Ekaterina Furtseva remained in Russian history as “Catherine III”. Thus, she was associated with Catherine II and with Ekaterina Dashkova, who headed the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. Having started her journey “from the bench”, she found herself at the top of the party hierarchy during the critical years of Khrushchev’s rule. Her fall from political Olympus was a personal tragedy for her, but the path of a woman legend was just beginning. The role she was to play as Minister of Culture eclipsed the career achievements of many of her successful contemporaries. For through her lips the authorities spoke to the intelligentsia not in the language of threats and directives, but in the language of dialogue and persuasion. Ekaterina Furtseva truly loved her job and was smart enough to separate the wheat from the chaff. The cultural field of the Land of Soviets, which was once remarkable, owes much to her.