Only one woman entered the history of the Soviet Union, about whom it can be said that she led the work of the country's government. The post of deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR from 1988 to 1990 was occupied by Alexander Biryukova, but she never became chairman. The situation changed only after the collapse of the Soviet Union. And the new President of Ministers (Prime Minister) of Latvia, Laimdota Straujuma, is the fifth representative of the former USSR, who headed the government of her now independent state from Moscow.
13th prime minister
Elected on January 22, 2014, Laimdota Straujuma, the President of Latvian Ministers, became the 13th head of the Latvian government after the country's disconnection from the USSR. She replaced Straujuma, who voluntarily retired after the collapse of a shopping center in Riga and the death of 54 people Valdis Dombrovskis there. By the way, under Dombrovskis, she was also part of the government, in which she headed the Ministry of Agriculture. Among her predecessors as prime minister was the current president of the country, Andris Berzins.
By the way, all the former leaders of the Latvian government, including those who lived and worked in Riga before World War II, were exclusively men. Let one of them be called Anna. But among the presidents there was a place for a woman: from 1999 to 2007, the Baltic state was headed by Vaira Vike-Freiberga, who returned from many years of emigration to the United States. It was under Vick-Freiberga that the political career of the new Latvian prime minister started. In November 1999, Straujuma, a renowned agricultural economist in the country, began working as Deputy Secretary of State in the Ministry of Agriculture. Just a year later, Laimdota became secretary of state, and in 2011 she headed the ministry itself.
Recognition cross
63-year-old Strauyuma, despite her high state rank, is a completely non-public person. The most that is known about the personal life of the first lady of the government is the marital status - “divorced”, and the presence of two adult sons, who have nothing to do with politics or agriculture. In the country, she is sometimes even jokingly called “a modest grandmother,” and is highly respected. The latter is evidenced, for example, by the fact that according to the results of a sociological survey conducted in June 2014, 55.5% of Latvians assessed the activities of the prime minister positively. And negatively - only 30, 1%.
It is also impressive that the Doctor of Economics (the topic of his thesis is called “Assessment of the Use of Production Resources in Latvian Enterprises”) has a large number of professional awards and titles. Working in the 90s as the director of the Latvian Agricultural Consulting and Educational Support Center, Straujuma was elected an honorary member of the British Institute of Agriculture. And already in the 21st century she received a letter of gratitude from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Latvia, a medal of the Ministry of Agriculture "For Dedication" and the State Cross of Recognition.
Thatcher from Riga
Contrary to popular belief, there are still a lot of women in the world who at different times were heads of government. The most famous VIPs are Indira Gandhi (India), Golda Meir (Israel), Margaret Thatcher (UK), Benazir Bhutto (Pakistan), Sirimavo Bandaranaike (Sri Lanka), Angela Merkel (Germany), Julia Gillard (Australia), Chiller Tansu (Turkey) and others. As for Eastern Europe and, especially, the former Soviet Union, they began to pay serious attention to women as outstanding politicians only after the final disappearance of the socialist system and the collapse of many union states. Women prime ministers were, in particular, in Poland - Hanna Suchocka, Slovakia - Iveta Radishova, Slovenia - Alenka Bratushek and Macedonia - Radmila Shekerinska.
They supported the former neighbors in the socialist bloc in some republics of the ex-USSR. Thus, the first government of Lithuania was headed by Kazimira Prunskiene, the work of the Ukrainian cabinet was twice led by Yulia Tymoshenko, and Zinaida Grechanaya and Roza Otunbaeva were prime ministers of Moldova and Kyrgyzstan, respectively. Moreover, the latter combined her post with the presidential one. The fifth in this honorable political list was Laimdota Strauyuma from Riga, who received the honorary nickname "Latvian Thatcher" for her strong character, conservatism and striving for a tough course in governing the country and the government.
Among the most "loud" statements of the new prime minister are, in particular, the call not to celebrate May 9 as Victory Day and the refusal to join the sanctions against Russia, whose organizations and cultural figures have been holding the Russian-language music festival "New Wave" in Jurmala for many years. Not all residents of the country approved the words of the Prime Minister. By the way, the Russians themselves, like their predecessors from the USSR, prefer to see a man at the head of the government. Occasionally trusting the ladies with the "portfolios" of deputies. In the last years of the existence of the Soviet Union, Alexandra Biryukova worked in this position, and in modern Russia, Galina Karelova and Valentina Matvienko worked as deputy prime ministers for several years.
