She devoted her entire life to her husband, the revolution and building a new society. Fate deprived her of simple human happiness, illness took away her beauty, and her husband, to whom she remained faithful all her life, cheated on her. But she did not complain and courageously endured all the blows of fate.
Nadezhda Krupskaya was born in St. Petersburg on February 26, 1869 into an impoverished noble family. She graduated from the pedagogical class of the gymnasium with a gold medal and entered the Higher Women's Courses, where she studied for only a year.
Nadezhda’s father was close to participants in the People’s Will movement, so it is no coincidence that the girl became infected with left-wing ideas and ended up on the list of “unreliables.” In 1883, her father died, and Nadya had to support the whole family - she gave private lessons and at the same time taught at a Sunday evening school for adults behind Nevskaya Zastava. In those years, Nadya’s already weak health suffered greatly when she had to run through the cold and damp streets of St. Petersburg from student to student. Subsequently, this tragically affected her health.
First beauty of the party
In 1890, Nadezhda Krupskaya became a member of a Marxist circle, and four years later she met “The Old Man” - this was the party nickname of the energetic young socialist Vladimir Ulyanov. Many young ladies fell in love with him at that time. It was simply impossible not to notice Ulyanov’s brilliant sense of humor, sharp mind and excellent oratory skills, and revolutionary-minded young ladies simply could not resist his charm.
And although they later wrote that the inspirer of the revolution was attracted to Krupskaya only by ideological closeness, and not female beauty, which simply did not exist, it was not so. In her younger years, Nadezhda was very attractive, but Graves’ disease (diffuse toxic goiter), one of the manifestations of which is bulging eyes, deprived her of this beauty. While effective ways there was no fight against this disease; this diagnosis crippled Krupskaya all her life.
Work instead of children
In 1896, Nadezhda Krupskaya, as an activist of the Union of Struggle for the Liberation of the Working Class, created by Vladimir Ulyanov, was sent to prison. The leader himself was in prison at that time. From there he proposed marriage to Nadezhda. She agreed, but due to her own arrest, the wedding had to be postponed. The couple got married 2 years later, in the summer of 1898, already in the Siberian Shushenskoye.
Later, evil tongues said that Vladimir was indifferent to his wife, which is why they did not have children. But in fact, in their first years married life the relationship was full-fledged, they also thought about children. But Nadezhda’s illness progressed, depriving Nadezhda of the opportunity to become a mother. When Krupskaya realized that she would not have children, she plunged headlong into political activity and became her husband’s main and most reliable assistant.
She was next to him in exile, in exile, processed a huge amount of materials and correspondence, understood various issues and at the same time managed to write her own articles. Meanwhile her own health It became worse and worse, and the appearance became more and more ugly. She took it very hard.
Party love triangle
Nadezhda was an intelligent and pragmatic woman and understood perfectly well that her husband could get carried away with other women. Which is exactly what happened. He began an affair with another political ally, Inessa Armand. These relations continued even after the political emigrant Ulyanov Lenin became the leader of the Soviet state in 1917.
Krupskaya, deeply suffering, offered her husband freedom from family ties and even, seeing that he was hesitating, was ready to leave herself. But Vladimir Ilyich remained with his wife.
Today, from the point of view of human relations, it is difficult to understand how Nadezhda and Inessa remained in great relationship. And their political struggle was higher than personal happiness. In 1920, Inessa Armand died of cholera. Lenin was able to survive this heavy blow only with the support of Krupskaya.
A year later, Lenin himself was struck down by a serious illness - he was paralyzed. Nadezhda brought her semi-paralyzed husband back to life - she taught him to read, speak and write again. It seemed incredible, but through her efforts Lenin was able to return to active work. But there was a new stroke, and Vladimir Ilyich became hopeless.
Life after Lenin
In 1924, Lenin died, and work became the only meaning of life for Nadezhda Konstantinovna. She did a lot for the development of the women's movement, pioneering, literature and journalism. She spoke very critically of Makarenko’s pedagogy and considered Chukovsky’s fairy tales harmful to children. But her trouble was that the smart, talented and self-sufficient Krupskaya in the USSR was perceived exclusively as “Lenin’s wife.” On the one hand, this status evoked universal respect, but at the same time, no one took her personal political position seriously.
“The Party loves Nadezhda Konstantinovna not because she great person, but because she close person our great Lenin,” this phrase once said from a high rostrum very accurately defined Krupskaya’s position in the USSR in the 1930s.
In her declining years, Nadezhda Konstantinovna lacked simple family happiness, which she was deprived of by political struggle and illness. She warmly communicated with Inessa's daughter Armand, and she considered her grandson her own.
Death at the Jubilee
On February 26, 1939, the Bolsheviks gathered for the 70th birthday of Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaya, and even Stalin himself, remembering that the wife and ally of the leader of the proletariat loved sweets, sent her a cake. It was this cake that later became for evil tongues a reason to blame the father of nations for the death of Krupskaya. But in fact, of all those present at the anniversary, only the birthday girl herself did not eat the cake.
Literally a few hours after the guests left, Krupskaya felt unwell. Doctors diagnosed her with acute appendicitis, which turned into peritonitis. But they could not save the woman. Her resting place was a niche in the Kremlin wall.
Today, the story of love, which is stronger than death, is also of great interest.
In Soviet historiography Nadezhda Krupskaya was mentioned exclusively in the status of “wife and comrade-in-arms” Vladimir Lenin. In the post-Soviet period, because of this same status, she was subjected to mockery and insults from all kinds of “accusers” and “subverters.”
It seems that neither one nor the other was interested in the personality of this extraordinary woman, whose whole life was painted in tragic tones.
She was born on February 26, 1869 in St. Petersburg into an impoverished noble family. Nadenka graduated from the pedagogical class of the gymnasium with a gold medal and entered the Higher Women's Courses, but studied there for only a year.
Nadezhda Krupskaya, 1895. Photo: www.globallookpress.comNadya’s father was close to participants in the Narodnaya Volya movement, so it is not surprising that the girl was infected with left-wing ideas from her youth, which is why she very quickly found herself on the list of “unreliables.”
Her father died in 1883, after which Nadya and her mother had a particularly difficult time. The girl made a living by giving private lessons, while simultaneously teaching at the St. Petersburg Sunday evening school for adults behind the Nevskaya Zastava.
And without that it’s not the same good health Nadezhda suffered greatly during the years when she ran from student to student through the damp and cold streets of St. Petersburg. Subsequently, this will affect the fate of the girl in a tragic way.
Party beauty
Since 1890, Nadezhda Krupskaya was a member of the Marxist circle. In 1894, in a circle, she met “The Old Man” - this was the party nickname of the young and energetic socialist Vladimir Ulyanov. A sharp mind, a brilliant sense of humor, excellent oratory skills - many revolutionary-minded young ladies fell in love with Ulyanov.
Later they would write that the future leader of the revolution was attracted to Krupskaya not by female beauty, which did not exist, but solely by ideological closeness.
This is not entirely true. Of course, the main unifying principle for Krupskaya and Ulyanov was the political struggle. However, it is also true that Vladimir was attracted to Nadya by female beauty.
She was very attractive in her youth, but this beauty was taken away from her by a terrible autoimmune disease - Graves' disease, which affects women eight times more often than men, and is also known by another name - diffuse toxic goiter. One of its most striking manifestations is its bulging eyes.
Photo: www.globallookpress.comNadezhda inherited the disease and already in her youth it manifested itself in lethargy and regular ailments. Frequent colds in St. Petersburg, and then prison and exile led to an exacerbation of the disease.
IN late XIX- At the beginning of the 20th century, there were no effective ways to combat this disease. Nadezhda Krupskaya's disease crippled her entire life.
Work instead of children
In 1896, Nadezhda Krupskaya was imprisoned as an activist of the Union of Struggle for the Liberation of the Working Class created by Ulyanov. The leader of the “Union” himself was already in prison by that time, from where he asked for Nadezhda’s hand in marriage. She agreed, but her own arrest postponed the wedding.
They got married in Siberia, in Shushenskoye, in July 1898.
Ulyanov and Krupskaya did not have children, which is why speculation arose - Nadezhda was frigid, Vladimir was not attracted to her, etc.
This is all nonsense. The relationship between the spouses, at least in the first years, was full-fledged, and they thought about children. But a progressive illness deprived Nadezhda of the opportunity to become a mother.
She tightly closed this pain in her heart, concentrating on political activity, becoming the main and most reliable assistant to her husband.
Her comrades noted Nadezhda’s fantastic ability to work - all the years, next to Vladimir, she processed a huge volume of correspondence and materials, delving into completely different issues and at the same time managing to write her own articles.
She was next to her husband both in exile and in exile, helping him in the most difficult moments. Meanwhile, her own strength was undermined by an illness, due to which her appearance became more and more ugly. What it was like for Nadezhda to experience all this, only she knew.
Vladimir Lenin and Nadezhda Krupskaya with Lenin’s nephew Viktor and the worker’s daughter Vera in Gorki. August - September 1922. Photo: www.russianlook.com
Love-party triangle
Nadezhda was aware that Vladimir might become interested in other women. And so it happened - he began an affair with another fellow fighter, Inessa Armand.
Inessa Armand, 1914. Photo: Public Domain
These relations continued after the political emigrant Vladimir Ulyanov became the leader of the Soviet state, Vladimir Lenin, in 1917.
The story that Krupskaya allegedly hated her rival and her entire family is a fiction. Nadezhda understood everything and repeatedly offered her husband freedom, even being ready to leave herself, seeing his hesitation.
But Vladimir Ilyich, making a difficult life choice rather than a political one, stayed with his wife.
This is difficult to understand from a simple point of view everyday relations, but Inessa and Nadezhda remained in good relations. Their political struggle came before personal happiness.
Inessa Armand died of cholera in 1920. For Lenin, this death was a heavy blow, and Nadezhda helped him survive.
In 1921, a serious illness struck down Lenin himself. Nadezhda brought her semi-paralyzed husband back to life, using all her pedagogical talent, re-teaching him to speak, read and write. She managed the almost impossible - to return Lenin to active work again. But a new stroke brought all efforts to naught, making Vladimir Ilyich’s condition almost hopeless.
Life after Lenin
After January 1924, work became the only meaning of Nadezhda Krupskaya’s life. She did a lot for development in the USSR pioneer organization, women's movement, journalism and literature. At the same time, she believed Chukovsky’s fairy tales were harmful to children and spoke critically of the pedagogical system Anton Makarenko.
In a word, Nadezhda Konstantinovna, like all major political and government figures, was a contradictory and ambiguous person.
The trouble was that Krupskaya, a talented, intelligent, self-sufficient person, was perceived by many in the USSR exclusively as “Lenin’s wife.” This status, on the one hand, evoked universal respect, and on the other, sometimes disdain for personal political position Nadezhda Krupskaya.
The significance of the confrontation Stalin and Krupskaya in the 1930s is clearly exaggerated. Nadezhda Konstantinovna did not have sufficient leverage to pose a threat to Joseph Vissarionovich in the political struggle.
“The party loves Nadezhda Konstantinovna not because she is a great person, but because she is a close person of our great Lenin,” this phrase once said from a high rostrum very accurately defined Krupskaya’s position in the USSR in the 1930s.
Death at the Jubilee
She continued to work, wrote articles on pedagogy, memories of Lenin, and warmly communicated with Inessa's daughter Armand. She considered Inessa's grandson her grandson. In her declining years, this lonely woman clearly lacked simple family happiness, which was deprived of her by a serious illness and political struggle.
Claudia Nikolaeva and Nadezhda Krupskaya in Arkhangelskoye, 1936. Photo: Public Domain
On February 26, 1939, Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaya celebrated her 70th birthday. Old Bolsheviks gathered to celebrate with her. Stalin sent a cake as a gift - everyone knew that Lenin’s comrade-in-arms loved sweets.
This cake will later become the reason for accusations against Stalin of the murder of Krupskaya. But in fact, not only Nadezhda Konstantinovna ate the cake, and such a plot itself looks somehow too unrealistic.
A few hours after the celebration, Krupskaya became ill. Nadezhda Konstantinovna was diagnosed with acute appendicitis, which soon turned into peritonitis. She was taken to the hospital, but could not be saved.
The resting place of Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaya was a niche in the Kremlin wall.
She devoted her entire life to her husband, the revolution and the building of a new society, never complaining about the fate that deprived her of simple female happiness.
If you ask a random person what he knows about Nadezhda Krupskaya, most will only remember that she was Lenin’s wife. Meanwhile, she was outstanding personality of its time.
Nadezhda Konstantinovna was born into a family of impoverished nobles on February 14, 1869 in. The daughter of a lieutenant and governess graduated from the gymnasium with a gold medal. A. Obolenskaya and already 3 years after her graduation she became interested in the ideas of Marxism. This later determined her path as a Russian revolutionary, cultural and party figure, and an active participant in the preparation and implementation of events.
Nadezhda and Vladimir met in February 1896. And at first he became interested not in Krupskaya, but in another activist, Appolinaria Yakubova. Vladimir even proposed to her, but was not very upset when he heard the refusal. His main passion was not women, but the Revolution. It is this passion and leadership skills hit Nadezhda. And she tried to interest the “visiting Volzhanian”, mainly with Marxist conversations and delicious home-cooked food prepared by her mother.
The efforts yielded results and Vladimir Ilyich made an offer to Nadezhda, sending it by mail. The wedding was very modest, but wedding rings were made from copper coins. Lenin's family did not approve of his choice, considering Nadezhda Konstantinovna dry, unemotional and ugly. The situation was also darkened by the fact that the marriage was childless. But Krupskaya was able to become for her husband best friend and a close ally, helping in life and in party affairs.
In 1909, after weighing all the pros and cons, the couple moved to Paris. There they met Inessa Armand. Nadezhda and Inessa had common features, both were convinced revolutionaries who shared the ideas of Lenin, but Armand had many virtues that Krupskaya was deprived of. Bright personality, a mother of many children and a wonderful housewife, Inessa was the life of any company and, unlike Nadezhda, she was dazzlingly beautiful...
Krupskaya understood perfectly well that her husband’s interest in his new acquaintance went far beyond the scope of party affairs. Hardly, but with dignity, she accepted it. In 1911, Nadezhda herself suggested Lenin to divorce and even tried to help him and Inessa find new apartment. Vladimir Ilyich did not agree to the divorce and, suddenly, broke off his relationship with Armand.
The reason was that this relationship became so involved in his life that it began to harm his work. And work was a clear priority for Lenin. Inessa came to terms with the breakup, but, as it turned out, the relationship would have ended soon anyway: Armand developed tuberculosis, and she died suddenly during treatment in the Caucasus. Her death was a blow for Vladimir Ilyich. A number of historians believe that the break with Armand and her imminent death Lenin's death was also hastened. Loving this woman, he could not bear her departure. Before his death, Lenin asked his wife to take Inessa Armand's children out of France. And Nadezhda Konstantinovna fulfilled his last wish.
After Lenin's death, Krupskaya offered to bury him next to Inessa Armand, but forbade this. Nadezhda Konstantinovna outlived her husband by 15 years, in last years she collaborated with the opposition because she did not approve of Stalin's repressions. After her death in 1939, her ashes were buried in the necropolis near the Kremlin wall.
Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaya (1869–1939) - the most prominent party and statesman, professional revolutionary, comrade-in-arms, wife and friend of the great Lenin.
Nadezhda Konstantinovna’s entire life was devoted to the party, the struggle for the victory of the working class, the struggle for the construction of socialism, for the victory of communism.
Youth
Nadezhda Konstantinovna was born and studied in St. Petersburg. As a very young girl, she began to think about the injustice that reigned around, about the tyranny royal power, which oppressed the working people, about the poverty and suffering of the people.
What to do?- this question worried Nadezhda Konstantinovna and did not give her peace. Only after joining a Marxist circle and becoming acquainted with Marx’s teachings did she understand what needed to be done, which path to follow.
“Marxism,” she later wrote, “gave me the greatest happiness that a person can wish for: knowledge of where to go, calm confidence in the final outcome of the matter with which I connected my life.” This unshakable confidence in the correctness of Marxism, in the victory of communism, distinguished Nadezhda Konstantinovna all her life. Neither arrests, nor exile, nor long years of emigration could break her.
Nadezhda Krupskaya in her youth. 1890s.
Nadezhda Konstantinovna goes to the workers, works for free as a teacher at an evening and Sunday school for workers behind the Nevskaya Zastava in St. Petersburg. She combines teaching writing and arithmetic with the propaganda of Marxism, actively participates in the work of the Marxist organization created after the arrival of V.I. Lenin in St. Petersburg, who united disparate Marxist circles into a single coherent organization, which later received the name "Union of Struggle for the Liberation of the Working Class". Nadezhda Konstantinovna is part of the central core of this organization.
Arrest and exile
In the case of the Union of Struggle, Nadezhda Konstantinovna was arrested in 1897 and then expelled from St. Petersburg for three years. She first served her exile in the village of Shushenskoye, in Siberia, where at that time V.I. Lenin was in exile, whom she married in July 1898. “From then on,” she later wrote, “my life followed his life, I helped him in his work in whatever way I could.”
And, indeed, Nadezhda Konstantinovna was the most true friend and comrade-in-arms of V.I. Lenin. Together with him, under his leadership, she participated in the creation and organization of the party. Nadezhda Konstantinovna wrote her first book in exile "Woman Worker". This was the first Marxist work on the situation of female workers and peasants in Russia. In it, Nadezhda Konstantinovna showed that a working woman can achieve liberation only in a joint struggle with the working class for the overthrow of the autocracy, for the victory of the proletariat. This book was published illegally abroad. Nadezhda Konstantinovna could not put her last name on it, and she went under a pseudonym "Sablina".
Nadezhda Konstantinovna served her last year of exile in Ufa. At the end of her exile in the spring of 1901, she went abroad to visit V.I. Lenin. By this time he had already organized the publication of a party newspaper "Spark", and Nadezhda Konstantinovna becomes the secretary of the Iskra editorial board.
Emigration
Abroad, Nadezhda Konstantinovna always carried out enormous party work, being the editorial secretary of Bolshevik newspapers "Forward" And "Proletarian", the foreign bureau of the Central Committee and other central organizations of our party. During the years of the first Russian revolution (1905-1907), she and Lenin returned to Russia, to St. Petersburg, and worked as secretary of the party's Central Committee. In December 1907, Nadezhda Konstantinovna again had to go abroad. She actively participates in the party’s struggle on two fronts - with liquidators And otzovists, establishes connections with Russia, with the newspaper Pravda and the Bolshevik factions of the III and IV State Duma.
Correspondence with Bolshevik party organizations and with party comrades who were underground about Russia, sending party literature, sending comrades to illegal work, assistance in case of failures and escapes - all this lay with Nadezhda Konstantinovna.
During the years of emigration, Nadezhda Konstantinovna, along with enormous party work, was very passionate about pedagogical issues: she studied the statements of Marx and Engels on issues of education, became acquainted with the organization of school affairs in France and Switzerland, and studied the works of the great educators of the past.
The result of this work was the book she wrote in 1915 « Public education and democracy", which was highly valued by V.I. Lenin. This work was the first Marxist work in the field of pedagogy. Nadezhda Konstantinovna raised the question of the need for polytechnic education, the creation of a labor school, and the connection between school and life. (For this work, Nadezhda Konstantinovna was awarded academic degree Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences).
Return to Russia
In April 1917, Nadezhda Konstantinovna, together with V.I. Lenin, returned to Russia, to Petrograd, and immediately plunged headlong into mass propaganda work. She often spoke in factories in front of workers, at rallies in front of soldiers, at meetings of female soldiers, explaining to them the party's policies, promoting Lenin's slogan of the transfer of all power to the Soviets, explaining the Bolshevik Party's course towards a socialist revolution.
Nadezhda Konstantinovna, recalling this time, said that before she was very shy, “but I had to defend the party’s policy, I forgot that I didn’t know how to speak.” She had an extraordinary gift for simple, heartfelt conversations with workers. No matter what audience she spoke to - a small one, where there were 15-20 people, or a large one - 1000 people - it seemed to everyone that she was talking to him so intimately.
During that difficult time, when Vladimir Ilyich was forced to hide in Finland from persecution by the Provisional Government, Nadezhda Konstantinovna disguised herself as a worker Agafya Atamanova I went to see him in Finland, in Helsingfors. She conveyed to him instructions from the Party Central Committee, informed him about the state of affairs, and received the necessary instructions for transmission to the Central Committee.
Nadezhda Konstantinovna took an active part in the preparation and conduct of the Great October Socialist Revolution, working in the Vyborg region and Smolny.
People's Commissar of Education
After the victory of October, the party entrusted Nadezhda Konstantinovna with the work of public education. The largest Marxist teacher, the founder of Marxist pedagogy, Nadezhda Konstantinovna is fighting for the creation of a labor polytechnic school. The connection between school and life, the communist education of the younger generation and the broad masses of the people is constantly at the center of her concerns and attention.
Krupskaya among the pioneers, 1936. Nadezhda Konstantinovna was the “soul of Narkompros,” as she was called then. Deep knowledge of theoretical and practical issues pedagogy, closeness to the workers, knowledge of their interests and demands, vast experience in party work helped her immediately outline the path to follow.
Nadezhda Konstantinovna devoted a lot of effort and attention to working among young people, fighting for the education and real emancipation of women, for their participation in all areas of socialist construction.
Nadezhda Konstantinovna loved children very much and did a lot to make their lives happy. “Children have the right to happiness,” she said.
She was one of the founders of the pioneer organization, monitored the work of the pioneers, and helped them in everything. In his biography "My life", written for the pioneers, she wrote:
“I always really regretted that I didn’t have guys. Now I don't regret it. Now I have a lot of them - Komsomol members and young pioneers. They are all Leninists, they want to be Leninists. By order young pioneers this autobiography was written. I dedicate it to them, my dear, dear children.”
And the guys paid Nadezhda Konstantinovna with passionate love. They wrote letters to her, told her how they were studying, wrote that they wanted to be like Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. They sent Nadezhda Konstantinovna works they had done themselves.
Proceedings
Nadezhda Konstantinovna wrote many articles and books on issues of party and Soviet work, communist education, work among women, youth, and everyday life issues.
A special place is occupied by the works of Nadezhda Konstantinovna about V.I. Lenin, recreating the living image of our great leader.
Nadezhda Konstantinovna was a passionate propagandist of Leninist ideas and Leninist traditions in the party.
Krupskaya's character
Basic distinctive feature Nadezhda Konstantinovna was her integrity, party spirit, and determination. Having become a Marxist in her young years, devoting all her thoughts to the cause of the victory of the working class, to serving the party, she is always with the party in joy and in sorrow.
Krupskaya with her husband Vladimir Lenin in Gorki. 1922 Extraordinary courage distinguished Nadezhda Konstantinovna. In those difficult, difficult days when she lost her very close friend, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, she, despite greatest sorrow, found the strength to speak at the funeral meeting of the Second All-Union Congress of Soviets with such a wonderful, heartfelt speech that everyone was shocked. She talked about Lenin, about his behests, called on the working people to rally under the banner of Lenin, under the banner of the party. In order to make such a speech in days of great personal grief, extraordinary courage was needed. Only the one whom the great Lenin chose as his life partner could do this, the one who for many years fought hand in hand with him for the victory of the working class, the one who went with him through all the storms and hardships, who was his comrade-in-arms, his faithful friend.
Nadezhda Konstantinovna, both at home and at work, was a simple, warm-hearted, modest, sympathetic person. Extremely efficient, organized, demanding of herself and others, she worked tirelessly.
The pure, bright and courageous image of Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaya is always kept in the hearts of our people. It is extremely unfortunate that this image has not yet been sufficiently reflected in the works of our artists.
Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaya (after her husband Ulyanov), (February 14 (26), 1869, St. Petersburg - February 27, 1939, Moscow) - Russian revolutionary, Soviet party, public and cultural figure. Honorary member of the USSR Academy of Sciences (02/01/1931). Wife of Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Lenin).
Elizaveta Vasilyevna Krupskaya, nee Tistrova, was very worried that her only daughter She’s not at all pretty and doesn’t 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 - in the Pavlovsk Military Orphan Institute for Noble Maidens, he - 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 happy years childhood, picturesque places of my native nest!. About everything that is so dear to everyone! From such circumstances of life, some unbearable melancholy oppresses the soul - my whole body, and the desire to serve native land day by day it takes greater 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 defendant, 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 E.V. Krupskaya’s own funds.” And although Konstantin Ignatievich was acquitted, emotional stress led to a sharp deterioration in his health, weakened by tuberculosis. And the daughter, who was strongly attached to her father, fell ill with symptoms nervous disorder. 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 for those times educational institution for girls - 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 Vasilievna took off 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 “What are “Friends of the People”” in their circles, 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.
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.
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 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’m a match for 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.
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.
All of them 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 so quickly found a common language and understood each other from half a glance to half a word 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. Beauty, she was the complete opposite Nadezhda Konstantinovna. It happened in Lanjumeau, at a school for revolutionary workers. It was 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 familiar places, I was clearly aware, as never before, of what great place You were still here in Paris, so important in my life that almost all my activities here in Paris were connected by 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 oath: 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.”
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. To this she devoted a significant part of her pedagogical works, 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, gardens, camps, boarding schools , schools, work 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.
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 courses French(3 times a week for an hour, 6 rubles per month). For comparison, her own lessons to 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 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 crisis. 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.”
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, and herself tormented by attacks of chronic illnesses, Nadezhda Konstantinovna foresaw the end and last minute the life of a beloved comrade held his hand in hers.
After Lenin's death she gave herself entirely 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 - due to restorative rest. 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 did not allow 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.
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