Lidiia Aleksandrovna Fotieva

Born Oct. 6 (18), 1881, in Riazan’; died Aug. 25, 1975, in Moscow. Figure in the Russian revolutionary movement. Hero of Socialist Labor (1971). Member of the CPSU from 1904.

The daughter of an office worker, Fotieva entered the Moscow Conservatory in 1899 (graduated 1917) and enrolled in the Bestu-zhev Courses in St. Petersburg in 1900. In 1901 she was exiled to Perm’ for her involvement in the student movement; through her, N. K. Krupskaia corresponded with the Perm’ Iskra supporters. Fotieva was arrested several times. She emigrated in 1904. While abroad, she worked in the Bolshevik sections in Geneva and Paris, took part in the Convocation of Twenty-two Bolsheviks, and assisted Krupskaia in her correspondence with party organizations in Russia. After 1905 she conducted party work in St. Petersburg.

In 1917, Fotieva joined the Vyborg raion committee of the RSDLP(B) and the editorial board of Pravda. From 1918 to 1930 she was secretary of the Council of People’s Commissars of the RSFSR (after 1923, the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR) and the Council of Workers’ and Peasants’ Defense of the RSFSR (after 1920, the Council of Labor and Defense of the RSFSR; after 1923, the Council of Labor and Defense of the USSR). From 1918 to 1924 she was V. I. Lenin’s private secretary. In 1933 she began working at the Central Energy Administration and the All-Union Heat Engineering Institute. In 1934 she graduated from the Planning Academy. In 1938 she joined the staff of the Central Lenin Museum.

During the Great Patriotic War (194–45), Fotieva was a member of the Central Committee of the International Organization for Aid to Fighters for the Revolution. She became a personal pensioner in 1956. She wrote reminiscences of Lenin.

Fotieva served as a delegate to the Twenty-second through Twenty-fourth Congresses of the CPSU. She was awarded four Orders of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, and various medals.