Elena Stasova
Elena Dmitriyevna Stasova (Russian: Елена Дмитриевна Стасова; 15 October [O.S. 3 October] 1873 – 31 December 1966) was a Russian Soviet revolutionary, Old Bolshevik and an early leader of the organisation that would go on to become the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
Elena Stasova | |
|---|---|
| Елена Стасова | |
Stasova c. 1920s | |
| Chair of the Secretariat of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) | |
| In office March 1919 – December 1919 | |
| Preceded by | Yakov Sverdlov |
| Succeeded by | Nikolay Krestinsky (as Responsible Secretary) |
| Technical Secretary of the Central Committee of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (Bolsheviks) | |
| In office April 1917 – 1918 | |
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Succeeded by | Yakov Sverdlov (as Chairman) |
| Full member of the 7th Politburo | |
| In office 11 March – 25 March 1919 | |
| Candidate member of the 8th Politburo | |
| In office 13 April – 26 September 1919 | |
| Member of the 6th, 7th, 8th Secretariat | |
| In office 6 August 1917 – 5 April 1920 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 15 October [O.S. 3 October] 1873 Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire |
| Died | 31 December 1966 (aged 93) Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union |
| Resting place | Kremlin Wall Necropolis, Moscow |
| Nationality |
|
| Political party | RSDLP (1898–1903) RSDLP (Bolsheviks) (1903–1918) Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) (1918–1946) |
Stasova was born to an eminent aristocratic family in Saint Petersburg. She worked as a teacher during her youth and came to embrace revolutionary politics. In 1898, she joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDRP) at the time of its establishment. Following the RSDRP ideological split in 1903, Stasova joined Vladimir Lenin's Bolshevik faction. She continued her revolutionary activities in Russia, Switzerland and Finland despite frequent threats of imprisonment and deportation. In 1913, she was exiled to Siberia, but returned to Saint Petersburg shortly before the February Revolution. She was named secretary and alternate member of the Central Committee, but by 1920 she had been fully frozen out of Soviet power. Afterwards, Stasova was a Comintern representative to Germany until 1927, when she returned to Russia and took on a leadership position in the International Red Aid (MOPR). From 1938 to 1946, she found work as an editor of the magazine International Literature. Stasova died in 1966 at the age of 93.