Dmitri Volkogonov - Lenin: A New Biography

LENIN

A NEW BIOGRAPHY

Dmitri Volkogonov

Translated and edited by Harold Shukman

THE FREE PRESS

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By the same author

STALIN: TRIUMPH AND TRAGEDY

Translation copyright 1994 by Harold Shukman

Copyright 1994 by Dmitri Volkogonov

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any
information storage and retrieval system, without permission
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The Free Press
A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
866 Third Avenue, New York, N. Y. 10022

Printed in the United States of America

printing number

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Volkogonov, Dmitri Antonovich.

Lenin: a new biography / Dmitri Volkogonov.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

eISBN 978-1-43910-554-2

1. Lenin, Vladimir Il'ich, 1870-1924.

2. Heads of state - Soviet Union - Biography.

3. Soviet Union - History - 1917-1936.

I. Title.

DK254.L4V587 1994

947.0841092 - dc20

[B] 94-31752

CIP

Contents

Illustrations

Unless otherwise indicated, all illustrations originate from the Central Committee Archives (RTsKLIDNI).

1 The house in Simbirsk where Lenin was born in 1870.

2 The town centre of Simbirsk, 1867.

3 Lenin's maternal grandfather, Alexander Dmitrievich Blank.

4 Lenin's father, Ilya Nikolaevich Ulyanov.

5 The Ulyanov family in 1879.

6 Alexander Ulyanov in his teens.

7 Lenin aged seventeen in 1887.

8 Lenin's sister Olga.

9 Lenin's sister Anna.

10 Lenin's brother Dmitri.

11 Sergei Nechaev. ( Internationaal Instituut Voor Sociale Geschiedenis, Amsterdam )

12 Lenin at the age of twenty as a student in Samara.

13 Lenin photographed by the police after his arrest in St Petersburg in 1896.

14 Yuli Martov in the police photograph taken when he was arrested with Lenin in 1896.

15 Georgi Plekhanov, the father of Russian Marxism.

16 Alexander Helphand, alias Parvus, under arrest in St Petersburg in 1905. ( David King Collection )

17 Inessa Armand in 1902.

18 Lenin playing chess on Capri in 1908 with Alexander Bogdanov, watched by Maxim Gorky.

19 Lenin in Paris, 1910.

20 Nicholas II and the Empress, St Petersburg, 1913.

21 Axelrod, Martov and Dan in 1915. ( Collection of Harold Shukman )

22 The Tsar awarding decorations, 1916.

23 Lenin and the other political migrs who travelled with him from Switzerland, in Stockholm before continuing their journey to Petrograd, April 1917.

24 Alexander Kerensky presiding at a meeting in the War Ministry, August 1917.

25 Kerensky.

26 The false factory pass used by Lenin to cross the Finnish border in August 1917.

27 Trotsky with other members of the Soviet delegation during the peace negotiations at Brest-Litovsk in January-February 1918.

28 Nadezhda Krupskaya, disguised as a female worker for her trip to see Lenin in hiding in Finland, summer 1917.

29 Martov and Dan in Petrograd, late 1917.

30 A demonstration in favour of the Constituent Assembly, Moscow, winter 1918.

31 The first Soviet government, the Council of People's Commissars (Sovnarkom), in session, January 1918.

32 Lenin in January 1918.

33 Lenin making a speech on Voskresensky Square, November 1918.

34 Lenin, Kamenev and Sverdlov at the Kremlin Wall, November 1918.

35 The Tsar, his son the Grand Duke Alexei and daughter the Grand Duchess Tatiana in 1916.

36 Former tsarist army officers perform compulsory labour service in Petrograd in 1918.

37 The destruction of Annunciation Cathedral, Petrograd, 1929.

38 Patriarch Tikhon at the Nikita Gate of the Kremlin.

39 An anti-Easter tram, Leningrad, 1932.

40 Lenin with his sister Maria, Moscow, 1918.

41 Lenin and Sverdlov, 1918.

42 Kamenev, Lenin and Trotsky, c. 1918.

43 Fanya Kaplan, executed for the attempt on Lenin's life in August 1918.

44 A procession in support of Red Terror, Moscow, winter 1918.

45 A German army patrol in Kiev, 1918.

46 Zinoviev, possibly at a meeting of Comintern.

47 Lenin at the First Congress of Comintern, March 1919.

48 Lenin with Krupskaya and his sister Maria outside the Kremlin, May 1919.

49 Lenin at a military parade on Red Square, May 1919.

50 Lenin at a military parade on Red Square, May 1919.

51 Lenin and Yelena Stasova, August 1920.

52 Lenin during an interval of the Second Comintern Congress, August 1920.

53 Leon Trotsky.

54 Lenin speaking in Moscow on 5 May 1920, Kamenev and Trotsky standing on the steps of the podium.

55 Nikolai Bukharin at the funeral of John Reed, Moscow, 1920. ( Collection of Harold Shukman )

56 Baron Peter Wrangel, chief of the White forces in southern Russia, with his chief adviser, Alexander Krivoshein, and his chief of staff, Pavel Shatilov, Crimea, 1920.

57 Corpses of Admiral Kolchak's White forces shot by Reds at Omsk in Siberia, 1919.

58 Red victims of the Japanese intervention at Vladivostok, November 1920.

59 Kamenev and his wife with American relief officials at a soup kitchen in the famine-stricken Volga region in November 1921. ( Hulton-Deutsch Collection )

60 A starving family of Chuvash refugees outside Samara, 1921.

61 Famine refugees in a camp in the Volga region, 1921.

62 Lenin and Voroshilov among Red Army soldiers who had just taken part in crushing the Kronstadt revolt, 22 March 1921.

63 Lenin being sketched for a painting by I. Brodsky, 1921.

64 Lenin observing the testing of the first electric-driven plough, Moscow, 1921.

65 Stalin, Rykov, Kamenev and Zinoviev, Moscow, early 19205. ( AP/ Wide World Photos )

66 Lenin and Stalin at Gorki, Lenin's country retreat.

67 Lenin and Krupskaya with Lenin's sister Anna, her son Viktor and the daughter of a local worker at Gorki, 1922.

68 Lenin in early August 1922.

69 Lenin and Krupskaya motoring around Gorki, August-September 1921.

70 Lenin and Krupskaya at Gorki with their telescope.

71 Lenin at Gorki in July-August 1923, showing clear signs of his deterioration since the previous summer.

72 Lenin in the park at Gorki, summer 1923.

73 Lenin in the summer of 1923. Among the last photographs taken of him.

74 Lenin in the summer of 1923. Among the last photographs taken of him.

75 Lenin in the summer of 1923. Among the last photographs taken of him.

76 Lenin lying in state, January 1924.

77 Dzerzhinsky and Voroshilov at Lenin's catafalque.

78 A demonstration of Leninists in Moscow, 1992.

79 A protest against the handing over of the Lenin Museum to the Moscow City Council, 1993.

Abbreviations

AMB Archives of the Ministry of Security

AMBRF Archives of the Ministry of Security of the Russian Federation

APRF Archives of the President of the Russian Federation

ECCI Executive Committee of the Communist International

GARF State Archives of the Russian Federation

GPU State Political Administration

KGB Committee of State Security

NKGB People's Commissariat of State Security