Photo: Неизвестно, начало 20 века, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons¹⁰

Sofia Sokolovskaya

Russian revolutionary, politician and senior official

Sofia Ivanovna Sokolovskaya (Russian: Софья Ивановна Соколовская), also known as Yelena Kirillovna Svetlova (Елена Кирилловна Светлова) (10 April 1894 – 26 August 1938) was a Russian revolutionary, politician and senior official of the Soviet film industry until she became a victim of the Great Purge.²

From Wikipedia’s article on Sofia Sokolovskaya (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Born Apr 10, 1894, died Aug 26, 1938.¹

Companies

MosfilmBoard member 1935 to 1938⁹

Career

Occupation: journalist, revolutionary, politician.⁴

1935 to 1938Director, Mosfilm³

Personal life

BornApr 10, 1894, Odesa⁵
DiedAug 26, 1938, Moscow⁶
CitizenshipSoviet Union, Russian Empire⁷
SpouseYakov Yakovlev⁸

Legal issues and controversies

Arrest and death

Sokolovskaya and her husband, Yakovlev were both arrested on 12 October 1937. She co-operated with her interrogators from the start. She wrote a self-incriminating letter to Joseph Stalin saying “I didn’t find the courage to break out of this counter-revolutionary filth, come to the party and expose this gang of enemies of the party and the people." As early as 15 October, her husband was told during an interrogation that she had denounced him. This did not save her. On 7 November, Stalin told the head of Comintern, Georgi Dimitrov, that she was a "French spy" who had betrayed the Bolsheviks in Odessa in 1918. She was shot on 26 August 1938 and posthumously rehabilitated in 1956.