Alevtina Fedulova

Fedulova was born on 14 April 1940, in Elektrostal, to an illiterate, yet intelligent, mother and a blacksmith father, who died when she was young. An excellent student, Fedulova wished to become a teacher as a child, but went to a local technical school linked to a local factory. Under pressure, Fedulova's mother paid the tuition to allow her to finish at the school, enabling her to take entrance exams in Moscow for a teacher training institute there.[1]

Fedulova married at age 20, while still studying at the institute, in 1960. Her husband was conscripted to military service around the time their son was born.[1] Upon graduation, she became a teacher of biology and chemistry.[1] She remained as a high school teacher for ten years.[2]

In 1963, Fedulova joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, about which she expressed some ambivalence.[1]

Fedulova later became head of the Pioneers[1] and was the executive secretary of the Soviet Peace Committee.[3] In 1987, she left her position to work for the Soviet Women's Committee full-time, and was elected vice-president of the organisation that same year.[4] From 1981 until 1986, she was a member of the CPSU's Auditing Commission, and was promoted to the Central Committee in 1990.[1]

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Fedulova's position of power within the CPSU made many feminists sceptical.[5][6] However, as leader of the Women of Russia bloc in 1993,[7] but not affiliated to any political party in particular, she became a member of the Duma.[1] This resulted in 8% of the Duma belonging to the Women of Russia bloc, allowing them to form their own official faction within the Russian government.[8]

Fedulova is married to her husband, a former deputy sports minister, and has one son and two grandchildren.[2]