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Elena Dmitriyevna Stasova (; 15 October O.S. 3 October">Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Old Style and New Style dates">O.S. 3 October1873 – 31 December 1966) was a Russian Soviet people">Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

revolutionary, Old Bolshevik and an early leader of the organisation that would go on to become the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Stasova was born to an Stasov, eminent aristocratic family in

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

. She worked as a teacher during her youth and came to embrace revolutionary politics. In 1898, she joined the

Russian Social Democratic Labour Party The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP), also known as the Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party (RSDWP) or the Russian Social Democratic Party (RSDP), was a socialist political party founded in 1898 in Minsk, Russian Empire. The ...

(RSDLP) at the time of its establishment. Following the RSDLP ideological split in 1903, Stasova joined

Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...

Bolshevik The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

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 Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...

, but returned to Saint Petersburg shortly before the

February Revolution The February Revolution (), known in Soviet historiography as the February Bourgeois Democratic Revolution and sometimes as the March Revolution or February Coup was the first of Russian Revolution, two revolutions which took place in Russia ...

. 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 The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern and also known as the Third International, was a political international which existed from 1919 to 1943 and advocated world communism. Emerging from the collapse of the Second Internatio ...

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.

Biography

Early years

Elena Stasova was born in

in 1873, the youngest of five children, in an eminent

noble A noble is a member of the nobility. Noble may also refer to: Places Antarctica * Noble Glacier, King George Island * Noble Nunatak, Marie Byrd Land * Noble Peak, Wiencke Island * Noble Rocks, Graham Land Australia * Noble Island, Gr ...

family. Her father was the state attorney Dmitry Stasov, while her aunt was the feminist activist Nadezhda Stasova. This volume contains an English translation of Stasova's autobiography, first published in 1927. She was educated at home until the age of 13, and then at the prestigious Tagantsev private school for girls. Stasova described her political awakening as being tied to a realization that other people "made it possible for us, the intelligentsia, to live the way we did." At the age of about 20 she began teaching in evening classes and Sunday schools in Ligovo, which brought her into contact with female political activists such as

Nadezhda Krupskaya Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaya ( rus, links=no, Надежда Константиновна Крупская, p=nɐˈdʲeʐdə kənstɐnʲˈtʲinəvnə ˈkrupskəjə; – 27 February 1939) was a Russian revolutionary, politician and politic ...

, future wife of

. She joined the Russian Social Democratic Workers Party (RSDLP) at the time of its establishment in 1898, her main contribution being to use her parents' house to store illegal socialist literature.

Family

Her grandfather, Vasili Stasov, had been architect to Emperors of all the Russias

Alexander I Alexander I may refer to: * Alexander I of Macedon, king of Macedon from 495 to 454 BC * Alexander I of Epirus (370–331 BC), king of Epirus * Alexander I Theopator Euergetes, surnamed Balas, ruler of the Seleucid Empire 150-145 BC * Pope Alex ...

and Nicholas I. Her uncle was art critic Vladimir Stasov. Her father, Dmitry (1828–1918), was the most eminent liberal Russian lawyer of his generation. As a young man, he had a promising career working for the Senate, and a

Herald A herald, or a herald of arms, is an officer of arms, ranking between pursuivant and king of arms. The title is commonly applied more broadly to all officers of arms. Heralds were originally messengers sent by monarchs or noblemen ...

at the

coronation A coronation ceremony marks the formal investiture of a monarch with regal power using a crown. In addition to the crowning, this ceremony may include the presentation of other items of regalia, and other rituals such as the taking of special v ...

of Alexander II – but was barred for life from government service after he was arrested during a student demonstration. He set up in private practice, and was defence counsel in numerous political trials, including the trial of Dmitry Karakozov, the first of the revolutionaries to attempt to assassinate Alexander II, the Trial of the 50, which was the first political trial to be held in public in Russia, and at Russia's largest political trial, the Trial of the 193. He was arrested in 1880, by order of the Tsar, and banished from St Petersburg for a time. Later, he was President of the Russian Council of Lawyers. A keen pianist, he also co-founded the St Petersburg Conservatory with

Anton Rubinstein Anton Grigoryevich Rubinstein (; ) was a Russian pianist, composer and conductor who founded the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. He was the elder brother of Nikolai Rubinstein, who founded the Moscow Conservatory. As a pianist, Rubinstein ran ...

. Elena's aunt was the feminist Nadezhda Stasova, and her older sister was the writer Varvara Komarova-Stasova.

Bolshevik revolutionary

When the RSDLP split into

and

Menshevik The Mensheviks ('the Minority') were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with Vladimir Lenin's Bolshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903. Mensheviks held more moderate and reformist ...

factions in 1903, Stasova cast her lot with

Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...

and the Bolsheviks as a professional revolutionary. Over the next two years Stasova adopted the pseudonyms "Absolute" and "Thick". Other pseudonyms which Stasova used during the underground period included "Delta", "Heron", "Knol", and "Varvara Ivanovna". She served as the conduit for Lenin's newspaper, ''

Iskra ''Iskra'' (, , ''the Spark'') was a fortnightly political newspaper of Russian socialist emigrants established as the official organ of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP). History ''Iskra'' was published in exile and then smuggl ...

,'' in St. Petersburg, until her arrest in January 1904, which forced her to leave the capital and hide in

Minsk Minsk (, ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach (Berezina), Svislach and the now subterranean Nyamiha, Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the administra ...

. For the rest of that year she traveled to several cities, acting as a specialist in "technical matters", such as creating false passports, organising escape routes, and making contact with sympathisers in the Russian army. She also taught new members how to encode and decode.Branko Lazitch and Milorad M. Drachkovitch, ''Biographical Dictionary of the Comintern: New, Revised, and Expanded Edition.'' Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press, 1986; pg. 444. In spring 1904, Stasova was appointed secretary of the Northern Bureau of the Bolshevik Central Committee. In June, she was assigned to take over the Southern Bureau, based in Odessa, but was arrested and held in

Taganka Prison Taganka Prison (Russian: Таганская тюрьма) was built in Moscow in 1804 by Alexander I of Russia, Alexander I, emperor of Russia.Katrina Marie"Taganka: The Haunts of Intelligentsia and Blue-Collar Grit"''Passport Moscow''. Retrieved D ...

for six months. She was released on bail in December 1904, and returned to St Petersburg, where she took over as secretary of the city Bolshevik organisation, and later as secretary of the Central Committee. Stasova emigrated to

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

, Switzerland in August 1905, to run the Bolshevik organisation abroad while Lenin was in Russia for the

Russian Revolution of 1905 The Russian Revolution of 1905, also known as the First Russian Revolution, was a revolution in the Russian Empire which began on 22 January 1905 and led to the establishment of a constitutional monarchy under the Russian Constitution of 1906, t ...

. She returned to St Petersburg in January 1906 and then moved to Finland to organise arms smuggling, and to assist in organising the Congress in Stockholm that was supposed to unify the Bolshevik and Menshevik factions of the RSDLP. Arrested in July 1906, after her return to St Petersburg, she was banned for the second time from living in the capital. In 1907, she settled in

Tiflis Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი, ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), ( ka, ტფილისი, tr ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Georgia (country), largest city of Georgia ( ...

(now

Tbilisi Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი, ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), ( ka, ტფილისი, tr ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Georgia (country), largest city of Georgia ( ...

), the capital of Georgia. In January 1912, Stasova was elected as an alternate member of the Bolshevik party's Central Committee. She was then secretary to the party's Russian bureau. Arrested on her return to Tiflis, in May 1912, she was tried in May 1913, with

Suren Spandaryan Suren Spandari Spandaryan (; 1882 in Tiflis – 24 September 1916) was an Armenian revolutionary in the Russian Empire, literary critic, publicist and one of the founders of the Bolsheviks, Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour ...

and others, and sentenced to deportation to Siberia. She was allowed to return to St Petersburg in autumn 1916, and was arrested there and held in a police station overnight in February 1917, but released in the morning because of the outbreak of the

Political career

After the

of 1917, Stasova became the Technical Secretary of the Central Committee of the Bolshevik party — a position which she retained through the

October Revolution The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Historiography in the Soviet Union, Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of Russian Revolution, two r ...

, finally standing down in March 1920. She was also appointed an alternate member of the Bolshevik Central Committee by the 6th Congress of the Russian Communist Party in 1917, and became the only woman elected to full membership of the Central Committee by the 7th Congress of 1918 and the 8th Congress of 1919. However, the 9th Congress of 1920 dropped her both from the Central Committee and from the party secretariat. After being removed from the Central Committee, Stasova worked for the

Petrograd Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

party organization, from where she was brought into the

's apparatus. She was appointed Comintern representative to the

Communist Party of Germany The Communist Party of Germany (, ; KPD ) was a major Far-left politics, far-left political party in the Weimar Republic during the interwar period, German resistance to Nazism, underground resistance movement in Nazi Germany, and minor party ...

(KPD) in May 1921. She used the pseudonym "Hertha" and remained in Germany through 1926, where she played a leading role in the German affiliate of the International Red Aid (MOPR) organization, . Stasova returned to the USSR in February 1926. The next year she was named deputy director head of the international MOPR as well as head of the Central Committee of the MOPR organization in the USSR, positions which she retained through 1937. Stasova served as a member of the Central Control Commission of the Russian Communist Party from 1930 to 1934, and in 1935 the 7th World Congress of the Comintern named her a member of the International Control Commission. Unlike so many other "

Old Bolsheviks The Old Bolsheviks (), also called the Old Bolshevik Guard or Old Party Guard, were members of the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party prior to the Russian Revolution of 1917. Many Old Bolsheviks became leading politi ...

", Stasova was not arrested during the spy mania and secret-police terror which swept the Soviet Union in the late 1930s, although in November 1937,

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...

told the head of Comintern,

Georgi Dimitrov Georgi Dimitrov Mihaylov (; ) also known as Georgiy Mihaylovich Dimitrov (; 18 June 1882 – 2 July 1949), was a Bulgarian communist politician who served as General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party from 1933 t ...

that Stasova was "scum" and "probably" would be arrested. She was dismissed from her post on MOPR five days later, on 16 November 1937. Unusually, she retained her place on the International Control Commission until the Comintern was abolished in 1943, and in 1938 was re-employed as an editor of the magazine '' International Literature''. Stasova continued in this role until 1946, when she retired. In 1948, she received a "severe reprimand" for saying in a public lecture that "Lenin treated all comrades equally and even called Bukharin 'Bukharchik'" — ten years earlier Bukharin had confessed to being a traitor. She wrote later that the words "slipped out" and that it was "a grave political mistake" on her part.

Death and legacy

After Stalin's death, Elena Stasova was the last surviving Old Bolshevik who had served on the Central Committee during the 1917 revolution. She made very few public appearances after retiring, but in 1961, she was one of four Old Bolsheviks who signed an appeal to the 22nd Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union for the posthumous rehabilitation of

Nikolai Bukharin Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin (; rus, Николай Иванович Бухарин, p=nʲɪkɐˈlaj ɪˈvanəvʲɪdʑ bʊˈxarʲɪn; – 15 March 1938) was a Russian revolutionary, Soviet politician, and Marxist theorist. A prominent Bolshevik ...

. A boarding school for foreigners in Ivanovo, Russia called the Ivanovo International Boarding School ("

Interdom image:Interdom.jpg, 280px, Interdom Interdom (Ivanovo International Boarding School) is a special school for foreigners located in the city of Ivanovo in Russia. The name is an abbreviation of the Russian ''internatzionalny dom'' or "International ...

"), established by MOPR in 1933, was named after Elena Stasova. Stasova died on 31 December 1966 at Moscow and was placed in an urn in the

Kremlin Wall Necropolis The Kremlin Wall Necropolis is the former national cemetery of the Soviet Union, located in Red Square in Moscow beside the Moscow Kremlin Wall, Kremlin Wall. Burials there began in November 1917, when 240 pro-Bolsheviks who died during the Mosc ...

Writings

* ''MOPR's Banners Abroad: Report to the Third MOPR Congress of the Soviet Union.'' Moscow: Executive Committee of International Red Aid, 1931. (By-line given as "H. Stassova" on cover.)

Honours and awards

Hero of Socialist Labour The Hero of Socialist Labour () was an Title of honor, honorific title in the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact countries from 1938 to 1991. It represented the highest degree of distinction in the USSR and was awarded for exceptional achievem ...

(1960) *

Order of Lenin The Order of Lenin (, ) was an award named after Vladimir Lenin, the leader of the October Revolution. It was established by the Central Executive Committee on 6 April 1930. The order was the highest civilian decoration bestowed by the Soviet ...

(5 times: 1933, 1953, 1956, 1960, 1963)

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Stasova, Elena 1873 births 1966 deaths Burials at the Kremlin Wall Necropolis Politicians from Saint Petersburg Russian Social Democratic Labour Party members Old Bolsheviks Soviet politicians Soviet women in politics Female revolutionaries Comintern people Members of the Orgburo of the 8th Congress of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) Members of the Secretariat of the 7th Congress of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) Members of the Secretariat of the 8th Congress of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) Members of the Bureau of the 7th Congress of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) Candidates of the Politburo of the 8th Congress of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) Candidates of the Central Committee of the 6th Conference of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (Bolsheviks) Candidates of the Central Committee of the 6th Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (Bolsheviks) Members of the Central Committee of the 7th Congress of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) Members of the Central Committee of the 8th Congress of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) Heroes of Socialist Labour Recipients of the Order of Lenin Revolutionaries from the Russian Empire