Bronislava Poskrebysheva

Who was Bronislava Poskrebysheva?

Bronislava Solomonovna Metallikova - Poskrebysheva was born in Proskurov, Podolia Governorate. She was the wife of Alexander Poskrebyshev, Joseph Stalin's personal assistant for many years.

Bronislava, a doctor-endocrinologist at the Research Institute of Endocrinology, was of Jewish Lithuanian descent and previously married to a lawyer. She had two children, Galya by her first husband and Natalya by Alexander Poskrebyshev.

In 1933 she and her brother, Professor Michael Metallikov, attended a scientific conference in Paris. There they met Leon Trotsky, to whom they were connected through marriage. This meeting with Trotsky was a reason for the arrest of Metallikov on July 8, 1937 and for his execution on March 31, 1939. Bronislava, who at this time was pregnant with Natalya, was not arrested due to the intercession of her husband.

In 1939, under pressure from her relatives, she visited Lavrentiy Beria alone to plead for the life of her arrested brother. This time, she was arrested. This time, her husband was unable to help. She was imprisoned, sentenced to death on September 22, 1941, shot on October 13, and buried in a mass grave near Moscow. She was posthumously rehabilitated on October 10, 1957. She is commememorated at Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.