Galina Burkatskaya

Galina Yevgeniya Burkatskaya (Галина Евгеньевна Буркацкая, Галина Євгеніївна Буркацька; 17 December 1916 – 15 March 2006) was a Soviet activist of the collective farm movement, twice Hero of Socialist Labor (1951, 1958). Member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine in 1952-1966. Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the 3rd-6th convocations, member of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (1958-1962). Member of the Central Audit Commission of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) in 1961-1966.

Early life and education
Burkatskaya was born on 17 December 1916 in the village of Heronymivka (now Cherkasy district of Cherkasy region) in a poor peasant family. In 1932 she graduated from a seven-year school.

Career
From 1933 to 1935 Burkatskaya worked as the secretary of the Heronymivka village council and the chairman of the Shelepukhiv village council of the Cherkasy district. From 1935 to 1937 she was an instructor in the organizational and mass department of the Cherkasy District Council of Workers' Deputies of the Kyiv Region.

From 1937 to 1938 Burkatskaya studied at the Komsomol branch of the Artem Ukrainian Agricultural Communist University in Kharkiv. Then she worked for the Komsomol in Solonitsy school of Kharkiv suburban district of Kharkiv region.

With the beginning of World War II she was evacuated to the Saratov region, where from 1941 to 1944 she worked on the collective farm "Sickle and Hammer" Pervomaisky district of Saratov region.

With the conquest of Ukraine in 1944 she returned to her native village. She worked as a foreman, from 1947 as a secretary of the party organization, and from 1949 to 1967 she was chairman of the board of the Khrushchev collective farm (later - "Soviet Ukraine") in the village of Heronymivka, Cherkasy region.

In 1946 she became a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

In 1956 she graduated in absentia from the Faculty of Agronomy of the Ukrainian Agricultural Academy in Kyiv, where in 1967 she made a scientific report on improving the management system on the example of suburban collective farms. Based on the report, she was awarded the title of Candidate of Economic Sciences.

In 1961 she visited London as part of a Soviet delegation.

Since 1968 Burkatskaya was a senior lecturer at the Department of Labor Organization of the Ukrainian Agricultural Academy in Kyiv. She was also a member of the editorial board of the magazine "Krestyanka".

She was a Delegate to the 19th and 22nd Congresses of the CPSU. At the 22nd Congress of the CPSU she was elected a member of the Central Audit Commission.

She died on 15 March 2006 and buried in Baikove Cemetery.

Works

 * How we perform the main task in agriculture. K., 1953;
 * On the way to a steep rise in the economy. M., 1964;
 * Improving the management system. K., 1967.

Awards

 * Hero of Socialist Labor (18 May 1951 and 26 February 1958)
 * Order of Lenin (18 May 1951)
 * Order of the Red Banner of Labor (1948)
 * Order of Princess Olga II (3 March 2006) - for significant personal contribution to the socio-economic and cultural development of Ukraine, active public activity, many years of hard work
 * Order of Princess Olga III. (7 February 2001) - for fruitful public activity, significant personal contribution to the development of the veterans' movement
 * Diploma of the Presidium of the Verkhovna Rada of the Ukrainian SSR (16 February 1966)

Commemoration
A bronze bust of Burkatskaya was installed in her native village Heronymivka. On 10 September 2008 a memorial plaque was unveiled at the house in the village of Heronymivka, where she lived.