Artyukhina, Aleksandra (1889–1969)

Soviet politician and champion of women's rights. Name variations: Aleksandra Vasil'evna Artyukina; Alexandra Vasilevna or Vasilyevna Artyukhina; Alexandra Artiukhina. Born in 1889 in Russia; died in 1969 in Soviet Union.

Politician and early champion of women's rights in Soviet Union, worked in textile factory in pre-revolutionary Russia and was active in union movement; was arrested by tsarist government several times for political activities; held various government posts after Russian Revolution (1917); appointed head of zhenotdel (Department of Working Women and Peasant Women), women's section of Communist Party of Soviet Union (1927); helped continue work of zhenotdel comrades Alexandra Kollantai and others, organizing literacy schools, publishing weekly bulletin and monthly journal Kommunitska (The Communist Woman), instructing women of newly-won rights and deepening political awareness (and cooperation); pressed for and won changes to support women's role as worker outside of the home in rapidly industrializing country including state-run childcare and dining facilities; lost position when zhenotdel was shut down by Stalinists who did not wish discussion of conditions of life nor change in male dominance of political power; continued to hold government positions but these were more honorific than real.

See also Carmen Scheide, "Born in October: The Life and Thought of Aleksandra Vasil'evna Artyukina 1889–1969" in Melanie Ilic ed., Women in the Stalin Era (Macmillan, 2001).