Lenin
Page 63
The best accounts of the October Revolution remain the eyewitness reporting of Nikolai Sukhanov, The Russian Revolution 1917: A Personal Record, London, 1955 (from the Russian Zapiski o Revoliutsii, originally published in 1922), John Reed, Ten Days That Shook the World, New York, 1919, and despite, in places, its manifest parti pris distortions, Leon Trotsky, The History of the Russian Revolution, London, 1934. The best modern account in English is Orlando Figes, A People’s Tragedy: The Russian Revolution 1891–1924, London, 1996. I have drawn on all these works here.
1 Lenin’s Collected Works – around 9.5 million words of them – were published in the former USSR in various editions, the latest of them in 45 volumes between 1965–1973. I shall refer to them here, throughout, as CW. Lenin’s letters to Fofanova and the Bolshevik Central Committee: CW, Vol. 44, pp. 68–72. The danger on Petrograd streets: Reed, p. 83.
2 Lenin’s arrival at Smolny: Harrison Salisbury, Black Night, White Snow: Russia’s Revolutions 1905–1917, New York, 1978, pp. 434–42; Trotsky, The History of the Russian Revolution, p. 288.
3 Disorganisation of the October coup: Figes, pp. 484–90; Nikolai Podvoisky, ‘Lenin in October’, Krasnaya Gazeta, 6 November 1927.
4 Lenin’s furious pace of work: Podvoisky. Choosing the title People’s Commissars: Trotsky, My Life, New York, 1930, pp. 427–31.
5 Lenin’s anger: Podvoisky. Ministers in Winter Palace: Salisbury, pp. 440–6; Figes, pp. 495–97; Richard Pipes, The Russian Revolution 1899–1919, London, 1990, pp. 514–16.
6 Lenin’s statement at Soviet Congress: CW, Vol. 44, p. 83.
7 Provisional Government in Winter Palace: Pipes, pp. 515–17.
8 Petrograd during the coup: Sukhanov, pp. 392–4; Reed, pp. 195–7.
9 Storming of the Winter Palace: Podvoisky; Figes, pp. 515–17; Trotsky, History of the Russian Revolution, pp. 313–15; Sukhanov, pp. 396–9.
10 Trotsky’s speech at Congress of Soviets: Isaac Deutscher, The Prophet Armed: Trotsky 1879–1921, New York, 1954, p. 397. Lenin’s speech: Reed, p. 213.
1: A NEST OF GENTLEFOLK
The best accounts of Lenin’s family and childhood are by his two sisters – Anna Ulyanova-Elizarova, Vospominaniya ob Il’iche, published in Moscow in 1934 and translated into English as The Childhood and School Years of Vladimir Ulyanov, Moscow, 1988; and Maria Ulyanova, O lenine i sem’ye Ulyanovikh: vospominaniya ocherki pisma, Moscow 1978. Robert Service, Lenin: A Biography, London, 2000; Dmitri Volkogonov (trans. Harold Shukman), Lenin: Life and Legacy, London, 1994; Louis Fischer, The Life of Lenin, London, 1965; and Ronald Clark, Lenin: The Man Behind the Mask, London, 1988.
1 Men had to agree with him, Mikhail Silvin: quoted in Adam Ulam, Lenin and the Bolsheviks, London, 1966.
2 Lenin’s mother and Blank family background: Volkogonov, pp. 45–9.
3 Children’s love for mother: Anna Ulyanova-Elizarova, p. 33.
4 Maria Alexandrovna’s charm: cited in Clark, p. 64.
5 Ilya Ulyanov, Lenin’s father, background and politics: Anna Ulyanova- Elizarova, p. 21, and Maria Ulyanova, p. 17. Gorky on Lenin’s ‘traits of a nobleman’: ‘Untimely Thoughts’ column, Novaya Zhizn, 17 November 1917.
2: A CHILDHOOD IDYLL
1 Lenin as a child: Anna Ulyanova-Elizarova, pp. 2–41, and Maria Ulyanova, pp. 5–17; Robert Service, pp. 33–41; Clark, pp. 21–30.
2 Simbirsk described by Ivan Goncharov, Oblomov, London, 1989. Lenin’s early reading and playing games: Service, pp. 37–42; Richard Abraham, Kerensky: The First Love of the Revolution, London, 1987. Lenin and chess: Fischer, pp. 98–101.
3 The Ulyanovs at Kokushkino: Anna Ulyanova-Elizarova, pp. 31–3.
4 Lenin’s education: Service, pp. 36–7; Fischer, pp. 45–51.
5 Memories from classmates at school: Clark, pp. 61–3.
6 Lenin not interested in politics in adolescence: Anna Ulyanova-Elizarova, p. 26.
7 Death of Lenin’s father: Maria Ulyanova, pp. 29–31.
3: THE HANGED MAN
1 Sasha’s execution: Salisbury, pp. 5–9; Bertram Wolfe, Three Who Made a Revolution, Boston, 1955, pp. 72–4; Philip Pomper, Lenin’s Brother: The Origins of the October Revolution, New York, 2010, pp. 173–9.
2 Sasha’s childhood and youth: Anna Ulyanova-Elizarova, pp. 26–8.
3 Lenin’s hatred for bourgeois liberals who snubbed his mother: Leon Trotsky, The Young Lenin, New York, 1972, pp. 43–4; Isaac Deutscher, Lenin’s Childhood, London, 1970, pp. 123–5.
4 Sasha’s assassination plot: Pomper, pp. 103–9. Trial: Wolfe, pp. 62–4. Meetings in jail with his mother: Fischer, p. 124.
5 Vladimir’s reaction to death: Maria Ulyanova, p. 32, and quoted in Clark, pp. 86–8.
6 The bourgeois ‘traitors and cowards’: Nikolai Valentinov, Encounters with Lenin, London, 1968, and letter to sisters Anna and Maria, 13 July 1901, CW, Vol. 43, p. 126.
4: THE POLICE STATE
1 Pyotr Struve, Collected Works: Vol. 9, Ann Arbor, 1970.
2 Count Lexa von Aehrenthal: quoted in Pipes, The Russian Revolution, p. 137.
3 Zasulich trial: Anna Hillyar and Jane McDermid, Revolutionary Women in Russia, 1870–1917, London, 2000, p. 136.
4 Women revolutionaries and Vera Figner: quoted in Hillyar and McDermid, pp. 35–55.
5 Tsarist autocracy: Figes, pp. 73–84. Pobedonostev: quoted in Pipes, The Russian Revolution, p. 89; Trotsky, The History of the Russian Revolution, pp. 65–74.
6 Censorship and the Tsars: Pipes, The Russian Revolution, pp. 85–7; Fischer, pp. 73–5.
7 Radical movements: Figes, pp. 130–6; Wolfe, pp. 73–9; Maxim Gorky, My Universities, New York, 1938, pp. 130–5.
8 Sergei Nechayev, The Revolutionary Catechism, www.marxists.org/subject/anarchism/nechayev/catechism.htm.
5: A REVOLUTIONARY EDUCATION
1 Fyodor Kerensky on Lenin: quoted in Fischer, p. 73.
2 Expulsion from university: Volkogonov, p. 68.
3 Lenin and smoking: Maria Ulyanova, p. 39.
4 Ministers’ refusal to allow Lenin to study: Maria Ulyanova, p. 46. Lenin on his mother’s courage: Valentinov, p. 61.
5 Lenin on Chernyshevsky: Valentinov, p. 81–2.
6 Lenin on landed estates: Valentinov, p. 148. On hunting: Anna Ulyanova-Elizarova, p. 47.
7 Lenin on discovering Marx: Maria Ulyanova, p. 43.
8 On farming: Nadezhda Krupskaya, Reminiscences of Lenin, New York, 1970, pp. 67–8.
9 Lenin’s law exams: Ulam, p. 89.
6: VLADIMIR ILYICH – ATTORNEY AT LAW
1 Lenin’s legal case against Arefev: Service, pp. 91–2, and Anna Ulyanova-Elizarova, p. 49.
2 Volga famine: Maria Ulyanova, p. 57, and Leon Trotsky, On Lenin: Notes Towards a Biography, London, 1971, p. 86.
3 Descriptions of Lenin: Valentinov, p. 46; Alexander Potresov, Posmertny sbornik proizvedenia (ed. B. Nikolayevsy), Paris, 1937; and quoted in Clark, p. 73. Alexander Kuprin: quoted in Fischer, p. 85.
4 Lenin’s character: Potresov, p. 63, and quoted in Clark, p. 72.
5 Lenin, ‘What the Friends of the People Are’, CW, Vol. 2, pp. 47–57.
6 Lenin lecturing to St Petersburg workers: Clark, pp. 82–4.
7: NADYA – A MARXIST COURTSHIP
1 Nadya’s first meeting with Lenin: Krupskaya, Reminiscences of Lenin, pp. 42–4.
2 Nadya’s family and background: ibid., pp. 10–18; Robert McNeal, Bride of the Revolution: Krupskaya and Lenin, London, 1973, pp. 13–19; and Mary Hamilton-Dann, Vladimir and Nadya, New York, 1998.
3 Nadya’s idealism: quoted in Fischer, p. 95.
4 Work as railway clerk: Fischer, p. 73.
5 Nadya’s friendship with Yakubova: McNeal, p. 89.
8: LANGUAGE, TRUTH AND LOGIC
1 Lenin uses argument to ‘wipe him and his organisation off the face of the earth’: CW, Vol. 6, p. 156.
2 Moishe Olgin: quoted in Clark, p. 145.
3 Voitinsky: quoted in Salisbury, p. 126.
/> 4 Lenin as a speaker: Maxim Gorky, Days with Lenin, New York, 1933, also as Memories of Lenin at the Marxists internet archive, www.marxists.org/archive/gorky-maxim/1924/01/x01.htm.
5 Lenin as speaker: Trotsky, On Lenin, pp. 197–9.
6 Martov quote: see Israel Getzler, Martov: A Political Biography of a Russian Social Democrat, Cambridge, 1967.
9: FOREIGN PARTS
1 ‘Important mission’: CW, Vol. 44, p. 265.
2 Lenin and Okhrana: quoted in Helen Rappaport, Conspirator: Lenin in Exile, London, 2009, p. 7. Bad at languages: letter to his mother, 29 April 1895, CW, Vol. 44, p. 266.
3 First sight of Alps: letter to his mother, 2 May 1895, CW, Vol. 44, p. 261.
4 Meeting Plekhanov: CW, Vol. 9, p. 145; letter to Maria Ulyanova, 24 May 1895, CW, Vol. 44, p. 302.
5 Axelrod’s letter to Plekhanov: quoted in Fischer, p. 173.
6 Asking mother for money: CW, Vol. 44, pp. 283 and 298.
7 On invisible ink: Lenin to Axelrod, CW, Vol. 44, p. 485.
10: PRISON AND SIBERIA
1 First interrogation: Clark, p. 83.
2 Keeping fit in jail: letter to Maria Ulyanova, 13 February 1896, CW, Vol. 44, p. 532, and to his mother, 10 February 1896, CW, Vol. 44, p. 519.
3 Visitors to prison: letter to Anna and Maria Ulyanova, 3 March 1896, CW, Vol. 44, p. 546.
4 Letters in code: ibid.
5 Krzhizhanovsky: quoted in Fischer, p. 134.
6 Lenin in Siberia: letter to his mother, 14 March 1897, CW, Vol. 44, p. 527.
7 Arrival at Shushenskoye: letter to his mother, 28 May 1897, CW, Vol. 44, p. 539. Hunting: letter to Maria Ulyanova and Dmitry Ulyanov, 29 June, CW, Vol. 44, p. 556. Lonely: letter to Anna Ulyanova, 25 July 1897, CW, Vol. 44, p. 583.
8 Family sending supplies: letter to his mother, 6 September 1897, CW, Vol. 44, p. 573.
9 Nadya on her early married life: quoted in McNeal, p. 197.
10 Nadya’s letters to Lenin’s mother and sisters on hunting: 9 September and 11 October 1898, CW, Vol. 44, pp. 587 and 593 respectively; on being pregnant: 12 October 1899, CW, Vol. 44, p. 616.
11 Arrest at Tsarskoe Selo: Service, p. 156, and Fischer, p. 133. Nadya’s illness: letter to his mother, 6 April 1900, CW, Vol. 44, p. 637.
11: LENIN IS BORN
1 Plekhanov’s letters to Lenin about liberals: quoted in Ulam, p. 176. Lenin’s replies: CW, Vol. 44, p. 312.
2 Letter from Lenin to Nadya from Munich, 12 December 1900, CW, Vol. 44, p. 456.
3 Lonely in Munich: letter to his mother, 3 January 1901, CW, Vol. 44, p. 487.
4 Nadya meeting Lenin in Munich: Krupskaya, Reminiscences, pp. 93–6.
5 Iskra as the ‘collective agitator’: CW, Vol. 5, p. 115.
6 Clash between Plekhanov and Lenin over Iskra, Lenin’s quotes: How the ‘Spark’ was nearly extinguished, CW, Vol. 5, pp. 197–8.
7 Letter to Plekhanov on editing Iskra: 4 January 1901, CW, Vol. 44, pp. 276–7. Launch issue article by Lenin: 11 December 1900, CW, Vol. 5, pp. 276–81.
8 Smuggling Iskra: Service, pp. 132–6, and Rappaport, pp. 152–6.
9 Deciphering letters: Krupskaya, Reminscences, pp. 179–81, and Rappaport, pp. 162–5.
10 Lenin as editor: Krupskaya, Reminiscences, p. 183. Friendship with Martov: Fischer, pp. 133–7; Krupskaya, Reminiscences, pp. 180–3; Sukhanov, pp. 85–93; and Israel Getzler, Martov: A Political Biography of a Russian Social Democrat, Cambridge, 1967. Potresov on Martov, quoted in Ulam, p. 135.
12: UNDERGROUND LIVES
1 Mikhail Silvin: quoted in Ulam, p. 133.
2 Conspiratorial life underground: Rappaport, pp. 133–40; Figes, pp. 242–9; and Krupskaya, Reminiscences, pp. 146–9.
3 Elena Stasova: quoted in Rappaport, p. 139.
4 Women conspirators: Rappaport, pp. 136–9.
5 Lenin on organising underground networks: letter to Leonid Krasin, CW, Vol. 44, p. 253.
6 Okhrana penetration of underground cells: Krupskaya, Reminiscences, p. 117.
13: ENGLAND, THEIR ENGLAND
1 London, ‘hideous’ letter to Axelrod: 16 April 1902, CW, Vol. 44, p. 233. Lenin and Nadya hated English food: Krupskaya, Reminscences, p. 135. Landlady: quoted in Rappaport, p. 197. Letter from Lenin’s mother about lodgings: quoted in Clark, p. 129.
2 Lenin loathed communes and wanted his own space: Valentinov, pp. 196–7.
3 British police relaxed about Russian radicals: Rappaport, pp. 194–5.
4 Publishing Iskra and the British Museum Reading Room: Andrew Rothstein, Lenin in Britain, London, 1970, p. 76 and p. 92. Lenin aloof but cheerful: Valentinov, p. 199.
5 Lenin taking walks and excursions outside London: Rothstein, pp. 78–81, and Rappaport, pp. 193–5.
6 Country walks: letter to his mother, 2 July 1902, CW, Vol. 44, p. 598.
7 Trotsky arrives in London and meets Lenin: Trotsky, On Lenin, p. 37.
8 Leaving London, miserable and ill: Krupskaya, Reminiscences, p. 137.
14: WHAT IS TO BE DONE?
1 What Is to Be Done? in the original Leninski sbornik (collected writings), Moscow, Vol. 7 of 50 published between 1927 and 1960. The best English version was translated by S. V. and Patricia Utechin, Oxford, 1963.
2 Valentinov, p. 146.
3 Krupskaya, Reminiscences, p. 104.
4 ‘Theory is only a hypothesis’, said to Potresov: quoted in Clark, p. 138. Plekhanov quote ‘Lenin could veer, prevaricate’: letter to Angelica Balabonova, p. 159.
15: THE GREAT SCHISM – BOLSHEVIKS AND MENSHEVIKS
1 Zelikson Bobrovskaya: quoted in Clark, p. 142.
2 Martov in Geneva: Krupskaya, Reminiscences, p. 128.
3 Lenin disliked boring people: Valentinov, p. 173.
4 Lenin singing revolutionary songs: quoted in Clark, p. 144.
5 Lenin divided himself from other exiles: Valentinov, p. 181.
6 The 1903 Congress is described well by Rappaport, pp. 165–71; Service, pp. 156–62; and Ulam, pp. 173–9. Quote to Gleb Krzhizhanovsky: letter, 11 October 1903, CW, Vol. 44, p. 128. Lenin on ‘a splendid Congress’: quoted in Clark, p. 149.
7 The Party splits are superbly recounted by Valentinov, pp. 178–81; Service, pp. 160–6; Fischer, pp. 197–201; and Rappaport, pp. 173–6.
8 Lenin’s ‘rages’: Valentinov, p. 189.
16: PEAKS AND TROUGHS
1 Walking in the Alps: Lenin to his mother, 6 September 1903, CW, Vol. 44, p. 372.
2 Reconciliation attempts in Party: Krzhizhanovsky in Ulam, p. 204.
3 Walking holiday, 1903, and Lenin’s need for holidays: Krupskaya, Reminiscences, p. 149.
4 Climb of Rochers de Naye with Maria Essen: quoted in Fischer, pp. 169–71.
17: AN AUTOCRACY WITHOUT AN AUTOCRAT
Of the vast number of books about the last Tsar and his wife – and the late stages of the Romanov dynasty – the best are Simon Sebag Montefiore, The Romanovs 1613–1918, London, 2016; Dominic Lieven, Nicholas II: Emperor of All the Russians, London, 1993; and Edvard Radzinsky, The Last Tsar, London, 1992. The letters of Nicholas II and Alexandra, 1914–1918, are invaluable source material, available online at www.alexanderpalace.org/letters. There is excellent background on the Tsar and the 1905 Revolution in Figes, A People’s Tragedy, and Pipes, The Russian Revolution.
1 Nicholas absorbed in picking his nose: Figes, p. 172.
2 ‘Best-bred…yet tremendous parochialism’: Sebag Montefiore, The Romanovs, p. 526.
3 War with Japan: Pipes, The Russian Revolution, pp. 188–93.
4 Lenin’s reaction to 1905 Revolution: Krupskaya, Reminiscences, p. 184.
5 Bloody Sunday description: Figes, pp. 246–8.
6 Gorky at Bloody Sunday: cited in Figes, p. 249.
7 US Ambassador McCormick, Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS), http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/FRUS.FRUS1905.
8 Lenin on Japan War: CW, Vol. 6, p. 274.
9 Lenin’s letter
s on street fighting: CW, Vol. 44, pp. 337–8.
10 Lenin on arming the masses, ‘an immediate task’: CW, Vol. 6, p. 328.
11 ‘Victory…is not the point’: quoted in Ulam, p. 253.
12 Leonid Krasin on rich people’s gifts to Bolsheviks: quoted in Roy Medvedev, Let History Judge, London, 1972. Putilov,‘Tsarism is lost’: quoted in Ulam, p. 259.
13 Landlords fear attacks: Figes, pp. 282–4.
18: BACK HOME
1 Stalin’s first meeting with Lenin: quoted in Simon Sebag Montefiore, The Young Stalin, London, 2007, p. 213.
2 Gorky’s relationship with Lenin: Gorky, My Days with Lenin, London, 1933, pp. 27–9, and Figes, pp. 257–9.
3 Lenin speaking at Countess Panina’s soirée: Krupskaya, Reminiscences, p. 195.
4 Terror after 1905 Revolution: Pipes, The Russian Revolution, pp. 217–20; Salisbury, pp. 191–4; Sebag Montefiore, The Romanovs, pp. 493–5. Tsar Nicholas wanted harsh measures: Salisbury, p. 195.
5 Tsar’s anti-Semitism and support for Union of the Russian People: Sebag Montefiore, The Romanovs, pp. 497–8, and Letters of Tsar Nicholas to [his mother] Empress Marie (ed. Edward Bing), London, 1930. Pogroms: Figes, pp. 271–3.
6 Lenin’s physical cowardice: Pipes, The Russian Revolution, p. 283.
19: ‘EXPROPRIATE THE EXPROPRIATORS’
1 ‘Revolution is not a finishing school,’ Lenin to Martov: 12 March 1902, CW, Vol. 44, p. 278 and to Valentinov, p. 196.
2 Record of Fifth Russian Social Democratic Congress, London 1907, Service, p. 219. Gorky: quotes from Days with Lenin, p. 48. Lenin’s concern for Gorky’s comfort: quoted in Wolfe, p. 237. Maxim Litvinov: quotes on Rothschilds from John Holroyd-Doveton, Maxim Litvinov: A Biography, London, 2013, p. 135.
3 1907 Congress: Rappaport, pp. 204–10. Bank robbery in Tiflis: Sebag Montefiore, The Young Stalin, pp. 22–8. Schmidt inheritance: Volkogonov, pp. 194–201, and Fischer pp. 216–19. Lenin admits he could not have carried off the deception: Service, p. 182. ‘A scoundrel…might be what we need’: Lenin to Vladimir Bonch-Bruevich, 8 March 1909, CW, Vol. 44, p. 137.