In what year did Krupskaya's hope die? Krupskaya Nadezhda Konstantinovna - biography and personal life

It’s paradoxical, but in modern Russian historiography and historical journalism dedicated to N.K. Krupskaya, there were two directly opposite, even mutually exclusive opinions. Some researchers consider this woman to be perhaps the main culprit, an invisible but powerful driver of events that turned the history of Russia in the 20th century. Others, on the contrary, are inclined to assign Krupskaya the modest role of the silent, unloved wife of the “leader of the world proletariat,” which no one would ever remember if she were not his only official wife. However, N.K. Krupskaya went down in history only due to the fact that her fate turned out to be most closely connected with the fate of V.I. Lenin. It is impossible to argue against this.

The entire biography of Nadezhda Konstantinovna is usually divided into three parts, far from equal in importance: before Lenin (1869-1898), with Lenin (1898-1924) and after Lenin (1924-1939). It turns out that for most of his adult life N.K. Krupskaya held next to her famous husband. In exile, in exile, in Soviet Russia they almost never separated. But so little is known about the marital relations of the Ulyanov couple that even today historians do not undertake to seriously deny or affirm anything. Of course, against the backdrop of a whirlwind romance with Inessa Armand family life Lenina looks uninteresting and boring. And is it possible to call a childless union of two fiery revolutionaries a family? Perhaps fate brought them together only to create a well-coordinated “tandem” of like-minded people, an excellent mechanism for reworking and implementing Marxist theory? Who knows?..

In Soviet times, Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaya was not at all counted among the “pantheon” of infallible leaders. Her true views on what was happening after Lenin’s death in the party apparatus and the country, as a rule, were carefully hushed up. Having made Lenin an untouchable symbol, the Stalinist leadership deprived the person closest to him (his wife) not only of the right to dispose of the body of the deceased, but also of the right to dispose of his own memory of him. For all 15 years of life without Lenin, Krupskaya never “went beyond the bounds.” She did not say anything that could contradict the already created and retouched image of “the most humane of people”; she did not allow herself to recall a single intimate detail or weakness of her husband in order to break the revered idol carefully molded by her descendants. Krupskaya knew how to keep secrets? Yes.

Therefore, speaking about her life, even today we are forced to be content with only brief biographical information, memories of eyewitnesses and obvious Soviet myth-making. All this gives rise to the most ridiculous assumptions, accusations, historical mysteries and new myths of the “post-Soviet” and “post-perestroika” era...

Before Lenin

Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaya was born in St. Petersburg, into a poor noble family. Father - Lieutenant Konstantin Ignatievich Krupsky (1838-1883) participated in the suppression of the Polish uprising, was no stranger to the revolutionary democratic movement and did not leave any fortune to the family. Her mother, governess Elizaveta Vasilievna Tistrova (1843-1915), raised her daughter alone, lived on the pension she received, and worked part-time teaching lessons.

Description early years Nadezhda Konstantinovna bears little resemblance to a human biography. Even in the memories of the friends of her childhood and youth, warm, with a twist, non-standard details rarely slip through, there are no interesting cases: everything is smooth, boring, calm, as if we are talking about a robot. Meanwhile, young Nadenka also asserted herself and was original, but in such a unique way that none of the biographers even understood it. Even during her years at the gymnasium, she became interested in Leo Tolstoy and his teachings, and was a consistent “sweatshirt.” In 1889, Krupskaya entered the prestigious Higher Women's Courses in St. Petersburg, but studied there for only a year. In 1890, while attending courses, she joined a Marxist circle and from 1891 to 1896 taught at a workers' school. Instead of thinking about outfits and dreaming about grooms, the noble young lady was engaged in propaganda work, memorized German, in order to enjoy Marx in the original. Many noted the external unattractiveness of Nadezhda Konstantinovna, but if you look closely at her youthful photographs, there is nothing repulsive in them. On the contrary, she is a rather pretty “Turgenev” girl. Maybe it was complete absence what is called charm and feminine attractiveness? How else can we explain that by the age of thirty, all of Nadezhda Konstantinovna’s interests were focused on Marxism? She never did housework, didn’t even try to start a family, and her mother was happy with any groom who would suddenly cross the threshold of their house...

Life with Lenin

Nadya first saw Vladimir Ulyanov at her workers’ school in 1894. Now biographers can only guess who struck whom then with decisiveness and categorical judgments. Vladimir Ilyich at that time was only a young provincial, who probably wanted to make acquaintance, and perhaps even marry, a resident of the capital. Historian Dmitry Volkogonov claims that young Ulyanov first “hit” Nadezhda Konstantinovna’s friend, also a workers’ school teacher, Apollinaria Yakubova. But she politely rejected his marriage proposal. Then the “groom” sent a similar proposal to Nadezhda from prison, and she accepted it.

As you know, the bride came to Shushenskoye accompanied by her mother. Elizaveta Vasilievna followed the Ulyanovs for the rest of her life, playing the role of housekeeper and domestic servant. Thirty-year-old Nadezhda Konstantinovna was unable to take care of herself and her husband, or create family comfort. After the death of their mother (1915) until their return to Russia, Lenin and Krupskaya ate in cheap canteens. “Our family life has become even more student-like,” Nadezhda Konstantinovna admitted in her memoirs. However, the wife’s helplessness in everyday life did not in any way affect the ideological union that was more important for Vladimir Ilyich. Krupskaya wrote that the main thing for them was the opportunity to “talk heart to heart about schools, about the labor movement.” And at night in Shushenskoye they dreamed of how they would participate in mass demonstrations of workers...

Initially, the marriage was supposed to be fictitious - “comrade woman” and “comrade man” supported each other in a difficult situation, but the leader’s future mother-in-law insisted that the marriage be concluded without delay, and “to the fullest.” Orthodox form" The fiery revolutionaries obeyed. The wedding ceremony took place on July 10, 1898 in the Peter and Paul Church in the village of Shushenskoye. Officially, Nadezhda took her husband’s surname, but almost never used it, remaining “Comrade Krupskaya” to everyone until the end of her days.

Ilyich’s family was not happy with his wife: in their minds, she was a boring old maid. Lenin's older sister, Anna, was particularly intransigent. Most of all, Anna Ilyinichna was irritated by gossip about Krupskaya’s “tender friendship” with the exiled revolutionary Viktor Kurnatovsky, whom she met in the same Siberian exile. Found in the memoirs of Nadezhda Konstantinovna short story about how they walked together: “Kurnatovsky showed me a sugar factory not far from Shushenskoye. But the way there was not close. During the journey we walked through a forest and a field. Then it was green all around - beautiful.” Today, historians and biographers of Krupskaya, following Lenin’s “insightful” sister, tend to interpret this fleeting description surrounding nature almost like an erotic memory. However, Shushenskoye is not St. Petersburg. In a rural settlement, where everything is in plain sight, it was absolutely impossible to hide Nadenka’s “romance” with Kurnatovsky, but this did not bother the newlywed Lenin. It is worth noting here that Vladimir Ilyich, unlike his fellow revolutionaries, held rather conservative views on the family and willingly communicated with relatives. The opinion of his mother and older sister was always important to him. Only in the case of Krupskaya did Lenin clearly take her side and did not give rise to the development of a family conflict. It is known that in 1912 Nadezhda Konstantinovna visited the already terminally ill Kurnatovsky in Paris, brought newspapers and food, and talked with him for a long time. Was this just a courtesy visit? In 1912, Vladimir Ilyich perceived it this way.

Due to illness, Nadezhda Konstantinovna could not have children. The couple never publicly, even with close people, shared their pain about this. Krupskaya wanted to have a child, she even went for treatment to Ufa for this purpose, where she was finally diagnosed with infertility. Documents confirming this fact were discovered quite recently. Later, already abroad, Krupskaya fell ill with Graves' disease and had to undergo surgery. In a letter to his mother, Ulyanov reported that Nadya “was very bad - extreme fever and delirium, so I was pretty scared...”. However, the presence of children never stopped fiery revolutionaries. Even less often did it turn them away from their chosen path. Let's remember L.D. Trotsky, who left his wife and two little daughters in Siberia and rushed to make the revolution of 1905...

Lenin, as we know, never left the ugly, barren, and, moreover, sick woman. On the contrary, I was always very afraid of losing her. Most likely, no matter how cheesy it sounds, the Ulyanov family union was based on kinship of interests, on intellectual interaction and even complementing each other.

It was Nadezhda Konstantinovna who knew how to wisely and imperceptibly guide Lenin’s hand, change the course of his thoughts, pretending that she was only helping in his work. Ilyich did not tolerate objections, but Krupskaya, like any smart woman, was not in the habit of objecting. Gently, gradually, she forced people to listen to herself, so much so that her opinion could not be ignored. This is how a loving mother imperceptibly directs the energy of a naughty child in the right direction.

One of Lenin's comrades G.I. Petrovsky recalled:

Isn't it a nice picture, more like a well-directed scene? “Darlings scold - they just amuse themselves.” No, Krupskaya was neither a “mother hen” nor a “darling”. She didn't need fame or cheap self-affirmation. Vladimir Ilyich became her Galatea, and she successfully coped with the role of Pygmalion.

In the story with Inessa, Armand Krupskaya also behaved like wise woman: “Whatever the child amuses himself with...”. She knew that she was in no danger. Feelings are feelings, the most “armored” person is not immune from their explosion, and the bond between the two accomplices turned out to be much stronger. They said that Krupskaya suggested that Lenin divorce immediately after returning to Russia, but Vladimir Ilyich did not let his devoted girlfriend go one step away. Of course: it was good to relax with Inessa, but in Russia there was a important work. The inconspicuous old woman Krupskaya could calmly watch over his shoulder, talk to people, assess the situation and the mood of the masses much more soberly than the Bolshevik leader, always busy at revolutionary rallies. She was his "eyes and ears" faithful assistant, permanent secretary, muse, critic, part of himself. In the spring and summer of 1917, everything was at stake in Lenin’s life. Love, in this case, could wait.

No matter what they said, the couple were sincerely attached to each other. Everyone knows the memories of the cadet sentry who was on duty at the Ulyanovs’ apartment in the Kremlin. Vladimir Ilyich, like to a devoted dog, learned about Nadezhda Konstantinovna’s approach long before her steps were heard on the stairs, ran to meet her, shared his thoughts as he went, and often asked her opinion or advice.

In 1919, when a lot had already been done together, Krupskaya unexpectedly left for the Urals. She asks her husband to leave her to work on her own, perhaps again hinting at a necessary divorce, but immediately receives a letter full of hysterics: “...and how could you come up with such a thing? Stay in the Urals?! Sorry, but I was shocked.".

Krupskaya is returned from the Urals almost by force. Armand soon dies. Alexandra Kollontai recalled:

Lenin needed support, and Nadezhda Konstantinovna again lent her shoulder. Her husband’s unexpected illness frightened her, but did not throw her off balance: at this stage, Lenin needed Krupskaya more than ever. She fulfilled her duty with honor and to the end.

Life without Lenin

All “post-Soviet” biographers of Krupskaya, to one degree or another, ask the question: why did Stalin hate Nadezhda Konstantinovna so much? If she were only an unhappy widow, a harmless old woman, as she looks in all the photographs of the 20s and 30s, then what danger could such a woman pose to his emerging power?

The confrontation between the emerging dictator and Nadezhda Konstantinovna, as we know, began even before the death of Vladimir Ilyich. The Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks instructed its General Secretary I.V. Stalin to monitor compliance with the regime prescribed to Lenin by doctors. Stalin took advantage of this in order to completely isolate the patient from political life, but Krupskaya understood: complete inactivity for Ilyich was tantamount to death. Thanks to Krupskaya, in 1922-23 Lenin was partly aware of what was happening in the Central Committee. During the “Georgian incident,” completely sharing her husband’s point of view on the “great-power chauvinism” of Stalin and Dzerzhinsky, Krupskaya tried to win over Trotsky, Stalin’s main political opponent, to her side. In December 1922, Lenin, with the permission of his doctors, dictated a letter to Nadezhda Konstantinovna to Trotsky regarding the monopoly of foreign trade. Having learned about this, Stalin rudely scolded Krupskaya over the phone, threatening her with proceedings at the level of the Control Commission. The content of this letter is quite innocent: Lenin expressed in it his satisfaction with the way the issue of monopoly was resolved at the Plenum and expressed his thoughts on the raising of this issue at the congress. Stalin himself fully agreed with Lenin’s position, but, firstly, the letter was addressed not to him, but to Trotsky (!), and, secondly, it meant the preservation of Lenin’s political activity, was a fact of his continued participation in the life of the party and state . All this greatly worried Stalin. Otherwise, it is hardly possible to explain the outright breakdown that the Secretary General allowed himself in relation to the wife of the sick leader. The content and intonation of this reprimand can be judged from Krupskaya’s letter to Kamenev, sent on December 23:

Lenin learned about Stalin's trick only on March 5, 1923. And he immediately dictated a note to the secretary:

Gritting his teeth, Stalin apologized, but the “quarrel” ended with a significant deterioration in Vladimir Ilyich’s health. By insulting Krupskaya, Stalin achieved more than all Lenin’s enemies combined: the head of state was completely paralyzed, he could neither move nor speak. In the "Letter to the Congress", which for a long time it was customary to call political testament leader, Lenin wrote about the rudeness of the General Secretary of the Central Committee with the wish for his resignation.

Stalin could not forgive this. Even when Lenin was sick, he tried to remove the “old woman” from the political scene, and when the leader died, Stalin entered into a fierce struggle with Krupskaya. He had no intention of sharing his power with anyone, especially with Lenin’s widow. Nadezhda Konstantinovna begged to bury her husband, but his body was turned into an embalmed mummy and put on public display. Krupskaya was offered a chair next to the coffin, on which she was supposed to spend the hours prescribed by Stalin. It seemed impossible to imagine a more sophisticated torture, but the always restrained, calm Nadezhda Konstantinovna withstood this test.

Krupskaya outlived Lenin by fifteen years. A long-standing illness tormented and exhausted her. She did not give up: she worked every day, wrote reviews, articles, gave instructions, taught how to live, but the “tandem” of like-minded people, alas, fell apart. Krupskaya theorized, but there was no one to give her thoughts a go and insist on the right to express them.

Nadezhda Konstantinovna’s natural kindness still coexisted quite peacefully with harsh revolutionary ideas. At the XIV Party Congress, Krupskaya supported the “new opposition” of G. E. Zinoviev and L. B. Kamenev in their struggle against I. V. Stalin, but subsequently recognized this position as erroneous. Scared? Hardly. Most likely, she was just tired of knocking on empty space.

Until the end of her life, Comrade Krupskaya appeared in print and remained a member of the Central Committee, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Central Executive Committee of the USSR. In 1926-1927, she spoke at plenums and quite voluntarily voted for bringing N.I. to trial. Bukharin, for the expulsion from the party of L.D. Trotsky, G.E. Zinovieva, L.B. Kameneva. Sometimes Lenin’s widow interceded on behalf of the repressed, but for the most part to no avail. Gradually, the woman who had never had children “slipped” exclusively to the problems of pedagogy and public education. In 1929, Krupskaya took the post of Deputy People's Commissar of Education of the RSFSR and became one of the creators of the Soviet public education system, formulating the main task of the new education: “The school should not only teach, it should be a center communist education» . Glavpolitprosvet, headed by Krupskaya, dealt with the old system of humanitarian education back in the early 1920s. Philosophical, philological and historical faculties were abolished in universities. A special government decree introduced a mandatory scientific minimum, requiring the study of such disciplines as historical materialism, proletarian revolution, etc. The general elimination of illiteracy among the population was carried out by the new government with a purely utilitarian goal: every proletarian must independently be able to read the decrees and resolutions of the Soviet government.

When Stalin sharply turned his course towards industrialization and collectivization of the country, N.K. Krupskaya could not remain silent. She became, perhaps, the only person in the Central Committee who decided to openly oppose the inhumane methods of speeding up socialist construction.

“In the summer of 1930, before the 16th Party Congress, district party conferences were held in Moscow,” historian Roy Medvedev writes in his book “They Surrounded Stalin.” – The widow of V.I. spoke at the Bauman conference. Lenina N.K. Krupskaya criticized the methods of Stalinist collectivization, saying that this collectivization had nothing to do with Lenin’s cooperative plan. Krupskaya accused the Party Central Committee of ignorance of the mood of the peasantry and refusal to consult with the people. “There is no need to blame the local authorities,” said Nadezhda Konstantinovna, “for the mistakes that were made by the Central Committee itself.”

When Krupskaya was still making her speech, the leaders of the district committee let Kaganovich know about this, and he immediately went to the conference. Having risen to the podium after Krupskaya, Kaganovich subjected her speech to rude criticism. Rejecting her criticism on the merits, he also stated that she, as a member of the Central Committee, did not have the right to bring her critical remarks to the podium of the district party conference. “Let N.K. not think. Krupskaya,” said Kaganovich, “that if she was Lenin’s wife, then she has a monopoly on Leninism.”

These words could not help but offend Nadezhda Konstantinovna. On the other hand, if someone else had made such criticism, it is unlikely that the matter would have been limited to ordinary censure. Krupskaya was left alone: they were not expelled from the party, they were not declared an “enemy of the people,” but they began to treat her like a crazy old woman. In the 1930s, she continued to be involved in public education. Krupskaya is credited with a campaign to combat the “legacy of the tsarist regime”: the works of Dostoevsky, Krylov, La Fontaine, Merezhkovsky and other authors “harmful” for the education of youth. According to the instructions of the Glavpolitprosvet signed by Krupskaya, children's publications and fairy tales by Russian writers were confiscated from libraries and reading rooms. Either Nadezhda Konstantinovna herself was not given something in childhood, or she was trying to compensate for her failed motherhood in this way, but in one of the articles, the “all-Union grandmother” Krupskaya wrote quite seriously: “We stand against fairy tales... After all, this is mysticism”(“Selected articles and speeches.” M., 1969, p. 107). The fight against “fairy tales” prompted her in the late 1930s to launch a campaign against the works of Chukovsky, to ban some of A. Gaidar’s books, and to impose too stringent demands on children’s literature, which should not entertain, but educate fighters. Numerous works of Nadezhda Konstantinovna on pedagogy today have only historical meaning for those who are interested in the views of the Bolsheviks on the problem of raising children. The true significance of Krupskaya lies in the works of Lenin, her idol and comrade-in-arms.

In 1938, writer Marietta Shaginyan approached Krupskaya about reviewing and supporting her novel about Lenin, Ticket to History. Nadezhda Konstantinovna responded to her with a detailed letter, which caused Stalin’s terrible indignation. A scandal broke out and became the subject of discussion by the Party Central Committee.

“To condemn the behavior of Krupskaya, who, having received the manuscript of Shaginyan’s novel, not only did not prevent the birth of the novel, but, on the contrary, encouraged Shaginyan in every possible way, gave information about the manuscript positive reviews and advised Shaginyan on various aspects of the Ulyanovs’ life and thus bore full responsibility for this book. Consider Krupskaya’s behavior all the more unacceptable and tactless because Comrade Krupskaya did all this without the knowledge and consent of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, thereby turning the all-party matter of compiling works about Lenin into a private and family matter and acting as a monopolist and interpreter of public and personal life and work of Lenin and his family, which the Central Committee never gave anyone the right to do..."

The document is, of course, absurd. But on the other hand, wasn’t it Nadezhda Konstantinovna herself who once started the flywheel of this machine, giving the party bodies the predominant right to mental activity? The ideal in its implementation turned out to be much more absurd than she could have imagined...

Krupskaya left life suddenly. Almost all modern biographers and historians point to some mystery associated with the death of an already middle-aged and sickly woman. In our opinion, the biggest mystery is what she was going to talk about at the 18th Party Congress. She shared her decision to speak to the delegates with many of her colleagues. It is possible that the speech could have been directed against Stalin, but no drafts or theses of the alleged speech were found in Krupskaya’s papers. On Sunday, February 24, 1939, friends came to Nadezhda Konstantinovna to celebrate her approaching seventieth birthday. There were two days left before her birthday, but Krupskaya did not want to spend a regular working day receiving congratulations. The table was modest - dumplings, jelly. Krupskaya drank several sips of champagne, was cheerful and chatted animatedly with friends. In the evening I felt very bad. They called a doctor, but for some reason he arrived three and a half hours later. The diagnosis was made immediately: “acute appendicitis-peritonitis-thrombosis.” An urgent operation was needed, but it was not performed. Obviously, the Kremlin doctors understood that anesthesia would simply kill the elderly woman, and they would be blamed for her death. There was already a precedent: in 1925, M.V. died under anesthesia. Frunze, and in 1926 B. Pilnyak wrote his “The Tale of the Unextinguished Moon.” In 1939, Stalin would hardly have limited himself to the story...

Can the same be said about Nadezhda Konstantinovna?

Professor Vladimir Lavrov: Yes, there are much more reasons to say that Nadezhda Konstantinovna’s life was interrupted earlier than if it had happened naturally.

The fact is that on February 26, 1939, she celebrated her 70th birthday. Krupskaya cooked very poorly, or rather, she didn’t know how to cook. In her family with Vladimir Ilyich, Krupskaya’s mother, Elizaveta Vasilievna, cooked, and when Krupskaya’s mother died, they went to the dining room. Nadezhda Konstantinovna could only fry eggs.

But for her 70th birthday, she made dumplings, and they brought a cake from. And in connection with this cake, the old Bolsheviks have a strong belief that Nadezhda Konstantinovna died of poisoning.

Tell me, Vladimir Mikhailovich, but she wasn’t the only one who ate this cake? Why then do they say this? Or did someone die too?

Professor Vladimir Lavrov

Professor Vladimir Lavrov: Here's the thing. She ate this cake, and the next day she was gone. In general, Stalin loved to stage such performances. Let's say, when he ordered a search of Bukharin, Joseph Vissarionovich called him during the search; Stalin wanted to feel the mortal horror in Bukharin's voice. He felt it, was supposedly surprised, played a game - said: “What search? Who dared?!” That is, like playing a cat with a mouse, he left him to live for a short time.

Here, too, it is very similar to the performance typical of dictator Stalin. But when you get more deeply acquainted with the case, with the documents, you are inclined to believe that it was not poisoning after all. That is, indeed, she was not the only one who ate the cake.

Of course, you can make it so that she eats exactly the piece she needs, but it’s difficult. When you get acquainted with the doctors' notes, other things become clear.

First of all, I haven’t been driving for a very long time. ambulance. How can this be? To the wife of Vladimir Ilyich... Even to ordinary people The ambulance arrived quickly enough. For some reason I didn’t travel here for a long time.

Then what was discovered about her? She was diagnosed with ordinary appendicitis. All. And, of course, she had to be operated on, but the doctors did not do this. They waited until ordinary appendicitis turned purulent, then waited until the purulent appendicitis ruptured... And Nadezhda Konstantinovna died in terrible agony.

How can this be? It is written that 70 years old, a set of diseases, but like any person at that age. She didn't have anything too bad. She stayed on her feet, she walked, she worked. Of course, the doctors were obliged to cut out this unfortunate appendicitis for her, without fail.

If you don’t cut it out, you can die from appendicitis, which is what happened. The question is, why? Moreover, not doing what you should do is in itself a big risk. If you don’t perform the operation, you will be accused of killing the wife of the leader of the revolution. This means that they could not perform the operation, I think, only if there was a command not to do it. Such a command could have been given in the Soviet Union...

Archpriest Alexander Ilyashenko: Only one person could give it, obviously.

Professor Vladimir Lavrov: Yes. That is, she was allowed to die as if by natural causes. I think that’s exactly what happened: failure to provide assistance. And, by the way, this will come back like a boomerang to Stalin - he will also not be given the necessary help.

There were rumors among the old Bolsheviks that she was going to speak at the congress criticizing the repressions. This hardly seems true. In general, she was already a broken, dejected, even drinking woman. But although she voted for repression and supported it, sometimes she could not stand it.

There was a case when she went to Stalin, she was skipped in line at the reception, and defended Zinoviev and Kamenev. She knew that these were not enemies of the people, but her husband’s comrades-in-arms. Stalin didn’t listen... She flew out of his office like a cork in front of everyone...

Archpriest Alexander Ilyashenko: But, please forgive me, Vladimir Mikhailovich, I’ll interrupt you - for Lenin they were not enemies of the people, but for the people who were they?

Professor Vladimir Lavrov: If we talk about the real enemy of the human race and about those who served this enemy of the human race, then, of course, these are demons, these are those whom Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky very precisely defined as famous novel. Of course, Zinoviev and Kamenev were these demons, but it must be said that Vladimir Ilyich and Stalin were too. Moreover, it was they who led all this demonism.

IN AND. Lenin and N.K. Krupskaya with Lenin's nephew Viktor and worker's daughter Vera in Gorki. August-September 1922

Half honor, half disgrace

But as for Nadezhda Konstantinovna... Like Stalin’s wife, while the White Guards, capitalists, and priests were being killed, Krupskaya believed that this was how everything was supposed to be. However, when they began to kill her acquaintances, whom she had known for years and decades, and she perfectly understood that these were not some English spies, that’s when she realized that a nightmare was happening in the country.

She wasn't so strong-willed person to challenge, but sometimes she tried to intercede. And you can imagine what a nightmare she herself lived in. After all, she was not stupid and was aware of what was happening. And she understood what else this could lead to.

And, of course, I don’t think that she was going to speak at the congress, but all the same, Stalin removed people who were at least capable of something, who retained at least something human and dared to understand. He even threatened her. An interesting threat or joke was made when Krupskaya tried to say something in her own way, he replied that “we will appoint someone else as Lenin’s widow.”

Archpriest Alexander Ilyashenko: Is this fixed somehow? Amazing...

Professor Vladimir Lavrov: This is recorded. It was either a joke, but on the other hand, Stalin did not waste words. He would have taken it and appointed someone else or divorced...

Archpriest Alexander Ilyashenko: Posthumously.

Professor Vladimir Lavrov: You see, everything was handed over to her. This is how to live... Moreover, it seemed that she was given some kind of honor - she was seated on the presidium, allowed to speak to the pioneers, share her memories. And on the other hand, she was suspended, suspended and suspended from work, and in the end she was allowed to do only library work, that is, a tertiary one after all. And she felt that she was in a kind of semi-disgrace. And those nearby felt it too.

But she herself played, although far from the main role, but still it was Nadezhda Konstantinovna’s idea that the school should not teach, but educate communists, an amazing idea. This is her proposal to close the history faculties, philological faculties, philosophy faculties...

Archpriest Alexander Ilyashenko: That is, humanitarian education was simply suppressed, including according to her idea.

N.K. Krupskaya. 1936

“There will never be chicks”

Professor Vladimir Lavrov: There was a pogrom. There was a pogrom of humanities education in Russia. That is, Krupskaya, even with Lenin’s approval, due to her communist views, simply did evil, did something that was completely inconsistent with the interests of the Russian people. At the same time, Nadezhda Konstantinovna was still personally unhappy. She was very worried, especially when she wanted to babysit her grandchildren, but she didn’t even babysit children.

And here the question arises: why? What documents are there about this? There are two letters. Lenin’s mother, Maria Alexandrovna, wrote to her when she was still in exile: “When will the chicks arrive?” Nadezhda Konstantinovna’s answer has been preserved that “there will never be chicks.”

Archpriest Alexander Ilyashenko: Why is it not explained?

Professor Vladimir Lavrov: No, it is not written why. Eat historical article, the author of which got to the bottom of the doctor’s record in Ufa, who examined Nadezhda Konstantinovna. And there the diagnosis is genital infantilism. But to what extent this corresponds to reality, I cannot judge.

What can be said for sure: a letter from Vladimir Ilyich to his mother has been preserved, where he writes that due to a female illness, Nadezhda Konstantinovna must lie in bed for several weeks. However, he does not write what kind of female disease it is.

In emigration she had Graves' disease, about which documents have been preserved. Moreover, Nadezhda Konstantinovna fought this disease very courageously, even undergoing a very difficult operation, without anesthesia. I wanted to overcome the disease. But the operation brought almost no results.

And, say, this bulging of the eyes, and even party nicknames... What party nicknames did her husband give her? Fish, herring... This bulging of the eyes is due to Graves' disease, and the complication is infertility. It is very possible that there was something else, but, in any case, it could also have been Graves’ disease.

Vladimir Ilyich was not faithful to her. There is a document that he had an intimate relationship with a French woman. More precisely, a representative of the Institute of Marx, Engels and Lenin was in France and saw Lenin’s intimate letters to a French woman. This happened in the mid-30s, and the owner of the letters refused to sell them to the Soviet Union, saying that he would sell them only after Krupskaya’s death, and for now she should not know what happened. However, the letters never fell into the hands of historians. Where they are is unknown.

The main woman, the main love in Lenin’s life - it was the revolution

In 1910, in Paris, Vladimir Ilyich met Inessa Armand, a stunning woman with French and partly English blood. At the age of fifteen she left for Russia, because she had nothing to live on in France, and ended up as a teacher - a young, charming teacher - in the Armand family of merchants, taught languages, was a native speaker French. And she charmed Alexander’s eldest son Armand, married him, and gave birth to four children. Everything is wonderful: resorts, recreation, Armand factories.

But she falls in love with her younger brother, Vladimir Armand, who was fond of socialist literature, and goes to live with him, giving birth to a son from him. Moreover, it should be noted that her husband (she remained married) gave this child his patronymic from his brother, supported and looked after him.

Then it happened like this: Inessa Armand was exiled to Arkhangelsk for revolutionary socialist activities. Her lover, younger brother Vladimir Armand, followed her to Arkhangelsk, but then, since he developed tuberculosis, he went abroad. And Armand runs after him from exile, and her lover dies in her arms.

In 1910, she was already free, and then Vladimir Ilyich met. He was immediately shocked by this woman - beautiful, charming, energetic. And there was something to talk to her about. You see, Krupskaya agreed, admired, supported, and this one could object without taking her loving eyes off. And he proved it, and he liked it, and she liked it. Such a Parisian meeting.

There are Kollontai’s memories (if Kollontai can be believed) that Nadezhda Konstantinovna suggested breaking up, but Vladimir Ilyich was against it and said: stay. Judging by various documents, including Armand’s diary, the reason was that Lenin put the authority of the revolutionary leader and the interests of the revolution above his feelings for Inessa Armand.

But Krupskaya still created everyday life. She was an excellent personal secretary and conducted a very extensive correspondence with the Central Committee. Armand could have given birth to another child. Take care of this child, raise him, feed him, support a nanny and governess, treat him and give him an education. Inessa was a completely different woman, moreover prone to free love. Moreover, there is a feeling that Armand would not even mind living alone with Nadezhda Konstantinovna. But Lenin was against it.

He asked Inessa Armand to send all the correspondence. And mostly their correspondence was destroyed by Lenin. But something remains. There is a letter lying around where he writes that he would cover her with a thousand kisses. There is Armand's diary, where she writes about her ardent feeling, her passion for Vladimir Ilyich.

By the way, in the archive, several pages were cut out from Armand’s diary. And what was seized is not politics; politically they were absolutely close. So it's something intimate. But when the revolution broke out, Vladimir Ilyich removed the woman he loved. That is, the main love in Lenin’s life was the revolution. Like this.

That's why he won. He concentrated completely, and relations with Inessa resumed only after he was wounded on August 30, 1918, when there was an assassination attempt at the Mikhelson plant, when Lenin looked death in the face. And being wounded - and at first they thought that he might die - he wanted to see Inessa. And she came, and she was there. And their relationship resumed...

Then it happened (Vladimir Ilyich was very worried about this) that he himself “helped” Inessa die. She felt bad, was very tired and wanted to go to France, but he dissuaded her from going there, said: “You can be arrested there, go to the Caucasus, I will organize everything.” And he organized it, and called himself, and demanded that special conditions be created, and they did everything. But cholera. Cholera…

Obviously, she became infected in Beslan. When her remains were brought to the Kazan station, Vladimir Ilyich and Nadezhda Konstantinovna met her and followed the hearse to the House of Unions. According to her memoirs, Krupskaya was leading her husband, he was in a semi-conscious state and could not come to his senses, pull himself together.

Archpriest Alexander Ilyashenko: Vladimir Mikhailovich, excuse me, what year was this?

Professor Vladimir Lavrov: In the 20th year. In 1920, a woman died, whom he undoubtedly loved, for whom he had a strong feeling. And in this whole situation, Nadezhda Konstantinovna behaved very dignified. She didn’t make any scenes, at least not in front of people, she accepted everything, and still carried out all the secretarial work on herself. She served her legal husband and quietly loved him, which can be felt from her memories.

Archpriest Alexander Ilyashenko: Yes, that’s actually how you answered the question: how revolutionary activity affected Lenin's family. And in the previous program, you actually answered the question of how it affected Stalin’s family. That is, we can say, looking back, how catastrophic these impacts were. And a person who takes the path of subjugating the entire country to himself loses, probably, the most precious thing - he loses a normal, natural, joyful family life.

Professor Vladimir Lavrov: In any case, both Lenin and Stalin lost their beloved women. Stalin died alone, there was no one around. And Lenin actually died under house arrest, his wife lived in fear.

Archpriest Alexander Ilyashenko: Yes, such a sad result. Thank you, Vladimir Mikhailovich.

Historical mission of Russia

A series of conversations about the historical mission of Russia is an attempt to comprehend from a spiritual, moral, Orthodox position major events National history.

Presenter: Archpriest Alexander Ilyashenko, rector of the Church of the All-Merciful Savior of the former Sorrow Monastery, head of the Internet portals “Orthodoxy and Peace”, “Uninvented Stories about War”, founder of the permanent mobile festival “Family Lecture: Good Old Cinema”, member of the Union of Writers of Russia and the Union of Journalists of Moscow.

Guest – historian Vladimir Mikhailovich Lavrov, Doctor of Historical Sciences, chief researcher at the Institute of Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, head. Department of History of Nikolo-Ugreshsky Orthodox Theological Seminary, academician Russian Academy Natural Sciences.

Prepared by Tamara Amelina, Victor Aromshtam

Send questions, comments, suggestions to the email address

Nadezhda Krupskaya to Maria Ilyinichna Ulyanova:

Still, I feel sorry that I’m not a man, otherwise I’d be hanging around ten times more.

(Venedikt Erofeev, “My Little Leniniana”)

Mom and Dad

Elizaveta Vasilievna Krupskaya, née Tistrova, was very worried that her only daughter was not at all pretty and did not look like her handsome father. The former governess, who successfully married Lieutenant Konstantin Ignatievich, was afraid that Nadenka would not be able to find someone who would covet her exceptional mental abilities and forgive her ordinary appearance.
However, marriage with Krupsky can only be considered a relative success. Having met during his service in Kielce (Poland), the young people fell in love at first sight. There was nothing surprising in this: orphans from impoverished noble families, raised at public expense, she was in the Pavlovsk Military Orphan Institute for Noble Maidens, he was in the Konstantinovsky Cadet Corps, they were similar in their views on life, in their attitude towards the world , in their aspirations and had common system values.
The girl Tistrova was distinguished by her cheerful disposition, playfulness and homeliness. Krupsky, with his intelligence and literary abilities, was considered the life of the party. In general, many members of this family were noted for their literary abilities. Here is an excerpt from a petition written by Krupsky to his superiors, in which he insists on his transfer from rebellious Poland. He, a member of the First International, was disgusted by the service obliging him to suppress the national liberation uprising: “From the age of nine, the service separated me from everyone close to my heart, and together with my dear native land, leaving in my soul sweet memories of the happy years of childhood, the picturesque places of my native nest !. About everything that is so dear to everyone! From such circumstances of life, some kind of unbearable melancholy crushes my soul - my whole body, and the desire to serve in my native land day by day takes a stronger hold of my feelings, paralyzing my thoughts. Not an official note, but a poem! Elizaveta Vasilievna published the book “Children's Day” in 1874. She devoted 12 quatrains with pictures to discussions about the benefits of work, without once mentioning God.
He managed to escape from Poland by entering the St. Petersburg Military Law Academy. Here, on February 26, 1869, the Krupskys’ daughter Nadezhda was born. After graduating from the academy, Krupsky received the position of head of the district in Grojec (Poland). The family lived in prosperity for three years. But all this time the landowners-latifundists were denouncing the administrator, known for his revolutionary-democratic views. And the matter ended sadly - resignation, trial, ban on living in the capital. An appeal was filed, the consideration of which lasted until 1880. All this time, Nadenka was considered the daughter of a person under investigation, and this greatly complicated her life: her father could not find a job, and her mother wrote in the sources of payment for her daughter’s education, shameful for that time, “from own funds Krupskaya E.V. " And although Konstantin Ignatievich was acquitted, emotional stress led to sharp deterioration his health weakened by tuberculosis. And the daughter, who was strongly attached to her father, fell ill with signs of a nervous breakdown. This is how her thyroid gland made itself known for the first time.
Having moved to St. Petersburg, the parents sent their daughter to the most advanced educational institution for girls at that time - the Obolenskaya gymnasium, where brilliant representatives of the Russian intellectual elite taught: physicist Kovalevsky, mathematicians Litvinova and Bilibin, collector of Russian folklore Smirnov. And here she was the best student.
The family lived a difficult life - due to the deplorable state of health, the father practically did not work. Friends who were participants in the revolutionary democratic movement helped. Nadya grew up listening to their conversations about the great future of Russia, free from the oppression of tsarism.
On February 26, 1883, Krupsky died. On the birthday of his daughter, who loved him so much.
To make ends meet, Elizaveta Vasilyevna rented a large apartment and rented out rooms to telephone operators, seamstresses, students, and paramedics. They lived on the difference. 14-year-old Nadya gave mathematics lessons. In 1887, she graduated from the 8th pedagogical class and received a diploma as a “home tutor.”
A prosperous life did not suit the young girl; she dreamed of continuing her father’s work in the struggle for universal happiness and equality. I even wrote a letter to Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy. At this mirror of the future revolution, Nadenka asked about what she should do with herself next, how to benefit the fatherland. I received the answer not from Himself, but from Tatyana Lvovna (interestingly, in just ten years she herself will play the same role at the torch of the future revolution) - the volume of “The Count of Monte Cristo”. What did the writer’s daughter want to say by this, into what abysses should she send her young soul thirsty for social achievement? Nadezhda Konstantinovna approached the matter in detail: she checked the original text with the abridged and simplified Sytin edition for the people, corrected it, removed illogicalities and sent the result of her efforts back to Tolstoy. However, there was no answer.
In 1889 she entered the Bestuzhev courses. She joined the Marxist circle of Mikhail Brusnev.
In spring and summer, mother and daughter Krupsky rented a hut in the Pskov region. They lived on what the peasants gave for the fact that Nadenka worked with their children during field work.
Returning to St. Petersburg, she left her lucrative position as a gymnasium teacher and went to teach for free at a school for working youth behind the Nevskaya Zastava.
At the end of February 1894, at engineer Robert Eduardovich Klasson’s Maslenitsa pancakes, St. Petersburg workers met with the famous Marxist nicknamed “The Old Man,” the author of the sensational brochure in their circles “What are “friends of the people”” Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. Teacher Nadya was also here. It was these girls who served as conductors of revolutionary ideas from the heated heads of commoners to the souls and hearts of workers who attended charity classes.

Thank you
Thanks to Nadezhda Konstantinovna, education in our country was genderless for 80 years: boys and girls ran races, threw hammers, chopped coal in mines, and solved trigonometry problems. As a result, Russia lost its men. But they still don’t want to do housework.

Ulyanov and Nadezhda began dating. He asked in detail about the life of the working people, their way of life and morals. One day, in order to answer some of the questions, Nadenka dressed up as a weaver and with a friend staged a spy raid into a workers’ dormitory. The oldest member of the “Union for the Liberation of Workers,” in which Ulyanov and Krupskaya were members, Mikhail Silvin, assessed the role of Nadezhda Konstantinovna this way: “She maintained and renewed connections, was the core of our organization.” Ilyich greatly appreciated the information she provided.
When he got sick, the girl looked after him. Her friends cooked, washed, cleaned for the young leader, while she sat by his bed, read aloud, and told the latest news.
Three years have passed. Mom was worried in vain. Having been rejected from the gate when courting Nadya’s friend, also a socialist and teacher, Apollinaria Yakubova, Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, in a letter from prison, asked for the hand of his faithful comrade Nadya. “A wife, a wife! “- the revolutionary girl happily agreed.

curious
Krupskaya did not just write pedagogical projects. She meticulously participated in their implementation. Sarkis Nanushyan, a famous Moscow architect who was entrusted with
to design standard buildings for children's institutions, recalled that Nadezhda Konstantinovna specifically met with him several times to discuss the smallest details of the layout of kindergartens and schools.

Volodya

Before the wedding, Nadya was arrested. There were almost no materials for it, but one of the student workers pawned the entire team. Krupskaya received three years of exile in Ufa.
Her mother petitioned for her release, writing in her petition: “My daughter is generally in poor health, very nervous, and has suffered from catarrh of the stomach and anemia since childhood.” The prison doctor also confirmed the deplorable state of the convict’s body, finding it “extremely unsatisfactory.” But this had no consequences.
Ilyich and Krupskaya sent a petition asking them to serve their exile together in Shushenskoye. To get money for the long journey, Elizaveta Vasilievna sold the plot next to her husband’s grave at the Novodevichy cemetery.
The groom found the appearance of the arriving bride “unsatisfactory,” which he wrote to his sister about. Nadenka’s mother was also worried about her unhealthy “paleness.” The girl reassured: “Well, mom, I match the northern nature, there are no bright colors in me.”
At the insistence of the mother-in-law, the wedding took place not according to revolutionary, but according to church canons on July 10, 1898.

Data
Shushenskoye, like Kokushkino, were family estates of the Ulyanov family. The annual income from them ranged from 8 to 17 thousand rubles.
Once a week for the master, the future leader of the revolution, they slaughtered one ram (sheep), one adult wild boar, and 3-5 poultry (turkeys and chickens). From the memoirs of Nadezhda Konstantinovna: “True, lunch and dinner were simple - one week they killed a sheep for Vladimir Ilyich, which they fed him day after day, until he had eaten everything, as soon as he had eaten - they bought meat for the week, the worker in the yard in a trough ... chopped bought meat for cutlets for Vladimir Ilyich, also for a week... In general, the exile went well... In my opinion, he has gotten terribly healthy, and he looks brilliant... One local Polish resident says: “Mr. Ulyanov is always cheerful.” He is terribly interested in hunting, and everyone here is generally an inveterate hunter.”
The exile was paid, according to some sources, 9 rubles. 24 kopecks, according to others - 8 rubles. 17 kopecks per month. During these years in Siberia, a ram cost from 20 to 30 kopecks.

Krupskaya recalled life in Shushenskoye as one of the happiest periods in her life. The mother, who took on all the household chores (and diligently performed them until death), hired a 15-year-old au pair. The funds received by two exiles and the pension of the widow of a collegiate assessor were quite enough for a comfortable existence: books and beloved Volodya were ordered from the capitals mineral water(which, by the way, he received in prison). Nadenka worked in the morning - she corresponded with her comrades who remained in freedom, read newspapers, and prepared excerpts for her husband’s articles. She edited his translation of “The Theory and Practice of English Tradeunianism” by Sidney and Beatrice Webb (translation commissioned, from the publisher, paid). During the day we walked a lot, Ilyich taught his wife to do gymnastics, went boating, cycling, and swam. We went hunting, picked mushrooms and berries. From evening until late at night, my husband sat at his desk.
Throughout their life together, he treated her with the same warmth, tenderness and care as his suddenly deceased beloved sister Olga. There is a lot of evidence of this, especially in Lenin’s correspondence with his relatives. The parents of Ilyich and Krupskaya, who adhered to Narodnaya Volya views, were supporters of the same educational system. It’s not surprising that their children found a common language so quickly and understood each other at a glance throughout their entire life together. Nadezhda was very friendly with Ilyich’s mother, before last days was best friend his sister Maria.
Neither of them were people without passions. There is evidence that in her youth, Krupskaya accepted the advances of a member of her revolutionary circle, the worker Babushkin, and in exile she became interested in the handsome revolutionary Viktor Konstantinovich Kurnatovsky. But when Lenin was reported about this, and even sister Anna wrote an indignant letter about this, he brushed it off: “This is not the time, Annushka, to engage in all sorts of gossip. We are now faced with grandiose tasks of a revolutionary nature, and you come to me with some kind of womanish talk.”

Ilyich himself once became seriously interested in the beautiful Inessa Armand, the daughter of a French opera singer and the wife of a very rich man. A beauty, she was the complete opposite of Nadezhda Konstantinovna. It happened in Lanjumeau, at a school for revolutionary workers. It was a beautiful, passionate romance. Krupskaya offered Lenin a divorce. But he refused, rejected Armand and returned to his revolutionary girlfriend. Do not forget that the beauty had five children from two marriages, and Krupskaya had a mother with a pension as the widow of a collegiate assessor.
There are rumors that the fruit of love between Armand and Lenin, the boy Andrei, was secretly raised and lived his life in the Baltic states. The beauty's relatives even deny the fact of the affair, but letters have been preserved indicating the opposite. After the breakup, from Paris, Inessa wrote to Lenin: “We broke up, we broke up, dear, you and I! And it hurts so much. I know, I feel, you will never come here! Looking at well-known places, I was clearly aware, as never before, of what a big place you still occupied here in Paris in my life, that almost all activities here in Paris were connected with a thousand threads with the thought of you. I wasn’t in love with you at all then, but even then I loved you very much. Even now I would do without kisses, just to see you, sometimes talking to you would be a joy - and it could not hurt anyone. Why was I deprived of this? You're asking if I'm angry that you handled the breakup. No, I think you didn’t do it for yourself...”
Only one thing is known for sure: supporting Vladimir Ilyich, who was losing consciousness in grief, at the coffin of Inessa, who died in Beslan from cholera (Lenin, knowing her problems with tuberculosis, recommended going to the Caucasus. So she went), Nadezhda Konstantinovna vowed to take care of her young children. And she kept her vow: for some time the younger girls grew up in Gorki. Later they were sent abroad. Until her last day, Krupskaya was in intimate correspondence with them. She especially loved the youngest, Inessa, and called her son “granddaughter.”

Teacher

In Shushenskoye, Krupskaya, at the insistence of Ilyich, wrote her first brochure: “Woman Worker.” Here are the lines from it: “A working woman or a peasant woman has almost no opportunity to raise her children, leaving them to fend for themselves all day long.” People's wolf Vera Zasulich highly praised this work, telling Ilyich that it was written “with both paws.” The book was published without the author's signature. And in 1906 it was declared anti-state and publicly destroyed.
Nadezhda Konstantinovna believed: the problem is not to free women from the need to work on an equal basis with men, but to create a system in which maternal, family education is replaced by public education. She devoted a significant part of her pedagogical works to this, which by the end of her life amounted to 11 weighty volumes, and her efforts: after the revolution, as Deputy People's Commissar of Education Lunacharsky, it was she who laid the foundations of the Soviet system of children's educational institutions: nurseries, kindergartens, camps, boarding schools, schools, workers' colleges. She also took a direct part in the creation of youth—pioneer and Komsomol—organizations. For the latter, by the way, I wrote the charter.

Educational program
Graves' disease is an autoimmune disease, diffuse toxic goiter. This disease got its name in honor of the German doctor Karl Adolf von Basedow, who gave it a complete and accurate description.
Graves' disease is accompanied by an increase in the size of the thyroid gland and an increase in its function due to autoimmune processes occurring in the patient's body.
The main causes of Graves' disease include:
long-term chronic foci of infection in the body;
hereditary predisposition;
chronic sore throats.
People of all ages are susceptible to the disease, but young and middle-aged women are most often affected. Various viral infections also contribute to the occurrence of toxic goiter.
A specific symptom for Graves' disease is changes in the eyes. When looking down with the eyes open, a white stripe appears above the pupil, although normally the eyelid usually drops with the eyeball. The eyeball appears enlarged and protruded. The eyes shine, they are wide open, blinking is rare. The eyelids may be swollen. Due to malnutrition of the eyeball, different kinds infections and conjunctivitis occurs.

Emigration

After exile, Lenin emigrated to Austria. Nadezhda Konstantinovna and her mother went to Ufa to serve out their sentence. Here she again ended up in the hospital, where the doctor diagnosed “a disease of the endocrine system.”
The first Social Democratic newspaper Iskra began publication. It was published abroad, but money for this was collected in Russia. Notes made in Ilyich’s hand have been preserved: “427 marks 88 pfenings received from Russia (from Ufa).” This money was collected through the efforts of his wife, treasurer of the local Social Democratic organization Krupskaya.
Living in Ufa, Nadezhda Konstantinovna prepared for life in exile. Attended French language courses (3 times a week for an hour, 6 rubles per month). For comparison - her own lessons students were paid much more - for 6 hours she charged 62 rubles.
The couple united in 1901 in London. The first period of emigration lasted until 1905, the second - from 1907 to 1917.
They lived in Geneva, Lausanne, Vienna, Munich, Longjumeau, and Paris. We also spent some time in remote Russian territories – in Finland and Poland. All this time, Krupskaya played the role of an entire secretariat: she corresponded with compatriots, prepared and held congresses and conferences, edited printed publications, acted as a translator and her husband’s personal assistant. She gave lectures to French hatmakers about the role of women in the revolution. Years later, speaking at an evening dedicated to Ilyich’s 50th birthday, the famous revolutionary Olminsky assessed Krupskaya’s performance as follows: “. She did all the menial work, so to speak, she left the cleanest work to him, and all the secret communications, encryption, transport, relations with Russia, she did everything herself. And therefore, when we say that Lenin is a great organizer, I add that Lenin, with the help of Nadezhda Konstantinovna, is a great organizer.”
The couple usually spent their summers in European mountain resorts: the Alps, the Tatras. This was required by Krupskaya’s poor health: she was tormented by attacks of arrhythmia. In 1912, the situation worsened, and the question of an operation arose. The funds made it possible to do this with the best European specialist - Dr. Kocher Berne. For a while the disease subsided.
In 1915, Krupskaya’s mother died, and the family faced an acute financial issue. Long years It was her pension that served as the main source of livelihood. I had to look for lessons and translations. But in her letters, Krupskaya refutes rumors both about fattening at government expense and about a hungry existence: “We didn’t know the need when you don’t know what to buy bread with.”

In power

The Bolsheviks learned about the revolution that would bring them to power from the morning Parisian newspapers. The return to Russia was triumphant, but the holiday did not last long. And although a few months later the party took the leadership of the country into its own hands, all subsequent years were complicated not only by wars, famine and devastation, but also by intra-factional struggle.
The main problem for Krupskaya during these years was Ilyich’s health. Beginning in 1918, doctors periodically forbade him to work altogether - the general overwork of his weak body became increasingly worse and affected his intellectual abilities. And then ridiculous notes from him flew to the authorities. 1919: “Inform the Scientific and Food Institute that in 3 months they must provide accurate and complete data on the practical success of producing sugar from sawdust.” 1921, to Lunacharsky: “I advise you to put all theaters in a coffin.” Taking care of her husband, herself tormented by attacks of chronic illnesses, Nadezhda Konstantinovna foresaw the end and at the last minute of her beloved comrade’s life she held his hand in hers.
After Lenin's death, she devoted herself entirely to government work. The productivity of this elderly, unhealthy woman is amazing: in 1934 she wrote 90 articles, held 90 speeches and 178 meetings, viewed 225 letters and responded to them. One month was lost due to hospitalization, one month due to restorative rest.

Death

The year 1939 came - the year of her 70th birthday. At the next party congress, she was preparing to speak out condemning the punitive policies of Stalinism.
She celebrated her birthday in Arkhangelskoye. Stalin sent a cake - it was known that after Ilyich’s death, Nadezhda Konstantinovna stopped playing sports, did not take too much care of her appearance and often spoiled herself with cakes. There is a version that the cake was poisoned. But it is refuted by the fact that the old Bolsheviks in Arkhangelsk ate it together with the birthday girl.
At night she became ill - her appendicitis worsened. They called the doctors, but the NKVD arrived. Only a few hours later, Krupskaya was examined by specialists and urgently hospitalized. Appendicitis was complicated by peritonitis, inflammation of the peritoneum. General health and age were not allowed surgical intervention. On the night of February 26-27, a fateful date for her fate, Nadezhda Konstantinovna died.
The urn with ashes was carried personally by Comrade Stalin to the burial place - the Kremlin wall.

Elena Kurasova

P.S. Krupskaya replaced Lenin's deceased sister Olga, with whom they dreamed of making a revolution together. That’s why he was so faithful to her. I understood one thing for sure: a woman even made a revolution in this country.

Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaya is perceived by many as the wife and faithful ally of the leader of the revolution, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. Meanwhile, she herself was a rather extraordinary person, and her biography contains many facts that may surprise.

A girl with ideals

Nadezhda was born on February 14 (26), 1869 in St. Petersburg. Her father, an impoverished nobleman and former lieutenant Konstantin Ignatievich Krupsky, was one of the ideologists of the Polish uprising of 1863. He died in 1883, leaving the family no funds. Despite this, the mother, Elizaveta Vasilievna, managed to give her daughter an education at the prestigious gymnasium of Princess Obolenskaya. After graduating from the pedagogical class with a gold medal, Nadya entered the Bestuzhev Women’s Courses, but studied there for only a year.

From her youth, the girl was interested in the ideas of Tolstoyism, and then Marxism and revolution. To earn money, she gave private lessons and at the same time taught classes for free at the St. Petersburg Sunday evening school for adults behind the Nevskaya Zastava, participated in a Marxist circle, and joined the “Union of Struggle for the Liberation of the Working Class.”

Wedding with copper rings

The acquaintance with young Vladimir Ulyanov took place in February 1894. At first, Volodya was interested in another girl, Apollinaria Yakubova, and even proposed to her, but was refused.

Soon Ulyanov became truly close to Nadya Krupskaya, although she was a year older than him. But their romance was prevented by the arrest of Nadezhda. In 1897, along with several other members of the union, she was expelled from St. Petersburg for three years. In the end, both Vladimir and Nadezhda ended up in exile in the Siberian village of Shushenskoye. There, in July 1898, they had a modest wedding. Despite their atheistic views, the newlyweds got married in church, exchanging rings made from melted down copper coins - Krupskaya’s mother insisted on the wedding.

At first, Ulyanov’s relatives did not treat their daughter-in-law too warmly. She seemed to them ugly and too dry, “insensitive.” Moreover, her health was undermined by the damp St. Petersburg weather and prisons, as well as Graves’ disease, which at that time could not be treated and which, apparently, deprived her of the opportunity to become a mother. But Krupskaya loved Lenin very much and took care of him in every possible way, so relations with his family gradually began to improve. True, Nadenka was not particularly good at housekeeping, she did not shine with culinary abilities, and all the housekeeping in the house was run by Elizaveta Vasilyevna, to help whom a 15-year-old teenage girl was hired.

Was Lenin the only man in Krupskaya's life? They say that in her youth she was courted by a member of the revolutionary circle that she led, Ivan Babushkin. And in exile, when Lenin was not around, she became interested in another revolutionary - the handsome Viktor Kurnatovsky...

Krupskaya and the Armand family

In 1909, in France, Lenin first met Inessa Armand, who not only shared revolutionary views, but was also a real beauty. And Krupskaya, due to Graves’ disease, looked unattractive; because of her bulging eyes, Lenin jokingly called her a “herring”...

It is known that in 1911 Krupskaya even offered Vladimir Ilyich a divorce - apparently, the reason was his love affair with Armand. But instead, Lenin decided to break with Inessa.

The death of Armand in 1920 was a real blow for Lenin. He asked his wife to take care of the younger children ex-lover who remained in France. Nadezhda Konstantinovna kept her word, younger daughters Armand even lived in Gorki for some time, but then were sent abroad again. All her life Krupskaya corresponded with them, and even called the son of one of them, Inessa, “granddaughter.”

After Lenin

Krupskaya's career did not end with the death of her husband. She worked on the People's Education Committee, was at the forefront of the creation of the pioneer organization, and wrote many books and articles, including on literature and pedagogy. Despite the fact that she herself never had children, Nadezhda Konstantinovna devoted the rest of her life to the problems of the younger generation and fought against child homelessness and neglect. But at the same time she criticized pedagogical methods Makarenko, believed that Chukovsky’s fairy tales were harmful to children... As a result, the poet had to publicly renounce his “ideologically harmful” works for some time.

Cake from Stalin

The relationship between Lenin's widow and Stalin was not easy. Nadezhda Konstantinovna did not approve of the policy of terror being pursued in the country, she even spoke out in defense of the “new opposition” - Kamenev, Bukharin, Trotsky and Zinoviev, and protested against the persecution of children of “enemies of the people.” There were rumors that at the 18th Party Congress she was going to publish Lenin’s suicide letter, in which he proposed a candidate for the role of leader other than Stalin.

On February 26, 1939, Nadezhda Konstantinovna celebrated her 70th birthday in Arkhangelskoye and invited guests. Stalin sent a cake for the anniversary - everyone knew that Lenin’s widow was partial to sweets. And in the evening she felt bad. The doctor arrived only three and a half hours later and diagnosed “acute peritonitis.” Krupskaya was taken to the hospital too late. On the night of February 27, 1939, she passed away.

Already today, a version has been put forward that Stalin’s cake was poisoned. They say that Joseph Vissarionovich often did this to people he disliked - he sent poisoned treats as a gift. But, on the other hand, the rest of us also ate the delicacy! Maybe it was just that a large feast provoked appendicitis, and medical assistance was not provided on time?

One way or another, the urn with Krupskaya’s ashes was buried in a place of honor - in a niche of the Kremlin wall. Although she herself, of course, would prefer to lie next to her husband, who still rests in the Mausoleum...

Name: Krupskaya Nadezhda Konstantinovna

State: Russian empire, THE USSR

Field of activity: Policy

Greatest Achievement: Wife and comrade-in-arms of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

The girl really liked to study, she showed great interest in education, although it was not easy for her.

Nadezhda helped her lover compose revolutionary brochures, which she then distributed throughout the factories. For this activity, both were soon arrested in 1895.

In 1917, the couple returned to Russia and realized that the X-hour they had been waiting for had come - revolutionary ideas would come in handy, since the soil for this was already fertile.

In November 1917, Krupskaya became deputy commissioner of education.

Probably, in the history of significant personalities of Russia there is no more mysterious, contradictory and tragic character than Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaya. Her name is strongly associated with Bolshevism, revolution, and, of course, her husband, the leader of the proletariat, Vladimir Lenin. What was his wife like? Why, having connections on the side, did Ilyich remain faithful to her?

Nadezhda Krupskaya in her youth

Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaya was born on February 26, 1869 into a noble family, which, although of noble origin, did not own land or finances. Father, a former military man, was engaged legal practice, mother worked as a governess. Despite their poor financial situation, parents tried to give only daughter a good education– Nadya studied at the gymnasium (although some historians argue about this fact).

In general, it is worth noting that there were a lot of rumors about the Krupsky family (especially when the girl became the wife of the future leader of the proletariat) - the most common was that the father adhered to revolutionary views, which he passed on to his daughter. Whether this is true or not, we will never know. But one thing is known for certain - the poverty of the family forced Nadezhda to form her own protest views on life, which later became her guiding star in the revolution.

The girl really liked to study, she showed great interest in education, although it was not easy for her. As she admitted in her biography, it was difficult to study, difficulties arose with understanding the subject. After high school, Nadya entered the Bestuzhev courses, but she didn’t last long - she got carried away and became a regular visitor to various communist circles, which were still banned at that time. It was at one of the meetings that she met her future husband.

Lenin and Krupskaya

Krupskaya did not have beautiful appearance, but Lenin was attracted to her devotion to ideals. He himself possessed amazing gift convince people that you are right. Hope was conquered.

In the 1890s she worked as an educator, teaching reading, writing and arithmetic. Thus, she was able to earn some connections with the right people. Behind the beautiful façade of the teacher was hidden the illegal introduction of revolutionary ideas to students. She devoted a lot of time to work issues, wages, people’s working conditions, and the so-called women’s issue – women’s rights to freedom in all understandings – did not go unnoticed.

Nadezhda helped her lover compose revolutionary brochures, which she then distributed throughout the factories. For this activity, both were soon arrested in 1895. Lenin was sent to prison, Krupskaya was still awaiting the verdict. In the end, Ilyich was sent into exile in Siberia, and his beloved, like a real Decembrist wife, went after him. She was allowed to do this with one condition - the young people would have to get married upon arrival. Their church wedding took place in the summer of 1898. Even then, Krupskaya showed that she was ready to do anything to reunite with Lenin - in order to follow him, she sold land plot with his father's grave to get money for the trip.

In Siberia they worked on Lenin's treatise. She became a real assistant to her husband - she worked with mail, letters, supported his any endeavors, and worked at the party school. Their exile ended in 1901, and the couple moved to Switzerland, where they met other revolutionaries, such as Plekhanov. Together with them they began to publish the newspaper Iskra. Nadezhda Konstantinovna’s contribution to the illegal newspaper and the dissemination of revolutionary ideas is difficult to overestimate - she worked tirelessly, establishing connections throughout Russia with other ideological party members.

In 1903, the couple moved to London, where they prepared the ground for the event. After 2 years, the couple returns to Russia, where they participate in the 1905 revolution. After the defeat, they again go into exile - this time to Paris, having lived in Finland and Geneva along the way. Krupskaya works as a teacher at a party school. This exile lasted for several years - a little longer than the Ulyanovs themselves expected.

Return in 1917

Being far from their homeland, Lenin and Krupskaya did not sit idly by, but worked on the next project of revolution in Russia. It played very well - the country was not ready for hostilities, our troops were defeated at the fronts, and in itself it was restless - the discontent of the peasants and the working class was growing.

In 1917, the couple returned to Russia and realized that the X-hour they had been waiting for had come - revolutionary ideas would come in handy, since the soil for this was already fertile. In February, she, together with fellow party members Clara Zetkin and Inessa Armand, demanded the creation of an international women's day (which, according to the new calendar, began to be celebrated on March 8).

The holiday began with a demonstration, which grew into February revolution. Together with Lenin, Nadezhda Konstantinovna participated in the development.

After the Bolshevik victory, Krupskaya began to pay a lot of attention to education and enlightenment. Having no children of her own, she spent all of herself on strangers, delving into every detail of their education. While in exile in Europe, she became interested in the scouting movement and believed that it could be applied in Russia. This is how the Komsomol and the pioneer movement were born.

Krupskaya's work

In November 1917, Krupskaya became deputy commissioner of education. Over time, she will make science and education her main activities (in 1920, Nadezhda Konstantinovna was already the chairman of the education committee). The women's issue did not go unnoticed - the leader's wife published the magazine "Communist", on the pages of which communism was promoted. She also taught working women to read and write. At the same time, Krupskaya’s health began to slowly fail, and in addition, as a result of the assassination attempts, her husband’s health was also deteriorating - Ilyich suffered three strokes. Gradually, the leader of the proletariat faded away and died in January 1924. His widow had fallen on hard times.

After Lenin's death, a struggle for power began, in which Joseph Stalin was a key figure. Nadezhda Konstantinovna’s relationship with him was cool, and after Ilyich’s death it worsened - Krupskaya found herself in political isolation. She still tried to resist the growing Stalinist regime - at the next party congress she criticized the policies of him and his supporters. Subsequently, I realized that I could no longer be in the opposition - it was becoming life-threatening. But until her death she continued to participate in the political life of the country. Much attention is paid to women's freedom and issues of legalization of abortion.

In the 1930s, Krupskaya published a brochure in which she described her views. But Stalin has his own vision of the social unit of society - and it outweighs the opinion of the former “first lady”.

Krupskaya died in 1939, quite old age. The ashes are placed in the Kremlin wall on Red Square.

Historians and biographers of the Ulyanov-Lenin couple argued a lot about why this union lasted so long? After all, Ilyich had connections on the side; one of his many mistresses, Inessa Armand, especially stood out. It would seem that Nadezhda Krupskaya could have left her unfaithful husband, but she behaved differently, since she shared her husband’s views, was a faithful ally and person, and not just a devoted wife, completely dissolved in her husband and his activities. Lenin knew and appreciated this. This is probably why this couple went down in the history of the revolutionary life of the young Soviet Union, as a standard, an example of that cell of society that was represented by the subsequent rulers of the state.