Ayna Mahmud gizi Sultanova (1895 – 1938) was an

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...

i Communist party activist and statesperson. She was one of the first Azerbaijani female revolutionaries and in 1938, became the first Azerbaijani female cabinet minister.

Life and career

Ayna Sultanova (née Musabeyova) was born in 1895 in the village of

Pirəbədil Pirəbədil (also, Pirebedil’) is a village and municipality in the Davachi Rayon of Azerbaijan. It has a population of 834. The municipality consists of the villages of Pirəbədil, Sumağava, Sumağavaqazma, and Zöhramlı. Notable nati ...

, 15 kilometres east of the modern-day city of

Shabran Shabran District ( az, Şabran rayonu) is one of the 66 districts of Azerbaijan. It is located in the north-east of the country and belongs to the Guba-Khachmaz Economic Region. The district borders the districts of Khachmaz, Quba, Khizi and ...

. She was the sister of

Gazanfar Musabekov Gazanfar Mahmud oghlu Musabeyov or Musabekov ( az, Qəzənfər Mahmud oğlu Musabəyov, , Perebidil, Baku Governorate - 9 February 1938, Moscow) was an Azerbaijani Bolshevik revolutionary and Soviet statesman. He was Chairman of the Central E ...

who later became a Bolshevik revolutionary and Chair of the

Council of People's Commissars of Azerbaijan The Council of People's Commissars of Azerbaijan ( az, Azərbaycan SSR Xalq Komissarları Soveti) was established as the governing body of the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic. Accounts differ as to whether it was formed on 28 April 1920 (Mil' ...

, the highest governing body of the republic. In 1912, she graduated from Saint Nino Gymnasium in

Baku Baku (, ; az, Bakı ) is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world a ...

and later briefly taught at that school. In 1917, she became interested in Bolshevik ideasMəhərrəm Zülfüqarlı. "Sovet dövrünün heykəlləri: Ayna Mahmud qızı Sultanova" // 525-ci qəzet. — 15 April 2009. and on 1918, joined the Russian Communist Party (which later became the

Communist Party of the Soviet Union "Hymn of the Bolshevik Party" , headquarters = 4 Staraya Square, Moscow , general_secretary = Vladimir Lenin (first) Mikhail Gorbachev (last) , founded = , banned = , founder = Vladimir Lenin , newspaper ...

).Мамедов С. Страницы жизни. — Б.: Ишыг, 1973. — С. 47. — 116 с. In 1919, she moved to

Astrakhan Astrakhan ( rus, Астрахань, p=ˈastrəxənʲ) is the largest city and administrative centre of Astrakhan Oblast in Southern Russia. The city lies on two banks of the Volga, in the upper part of the Volga Delta, on eleven islands of the ...

, then to

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

where she worked at the Middle Eastern bureau of the People's Commissariat of Russia for Foreign Affairs. In 1920, she went back to already Sovietised Azerbaijan and until 1930, worked in different administrative positions related to women's affairs. In 1923, she also became the editor-in-chief of ''Sharg Gadyny'', a Communist magazine aimed at women's emancipation. Between 1937 and 1938, Sultanova worked as Deputy People's Commissar (Minister) of Education, then as the People's Commissar of Justice. She was also a student at the

Institute of Red Professors An institute is an organisational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations (research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes can ...

. For her services to the Soviet state, Sultanova was awarded the

Order of the Red Banner of Labour The Order of the Red Banner of Labour (russian: Орден Трудового Красного Знамени, translit=Orden Trudovogo Krasnogo Znameni) was an order of the Soviet Union established to honour great deeds and services to th ...

.Jamil Guliyev (ed.). Султанова Ајна Маһмуд гызы. Azerbaijani Soviet Encyclopædia, v. 9. 1986. She was married to

Hamid Sultanov Hamid Hasan oglu Sultanov ( az, Həmid Sultanov; 26 May 1889 – 1938) was a Soviet Azerbaijani politician, People's Commissar for Internal Affairs of the Azerbaijan SSR and later Chair of the Council of People's Commissars of the Nakhchivan ASSR ...

, Chair of the Council of People's Commissars of the

Nakhchivan ASSR The Nakhichevan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, abbreviated as Nakhichevan ASSR was an autonomous republic within the Azerbaijan SSR, itself a republic within the Soviet Union. It was formed on 16 March 1921 and became a part of the Az ...

. In 1938, in the wake of the

Great Purge The Great Purge or the Great Terror (russian: Большой террор), also known as the Year of '37 (russian: 37-й год, translit=Tridtsat sedmoi god, label=none) and the Yezhovshchina ('period of Nikolay Yezhov, Yezhov'), was General ...

, both of them, along with Ayna Sultanova's brother Gazanfar Musabekov, were arrested on counter-revolution charges and executed by firing squad shortly afterwards. There is a street named after Ayna Sultanova in

Ganja Ganja (, ; ) is one of the oldest and most commonly used synonyms for marijuana. Its usage in English dates to before 1689. Etymology ''Ganja'' is borrowed from Hindi/Urdu ( hi, गांजा, links=no, ur, , links=no, IPA: �aːɲd� ...

and a monument dedicated to her in Baku.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sultanova, Ayna 1895 births 1938 deaths People from Shabran District People from Baku Governorate Azerbaijani communists Azerbaijani revolutionaries Prosecutors General of Azerbaijan Prosecutors of the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic Soviet Azerbaijani people Executed politicians Executed Azerbaijani women Great Purge victims from Azerbaijan 20th-century Azerbaijani women politicians 20th-century Azerbaijani politicians Azerbaijani feminists Female revolutionaries Women government ministers of Azerbaijan Members of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union executed by the Soviet Union