Musical accompaniment: Trouble by Cat Stevens.

 

Nadezhda Krupskaya was Vladimir Lenin’s wife. I saw her picture today and there is something arresting about it, but not in a good way. She looks like someone who could never change her mind about anything. She has a hard appearance and did not smile for pictures.

Krupskaya was a Marxist who lived in St. Petersburg in the early 1890s. She was a product of an aristocratic family that sank into poverty. Her wealthy origin clashed with the harsh conditions she existed in and the result was an educated woman whose thinking was deeply skewed by her life experience. A friend described as  “a tall, quiet girl, who did not flirt with the boys, moved and thought with deliberation, and had already formed strong convictions . . . She was one of those who are forever committed, once they have been possessed by their thoughts and feelings…”

She met Vladimir Lenin in 1894 and was arrested in 1896. Lenin was an important member of the brutal Bolshevik regime which later became the Communist Party.

Krupskaya was sentenced in 1898 to three years of exile but soon afterwards, she was allowed to go to Siberia to spend her term with Lenin, on the condition they marry immediately. They did so on July 10.

After the revolution in February 1917, Krupskaya spread Bolshevik propaganda, and helped the cause in other ways, such as carrying messages between Lenin and other leaders. In October, the Bolsheviks seized power and Krupskaya became a member of the collegium of the People’s Commissariat of Education.

I’m not sure what is happening in this picture but it looks like the muzzle of a gun is pointed at her head.

After Lenin’s death in 1924, Krupskaya opposed Josef Stalin. Later, she distanced herself from the party in-fighting and remained a loyal servant to the communist party.

Krupskaya died on Feb 27, 1939, the day after her 70th birthday. The official cause was peritonitis. Rumors have swirled for years that she was poisoned, and that Stalin ordered her death. Perhaps he never forgot her treachery in once opposing him.

I suspect Mrs. Lenin was a much harder person even than her husband, who was not known for his mercy. They say the female of any species is more deadly.  The music is a bit ironic. Krupskaya does look like trouble, but a plea for mercy or fairness would likely be met with a deaf ear.