She joined the Communist labor movement in Russia, and was forced into exile at age 20 - probably in 1909.

She was active during the Revolution and rose through the ranks to sit as an alternate member on the Secretariat of the CPSU Central Committee from 1926 to 1930.

On March 1, 1931, international journalists noticed Artukhina as the first woman to sit on the Soviet Supreme Court.

She assumed leadership of the Cotton Textile Workers Union when a Commissar of light industry, Isadore Lubimoff, was removed.

She was named a Hero of Socialist Labor in 1960, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of International Women's Day, and lies buried in the Novodevichy Cemetery.