Aleksandra Artyukhina

Who was Aleksandra Artyukhina?

Alexandra Vasilevna Artyukhina was an early Russian Bolshevist and revolutionary who rose to sit on the Secretariat of the CPSU Central Committee, but was brought down by Joseph Stalin's purges in the late 1930s.

The child of textile workers, Artyukhina became a dressmaker's apprentice at age ten, and a mill worker by 17. She joined the Communist labor movement in Russia, and was forced into exile at age 20 - probably in 1909. After three years, she returned to Russia and resumed her work, both in textiles and in union organizing.

She was active during the Revolution and rose through the ranks to sit as an alternate member on the Secretariat of the CPSU Central Committee from 1926 to 1930. On March 1, 1931, international journalists noticed Artukhina as the first woman to sit on the Soviet Supreme Court, and described her as a small blonde with "bright blue eyes."

She assumed leadership of the Cotton Textile Workers Union when a Commissar of light industry, Isadore Lubimoff, was removed. A collective farm was named for her.

Her industry fell 11% short of its production goal for the first quarter of 1938.