The first woman in diplomacy
Women in diplomacy are still a rare phenominan. That is why the name of the first female diplomat is entered to history books and also the monographies about progress of diplomacy. One of the North European countries` king was waiting for an ambassador of Soviet Union to meet and hold meetings.
According to ethics the king had to speak while sitting, but seeing that the ambassador was female the king was astonished. It was impolite, even for a king to talk to a standing woman while he was sitting. The ambassador who disturbed the king`s peace with her coming was Aleksandra Mihailovna Kollatai, the world`s first female diplomat.
Aleksandra Mihailovna Kollatai, a prominent politician and a states woman, was born in 1872 in the noble family of the famous Pasco prince Dovmants of the eighteenth century. Since her childhood little Shura had wanted to hear the bells to ring for her. It is not known whether her dreams came true, but it is undoubted that ceremonial gratitude speeches were heard several times in her honor. Since her childhood Aleksandra had wanted to be famous and she made it.
After Soviet government had been established Aleksandra Mihailovna was appointed to the state charity commissar. Firstly she made lots of efforts to help women. Namely, she was the woman who offered a law related to the breakdown of marriages and a law that both children born in wedlock and children born out of wedlock have equal rights. Furthermore she took part in preparing the drafts of laws about maternity leave and many facilities for a young mothers. But soon in 1927 Aleksandra Mihailovna was appointed the Soviet Union`s plenipotentiary trade representative in Norway. It was no coincidence that Aleksandra Mihailovna Kollatai was selected to this position, because she was intelligent, attractive and knew subtle mysteries of ethics and several foreign languages. Kollatai was able to sign a million dollar fish trade agreement between Norway and the USSR.
After then Kollatai`s career continued in Mexico, but she did not like the climate of this country and returned her home. In 1930 Kollantai became the ambassador of the Soviet Union in Sweden. She was given the most important and the most difficult mission. It was to improve the relationship between USSR and this country and Kollantai was able to do it successfully. Moreover Aleksandra Mihailovna managed to do other missions successfully.
After the second World War Aleksandra Mihailovna returned to Russia. Until her last day, she worked as an adviser to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the USSR.
Aleksandra Mihailovna Kollatai died on March 9, 1952 at the age of 80.
Zybagozel HALDURDYYEVA,
1st year student of the faculty of International Relations
of the Institute of International Relations
of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan