The biography of this short, black-haired woman with intelligent eyes has been carefully studied by historians. And some of them, having analyzed the massive folders with documents and protocols of interrogations signed by the "committees" in the winter of 1949, still cannot understand how a simple girl from Zaporozhye could get a lucky ticket and become the wife of a man who held a responsible position in the government of the Land of Soviets.
Undoubtedly, Polina Zhemchuzhina could not have imagined that, having become the wife of Molotov himself, she would subsequently oversee significant sectors of the economy in the USSR. But she still assigned a certain role to herself in building communism, which is eloquently evidenced by the time period that falls on the years of her youth.
Childhood and youth
Polina Zhemchuzhina (originally Pearl Semyonovna Karpovskaya) is a native of the village of Pologi, located in the Aleksandrovsky district of the Yekaterinoslav province. She was born on March 11, 1897. Her father was a simple tailor. Already as a teenager, Polina began to work. At first, she got a job as a cigarette-maker at a tobacco factory, after some time she moved to work as a cashier in a pharmacy.
And soon cardinal changes took place in the “political” consciousness of the girl: under the influence of campaign materials and propaganda, she becomes an adherent of the ideas of social equality.
Lenin's party is the power of the people
At the age of 21, Polina Zhemchuzhina becomes a member of the Bolshevik Party and joins the ranks of the Red Army, where she conducts active agitation propaganda among the fighters. Then she moved to Kyiv, where the young Bolshevik continued her political work. In Kharkov, the girl will receive an identity document in the name of Polina Semyonovna Zhemchuzhina. Soon, a serious turn will take place in the party career of the girl.
Fateful meeting
In the early 1920s, the 1st International Women's Congress was scheduled in the Soviet capital. Polina Zhemchuzhina was sent to him as a delegate from the Zaporozhye City Committee. Vyacheslav Molotov himself sat in the presidium. It was he who noticed the young Bolshevik from Zaporozhye, despite the fact that there were a huge number of female colleagues in the hall.
The future Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR met a young activist and suggested that she not return to Ukraine. So Polina Zhemchuzhina stayed in Moscow.
Life in the capital
In Moscow, she got a job as an instructor Rogozhsko-SimonovskyDistrict Committee of the RCP(b). During this period, she became very close to Vyacheslav Mikhailovich, and he, after some time, offers her a hand and a heart. Polina Semyonovna Zhemchuzhina agrees. With her husband, they first lived in the same communal apartment with the Stalin family, and then parted, but remained neighbors with the "leader of the peoples." Molotov's wife becomes a close friend of Joseph Vissarionovich's wife. They have a lot in common: social status, age and party work.
Work activity
Polina Semyonovna Zhemchuzhina goes to study at the Faculty of Economics of the Plekhanov Institute, and after receiving a Bolshevik diploma, she finds a job at the Novaya Zarya perfume factory as a secretary of a party cell. In the early 30s, she will already be in charge of this solid enterprise. In the prewar years, Polina Zhemchuzhina, whose biography contains many remarkable and interesting facts, will oversee the leading areas of activity in the Soviet people's commissariats.
In particular, she headed the synthetic, soap, perfumery and cosmetics, and fish industries. Soon Polina Zhemchuzhina (Molotov's wife) began to claim the right to join the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, but events occurred that radically changed her future life.
Waking signals for Stalin
In the late 1930s, the Chekists managed to establish that the wife of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR was in correspondence with her sister, who lives in Palestine. This was the first sign that threatened Polina Semyonovna to become disgraced for the authorities.
In the winter of 1941, Zhemchuzhina was excluded from the list of applicants for the party apparatus. She decided to focus on working for the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee. As you know, after the war, this structure began to position itself as a dangerous organizational and nationalist center. However, Stalin, in his inner convictions, refused to include her in the Zionist cause. But he was simply infuriated by the act that Zhemchuzhina did - she visited the synagogue. He also did not like that Polina Semyonovna was frank with the writer I. Ferer, saying that she did not believe in the official version of the death of the artist Mikhoels. In addition, the leader was disgusted that Zhemchuzhina met with the Israeli ambassador Golda Meir. Iosif Vissarionovich decided to send Molotov's wife into exile by accusing her of corruption as head of the light industry.
As a result, she was sentenced to 5 years of exile and sent to the Kustanai region. The political authority of her husband was seriously shaken, and he was forced to divorce Zhemchuzhina, although he loved her very much.
Shortly before Stalin's death, Polina Semyonovna was transferred from Kazakhstan to Moscow to begin interrogations in a new case, of which she became a defendant. She was destined to spend the rest of her life in isolation from society.
Long awaited freedom
But fate turned out to be favorable to Molotov's wife. Immediately after the death of the leader, Lavrenty Beria personally rehabilitated her. From such news, the Pearl even lost consciousness. Some time later, she was already on her way to the country.to her husband. Vyacheslav Mikhailovich was beside himself with happiness when he saw that his Polina Zhemchuzhina was alive. Were there any children in the Molotov family?
This question may also be of interest to many. Polina Semyonovna gave birth to a single daughter, Svetlana, who subsequently chose the job of a researcher at the Institute of World History.
Pearl passed away on May 1, 1970. The cause of death is oncology. Polina Semyonovna was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery of the capital.
