All Topics  
Polina Zhemchuzhina

 

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

Polina Zhemchuzhina
 
 
  Topics Polina Zhemchuzhina Topic Home

Polina Semyonovna Zhemchuzhina (; 1897 - 1970) was the wife of Vyacheslav Molotov
Vyacheslav Molotov

Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov , Soviet Union politician and diplomacy, was a leading figure in the Government of the Soviet Union from the 1920s, when he rose to power as a prot?g? of Joseph Stalin, to 1957, when he was dismissed from Presidium of the Central Committee by Nikita Khrushchev....
.

Born Pearl Karpovskaya (the word pearl in Russian is ?????????) to the family of a Jew
Jew

A Jew is a member of the Jewish people, an ethnoreligious group that traces its ancestry to the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East....
ish tailor in the village of Pologi, in the Yekaterinoslav region (today Dnepropetrovsk Oblast, Ukraine
Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east; Belarus to the north; Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary to the west; Romania and Moldova to the southwest; and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south....
), she joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party
Russian Social Democratic Labour Party

The Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party, or RSDLP , also known as the Russian Social-Democratic Workers' Party and the Russian Social-Democratic Party, was a revolutionary socialist Russian political party formed in 1898 in Minsk to unite the various revolutionary organizations into one party....
 of Bolshevik
Bolshevik

Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists were a faction of the Marxism Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the 2nd Congress of the RSDLP in 1903 and ultimately became the Communist Party of the Soviet Union....
s in 1918 and served as a propaganda
Propaganda

Propaganda is the dissemination of information aimed at influencing the opinions or behaviors of large numbers of people. As opposed to Objectivity providing information, propaganda in its most basic sense presents information in order to influence its audience....
 commissar
Commissar

Commissar is the English transliteration of an official title The title was mostly associated with a number of Cheka and military functions in many Bolshevik and Soviet government military forces during the Russian Civil War; the White Army widely used the collective term bolsheviks and commissars for their opponents....
 in the Red Army
Red Army

The Red Army was the armed force first organized by the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War in 1918 and, in 1922, became the army of the Soviet Union....
 during the Russian Civil War
Russian Civil War

The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed and the Bolshevik party assumed power in Saint Petersburg....
.

In 1921, she married Vyacheslav Molotov
Vyacheslav Molotov

Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov , Soviet Union politician and diplomacy, was a leading figure in the Government of the Soviet Union from the 1920s, when he rose to power as a prot?g? of Joseph Stalin, to 1957, when he was dismissed from Presidium of the Central Committee by Nikita Khrushchev....
, by then a member of the Central Committee of the CPSU.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'Polina Zhemchuzhina'
Start a new discussion about 'Polina Zhemchuzhina'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


Polina Semyonovna Zhemchuzhina (; 1897 - 1970) was the wife of Vyacheslav Molotov
Vyacheslav Molotov

Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov , Soviet Union politician and diplomacy, was a leading figure in the Government of the Soviet Union from the 1920s, when he rose to power as a prot?g? of Joseph Stalin, to 1957, when he was dismissed from Presidium of the Central Committee by Nikita Khrushchev....
.

Born Pearl Karpovskaya (the word pearl in Russian is ?????????) to the family of a Jew
Jew

A Jew is a member of the Jewish people, an ethnoreligious group that traces its ancestry to the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East....
ish tailor in the village of Pologi, in the Yekaterinoslav region (today Dnepropetrovsk Oblast, Ukraine
Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east; Belarus to the north; Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary to the west; Romania and Moldova to the southwest; and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south....
), she joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party
Russian Social Democratic Labour Party

The Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party, or RSDLP , also known as the Russian Social-Democratic Workers' Party and the Russian Social-Democratic Party, was a revolutionary socialist Russian political party formed in 1898 in Minsk to unite the various revolutionary organizations into one party....
 of Bolshevik
Bolshevik

Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists were a faction of the Marxism Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the 2nd Congress of the RSDLP in 1903 and ultimately became the Communist Party of the Soviet Union....
s in 1918 and served as a propaganda
Propaganda

Propaganda is the dissemination of information aimed at influencing the opinions or behaviors of large numbers of people. As opposed to Objectivity providing information, propaganda in its most basic sense presents information in order to influence its audience....
 commissar
Commissar

Commissar is the English transliteration of an official title The title was mostly associated with a number of Cheka and military functions in many Bolshevik and Soviet government military forces during the Russian Civil War; the White Army widely used the collective term bolsheviks and commissars for their opponents....
 in the Red Army
Red Army

The Red Army was the armed force first organized by the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War in 1918 and, in 1922, became the army of the Soviet Union....
 during the Russian Civil War
Russian Civil War

The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed and the Bolshevik party assumed power in Saint Petersburg....
.

In 1921, she married Vyacheslav Molotov
Vyacheslav Molotov

Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov , Soviet Union politician and diplomacy, was a leading figure in the Government of the Soviet Union from the 1920s, when he rose to power as a prot?g? of Joseph Stalin, to 1957, when he was dismissed from Presidium of the Central Committee by Nikita Khrushchev....
, by then a member of the Central Committee of the CPSU. She also made a successful career in the Soviet hierarchy, serving in the Narkomat of Food Industry under Anastas Mikoyan
Anastas Mikoyan

Anastas Hovhannesi Mikoyan was an Armenian people Old Bolshevik and Soviet Union statesman during the Joseph Stalin and Nikita Khrushchev years....
, to become in 1939 the first female Narkom (of Fishing Industry), and was elected a candidate to the Central Committee that year.

During the 1920s, her sister emigrated to the then-British Mandate of Palestine. According to historian Zhores Medvedev
Zhores Medvedev

Zhores Aleksandrovich Medvedev is a Russian biologist, historian and dissident. His twin brother is the historian Roy Medvedev....
, Stalin was highly suspicious of Zhemchuzhina. He thought that she negatively influenced Molotov, and he recommended Molotov to divorce her. Her brother Karp was a successful businessman in the USA (Montefiore, Stalin n282)

In a secret meeting of the Politburo
Politburo

Politburo, short for Political Bureau, Russian language Politicheskoye Buro, is the executive organization for a number of political parties, most notably those of Communist Party....
 on August 10, 1939, the agenda item number 33, "Regarding Comrade Zhemchuzhina", her alleged "connections to spies" led to a request to verify that information by the NKVD
NKVD

The NKVD or People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the leading secret police organization of the Soviet Union that was responsible for Soviet political repressions during the Stalinism era....
. As it was customary during the Great Purge
Great Purge

Great Purge was a series of campaigns of political repression and persecution in the Soviet Union orchestrated by Joseph Stalin in 1936-1938. Also described as a "Soviet holocaust" by several authors, it involved the purge of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, repression of kulaks, Red Army leadership, and the persecution of unaffiliat...
s, many of her coworkers were arrested and questioned, but the "evidence" (frequently acquired by force) against her was so contradictory that (on October 24) the Politburo concluded the "allegations against comrade Zhemchuzhina's participation in sabotage and spying... to be considered slanderous." However, she was severely reprimanded and demoted for unknowingly keeping contacts with "enemy elements thereby facilitating their spying missions." In February, 1941, she was taken off the list of the candidates to the Central Committee.

During the Great Patriotic War, Zhemchuzhina actively supported the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee
Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee

The Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee was formed in Samara, Russia in April 1942 with the official support of the Soviet authorities. It was designed to influence international public opinion and organize political and material support for the Soviet fight against Nazi Germany, particularly from the Western world....
 (JAC) and befriended many of its leading members, most notably Solomon Mikhoels
Solomon Mikhoels

Solomon Mikhoels ; was a Soviet Union Jewish actor and the artistic director of the Moscow State Jewish Theater. Mikhoels served as the chairman of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee during the World War II....
. She frequently attended performances by the Moscow State Jewish Theater
Moscow State Jewish Theater

The Moscow State Jewish Theater, Russian language: ?????????? ??????????????? ????????? ?????, also known by its acronym GOSET: ?????) was a Yiddish theater company established in 1919 and shut down in 1948 by the USSR authorities....
.

Polina Zhemchuzhina befriended Golda Meir
Golda Meir

Golda Meir was the fourth prime minister of the Israel.Meir was elected Prime Minister of Israel on 17 March 1969, after serving as Minister of Labour and Foreign Minister....
, who arrived in Moscow in 1948 as the first Israeli ambassador to the USSR.

Long distrusted by Stalin, she was arrested in December 1948 for "treason" and sentenced to a labour camp. She was released by Beria upon the death of Stalin in 1953.

External links