The biography of this black-haired short woman with smart eyes was carefully studied by historians. And some of them, having analyzed massive folders with documents and interrogation protocols signed by the “committee members” in the winter of 1949, still cannot understand how a simple girl from Zaporozhye was able to get a lucky ticket and become the wife of a person who held a responsible post in the government of the Country of Soviets .
Undoubtedly, Polina Zhemchuzhina could not have imagined that, having become the wife of Molotov himself, he would subsequently supervise significant branches of the economy in the USSR. But she nevertheless assigned a certain role in the building of communism, which is eloquently evidenced by the time span of the years of her youth.
Childhood and youth
Polina Zhemchuzhina (originally Pearl Semenovna Karpovskaya) - a native of the village of Pologi, located in the Alexander district of Yekaterinoslav province. She was born on March 11, 1897. Her father was a simple tailor. Already a teenager, Polina began to work. First, she got a job at a tobacco factory with a cigarette box, after some time she switched to working as a cashier in a pharmacy.
And soon, dramatic changes took place in the "political" consciousness of the girl: under the influence of propaganda materials and propaganda, she became an adherent of the ideas of social equality.
"The party of Lenin is a people's power"
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 propaganda among the fighters. Then she moved to Kiev, where the young Bolshevik continued political work. In Kharkov, the girl will receive an identity document in the name of Polina Semenovna Zhemchuzhina. Soon, a serious revolution will occur in the party career of the girl.
Fateful meeting
At the beginning of the 20s of the last century, the First International Women's Congress was scheduled in the Soviet capital. As a delegate from the Zaporizhzhya city committee, Polina Zhemchuzhina was sent to him. Vyacheslav Molotov himself sat on the presidium . It was he who noticed a young Bolshevik from Zaporozhye, despite the fact that a huge number of female colleagues were present in the hall.
The future Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR met a young activist and invited her not to return to Ukraine. So Polina Zhemchuzhina remained in Moscow.
Life in the capital
In Moscow, she got a job as an instructor at the Rogozh-Simonovsky District Committee of the RCP (B.). During this period, she became very close to Vyacheslav Mikhailovich, and after a while he offered her a hand and a heart. Polina Semenovna Pearl agrees. With her husband, they first lived in the same communal apartment with the Stalin family, and then left, but remained neighbors with the “leader of the peoples”. The wife of Molotov becomes a close friend of the wife of Joseph Vissarionovich. They have a lot in common: social status, age and party work.
Labor activity
Polina Semenovna Zhemchuzhina enters to study at the Faculty of Economics at the Plekhanov Institute, and after receiving her diploma, the Bolshevik is employed at the Novaya Zorya perfume factory as secretary of a party cell. In the early 30s, she will already manage this respectable enterprise. In the prewar years, Polina Zhemchuzhina, whose biography contains many noteworthy and interesting facts, will oversee the leading areas of activity in Soviet people's commissariats.
In particular, she headed the synthetic, soap, perfumery, cosmetic, and fishing 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.
Alarms for Stalin
In the late 30s, the Chekists managed to establish that the wife of the USSR Foreign Minister was in correspondence with her sister, who lived in Palestine. It was the first swallow threatening Polina Semenovna to become disgraced for the authorities.
In the winter of 1941, the Pearl was expelled from the list of applicants to the party apparatus. She decided to focus on work in the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee. As you know, after the war, this structure began to be positioned as a dangerous organizational and nationalist center. However, Stalin, according to his inner convictions, refused to include her in the Zionist affair. But he was simply enraged by the act that the Pearl did - she visited the synagogue. He also did not like the fact that Polina Semyonovna had a frank confession with the writer I. Ferrer, saying that she did not believe in the official version of the death of artist Mikhoels. In addition, the leader was disgusted that the Pearl met with the Israeli ambassador Golda Meir. Joseph Vissarionovich decided to send the spouse of Molotov into exile, by accusing her of corruption as head of light industry.
As a result, she was sentenced to 5 years of exile and sent to Kustanai region. The political authority of her husband was seriously shaken, and he was forced to divorce the Pearl, although he loved her very much.
Shortly before Stalin passed away, Polina Semenovna 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 was favorable to the wife of Molotov. Immediately after the death of the leader, she was personally rehabilitated by Lavrenty Beria. From such news, the Pearl even lost consciousness. After some time, she was already going to the cottage to her husband. Vyacheslav Mikhailovich was overjoyed when he saw that Pauline Zhemchuzhina was alive. Were there any children in the Molotov family?
This question may also be of interest to many. Polina Semenovna gave birth to one and only daughter, Svetlana, who subsequently chose the work of a researcher at the Institute of World History.
The pearl passed away on May 1, 1970. The cause of death is oncology. They buried Polina Semenovna at the Novodevichy cemetery in the capital.