Ayna Mahmud gizi Sultanova (1895 – 1938) was an

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by ...

i Communist party activist and statesperson. She was one of the first Azerbaijani female revolutionaries and in 1938, became Azerbaijani female cabinet minister.

Life and career

Ayna Sultanova (née Musabeyova) was born in 1895 in the village of

Pirəbədil Pirəbədil (also, Pirebedil’) is a village and municipality in the Davachi Rayon of Azerbaijan. It has a population of 834. The municipality consists of the villages of Pirəbədil, Sumağava, Sumağavaqazma, and Zöhramlı. Notable natives ...

, 15 kilometres east of the modern-day city of Shabran. She was the sister of

Gazanfar Musabekov Gazanfar Mahmud oghlu Musabeyov or Musabekov (, , – 9 February 1938) was an Azerbaijani Bolshevik revolutionary and Soviet statesman. He was Chairman of the Central Executive Committee of the Azerbaijan SSR from 1929 to 1931, and he headed t ...

who later became a Bolshevik revolutionary and Chair of the

Council of People's Commissars of Azerbaijan The Council of People's Commissars of Azerbaijan () was established as the governing body of the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic. Accounts differ as to whether it was formed on 28 April 1920 (Mil'man and Guliev) or at the First All-Azerbaijan ...

, the highest governing body of the republic. In 1912, she graduated from Saint Nino Gymnasium in

Baku Baku (, ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Azerbaijan, largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and in the Caucasus region. Baku is below sea level, which makes it the List of capital ci ...

and later briefly taught at that school. In 1917, she became interested in Bolshevik ideasMəhərrəm Zülfüqarlı. "Sovet dövrünün heykəlləri: Ayna Mahmud qızı Sultanova" // 525-ci qəzet. — 15 April 2009. and on 1918, joined the Russian Communist Party (which later became 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 ...

).Мамедов С. Страницы жизни. — Б.: Ишыг, 1973. — С. 47. — 116 с. In 1919, she moved to

Astrakhan Astrakhan (, ) is the largest city and administrative centre of Astrakhan Oblast in southern Russia. The city lies on two banks of the Volga, in the upper part of the Volga Delta, on eleven islands of the Caspian Depression, from the Caspian Se ...

, then to

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

where she worked at the Middle Eastern bureau of the People's Commissariat of Russia for Foreign Affairs. In 1920, she went back to already Sovietised Azerbaijan and until 1930, worked in different administrative positions related to women's affairs. In 1923, she also became the editor-in-chief of " Sharg gadini", a Communist magazine aimed at women's emancipation. Between 1937 and 1938, Sultanova worked as Deputy People's Commissar (Minister) of Education, then as the People's Commissar of Justice. She was also a student at the

Institute of Red Professors The Institute of Red Professors of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) () was an institute of graduate-level education in the Marxist social sciences located in the Orthodox Convent of the Passion, Moscow. History It was founded in February 1 ...

. For her services to the Soviet state, Sultanova was awarded the

Order of the Red Banner of Labour The Order of the Red Banner of Labour () was an order of the Soviet Union established to honour great deeds and services to the Soviet state and society in the fields of production, science, culture, literature, the arts, education, sports ...

.Jamil Guliyev (ed.). Султанова Ајна Маһмуд гызы. Azerbaijani Soviet Encyclopædia, v. 9. 1986. She was married to Hamid Sultanov, Chair of the Council of People's Commissars of the Nakhchivan ASSR. In 1938, in the wake of the

Great Purge The Great Purge, or the Great Terror (), also known as the Year of '37 () and the Yezhovshchina ( , ), was a political purge in the Soviet Union that took place from 1936 to 1938. After the Assassination of Sergei Kirov, assassination of ...

, both of them, along with Ayna Sultanova's brother Gazanfar Musabekov, were arrested on counter-revolution charges and executed by firing squad shortly afterwards. There is a street named after Ayna Sultanova in

Ganja ''Ganja'' (, ; ) is one of the oldest and most commonly used synonyms for cannabis flower, specifically marijuana or hashish. Its usage in English dates to before 1689. Etymology ''Ganja'' is borrowed from Hindi (, IPA: �aːɲd͡ʒa� ...

and a monument dedicated to her in Baku.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sultanova, Ayna 1895 births 1938 deaths People from Shabran District People from Baku Governorate Azerbaijani communists Azerbaijani revolutionaries Prosecutors General of Azerbaijan Prosecutors of the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic Soviet Azerbaijani people Executed politicians Executed Azerbaijani women Great Purge victims from Azerbaijan 20th-century Azerbaijani women politicians 20th-century Azerbaijani politicians Azerbaijani feminists Female revolutionaries Women government ministers of Azerbaijan Members of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union executed by the Soviet Union First women government ministers