Ana Pauker

Ana Pauker (born Hannah Rabinsohn; 28 December 1893 – 3 June 1960) was a Romanian communist leader and served as the country's foreign minister in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Ana Pauker became the world's first female foreign minister when entering office in December 1947. She was also the unofficial leader of the Romanian Communist Party immediately after World War II. While considered extremely faithful to Stalin and Moscow, she conflictingly deviated from Stalin's line in many respects, in particular by opposing forced collectivization, not implementing the requested purges of communists, practicing a more moderate approach towards non-communists, and assisting the emigration of Jews to Israel.

Biography

Early life and political career

Pauker was born on 28 December 1893 into a poor, religious Orthodox Jewish family in Codăești, Vaslui County (in central Moldavia), the daughter of Sarah and (Tsvi-)Hersh Kaufman Rabinsohn. Her father was a traditional slaughterer and synagogue functionary, her mother a small-time food seller. They had four surviving children; two more died in infancy.

As a young woman, Pauker became a teacher in a Jewish elementary school in Bucharest. While her younger brother was a Zionist and remained religious, she opted for Socialism, joining the Social Democratic Party of Romania in 1915 and then its successor, the Socialist Party of Romania, in 1918. She was active in the pro-Bolshevik faction of the group, the one that took control after the Party's Congress of 8–12 May 1921 and joined the Comintern under the name of Socialist-Communist Party (future Communist Party of Romania). She and her husband, Marcel Pauker, became leading members.