Elena Stasova

Elena Dmitriyevna Stasova (Russian: Елена Дмитриевна Стасова; 15 October [O.S. 3 October] 1873 – 31 December 1966) was a Russian Soviet revolutionary, Old Bolshevik and an early leader of the organisation that would go on to become the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

Stasova was born to an eminent aristocratic family in Saint Petersburg. She worked as a teacher during her youth and came to embrace revolutionary politics. In 1898, she joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) at the time of its establishment. Following the RSDLP ideological split in 1903, Stasova joined Vladimir Lenin's Bolshevik faction. She continued her revolutionary activities in Russia, Switzerland and Finland despite frequent threats of imprisonment and deportation. In 1913, she was exiled to Siberia, but returned to Saint Petersburg shortly before the February Revolution. She was named secretary and alternate member of the Central Committee, but by 1920 she had been fully frozen out of Soviet power. Afterwards, Stasova was a Comintern representative to Germany until 1927, when she returned to Russia and took on a leadership position in the International Red Aid (MOPR). From 1938 to 1946, she found work as an editor of the magazine International Literature. Stasova died in 1966 at the age of 93.