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Factory No. 22
signed by Stalin.The resolution stated that for the defense of the nation, Factory
No. 22 had no less significance than an army corps.To strengthen the factory leadership
and ensure control of its work by the Central Committee, the Politburo had
deemed it necessary to introduce the position of Central Committee Party organizer.This
position was also given the responsibilities of the factory Party committee
secretary. By decision of the Politburo, Olga Aleksandrovna Mitkevich was
appointed VKP(b) Central Committee Party Organizer for Factory No. 22.
“As regards Party committee secretary comrade Aralov, he is being transferred
to work at our district committee,” concluded Ruben.
This report was totally unexpected for Aralov and for everyone assembled there.
“Are there any questions?” asked Ruben.
Everyone was dumbfounded and silent. Suddenly our Komsomol secretary,
Petukhov, got up and demanded:
“Tell us about yourself!”
Mitkevich (now we knew who Ruben had brought with him) stood up, and
serenely moving her intent gaze from one person to another, began to speak.
She was born in 1889 to a broken family of the nobility. She had taken part
in the revolutionary movement since 1903. In 1905, she joined the Russian
Social-Democratic Workers’ Party (RSDRP) (Bolsheviks) and began the illegal
life of a member of an underground organization. She studied at the Moscow
Commercial Institute and later graduated from the chemistry section of the
Moscow Higher Courses for Women. In 1917, she participated in the October
battles in Moscow.
During the conflict with Denikin she was named commissar of the Eighth
Army, Thirteenth Division. 24 As a member of the Red Army, she marched from
Voronezh to Groznyy. In 1920, she was transferred from military fronts to
economic ones. She worked in the Donets Basin, Nikolayev, and Kharkov. She
managed a mining office and was director of a textile factory in Yaroslavl. In April
1927, as a member of a Soviet delegation, she took part in the first Pacific
Conference of Labor Unions in Canton. She spent a long period of time in China
as a representative of the Comintern Executive Committee. 25 She participated in
the Party committee congress in China. In 1930, she was called back to Moscow
from China. Now she was deputy head of the Party organization department
(Orgotdel) within the Central Committee.
“And by decision of the Politburo I have been sent to you at the factory. I am
counting on your help.”And with that, Mitkevich ended her speech.
24. Anton Ivanovich Denikin (1872–1947) was the Russian general who led the anti-Bolshevik “White”
forces on the southern front during the Russian Civil War (1918–20).
25. The Comintern (Communist International) was an international organization dedicated to fostering
Communist leadership among socialist movements across the world. Lenin founded the organization in 1919 as
the “Third International.”The Comintern gained strength through the 1920s but noticeably weakened in influence
by World War II.
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