Love in the name of the revolution, or the personal tragedy of the wife of the leader of the revolution, Nadezhda Krupskaya

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

She devoted her whole life to her husband, revolution and building a new society. Fate deprived her of simple human happiness, the disease took away beauty, and her husband, to whom she remained faithful all her life, cheated on her. But she did not grumble and bravely endured all the blows of fate.

Nadezhda Krupskaya was born in St. Petersburg on February 26, 1869 into an impoverished noble family. She graduated with a gold medal from the pedagogical class of the gymnasium, entered the Higher Courses for Women, where she studied for only a year.

Nadezhda's father was close to the members of the Narodnaya Volya movement, so it was no coincidence that the girl became infected with leftist ideas and was included in the lists of "unreliable". In 1883, his 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 outside the Nevskaya Zastava. In those years, Nadia's already poor 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.

The 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" - such was the party name 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 magnificent oratorical skill, and the revolutionary-minded young ladies simply could not resist his charm.

And although later they wrote that the inspirer of the revolution was attracted to Krupskaya only by ideological closeness, and not by female beauty, which simply did not exist, this was not the case. In her younger years, Nadezhda was very attractive, but Graves' disease (diffuse toxic goiter) deprived her of this beauty, one of the manifestations of which is bulging eyes. At that time, there were no effective ways to combat this disease; this diagnosis crippled Krupskaya all his 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 also in prison at that time. From there he made a marriage proposal 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 Siberian Shushenskoye.

Later, evil tongues said that Vladimir was indifferent to his wife, therefore they did not have children either. But in fact, in the first years of their married life, the relationship was full, 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 activities and became the main and most reliable assistant to her husband.

She was next to him in exile, in exile, processed a huge amount of materials and correspondence, understood various problems and at the same time managed to write her own articles. Meanwhile, her own health became worse and worse, and her appearance more and more ugly. She experienced this very hard.

Party Love Triangle

Nadezhda was an intelligent and pragmatic woman and understood perfectly well that her husband could be carried away by other women. Which is exactly what happened. He began an affair with another political comrade-in-arms - Inessa Armand. These relations continued even after the political émigré Ulyanov Lenin in 1917 became the leader of the Soviet state.

Krupskaya, deeply suffering, offered her husband freedom from family ties and even, seeing that he hesitated, was ready to leave herself. But Vladimir Ilyich stayed with his wife.

Today, from the point of view of human relations, it is difficult to understand how Nadezhda and Inessa remained in excellent relations. And their political struggle was higher than personal happiness. In 1920, Inessa Armand died of cholera. Lenin could survive this heavy blow only with the support of Krupskaya.

A year later, Lenin himself was struck by a serious illness - he was paralyzed. Nadezhda brought her semi-paralyzed spouse back to life - she taught him again to read, speak and write. It seemed incredible, but thanks to her efforts, Lenin was able to return to active work. But another stroke happened, and Vladimir Ilyich became hopeless.

Life after Lenin

In 1924, Lenin died, and work became the only meaning of life for Nadezhda Konstantinovna. She has done a lot to develop the women's movement, pioneers, literature and journalism. She was very critical of Makarenko's pedagogy and considered Chukovsky's fairy tales harmful to children. But her trouble was that the intelligent, 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 is a great person, but because she is a close person to 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 was deprived of her by political struggle and illness. She spoke warmly with Inessa's daughter Armand, and she considered her grandson to be hers.

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 companion of the leader of the proletariat loved sweets, sent her a cake. It was this cake that later became an excuse for evil tongues 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 had left, Krupskaya felt unwell. Doctors diagnosed her with acute appendicitis, which turned into peritonitis. But they could not save the woman. The niche of the Kremlin wall became her resting place.

Today it is of great interest and forbidden connection of admiral Kolchak - a story about love, which is stronger than death.