Aleksandra Pavlovna Biryukova (née ''Achkasova''; ; 25 February 1929 - 20 February 2008) was a Soviet politician and member of the

Communist Party of the Soviet Union The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU),. Abbreviated in Russian as КПСС, ''KPSS''. at some points known as the Russian Communist Party (RCP), All-Union Communist Party and Bolshevik Party, and sometimes referred to as the Soviet ...

(CPSU).Gravestone of Aleksandra Pavlovna Biryukova and Alexander Nikitovich Biryukov. Digital Image. Moscow-Tombs.ru. Accessed March 2, 2020. She was the highest-ranking female politician under Soviet leader

Mikhail Gorbachev Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet and Russian politician who served as the last leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to dissolution of the Soviet Union, the country's dissolution in 1991. He served a ...

until the election of Galina Semenova in 1990. Biryukova was the third woman ever appointed to the CPSU Politburo ( 27th term), the executive committee for the

, and the fifth woman to be appointed to the CPSU Secretariat ( 27th term).Bill Keller,“A Soviet Woman’s Point of View.” in The New York Times, January 24, 1989. The first woman to serve in the Politburo was

Elena Stasova Elena Dmitriyevna Stasova (; 15 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 revolutionary, Old Bolshevik and an early le ...

and the second one was

Yekaterina Furtseva Yekaterina Alexeyevna Furtseva (; 7 December 1910 – 24 October 1974) was a Soviet politician and member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). She was the second woman to be elected member of the CPSU Presidium ( 20th term) and ...

. Biryukova worked with the Bureau for Social Development, specifically focused on labor conditions, consumer issues, housing, and health.Keller, “A Soviet Woman’s Point of View.”

Early life

Biryukova was born in

Voronezh Oblast Voronezh Oblast is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (an oblast). Its administrative center is the types of inhabited localities in Russia, city of Voronezh. Its population was 2,308,792 as of the Russian Census (2021), 20 ...

, Russia on February 25, 1929.McCauler, Who’s Who in Russia since 1990. She was the middle child of five. Throughout her education, she was extremely ambitious and scored top grades.Dejevsky, “Out shopping for a new Soviet future.” She graduated with distinction from the Moscow State Textile Institute in 1952. After graduating, Biryukova worked in a Moscow textile factory called The First Printed Fabric Works. She began as a specialist and rose to the position of deputy supervisor and later shop supervisor.

Political career

Biryukova joined the

(CPSU) as a full member in 1956.McCauler, Who’s Who in Russia since 1990.; Weeks, The Soviet nomenklatura. Administrators for

Nikita Khrushchev Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and the Premier of the Soviet Union, Chai ...

( Chairman of the Council of Ministers) took attention to her in 1959, and she was appointed to one of Moscow's administrative committees on the economy, and put in charge of Moscow's textile and knitwear industries. She became successful within this movement and created a strong rapport with the workers by campaigning for improved safety and working conditions. In the 1960s and 1970s, she campaigned to establish holiday homes for trade union members and families, as well as to improve health and safety provisions. Biryukova was made secretary and Presidium member of the

All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions The All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions (ACCTU; , VTsSPS) was the national trade union federation of the Soviet Union. The federation was established in January 1918. In October 1990, it was dissolved, and replaced by the General Confede ...

in 1968. In 1971, she would become a candidate member of the

Central Committee of the CPSU The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the Central committee, highest organ of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) between Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Congresses. Elected by the ...

and would go on to become a full member in 1976. On March 6, 1973, Biryukova was appointed the Secretary of the Consumer Goods Industry, responsible for supervising the consumer goods industry (which included the food and light industries).Weeks, The Soviet nomenklatura. When

came into power in 1985, Biryukova entered the highest level of soviet politics by becoming Deputy Chair of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions. In 1986, Gorbachev selected Biryukova at the 27th Congress of the Communist Party as a lead on what would become

perestroika ''Perestroika'' ( ; rus, перестройка, r=perestrojka, p=pʲɪrʲɪˈstrojkə, a=ru-perestroika.ogg, links=no) was a political reform movement within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) during the late 1980s, widely associ ...

. She became the first woman elected to the Secretariat of the CPSU in over 20 years, and was responsible for the light industry and production of consumer goods. She was also made a deputy to the

USSR Supreme Soviet The Supreme Soviet of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (SSUSSR) was the highest body of state authority of the Soviet Union (USSR) from 1936 to 1991. Based on the principle of unified power, it was the only branch of government in the ...

and the RSFSR Supreme Soviet. In October 1988, she was elected as a candidate member of the

Politburo A politburo () or political bureau is the highest organ of the central committee in communist parties. The term is also sometimes used to refer to similar organs in socialist and Islamist parties, such as the UK Labour Party's NEC or the Poli ...

. In the same month, she was made the Deputy Prime Minister of the USSR and chair of the Bureau for Social Development. The bureau was tasked with providing Soviets with improved food, clothes and many other crucial consumer goods. As chair, Biryukova was required to do a large amount of international shopping. She took a major trip in which she went to eight different cities and purchased 50 million pairs of tights, 1.7 million pairs of lady's shoes and mass quantities of necessities like toothpaste, soap, razor blades, and instant coffee. All of this international shopping was due to product shortages in the Soviet Union and was intended to help reduce labour strikes and workforce unrest. In 1989, she was the only woman out of the more than 200 highest-ranking members of the Soviet political sphere.

The 28th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

Aleksandra Biryukova attended the

congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

held on July 5, 1990. At the conference, Biryukova called the Soviet consumer market “a crisis situation” and described the status of health services as “criminal”. At this time, the Communist Party was experiencing an unfavourable period. At the Congress, Biryukova was criticized by many attendees, some of whom also called her to resign. In response to these criticisms, Gorbachev told the group that she would receive a pension and be relieved of all her duties.Christopher Young, “Sick, Outdated and Badly Led, the Once-Mighty..." in CanWest News, July 5, 1990. As a result, Biryukova resigned from all her positions in September 1990, at the age of 61.

Political views

As Biryukova was a supporter of

Soviet Communism Before the perestroika reforms of Mikhail Gorbachev that promoted a more liberal form of socialism, the formal ideology of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) was Marxism–Leninism, a form of socialism consisting of a centralise ...

, she was anti-capitalist and was also an advocate for women. She viewed the lack of representation of women in high-ranking roles as a result of their natural inclination to be a mother. She spoke out about the lack of contraceptives and access to abortion in the Soviet Union in 1989.

Personal life

Biryukova's father and one brother died in

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. She married Alexander Nikitovich Biryukov (Russian: Александр Никитович Бирюков; 8 September 1925 - 17 September 2006) a staff military officer who retired in 1980. They had a daughter who passed away at the age of sixteen, due to natural causes. In 1973, Biryukova published a book called “The Working Woman in the USSR”. The book discusses women and their contribution to the creation of the Soviet socialist state.“The Working Woman In The USSR : Aleksandra Biryukova : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive.” Internet Archive, 2015. In her free time, Biryukova enjoyed skiing, swimming, and opera.

Bibliography

* Cartledge, Sir Bryan, Stephen Dalziel, David Dyker, Ian Gorvin, Angus McQueen, Tim Whewell, Helen Womack, and Martin Wright. ''Soviet Union: The challenge of change''.Edited by Martin Wright. Essex: Longman Group UK Limited, 1989. * Dejevsky. Mary. “Out shopping for a new Soviet future.” ''The Times'', July 31, 1989. * Gravestone of Aleksandra Pavlovna Biryukova and Alexander Nikitovich Biryukov. Digital Image. Moscow-Tombs.ru. Accessed March 2, 2020. *Greenspan, Karen. ''The timetables of women's history: a chronology of the most important people and events in women's history''. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994. * Keller, Bill. “A Soviet Woman’s Point of View.” ''The New York Times'', January 24, 1989. * McCauler, Martin. ''Who’s Who in Russia since 1990''. London: Routledge, 1997. * Remnick, David. “Soviet Woman Official Speaks Out on Abortion, Women’s Role.” ''The Washington Post'', January 24, 1989. * Rigby, T.H. ''Political elites in the USSR : central leaders and local cadres from Lenin to Gorbachev''. England: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited, 1990. * Rosenberg, Chanie. ''Women and perestroika''. London: Bookmarks, 1989. * Ruthchild, Rochelle G. ''Women in Russia and the Soviet Union: an annotated bibliography.''New York: Maxwell Macmillan International, 1993. * Temko, Ned. “Near the top, but still not decisionmakers.” ''The Christian Science Monitor'', October 9, 1981. * “The Working Woman In The USSR : Aleksandra Biryukova : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive.” Internet Archive, 2015. https://archive.org/details/TheWorkingWomanInTheUssr/page/n3/mode/2up. * Weeks, Albert L, comp. ''The Soviet nomenklatura: a comprehensive roster of Soviet civilian and military officials''. Washington, D.C.: Washington Institute Press, 1989.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Biryukova, Aleksandra Pavlovna 1929 births 2008 deaths People from Voronezh Oblast Candidates of the Politburo of the 27th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Members of the Central Committee of the 25th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Members of the Central Committee of the 26th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Candidates of the Central Committee of the 24th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Members of the Secretariat of the 27th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Deputy heads of government of the Soviet Union Eleventh convocation members of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union Russian communists Members of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, 1971–1975 Members of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, 1975–1980 Members of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, 1980–1985 Members of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, 1985–1990 Soviet women in politics 20th-century Russian women politicians Textile workers Moscow State Textile University alumni Recipients of the Order of the October Revolution Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Burials in Troyekurovskoye Cemetery