Hokuma Sultanova

Hokuma Ismail gizi Sultanova (; 1909 in Baku – November 1981 in Baku) was an Azerbaijani public and political figure, Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Azerbaijan SSR (1954–1958), head of the Fine Arts Administration under the Council of Ministers of the Azerbaijan SSR (1947–1951) and leader of the Azerbaijan Women's Council. She is one of the first scholars in Azerbaijani historiography who prepared and published scholarly biographies on Azerbaijani female revolutionaries, party, and state officials regarding their public and political activities. She was also the sister of Agha Sultanov, who was the secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan, and Yagub Sultanov, one of Azerbaijan's first aviators.

Career Following the Sovietization of Azerbaijan, she attended primary and secondary schools, engaged in public activities, and joined the ranks of the Leninist Young Communist League in 1924. From 1928 to 1932, Sultanova worked as a department head at the Central Committee of the Azerbaijan Lenin Communist Youth Union, later becoming its secretary. In 1930, she became a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). In 1936, she graduated from the Institute of Marxism–Leninism. Subsequently, she advanced to the position of deputy director of the cultural and educational department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan, and later became its director.

Hokuma Sultanova was arrested on July 23, 1938, based on the orders of the Special Advisory Council of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs (NKVD) of the USSR, on charges of involvement with counter-revolutionary-nationalist organizations. On August 9, 1939, her case was reviewed, and she was released due to lack of evidence and absence of criminal elements in her actions, according to the order dated December 28, 1939, by the Special Advisory Council of the NKVD of the USSR.

In subsequent years, Sultanova was active in the field of journalism, serving as the editor of "Hujum" and "Sharg gadini" magazines. From 1941 to 1947, she worked as the director of the Azerbaijan State Publishing House. From 1947 to 1951, she served as the head of the Fine Arts Administration under the Council of Ministers of the Azerbaijan SSR, and from 1952 to 1954, she was the head of the Azerbaijan SSR Main Press (Lithography) Administration under the Council of Ministers of the Azerbaijan SSR. From 1954 onwards, she worked as the deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers (the first Azerbaijani woman to hold this position).

Hokuma Sultanova died in November 1981.