt especially lonely when Grandma Matryona died.

On that last day, she stopped by her daughter late in the evening. Svetlana and Igor had guests. Ekaterina Alekseevna sat for a while and got ready to go home. Later, Svetlana called her - feeling embarrassed that she had paid little attention to her mother because of the guests, she asked if everything was okay. It seemed to her that her mother’s voice was strange, but she assured her that “everything is fine” and that she was going to bed. “See you tomorrow,” she said as usual.

After midnight the guests left. Svetlana washed the dishes and was just heading to the bathroom when the phone rang. My stepfather called.

“Mom is no more,” he deafened Svetlana with the news.

Svetlana was given a death certificate, which stated that her death was the result of acute heart failure. Until now, Svetlana does not know for sure whether this is really so...

At the funeral, Pyotr Bitkov was very upset. He told Svetlana that all his life he had loved “only one Katya.” Soon after Furtseva’s death, he too passed away. And Nikolai Firyubin got married a month after the funeral.

Oleg Tabakov: “She was first and foremost a woman”

At that time, a woman in the supreme authorities was an unrealistic phenomenon. This is the phenomenon of Ekaterina Alekseevna. And for me, she was, first of all, an amazingly beautiful and wise woman.

Ekaterina Alekseevna repeatedly covered her back Oleg Efremov. He, being sinful like all of us, sometimes allowed himself to deviate from the norm in drinking alcohol. Often I was simply on the verge of a foul. I know how twice she averted trouble from him. And in 1970 he was appointed chief director of the Moscow Art Theater. With the support of Furtseva. Someone had to vouch for him, and this is not easy. The struggle between the city party committee and the Ministry of Culture was very tough. One member of the Moscow City Committee even suggested that I hand over Oleg, presenting evidence of his “illness.” I called Ekaterina Alekseevna, told about this, she asked me: “Did you send her?” I say yes!" - “That’s how it should be!” And I must say, she managed to see the correctness of her decision - the first decades of Oleg’s activity were extremely active, interesting, and varied. He attracted perhaps the best troupe in the Soviet Union at that time: Smoktunovsky, Evstigneev. And the most interesting, persecuted and persecuted direction: Lev Dodin, Kama Ginkas. I had to decide on this! If Oleg did not have the support of Ekaterina Alekseevna, it is unlikely that the Moscow Art Theater would have such a story. I repeat, a WOMAN did all this!

I was not yet 35 when I was appointed director of the Sovremennik Theater. How? Not without her knowledge, of course. Furtseva was very sympathetic and Galke Volchek. She, a Jew, a non-party member, a woman, was nevertheless approved for the position of chief director of Sovremennik. Again, not without the help of Ekaterina Alekseevna. If a person aroused her trust, his nationality and party affiliation were not important. Ekaterina Alekseevna was quite good at taking the steering wheel. At the same time, she was a cheerful, crafty person, but not cunning. She knew she was beautiful. This was reflected in the way she dressed: she wore nylon blouses with a black shoe lace - it seemed that it couldn’t be more severe, but she was still very feminine. And this either exists or it doesn’t, regardless of the position.

Igor Kvasha: “We called her mom, mom”

They wanted to close our Sovremennik theater. No one dared to speak out against it. Mom (Ekaterina Furtseva) soon returned from the trip and called me, Galya Volchek, Nina Doroshina and Oleg Efremov. She was a very harsh person, but from the very beginning she surprised us: “Oh, is that you Efremov? Of course, of course, I know you. We met at the plenums of the district committee.” She was the first secretary of the Frunzensky district committee, and Oleg was the secretary of the Komsomol organization of the Children's Theater in the same area.

The conversation was tough: we need to close the theater, you are doing God knows what. And we sit with indifferent faces - they will close it anyway - we only answer “yes” or “no” and almost yell at her. We were young, and we had nothing to lose. And Furtseva is completely calm, although, probably, no one has ever talked to her like that. And suddenly she changes the tone of the conversation: “So you made the play “Burglars of Silence” about the old Bolsheviks. Do you know how many of them are left? - and tears well up in her eyes. - There are only four and a half thousand of them. Guys, how do you discredit them?” And wipes away tears, real ones!

She probably thought that she would yell at us, we would be scared of her, and then she would give us the building. And then the conversation turned completely different - affectionate, with tears, with some kind of penetration: “We are giving you a building on Mayakovsky Square, but we still ask you to take into account our rules, take into account how difficult the situation is in the country.” And we weren't closed!

On November 14, Channel One began broadcasting the multi-part film "Furtseva. The Legend of Catherine."

This is a historical melodrama about Ekaterina Alekseevna Furtseva, a woman who reached the heights of power in the USSR (she was the country's Minister of Culture for 14 years). From a provincial girl to the mistress of Moscow, a member of the government... Both the life and death of Ekaterina Alekseevna are shrouded in myths and legends that are remembered to this day.

Last year, Russia celebrated the centenary of the birth of Ekaterina Alekseevna. By this date, the same Channel One presented Oleg Shtrom’s three-part film “Catherine III”. And on the TV Center channel they showed a film from the series “Kremlin Secrets” - “Ekaterina Furtseva. Her throat is delirious with a razor.” Author and presenter - Leonid Mlechin. He is also the author of the painting "Ekaterina Furtseva. A Woman in a Man's Game." And these are not all the paintings that Leonid Mlechin dedicated to the mysterious fate of Ekaterina Alekseevna. Moreover, Leonid Mlechin’s book “Furtseva” was published in the ZhZL series of the Molodaya Gvardiya publishing house. That is why, before the start of the show of the new series, RG turned to this author - who else but he will help the viewer figure out where the truth is and where is speculation, and what is worth knowing about such an extraordinary woman who was Ekaterina Furtseva, and her historical role in the development of our country.

Susanna Alperina

competently

Leonid Mlechin:

Ekaterina Furtseva “They also wore my portraits, and now I’m sitting with you”

Ekaterina Alekseevna Furtseva was the first woman to be part of the country's leadership. She was one of those few who determined the fate of our state. Furtseva made her way in a society that did not encourage women's rapid careers. But why did she fall into disgrace and, unable to cope with her emotions, try to die? Real story Furtseva’s life is hidden behind many myths...

Ekaterina Alekseevna Furtseva was born on November 24 (December 7, new style) 1910 in the city of Vyshny Volochek, Tver province. Her father, Alexey Gavrilovich, a metal worker, was drafted into the tsarist army as soon as the World War, and died in the first battles. The girl practically did not remember Alexei Gavrilovich. And yet, it was the loss of her father that was the trauma that left its mark on Ekaterina Alekseevna’s entire future life. She was afraid of being abandoned, rejected, abandoned. The mother, Matryona Nikolaevna, never remarried and raised her son and daughter alone. She was a woman with temperament and character. Ekaterina Alekseevna inherited her mother’s character, inner strength. And yet the carefully hidden feeling of helplessness remained in her forever. The brick barracks where Ekaterina Furtseva grew up still stands today.

In 1925, she graduated from the seven-year school and entered the factory apprenticeship school, learning to be a weaver. At the age of fifteen she began to work at the loom, which is why the nickname “weaver”, which was offensive to her, the future Minister of Culture, stuck with her. Ekaterina Alekseevna will always be remembered for working at the machine - and in an arrogant and contemptuous manner, although the need to start working early does not evoke anything but respect and sympathy.

Mom, I love the pilot

Physically well-developed, dexterous, athletic, Ekaterina Furtseva fully corresponded to the expectations of the era. True, the twenties and thirties were a time of Puritanism. Sexuality is not a topic for discussion. And she is unable to hide her femininity, her desire to love and be loved. So she will be torn between the desire to be in no way inferior to the stronger sex and the unconscious desire to meet a real man.

Ekaterina Furtseva quickly found herself in a leading Komsomol job. She achieved that she was sent to the Higher academic courses Aeroflot. True, the distribution after the courses turned out to be not so successful. 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 she fell in love with the pilot Pyotr Ivanovich Bitkov. In the thirties, pilots, surrounded by a romantic aura, enjoyed particular success among women. In addition, flight instructor Pyotr Bitkov, they say, was a prominent and interesting man.

The young family did not stay in Saratov. In 1936, pilot Bitkov was transferred to the political department civil aviation, and the young family moved to Moscow. Furtseva also found work in the capital - she was hired by the Komsomol Central Committee as an instructor in the student youth department. She joined the Komsomol Central Committee at the height of the repressions that actually blocked normal work all institutions and institutions of the country. In 1937, there were arrests of Komsomol leaders, but she quickly left the Central Committee. She was sent to study at the Moscow Institute of Fine Chemical Technology named after M.V. Lomonosov. A student with experience in political work was elected secretary of the institute’s party committee, so her studies took a back seat. Furtseva received her diploma of higher education as a chemical engineer in 1941, on the eve of the war.

Office romance with the district committee secretary

The beginning of the Great Patriotic War turned out to be doubly tragic for Furtseva. Her husband went to the front in the first days of the war. But he also left the family, although it was during the war that they had a long-awaited child. Ekaterina Alekseevna dreamed of children, but became pregnant only after eleven years of marriage. Like many things in Furtseva’s life, the circumstances surrounding the birth of her daughter were overgrown with myths. They said that it was not the husband who was the father of the child, which is why the insulted Pyotr Bitkov left the family... They also say something else. Pyotr Ivanovich, as happened with many young men who went into the army, separated from their wives for a long time, met another woman at the front and fell in love. This is more like the truth, because Pyotr Ivanovich did not abandon his daughter; on the contrary, he retained his father’s feelings for her until the end of his life.

Frightened by loneliness and uncertainty, Ekaterina Alekseevna was ready to get rid of the child. Mother came to the rescue. Matryona Nikolaevna came to her and remained with Ekaterina Alekseevna until the end of her days.

1942 was a memorable year for Ekaterina Alekseevna in all respects. Her daughter Svetlana was born, and the first secretary of the Frunzensky district party committee, Pyotr Vladimirovich Boguslavsky, noticed her and took her into his apparatus. Thus began Furtseva’s party career, which would lead her to the pinnacle of power. Furtseva developed a special relationship with Boguslavsky. They say that Pyotr Vladimirovich appreciated not only her business, but also her feminine virtues, which is not surprising: young Furtseva was very pretty - bright, slender, with a stormy temperament. It is difficult to discuss what happened between Pyotr Vladimirovich and Ekaterina Alekseevna. They didn't tell it themselves. Office romances are as similar to each other as two peas in a pod... The shared work brought us closer together and brought pleasure. But such a romance can hardly suit a woman for long. A man is happy to have both a wife and a mistress. And women don’t want to stay in this role forever. They need real family. So, office romances end as soon as a man and a woman stop working together...

"I must report to Comrade Stalin"

When, after the war, the party apparatus was cleared of Jews, Peter Boguslavsky was sent to study. Furtseva took his place in the district committee. The party apparatus was almost entirely male. She learned not to be timid in a male group, was not embarrassed by jokes of a certain nature, could drink decently and, if necessary, tell her mother. At the same time, she did not forget that an attractive woman also has other means of influencing the male team. The beautiful and friendly woman behaved at ease, without a bossy pose, but with businesslike confidence.

In the capital city she was valued as a master of public events. Whether it was about clearing the district apparatus of immigrants from the Northern capital at the height of the gloomy “Leningrad affair”, or about propaganda support for the equally shameful “doctor’s case”, Ekaterina Alekseevna invariably was ahead of her fellow secretaries. She, for example, demanded that institutes located in the region “invent a vaccine by May 1 and completely eliminate cancer, and release an effective drug against tuberculosis by November 7. Are you studying childhood measles? Work so that by the next bureau of the district committee there will be no measles ... “(See the book “Party Governor” of Moscow, Georgy Popov, published by the capital’s archival department.”) “I must be the first to report to Comrade Stalin about our victories,” repeated the district committee secretary Furtseva.

Mistress of Moscow

Khrushchev highly appreciated Furtseva and made her the mistress of Moscow in 1954. No woman before her had headed such a large party organization. There were very few women in high positions. There was nothing personal in Khrushchev’s attitude towards Furtseva, no matter what they said then. Nikita Sergeevich remained faithful to his wife and established exclusively business relationships with persons of the opposite sex.

Ekaterina Alekseevna undertook to restore order in the city. At the plenum of the city committee, she honestly said that city leaders don’t care much about empty shelves:

The whole problem is that we ourselves don’t go and buy these things, they go and buy them for us. Therefore, we find out about it too late, and our customers remember us with bad words. Outrageous facts in pharmacies - there is no cotton wool! In February - March there was no ice in pharmacies. Hospitals and clinics turned to pharmacies, but there was no plaster. There are no mustard plasters! Mineral water not visible in the pharmacy. Why? I will say - you drive past these institutions in cars, so you don’t know the situation...

Ekaterina Alekseevna spoke with anger and indignation about the dirt on the streets:

We have decisions to create children’s playgrounds, but in the courtyards there are puddles, rotten water, and children walk around these puddles... You can’t treat Muscovites so rudely...

The success at work was complemented by the personal happiness that was finally found. When Ekaterina Alekseevna worked in the Moscow party apparatus, she fell in love with a fellow secretary, Nikolai Pavlovich Firyubin. He was considered capricious and spoiled by female attention. The romance between Furtseva and Firyubin was the subject of gossip in Moscow. In those days, divorce was not encouraged. A woman had to play one role - a selfless wife and mother. Mistress is a negative concept. Nikolai Pavlovich was in no hurry to break with his old life and leave his family. Ekaterina Alekseevna was worried. When marriage became possible, Ekaterina Alekseevna was happy. As soon as Ekaterina Alekseevna and Nikolai Pavlovich began to live together, big politics intervened. Firyubin was sent as ambassador to Czechoslovakia. Then they transferred to Belgrade. The ambassador is always accompanied by his wife. But Ekaterina Alekseevna did not want to sacrifice her career and give up her role as the mistress of Moscow. She was worried, she didn’t want to let her young husband go for a long time, but she didn’t go with him either. Of course, Nikolai Pavlovich would prefer to see his wife nearby. But being married to Furtseva herself also flattered his vanity. Ekaterina Alekseevna could be called the first lady of the country, since the wives of state leaders remained in the shadows.

Rise and Fall

The 20th Party Congress played a special role in the life of our country. For Ekaterina Alekseevna, the congress turned out to be doubly important - she was elevated to the pinnacle of political power. At the organizational plenum of the Central Committee on February 27, 1956, Khrushchev made her secretary of the Central Committee and a candidate member of the presidium. It was not for nothing that Nikita Sergeevich considered Furtseva his man and promoted her. Ekaterina Alekseevna came to Khrushchev’s aid when, in the summer of 1957, the “old guard” - Molotov, Malenkov, Kaganovich and Bulganin - decided to overthrow Nikita Sergeevich. Khrushchev turned his opponents into an “anti-party group” and expelled them from the Presidium of the Central Committee. The vacant seats were taken by those who supported Nikita Sergeevich.

On June 29, 1957, he made Ekaterina Alekseevna Furtseva a full member of the Presidium of the Central Committee. The next time a woman will join the Politburo will be under Gorbachev. As a gift, Khrushchev returned her husband to Ekaterina Alekseevna and appointed Nikolai Firyubin as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. Furtseva remained at the pinnacle of power for only three years. The fall from Olympus came as a complete surprise to her. On May 4, 1960, she lost her post as Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee. Khrushchev ordered her appointment as Minister of Culture. But for more than a year, until the XXII Party Congress, Furtseva remained a member of the Presidium of the Central Committee. Perhaps she expected that her disgrace would be short-lived. Or maybe she believed that Nikita Sergeevich would at least retain her party title. Then the ministerial post is not scary. The main thing is to participate in meetings of the Presidium of the Central Committee, where all important issues are resolved.

But at the congress she was no longer included in the Presidium of the Central Committee. It was a terrible blow for her. They said that upon returning home, Furtseva locked herself in the bathroom. A friend came to visit her and was surprised that they didn’t open the door for her. Sounded the alarm. They broke down the door and found Furtseva bleeding. She was saved... Furtseva had some hopes when in 1964 Khrushchev was removed from all positions. But Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev did not favor her and did not return her to party work. Ekaterina Alekseevna did not come to terms with the fall until the end of her life. She once said in her hearts to Yuri Petrovich Lyubimov, the chief director of the Taganka Theater:

Do you think you're the only one in trouble? After all, they also wore my portraits, and now, you see, I’m sitting here and talking to you.

Patriotism of a drunken mechanic

In the party leadership of those years everyone was dogmatic. But Ekaterina Furtseva was sorely lacking in general culture and education, so her speeches on ideological topics made a particularly gloomy impression. From July 28 to August 11, 1957, the World Festival of Youth and Students was held in Moscow, which became a huge event. Never before has there been such widespread and virtually uncontrolled communication with foreigners. The authorities themselves were scared and scared others. On the eve of the festival, Ekaterina Alekseevna warned Moscow officials:

There are rumors that they will deliver infectious diseases. Vaccinations have begun. At the same time, there were four cases of some kind of injections in stores, when a girl was standing in line for groceries, a man comes up and injects her into her arm. The victims are in hospital and are in good condition. This is being done by the enemies to create panic instead of triumph... The main thing is that we underestimate the Soviet people and their patriotism. In winter, a delegation of Americans came, among the delegates was an intelligence correspondent. They are walking around Moscow and see a drunk. The correspondent took a photograph of him, asked who he was, and addressed him in broken Russian: “Where do you work, how much do you earn, you don’t look very decent, you probably live poorly.” To this the worker replied: “I live very well, I have a wife, a family, everyone is well off, there’s even money left over for vodka. Come and visit me, I’ll treat you.” When our representatives went to this worker to find out who he was, it turned out that he was a simple repairman, living eight meters away in a semi-basement with a family of five people. After that we gave him an apartment. A drunk man could retort like that. Our people are more patriotic than other nations...

You could come to her

The minister had considerable power in his hands. But every decision was fraught with a threat to my career. Party officials were incredibly retrograde when it came to culture and art. And they reproached the minister for the mistakes and blunders of the cultural masters under her jurisdiction.

Holiday concerts for big bosses became a constant headache. When deciding who would speak to high authorities, Furtseva had to take into account many factors, primarily the tastes of Politburo members, which were sometimes mutually exclusive. At a government concert, Arkady Raikin and Roman Kartsev were going to show the miniature "Avas", the hero of which is a native of the Caucasus. The whole country laughed at her. At the last moment, the Minister of Culture stopped Raikin:

Arkady Isaakovich, “Avasa” cannot be played - in the Mzhavanadze Hall.

Vasily Pavlovich Mzhavanadze was the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Georgia. They were afraid to offend him with their Caucasian accent. I had to urgently change the repertoire.

Ekaterina Alekseevna lacked education and horizons. In a certain sense, she remained the secretary of the district committee. But gradually she became imbued with the interests of the theater and, more broadly speaking, art, and more often took the side not of officials, but of creative people. You could come to her, have a heart-to-heart talk, and she was ready to listen, understand and help. And protect.

An interesting woman,” Yuri Nikulin recalled her. - Maybe not very smart. But she saved the "Prisoner of the Caucasus". Etush played the role of “Comrade Saakhov” in this film. And the Mosfilm party organizer's last name was Saakov. And the management insisted: the film needs to be re-voiced! I went to see Furtseva. At ten minutes to ten in the morning I am standing in the corridor outside her reception room. She smiled: “Oh, what destinies?” I told the whole story. Furtseva grabbed the phone and contacted the studio director: “What kind of idiocy is this?” He answered her: what are you, what are you, no one asked the question like that, apparently there was some kind of misunderstanding, the film is already ready and will be released on screens soon.

Despite the censorship

Ekaterina Alekseevna headed the Ministry of Culture for more than fourteen years, until her death. Its role is assessed differently. The ideological situation in the country and the atmosphere of prohibitions practically put an end to everything that seemed a dangerous deviation from the general line. There were many who wanted to ban it, but no one wanted to take responsibility and allow it. Most decisions were made in the quiet of offices. Furtseva, by virtue of her position, found herself in the forefront, and she had to announce the bans herself.

Ekaterina Alekseevna was not a bully. In addition to party guidelines, she was often guided by personal likes and dislikes. The chief director of the Sovremennik Theater, Oleg Nikolaevich Efremov, staged Mikhail Filippovich Shatrov's play "The Bolsheviks" for the fiftieth anniversary of the October Revolution. Censorship banned it. The Minister of Culture took it upon herself to allow the performance. Six months is an unprecedented thing! - the performance was performed without censorship permission.

Ekaterina Alekseevna had the most difficult time with the Taganka Theater, where the main director was Yuri Petrovich Lyubimov. “At the dawn of the theater,” said the poet Andrei Voznesensky, “Yu.P. Lyubimov, together with the Minister of Culture E.A. Furtseva and her entourage, walked around the building, brought her into his office and pointed to the newly plastered walls: “And here we are.” we ask you to sign famous people... Flushed from the champagne, the minister clapped her dry hands and turned to me:

Well, poet, begin! Write to us impromptu!

Having received a thick felt-tip pen, I wrote across the wall: “All goddesses are like toadstools before the women from Taganka!” Sparks flashed in Yuri Petrovich's eyes. The minister shuddered, silently turned around and walked away indignantly. They later tried to wash off the inscription with a sponge, but it resisted."

Millionaire for a defenseless woman

Ekaterina Alekseevna supported the ideas of international cultural exchange, she wanted the Soviet audience to see the best examples of world art, and the world to admire the achievements of domestic masters. Irina Aleksandrovna Antonova, director of the Museum of Fine Arts named after A.S. Pushkin, recalled: “She had a passion for large-scale projects. She took masterpieces from the Hermitage, Tretyakov, Russian and Pushkin museums to Japan without insurance under personal liability - she knew how to take risks.”

Furtseva brought La Gioconda and French impressionists to Moscow. Thanks to Furtseva, the Italian La Scala theater came to the Soviet Union, conducted by Herbert von Karoyan. And the Bolshoi Theater went to Milan. Soviet singers trained at La Scala under an agreement with the Ministry of Culture.

At a meeting of the Presidium of the Council of Ministers, the issue of constructing a new circus building on the Lenin Hills was discussed. To complete the construction, an additional million rubles were needed, but the executive committee of the Moscow City Council did not want to allocate it. “Nowhere is the construction of a large circus equipped with the latest technology as bad as in Moscow,” Furtseva said. “Aren’t the comrades from the Moscow City Executive Committee ashamed to follow others’ tails?” Construction, which could be completed in two or three years, is being sought to be extended over a decade. Comrades, members of the presidium, you all have children and grandchildren. Are they really not pestering you - when will they finally build a new circus? Add me a million, and I will invite you all, together with the children, to its opening in December next year!

Furtseva addressed the head of government Kosygin:

Alexey Nikolaevich, fellow male ministers, I am weak, defenseless and the only woman among you. Well, please give me a million! What is it worth to you? And I will complete the circus next year. Everyone laughed. Kosygin decided in advance that he would give additional money to put an end to the long-term construction, past which he drove to his dacha every day. Responding to her words, he concluded:

None of the male ministers mind if we add a million to a weak, defenseless woman?

Dacha history

Ekaterina Furtseva always looked very good and took care of herself. I did gymnastics, learned to play tennis (not so fashionable then). They say that, having learned about the French drug "gradicin" (for weight loss), she got it and took it, despite the side effect - dizziness.

It was not easy for even a minister to dress well. Of course, she was served by the studio for managing the affairs of the Council of Ministers, but she wanted to look original. She did not forget that she is the only female minister in the country. Of course, beautiful things were brought from abroad. Furtseva, according to singer Galina Vishnevskaya, willingly accepted gifts from artists. Women in the ministry whispered, not without envy, that Furtseva had plastic surgery (which was a rarity then) and immediately flew to Sochi. When she returned, tanned and rested, no one noticed that she had been transformed with the help of medicine.

No longer at a young age, Ekaterina Alekseevna continued to excite the male imagination. Furtseva always wanted to prove that she could do everything that men were capable of. She managed to look feminine and strong at the same time. She may have enjoyed humiliating men and asserting the natural superiority of women. Over the years, when life stopped going well, she began to abuse strong drinks. They said that she didn’t know how to drink and got drunk quickly. In the evenings, her inner circle gathered at her ministry. They willingly kept her company, and at the same time begged the minister for what they needed.

In 1972, her mother, Matryona Nikolaevna, died, for whom the minister walked in line. Ekaterina Alekseevna depended on her mother and 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! The mother left for another world. The daughter grew up and lived separately and independently. The husband remained the closest person who is always there. With whom, if not with him, should you share your feelings and secrets? And unpleasant traits appear in him - egocentrism, demandingness, cruelty, the desire to achieve his own at any cost. The worst moment came when she felt that attention and care for her began to evaporate. Has her husband stopped loving her? Nikolai Pavlovich did not talk about his relationship with Ekaterina Alekseevna. At least publicly. He died before reporters had a chance to ask personal questions. And Ekaterina Alekseevna already had serious problems.

It started when she started building own dacha and asked “subordinate institutions” for help. Those wishing to assist the Minister with construction materials and labor force there turned out to be a lot. One of the initiates, as usual, wrote a denunciation: Furtseva, having violated state discipline and party ethics, purchased at discounted prices Construction Materials at the Bolshoi Theater. Brezhnev seemed to have decided not to punish Furtseva and to be content with sending her into retirement. And she told one of her friends:

No matter what, no matter what they say about me, I will die as a minister. And so it happened...

Wounded Soul

On October 24, 1974, there was a reception in the Kremlin. In the evening I stopped by to see my daughter. - Why do you have a sad voice? - asked Svetlana. - You have misunderstood it. Svetlana will never see her alive again...

Now it’s impossible to know what exactly happened late in the evening when Furtseva returned home. They say that it was on that day that it became known that she would receive a pension, and Nikolai Pavlovich met another woman. Ekaterina Alekseevna could not withstand the double blow. The dreary life of a pensioner abandoned by her husband was not for her... It is not so easy to find peace for a wounded soul. Deep in her soul sat the fear of losing herself. loved one. She understood: her friends would disappear as soon as she ceased to be a minister. The daughter has her own life... It seemed that a life catastrophe awaited her.

After midnight, Nikolai Pavlovich Firyubin called Svetlana:

Mom is no more.

When my daughter and her husband arrived, the resuscitation team was still in the apartment. The doctor tried to calm Svetlana:

Even if this happened in the hospital, the doctors would not be able to help. The diagnosis is acute heart failure.

Some said that Ekaterina Alekseevna went to the bathroom and took hot shower after a considerable dose of alcohol. A heart spasm followed and... Others claimed that she had swallowed a handful of Luminal... These are all rumors. But there was talk in Moscow that she had again decided to commit suicide. And this time the attempt was a success.

The farewell to the Minister of Culture was held in the new building of the Moscow Art Theater, to the construction of which she put so much effort. The wake is in the Actor's House. The writer Konstantin Mikhailovich Simonov, whom Furtseva once scolded at the secretariat of the Central Committee, said it best:

Ekaterina Alekseevna always had the courage to say “yes” - and did everything to support and help something new, sometimes just breaking through. She had the courage to say no, and her actions always corresponded to what was said. Only a great, bright personality could say and act like that...

Her first husband, Pyotr Bitkov, told his daughter at the funeral that all his life he had loved only Ekaterina Alekseevna. He did not survive her for long. Over the years, people talk about Furtseva better and better. The bad was forgotten. There are memories of a living and sincere person.

The highest-ranking woman in the USSR committed suicide out of despair?

Ekaterina Furtseva, exactly 100 years have passed since her birth, is the only woman to hold the highest positions in our state. What brought the girl from Vyshny Volochok to the pinnacle of power? Extraordinary personal qualities, chance, luck, the leaders' sympathy for a beautiful woman? Ekaterina Alekseevna had to make her way in a society that did not encourage rapid female 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 was one of 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 shy of turning sixty-four. In Moscow they started talking about the fact that the Minister of Culture had passed away of her own free will. The family flatly rejected the idea of ​​suicide. However, they didn’t really believe the family. Because Ekaterina Alekseevna already opened her veins once. This cheerful, major woman with a bright temperament and strong character She couldn’t bear one thing - when she was rejected, both in her personal life and in her political life...

...But why did she try to commit suicide? What sad secret made her unhappy? Leonid Mlechin dedicated his new book in the series "ZhZL".

Weaver's career. Ekaterina Alekseevna Furtseva was born in the city of Vyshny Volochok, Tver province. Her father, Alexey Gavrilovich, a metal worker, was drafted into the tsarist army as soon as the world war began and died in the first battles. The loss of her 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 heavily dependent on family, friends, girlfriends and beloved men; she was always afraid to be alone.

Mother, Matryona Nikolaevna, never remarried. She raised her son and daughter alone. She was illiterate, but she enjoyed authority in Vyshny Volochyok. Ekaterina Alekseevna inherited her mother’s character, the ability to make independent decisions, and inner strength. And yet the carefully hidden feeling of helplessness remained in her forever.

In 1925, she graduated from the seven-year school and entered the factory apprenticeship school, learning to be a weaver. At the age of fifteen I started working at the machine. The nickname “weaver,” which was offensive to the future minister of culture, stuck with her. Ekaterina Alekseevna will always be remembered for working at the machine - and in an arrogant and contemptuous manner, although the need to start working early does not evoke anything but respect and sympathy. Ekaterina Furtseva did not stand at the machine for long. Komsomol changed her life.

Well-developed and athletic, Ekaterina Furtseva met the expectations of the era. True, the twenties and thirties were a time of Puritanism. Sexuality is not a topic for discussion.

Ekaterina Alekseevna Furtseva (1910-1974), Minister of Culture of the USSR

And she is unable to hide her femininity, her desire to love and be loved. So she will be torn between the desire to be in no way inferior to the stronger sex and the unconscious desire to meet a real man, next to whom she will feel calm and reliable.

She worked for sixteen months as secretary of the Korenevsky district committee of the Komsomol in what is now the Kursk region, then 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 are hiding the name of Furtseva’s first husband...

Plus personal happiness. In 1931, a promising worker was transferred as secretary of the city committee of the Komsomol to Feodosia. In Koktebel, she became interested in gliding and got the regional party committee to recommend 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 a pilot, Pyotr Ivanovich Bitkov, who served in Saratov. In the thirties, pilots, surrounded by a romantic aura, enjoyed particular success among women. Flight instructor Pyotr Bitkov, they say, was a prominent and 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 youth.

In 1936, Pyotr Bitkov was transferred to the political department of civil aviation, and the young family moved to Moscow. Furtseva was hired by the Komsomol Central Committee 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 '37 they sent me to study at the Lomonosov Institute of Fine Chemical Technology. Ekaterina Alekseevna’s studies did not matter, because she immediately followed the social line. She was elected secretary of the institute's party committee. Furtseva received her diploma of higher education as a chemical engineer in 1941, on the eve of the war. She never managed to work in her specialty.

The beginning of the Great Patriotic War turned out to be doubly tragic for Furtseva. 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, but became pregnant only in her thirty-second year, after eleven years of marriage. Like many things 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, which is why the insulted Pyotr Bitkov left the family...

They tell other things too. Pyotr Ivanovich, as happened with many young men who went into the army, separated from their wives for a long time, met another woman at the front and fell in love. He was reciprocated. And he started new family. This is more like the truth, because Pyotr Ivanovich did not abandon his daughter; on the contrary, he retained his father’s feelings for Svetlana until the end of his life.

The most difficult years. The collapse of her 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 waited for so many years. Why don’t we raise one child?” Leaving the child in these first war months, the most difficult and dangerous for Muscovites, was not an easy and courageous decision.

The 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 in Kuibyshev for long. Unlike many other Muscovites, who were not allowed to return to the city until the end of the war, party worker Furtseva was expected in Moscow.

The forty-second year was memorable in all respects for Ekaterina Alekseevna. Her daughter Svetlana was born, and she was offered new job. The growing young worker was noticed by the first secretary of the Frunzensky district party committee, Pyotr Vladimirovich Boguslavsky, and took him into his office. Thus began Furtseva’s successful party career, which would lead her to the pinnacle of power.

Perhaps the successful start of his party career helped him cope with his 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 her feminine virtues. Young Furtseva was very pretty - bright, slender, with a stormy temperament. It is difficult to discuss what happened between Pyotr Vladimirovich and Ekaterina Alekseevna. This is not a story that is shared even with loved ones.

Office romances are as similar to each other as two peas in a pod. The common work brought us together and brought pleasure. But such a romance can hardly suit a woman. Years go by, but he has no intention of leaving his wife. A man is happy to have both a wife and a mistress. And women don’t want to stay in this role forever. They need a real family. So, as a rule, office romances end as soon as the man and woman stop working together...

1961 Gagarin and Furtseva at a reception at the Ministry of Culture on the occasion of the II Moscow International Film Festival with its guests - Italian actresses Gina Lollobrigida (left) and Marisa Merlini (second from right). Photo: RIA Novosti

First Secretary. Ekaterina Alekseevna Furtseva quickly learned the basic rules for achieving success in the party apparatus and advanced to the leading 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 manners of male leaders. She learned not to be timid in a male group, was not embarrassed by jokes of a certain nature, could drink decently and, if necessary, tell her 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 delivered on her promises. She was valued as a master of public events. Whether it was about clearing the district apparatus of people from the Northern capital at the height of the gloomy “Leningrad affair”, or about propaganda support for the equally shameful “doctor’s case”, Ekaterina Alekseevna invariably was ahead of her fellow secretaries.

She, for example, “demanded that institutes located in the region fulfill socialist obligations by certain dates: by May 1 to invent a vaccine and completely eliminate 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 in general culture and education, so her speeches on ideological topics made a particularly gloomy impression.

From July 28 to August 11, 1957, the World Festival of Youth and Students was held in Moscow under the slogan “For Peace and Friendship,” which became a huge event. Never before has there been such widespread and virtually uncontrolled communication with foreigners. The various authorities, 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 infectious diseases will be brought in. Therefore, vaccinations began. But there have already been four cases of some kind of injection in stores, when a girl was standing in line for groceries, a man comes up and injects her arm... The victims are in the hospital, their condition is good. This is being 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 in charge of the capital. Among the secretaries of the city committee, he needed one woman. Nikita Sergeevich chose the energetic and businesslike Furtseva.

Women were promoted with difficulty in the party apparatus. 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.” Having placed Nikolai Konstantinovich Baibakov in charge of the oil industry, he asked him the 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”...

...Ekaterina Alekseevna Furtseva clearly lacked bullish nerves. She was too emotional a person...

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 headed such a large party organization. Ekaterina Alekseevna became the full-fledged mistress of the huge city.

There was nothing personal in Khrushchev’s attitude 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, at that time secretary of the Stalinist district party committee of Moscow, told me, “neat, taking care of 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 relationships with persons of the opposite sex. By the way, he did not treat anyone with leniency and asked women the same as men.

Dowry wedding. The success at work was complemented by the personal happiness that was finally found. When Ekaterina Alekseevna worked in the Moscow party apparatus, she fell in love with a fellow secretary, Nikolai Pavlovich Firyubin. He was only two years older than her. He was considered capricious and spoiled by female attention.

The romance between 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. Mistress is a negative concept. Nikolai Pavlovich Firyubin was in no hurry to break with his old life and leave his family. Ekaterina Alekseevna was worried, although she tried most of all not to show her weakness. In the house, her message that she was marrying Nikolai Firyubin was greeted, to put it mildly, without enthusiasm. His mother-in-law and stepdaughter immediately disliked him. Of course it was jealousy. Neither Matryona 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 early May 1953, the newly appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs, Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov, asked to send party workers to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This is how the future KGB chairman Yuri Andropov and Furtseva’s husband Nikolai Firyubin became diplomats.

In January 1954 he was made ambassador to Czechoslovakia. The ambassador is always accompanied by his wife. Among other things, she plays an important role in the work of the mission, helps the ambassador in organizing receptions, and establishing relations with diplomats of 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.

Long separation is not good for a marriage. Furtseva was worried and did not want to let her husband go for a long time. But it was impossible to refuse the ambassadorial appointment. Of course, Nikolai Pavlovich would prefer to see his wife nearby. But being married to Furtseva herself also flattered his vanity. 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 his relationship with his wife, Firyubin behaved confidently or, as people in the know say, self-confidently. This is typical for powerful men who value themselves highly, the desire to be the master of 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 No. 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 pinnacle of political power. Khrushchev made her secretary of the Central Committee and included her among the candidates for members of the presidium. IN Soviet times the importance of the secretariat of the Central Committee did not need to be explained to anyone. Stalin once joked in a small circle: “History is divided into three periods - matriarchy, patriarchy and secretariat”...

In practical life, no appointment of any importance was made besides the secretariat of the Central Committee. Not a single ministry or department in the country could undertake anything without obtaining the prior consent of the Secretariat of the Central Committee. The appearance of a woman in the country's top leadership was an event. But not everyone liked the election of Ekaterina Alekseevna. This was a reflection of the male chauvinism characteristic of the era...

Nikita Sergeevich considered Furtseva his man and promoted her. 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 will be 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 CPSU Central Committee. So she and Furtseva were the only married couple who attended the plenums of the Central Committee. Of course, Firyubin didn’t really like that his wife took up more high position. This was atypical for a Soviet family...

Cut veins. Furtseva remained at the pinnacle of power for only three years. On May 4, 1960, Nikita Sergeevich unexpectedly ordered the dismissal of several people from the post of Secretary of the Central Committee, 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 security officers recorded the free conversations of several secretaries of the Central Committee, which they conducted in their rest rooms, drinking tea or stronger drinks. They didn’t say anything seditious, they only allowed themselves to critically evaluate Nikita Sergeevich’s behavior. There is another explanation. Khrushchev was a passionate person. He could lift an employee he liked to dizzying heights, but, disappointed, he would just as easily part with his recent favorite and promote a new one.

For more than a year, Furtseva remained a member of the Presidium of the Central Committee, supreme body authorities 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 meeting of the congress. Ekaterina Alekseevna tried to die. “Having gotten very drunk from grief,” writes Sergei Khrushchev, “and Ekaterina Alekseevna was abusing alcohol, she tried to open her veins. But the hand trembled, and the suicide failed. Perhaps she did not intend to give up her life, but simply, like a woman, tried in this way to attract attention to herself, to arouse sympathy, but her action 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 were rejoicing at her fall and gloating... She was not mistaken about the morals in the political elite.

What makes major politicians like Furtseva commit suicide? Somehow all this does not fit with the appearance of these people, determined, tough, capable of overcoming any obstacles. As a rule, such people are able to withstand any stress. But other factors are also at play. It is unlikely that we are able to understand what was the last straw for each of them...

Between a rock and a hard place. Furtseva was almost the only person in the country’s leadership who was sincerely interested in cultural exchange with other countries, in having our masters go on tour abroad, and in having foreign singers, musicians, and artists come to the Soviet Union and bring exhibitions from the world’s best museums .

Foreign tours were extremely beneficial to the state; after returning home, outstanding masters handed over large sums of foreign currency to the treasury. Therefore, the Ministry of Culture, at least for departmental reasons, was a supporter of the tour. But the party apparatus and the state security system believed that it was better not to let anyone go anywhere. They considered only themselves worthy of going to other countries.

Ekaterina Alekseevna Furtseva enjoyed discovering the world for herself. Even for the Secretary of the Central Committee, the trip was rare. The Minister of Culture had to travel around the world due to her direct duties. Abroad, a female minister has invariably aroused great interest.

The Minister of Culture had considerable power in his hands. But every decision was fraught with a threat to my career. The ideological situation in the country and the atmosphere of prohibitions practically put an end to everything that seemed a dangerous deviation from the general line. The system was such that it was in Furtseva’s interests to ban rather than allow, because for a successful performance the praise would go to the director or artist. And answer her for “mistakes.”

There were many who wanted to ban it, but no one wanted to take responsibility and allow it. Sometimes she defied censorship and took responsibility for herself. But more often she had to - or wanted - to prevent the appearance on stage of what was considered prohibited. But a lot of things were not allowed.

But Ekaterina Alekseevna was not a bully. In addition to party guidelines, she was often guided by personal likes and dislikes. The chief director of the Sovremennik Theater Oleg Nikolaevich Efremov staged Mikhail Filippovich Shatrov’s play “The Bolsheviks” for the fiftieth anniversary of the October Revolution. Censorship banned it. The Minister of Culture authorized the performance. Six months is an unprecedented thing! — the performance was performed without censorship permission. There is not a single empty seat in the Sovremennik auditorium. Furtseva was not afraid and did not retreat. The play was allowed...

Furtseva and Sophia Loren

What is it like to be your grandmother's husband? How did all this happen? Why was there talk that Ekaterina Alekseevna Furtseva was being removed from the post of minister, that a joyless retirement life awaited her - and maybe even a lonely retirement life, since not only her political career was collapsing, but also her relationship with her husband?

Neither her age nor her mood meant she had any intention of leaving. I probably couldn’t even imagine myself in retirement. But it seems her ministerial days were numbered. And she did not have to count on the mercy of her party comrades. In the political world there are no real human relationships; there is a merciless struggle for power or for the illusion of power.

They say that she herself could be cruel and merciless. She got used to the role of the arbiter of destinies 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 passed away. Yes, it was not made of iron! She was perhaps overly sensitive.

No longer 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 longed to see traces of carefully hidden female weakness.

Ekaterina Furtseva was friends with Lyudmila Zykina. They assured that at the singer’s dacha the minister drank heavily. At the table, when asked what to pour for her, Ekaterina Alekseevna answered the same way: “I’m always with men, I drink vodka.”

In 1972, his mother, Matryona Nikolaevna, died. For Ekaterina Alekseevna this was a blow. She depended on her mother and 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 my husband was built in the same way. She needed his affection. I understood mentally 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 she was uneasy in her soul. She said that no one understood her, that she was lonely and no one needed her. You have to understand that she meant her husband. How fair are these reproaches? Nikolai Pavlovich himself did not talk about his relationship with Ekaterina Alekseevna. At least publicly. He died before journalists had the opportunity to ask personal questions...

The loneliness of a wounded soul. Furtseva began building her own dacha and asked “subordinate institutions” for help. There were many people willing to help the minister with construction materials and labor. At the same time, one of the initiates wrote a denunciation: Furtseva, violating state discipline and party ethics, purchased building materials at discounted prices from the Bolshoi Theater.

The case was examined by the highest inquisition - the Party Control Committee of the CPSU Central Committee, which was led by the former leader of Soviet Latvia, Politburo member Arvid Yanovich Pelshe. Personal property was considered an anti-Party matter. Therefore, the country's leaders circumvented this ban and built dachas in the name of relatives and friends. Furtseva acted imprudently by registering the dacha in her name.

Ekaterina Alekseevna admitted that she made a grave mistake and gave up the dacha. 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 told her friend: “No matter what, no matter what they say about me, I will die as a minister.” And so it happened...

...Now it’s impossible to know what exactly happened late in the evening of October 24, when Furtseva returned home. He and Firyubin lived on Alexei Tolstoy Street. They say that it was on that day that it became known that she would receive a pension, and Nikolai Pavlovich met another woman. Ekaterina Alekseevna could not withstand the double blow. The dreary life of a pensioner abandoned by her husband was not for her...

...Probably many times she mentally wondered whether she could live without work 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 worst thing. She couldn't even think about 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 unhappiness 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 her brain still perceives the world as if she were still a little girl left without a dad. The fear of abandonment made it impossible for her to look at things realistically.

After midnight, Nikolai Pavlovich Firyubin called Svetlana: “Mom is no more”...

When my daughter and her husband arrived, the resuscitation team was still in the apartment. The doctor tried to reassure Svetlana: “Even if this happened in the hospital, the doctors would not be able to help.” The diagnosis is acute heart failure. But there was talk in Moscow that she had again decided to commit suicide. And this time the attempt was a success...

...Her first husband, Pyotr Ivanovich Bitkov, told his daughter at the funeral that all his life he had loved only Ekaterina Alekseevna. He briefly outlived 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 acquaintances called Klera, was much younger than Furtseva...

...Over the years, people talk about Ekaterina Alekseevna Furtseva better and better. The bad was forgotten. Memories remain of a living and sincere person...

Leonid MLECHIN, "Moskovsky Komsomolets"

The fact is that it was here, in Korenevo, that the career of the most famous and influential lady in the Soviet Union began - the first and only woman in the all-powerful Politburo. In the summer of 1930, 20-year-old Ekaterina Furtseva came to the Kursk outback to raise Agriculture. The fragile girl was appointed 1st secretary of the district Komsomol committee. Here she spent 16 months. And she never came to Korenevo again. Furtseva seemed to erase this period of her life from her biography. Meanwhile, it was here that a significant event at that time took place in her life - Ekaterina Alekseevna was accepted into the party.

But there was another important episode, about which there is not a single mention in the biography of the “woman at the Mausoleum.” In preparation for the celebrations, it was excavated by Korenev local historians. And they themselves were frightened by the discovered sensation. After all, now the biography of Ekaterina Furtseva should look different. It turns out, contrary to official version, she had not two, but three husbands! And the first was not the pilot Alexei Bitov, as the Minister of Culture herself presented, but the Korenev carpenter. Local historians did not disclose his name. It is only known that this marriage was registered in the local village council on August 25, 1931, that is, a year after Furtseva arrived in Korenevo. The misalliance did not last long - after 3 months the couple divorced, and Catherine returned to Moscow, apparently preferring to forget about the unsuccessful marriage once and for all.

However, the second marriage of Catherine the Third, as the influential woman was called, was also not entirely successful. After the birth of her daughter, her husband, with whom Furtseva lived for almost 11 years, left for someone else. Ekaterina was 32 then, and her daughter Svetlana was only 4 months old. At that time, changes occurred not only in Furtseva’s personal life. Leaving science (she graduated from the institute and graduate school of the Faculty of Fine Chemical Technology), Furtseva went to party work, becoming the second secretary of the Frunzensky district party committee.

The third husband of the legendary woman was Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Nikolai Firyubin. They had no children together. A month after his wife’s funeral, Furibin married again. Ekaterina Alekseevna died in 1974. The cause of death is still being speculated about. According to the official version, it occurred as a result of acute heart failure. But there is another one called suicide. There have always been many legends around this powerful woman, and there are probably many more secrets in her biography. Many were afraid of her and sought her favor; she helped many and ruined the lives of many. Stalin knew her. She played an important role in the fate of Khrushchev. In 1957, a group of party comrades, led by the trio Kaganovich - Malenkov - Molotov, organized a conspiracy to remove Khrushchev from the post of 1st Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee. He was saved by Ekaterina Furtseva, at that time the 1st Secretary of the Moscow City Committee and a candidate member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee.

She very quickly, within two hours, gathered everyone in the Kremlin who could support Khrushchev, and the plot failed. After this, Furtseva became a member of the Politburo. There were rumors about a close relationship with Khrushchev. As Minister of Culture, where Furtseva was appointed after her removal from the Politburo, she remained as independent and influential as in high party positions. She made herself: she dressed in Paris, played tennis, and in 1965 she decided to have plastic surgery. This woman was not only smart, but also truly attractive. Due to her duties, she often went on business trips abroad and was acquainted with many celebrities.

The cultural life of the country under the leadership of Furtseva has transformed. Weeks of French and Italian cinema began in Moscow, and exhibitions of French impressionists opened. On Furtseva’s initiative in those years, a new ballet school building, a new Moscow Art Theater, a circus on Vernadsky Avenue, and a children’s musical theater under the direction of Natalia Sats were built.

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Love	March 22, 2012, 02:16:48
e-mail: [email protected], city: Perugia

who is Alexey Bitov??? Furtseva's husband's name was Peter Bitkov

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