Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the USSR Y.A. Furtseva written and signed note. Size 10 cm x 21 cm. Note addressed to the students and teachers of the Moscow State University: “With love and respect to the teachers, professors, students of the most famous and oldest university in the country. I wish you creative success to the entire team and happiness in personal life. Y. Furtseva. October 22, 1967 Yekaterina Alexeyevna Furtseva (1910 – 1974) was a Soviet politician and the second woman to be admitted as secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. In 1956, she was appointed a Secretary of the Central Committee and was elected a candidate member of Politburo. She became the first woman to join the Politburo the next year. In this capacity, she sided with Khrushchev in de-stalinizartion during the Khrushchev’s Thaw, and secured the downfall of V. Molotov, G. Malenkov and L. Kaganovich, when they conspired to depose her patron. She worked as Soviet Minister of Culture for 14 years. As she became highly influential, many remarkable actors and directors tried to secure her friendship in order to further their own careers. Y. Furtseva became addicted to alcohol. She revealed that she had failed to be re-elected to the Supreme Soviet. Two months previous she had been disciplined by the Party for extravagance and fined 40,000 rubles. She died in Moscow a few months later, officially of heart failure. Yet there were rumors that she was implicated in illegal commercial dealings and, wishing to preclude the impending scandal and disgrace, committed suicide.