The First Female Prime Minister

Few people are aware of the fact that the Republic of Tuva, a small isolated land in the center of Asia and currently a part of the Russian Federation, was, for a brief period in history, an independent nation. This is probably due to the fact that the Tuvinian Republic or Tannu Tuva, as it was known, was only recognized by China and the USSR. How independent was it? Well, it printed its own stamps, but basically functioned as a vassal state of the USSR until its formal incorporation in 1944. Still, independent enough to serve our purposes.

So, I have this friend in Australia who’s pretty cool. She must  be cool because she visits lots of blogs and she’s always sending me neat stuff. She also has dreads and I think dreads are sweet. The other day she introduced me to Khertek Anchimaa-Toka, the first prime female minister in the world, who just so happened to be Tuvan. Yay! Another thing Tuva can be known for! I mean, besides coal, asbestos and… ummm… what’s the cool thing… oh yeah, throat singing! I love throat singing, but not coal or asbestos. Just think, now Tuva  can be known for two cool things: throat singing and the first female prime minister!

Who was this Khertek Anchimaa-Toka? According to the article I read, she was born in 1912 in a small community in Tuva to an impoverished peasant family. She learned how to read Mongolian and later on dedicated a great part of her career to the eradication of illiteracy. She was amongst the 11 Tuvan students in her year to graduate from the Communist University of the Toilers of the East in the Memory of Lenin. Isn’t that the coolest name for a University ever? Granted they were primarily concerned with spreading the communist revolution throughout Asia, but common, which scores more points? “Oh yeah, I graduated from Houghton College” or, “Oh yeah, I graduated from the Communist University of the Toilers of the East in the Memory of Lenin.” I rest my case. Anyway, the school was in Moscow and after her 4 years of education, she returned to Tuva to promote the Revolution. In 1940 she became head of the Little Khural (Tannu Tuva Parliament) and in doing so became the world’s first female prime minister. Also in 1940 she married Solchak Toka, who ended up becoming the General Secretary of the Tuvan Peoples Revolutionary party.  She played a large role in Tuva becoming an Autonomous Socialist Republic within the USSR in 1944 and played an active role within politics until 1972. I haven’t been able to find any record of her death and I know for sure she was alive and well as recently as 2006.

How is it possible I never learned about Khertek in primary school? Okay, granted, there’s lots of famous people I didn’t learn about in primary school. In fact, I remember the first time I was ever introduced to Tuva was during an ethnomusicology course at Houghton. Khertek wasn’t perfect and as with most communists repressed a few people. Still, I think her legacy is valuable and shouldn’t be lost in the sands of history. Solchak Toka has bust out front of the State Theatre in Kyzyl. In due time I’m looking forward to seeing a bust of Khertek Anchimaa-Toka, the world’s first female prime minister.