Inessa armand children. Inessa Armand: what was the secret love of Vladimir Lenin After the death of the mother

Inessa Armand

Inessa Armand

The question of whether the relationship between Vladimir Ilyich Lenin and Inessa Armand was a passionate love or an ideological kinship of souls has not yet been resolved. In recent years, most journalists do not deny that the possibility of the former is not excluded.

Inessa and her sister Rene were born into the family of opera singer Theodor Steffen and actress Natalie Wild. Inessa Elizabeth, the eldest, was born on May 8, 1874 in Paris. The father died, the girls grew up a little and ended up with their aunt in snowy Moscow. A woman, in order to feed two orphans, gave music and foreign language lessons, so there is nothing surprising in the fact that Inessa and Rene were fluent in Russian, French and English and also played music.

Since childhood, both sisters were in the house of the Russified Frenchmen Armand. The trading house "Eugene Armand and Sons" owned a large factory in Pushkin, where 1200 workers produced woolen fabrics for 900 thousand rubles a year - a huge amount for those times. In addition, the honorary citizen and manufactory adviser Yevgeny Armand had, in addition to this, several more sources of income. So it was, apparently, destined by fate, both Steffen sisters began to bear the surname Armand: at the age of 19, Inessa married her son Eugene, Alexander, Rene - Nikolai. The financial situation of the family allowed the girls not to deny themselves anything, but, oddly enough, they chose the thorny path of the revolutionary struggle.

Inessa gave birth to four children to Alexander Armand and suddenly left her husband for his brother, Vladimir Armand. They were united not only by love, but also by a common cause - social democracy. Vladimir, as it turned out later, was the bearer of revolutionary ideas, but not a fighter, so Inessa had to act for two. She actively participated in meetings, rallies, publications of illegal literature. Because of her anti-state activities, Inessa ended up in Mezen, from where she fled in 1909 to her Vladimir, who had moved to Switzerland by that time. However, the happiness of the united couple was short-lived: the terminally ill Vladimir died in her arms.

Heartbroken, Inessa had no choice but to go headlong into revolutionary activities, becoming one of the most active figures in the Bolshevik Party and the international communist movement. The name Armand first sounded loudly during the revolution of 1905. In 1915-1916, Inessa participated in the work of the International Women's Socialist Conference, as well as the Zimmerwald and Kienthal conferences of internationalists. She also became a delegate to the VI Congress of the RSDLP (b).

In 1909 in Brussels took place historic meeting Inessa with Vladimir Ulyanov. He was 39, she, a mother of many children, was 35, but her appearance still attracted men. Social Democrat Grigory Kotov recalled: “It seemed that life in this man was an inexhaustible source. It was a burning fire of revolution, and the red feathers in her hat were like flames. Now it is difficult to say what attracted Vladimir Ulyanov to Inessa Armand, but from that moment their close cooperation began. He liked her favorite theory that marriage hinders free love. True, in 1915, when she introduced this postulate into the draft "women's" law and proposed it to Lenin for consideration, he crossed out "free love" without hesitation.

What connected the leader of the world proletariat and the ardent revolutionary? According to one version, only a general understanding of the ideas of socialism, according to another, a common bed, a painful passion. Adherents of the second version refer to one of Armand's letters addressed to Ilyich and published only in 1985: that almost all the activity here was a thousand threads connected with the thought of you. I wasn't in love with you then, but even then I loved you very much. I would do without kissing even now, just to see you, sometimes talking to you would be a joy - and it could not hurt anyone. Why was it necessary to deprive me of this? .. "

Little is known about the first three years of communication between Lenin and Armand. The French socialist and Bolshevik Charles Rappoport testified that they often talked for a long time in a cafe and Lenin did not take his eyes off the little Frenchwoman. Armand herself described her feelings at the very beginning of their acquaintance: “At that time I was afraid of you more than fire. I would like to see you, but it seems better to die on the spot than to enter you, and when for some reason you went into the room of N.K. (Nadezhda Konstantinovna), I immediately got lost and became stupid. I was always surprised and envied the courage of others who directly came to you, talked to you. Only in Longjumeau and then the following autumn, in connection with transfers and other things, did I get used to you a little. I so loved not only to listen, but also to look at you when you spoke. Firstly, your face is so animated, and secondly, it was convenient to look at, because at that time you did not notice it.

In the pre-revolutionary years, Armand spent a lot of time in the Lenin family, about which Krupskaya wrote repeatedly in her memoirs. She reported about Inessa's stay in Krakow in 1913: “We, all the people of Krakow, were terribly glad to see her coming ... In the fall, we all became very close to Inessa. There was a lot of some kind of cheerfulness and ardor in her. Our whole life was filled with party cares and affairs, more like a student than family life, and we were glad to Inessa. She told me a lot about her children, showed me their letters, and somehow warmly emanated from her stories. Ilyich, Inessa and I went for a lot of walks… Inessa was a good musician, she persuaded everyone to go to Beethoven's concerts, she herself played many of Beethoven's pieces very well. Ilyich constantly asked her to play ... "

Lenin, Krupskaya and Armand were returning from Switzerland to Russia in the same compartment of the famous “train to the revolution”. Lenin settled in Petrograd, and Inessa settled in Moscow. Their intensive correspondence did not stop. A Lenin note dated December 16, 1918, addressed to the commandant of the Kremlin, Malkov, has been preserved. "T. Malkov! Giver, comrade. Inessa Armand, member of the CEC. She needs an apartment for 4 people. As we spoke today, you will show her what is available, that is, you will show the apartments that you had in mind. Lenin.

At the beginning of 1919, Inessa, on behalf of Lenin, traveled to France as part of the Soviet mission of the Red Cross to work with the Russian Expeditionary Force. After some time, Ilyich, worrying about her health, sent Armand to heal and rest in the Caucasus. But under the southern sun it was unsettling. Near the sanatorium where Inessa was resting, there was an incident with shooting, and Lenin decided to evacuate her. On the way home, Inessa contracted cholera and died in Nalchik. In the Caucasus, Inessa began to keep a diary. Here is one of the last entries: “I used to approach each person with a warm feeling. Now I am indifferent to everyone ... A warm feeling remains only for the children and for V.I. ” The downcast Ilyich with the obliging Krupskaya met the train that brought to Moscow a lead coffin with the body of Inessa.

It is hardly possible to find another document of Lenin that has been subjected to such cuts by Soviet censors as his letters to Armand. During the years of the First World War, Lenin did not send as many letters to anyone as Inessa. After the death of Lenin, the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party adopted a resolution requiring all members of the party to transfer all letters, notes and appeals to them from the leader to the archives of the Central Committee. But only in May 1939, after the death of Krupskaya, Inessa's eldest daughter, Inna Armand, decided to archive Lenin's letters to her mother.

Letters published in different years, even with cuts, indicate that Lenin and Inessa were very close. Recently, an interview appeared in the press with Inessa's youngest son, the elderly Alexander Steffen, who lives in Germany, who claims that he is the child of Ilyich and Inessa's love. He was born in 1913, and 7 months after his birth, according to him, Lenin placed him in the family of an Austrian communist. And the grandson of Rene Steffen, Stanislav Armand, lives in Riga. His daughter Karina, according to relatives, is like two drops of water similar to Inessa.

Not so long ago, a film was shown on British television, the author of which is a well-known English specialist in Russian, a professor at the University of London, Robert Service. This documentary says that in 1924 Nadezhda Krupskaya offered to bury Lenin along with the ashes of his beloved Inessa Armand.

Nadezhda Konstantinovna, according to Service's theory, was aware of her husband's relationship with Inessa Armand, which began in 1911 in Paris, who filed for a divorce from a Frenchman, from a marriage with whom she had two children. Until 1915, Krupskaya tolerated her husband's betrayal and then delivered an ultimatum - either she or Inessa. Lenin chose Krupskaya, explaining this act as a commitment to the "cause of the revolution" and "everything that strengthens it."

The scientist builds his theory again on the letters of Armand, in which she begged Lenin to return: "It will not be worse for anyone if we are all three again (meaning Krupskaya) together." In response, Lenin first asked her to forward all her correspondence, and then ... returned to Inessa. Somewhat later, the leader of the revolution authorized the transfer of the Women's Department of the Central Committee of the Party under the leadership of Armand.

Krupskaya was so struck by Lenin's intemperance, the author claims, that she undertook a series of trips away from Moscow and Petrograd - to the Volga region. The death in 1920 of Inessa Armand was a harbinger of Lenin's severe brain disease. The disease progressed so quickly that Krupskaya not only forgot all the grievances against her husband, but also fulfilled his will: in 1922, the children of Inessa Armand were brought to Gorki from France. However, they were not allowed to see the sick leader. The last noble gesture of Krupskaya, who recognized the great love of Lenin and Armand, was her proposal in February 1924 to bury the remains of her husband together with the ashes of Inessa Armand. However, Stalin rejected the proposal.

I heard that Krupskaya is terrible and childless, and Armand is a beauty and a mother of many children. That Lenin did not like the first because she was terrible, and he adored the second because she was beautiful. And then I wanted to look at these two women - at the beauty and the beast ...
I began to dig on the Internet in search of information about them. It immediately caught my eye that in all the articles about Lenin’s relationship with these two women they post a photo of the young Inessa (here, for example, how) and a photo of the old Krupskaya ... Well, like these:

But wait a minute... The first photo is from the 1890s... Inessa is 16-18 years old... She just got married (October 3, 1893). After that, she also gave birth to five children ... Inessa first met Vladimir Ulyanov in Paris in the spring of 1909. The two men had never met before. In the year Lenin met Armand, Inessa's youngest son Andrei was already 5 years old. That is, Lenin never saw Inessa like she is in the photo above ... When they met, she was 35 years old and looked something like this (photo of 1913):

The second photo, which depicts Krupskaya and which is often shown to us for comparison with Armand, was taken before Lenin's death. Lenin died in 1924. That is, Nadezhda Krupskaya is about 50-55 years old on it. By this time, she was already ill with Graves' disease. This disease overtook Nadezhda Konstantinovna in maturity. With Graves' disease, the thyroid gland increases, the production of hormones increases, the patient is hot all the time, he sweats, but most importantly, this disease severely disfigures the appearance. This disease was the result of colds suffered by Nadenka Krupskaya in her younger years. Antibiotics did not exist at the end of the 19th century, and it was impossible to completely get rid of the infection lurking in the body. Nadezhda carried this bomb inside her all the time... In her swollen glands and in her appendages that had caught a cold during her imprisonment, which she constantly ached...
Nadezhda Krupskaya met Vladimir Ulyanov in 1894. At 25 years old. Here is her photo from 1895:

Before Graves' disease disfigured her, Nadenka Krupskaya was considered a very attractive young lady. Here is a photo of her in the 1890s, when Armand's first photo was taken:

Is she a monster here? In my opinion, no. By the way, now Krupskaya is often compared with Scarlett Johansson:

Here they are with the same hairstyle:

Yes, Krupskaya is not dressed as chic as Armand, yes, her hair is not styled so beautifully and there is not a trace of makeup on her face. They had different life and different levels of wealth during that period. Armand was born in France, in Paris. Her father was a famous opera singer. Mom is an actress-comedian (of Anglo-French origin, but of Russian citizenship) was also an opera singer. Inessa's parents belonged to the creative French bohemia.

Krupskaya was born into a poor noble family in Russia, in St. Petersburg. Father is a lieutenant, mother is a governess.

Both Inessa and Nadezhda both lost their fathers early. But after that, their lives took shape again in different ways.
Very young, Inessa married Alexander Armand, the son of a merchant of the first guild E.I. Armand, the largest Russian textile industrialist. The Armand family was truly rich. Textile factories, forest lands, tenement houses and much more served as a source of wealth for the Armands...
After the death of the only breadwinner, the Krupsky family was on the verge of poverty. Nadezhda's father was considered "unreliable" because of his connection with the populists, so the family received a small pension for him. Nadia did not marry early like Inessa. She began to study. At first, in the private gymnasium of Princess Obolenskaya. Having received a diploma as a "home mentor", Nadezhda immediately began working at the gymnasium, preparing students for exams. Then she studied at the Bestuzhev courses: for her time, completing these courses was actually equivalent to receiving an additional and very prestigious education. According to the memoirs of contemporaries, "she was not interested in dresses, skirts, hairstyles - all tinsel. And for what? To arouse envy among her girlfriends? At the beginning of her life, she had no money for this ..." Ariadna Tyrkova writes that in those years Krupskaya was pretty: “Nadya had white, thin skin, and the blush that spilled from her cheeks to her ears, to her chin, to her forehead, was pale pink” ...
And then ... Inessa lived with her husband for 9 years and bore him four children - 2 daughters and 2 sons. And ... 30-year-old Inessa left her husband for his younger 18-year-old brother Vladimir, from whom she gave birth to a son, Andrei.

Under the influence of Vladimir, she became interested in the revolutionary struggle. Vladimir and Inessa first lived in Naples, then on the Swiss Riviera, and then returned to Moscow. They settled on Ostozhenka, renting a luxurious apartment in the house of the merchant Yegorov. In early January 1909, Vladimir died.
In the same year, a historic meeting between Inessa Armand and Vladimir Ulyanov took place in Brussels. He was 39, she was 35. Vladimir Ilyich offered Inessa a job as a housekeeper in his house in Paris ... She agreed ... And the three of them began to live together ... "At that time I was afraid of you more than fire," Armand wrote to Lenin in 1913. - I would like to see you, but it seems that it would be better to die on the spot than to enter you, and when for some reason you went into the room of N.K. (Nadezhda Krupskaya), I immediately got lost and became stupid ... " In February 1917, Vladimir Ulyanov, Nadezhda Krupskaya and Inessa Armand returned to Russia in the same compartment...
There is an opinion that the leader's wife knew about the connection between Lenin and Armand, but did not interfere. As Kollontai testified, Lenin himself confessed everything to his wife. Krupskaya even offered her husband a divorce, but Lenin did not agree to such a step ...
Don't you think that Armand was attached to men from her youth?... For some reason it seemed to me that way...
And further. Krupskaya went through both prisons and exile. She got inflammation of the ovarian appendages during a long prison term, because of which she later could not have children. They also tried to imprison Armand. Twice. Each time she was dragged out of there by her men. From exile to the north of Russia in Mezen, Armand left for Switzerland on a false passport with the help of the Socialist-Revolutionaries, to whom her young cohabitant Vladimir Armand belonged. In 1912, she was again arrested for underground work, but thanks to her ex-husband, brother her roommate, who had 4 children, was released on bail ...
Well, the question of children. Always, when they talk about Krupskaya and Armand, they emphasize that Krupskaya was childless, and Armand had 5 children. So the children were brought up by Inessa's first husband - moreover, Alexander Evgenievich also adopted Andrei, who was his nephew.

At the age of 46, Inessa contracted cholera and died. Armand's friend Alexandra Kollontai directly stated: "Inessa's death hastened his (Lenin's) illness, which became fatal..." Vladimir Ilyich Lenin survived Inessa Armand by only three years...
When Lenin died, Krupskaya asked the government to bury his remains along with the ashes of Inessa Armand. Stalin rejected this proposal...
Krupskaya maintained close relations with Inessa's children until the end of her life ... Daughter Varvara became an artist, Inna worked all her life at the Institute of Marxism-Leninism, Fedor was a pilot, Alexander was a well-known scientist in the field of heat engineering. Guard Captain Andrey Alexandrovich Armand died in 1944. He was buried: in the Lithuanian city of Marijampole, he had no children...

“I’ll bailiff 2 of the police unit.

Exiled to the city of Samara for belonging to the St. Petersburg working group of the RSDLP, the wife of a hereditary honorary citizen, Elizaveta Fedorova Armand, arrived in Samara on April 20 and stayed at the National Hotel. I suggest that you put Armand under open police surveillance and immediately report everything you see behind her to me ”(Fig. 1, 2).

(Central State Archive of the Samara Region - TsGASO, F-465, op. 1, case 2565, case 3)

Exiled Bolshevik

Here is an order from the Samara police chief V.V. On the morning of April 20, 1913, Kritsky sent a bailiff subordinate to him for execution, on whose territory the National Hotel mentioned above was located (Fig. 3).

By the way, this building still stands in the same place where it stood at the beginning of the 20th century - at the corner of former Saratovskaya and Panskaya streets (now Frunze and Leningradskaya streets). And to settle in this hotel, fashionable even by the standards of the capital, the exiled Bolshevik Armand was allowed in connection with her very high public title - "the wife of a hereditary honorary citizen."

At the same time, in a short certificate filed with a recently declassified case from the archives of the Samara Provincial Gendarmerie Directorate (SGZhU), it is reported that not a penny was allocated from the treasury for her living in the National. All hotel bills were then paid by her ex-husband, Moscow manufacturer Alexander Evgenievich Armand, who at that time had his own enterprise for the production of woolen fabrics, and was also a co-owner of the Evgeny Armand and Sons trading house. However, even the influence of this major Moscow businessman was not enough then to save his wife, even the former, from exile in a remote Russian province. This is how, in April 1913, a short but very eventful Samara period began in the life of this extraordinary woman, about whom, in the post-perestroika period, our press spoke, perhaps, more than about any other participant in the revolutionary events in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century.

Official encyclopedic reference. Armand (née Steffen) Inessa (Elizaveta) Fedorovna, leader of the Bolshevik Party and the international communist movement. She was born in Paris on April 26, 1874. When registering the birth, the girl was given a double name - Inessa-Elizaveta. Parents are theater actors Natalie Wild and Theodor Stefan (Steffen). Having lost her father early, she moved with her aunt to Moscow, who worked as a governess in the house of Armand manufacturers. Subsequently, she married A.E. Armand. She was fluent in French, English, German, Polish and Russian. Member of the RSDLP (b) since 1904. For belonging to the RSDLP, she was repeatedly arrested and exiled. In the period up to 1917, as a representative of the RSDLP (b), she participated more than once in international socialist conferences. Translated into French a number of works by V.I. Lenin. Letters to V.I. Lenin to Inessa Armand, which are of great historical, party and scientific interest, were published in the Complete Works of V.I. Lenin. After February Revolution In 1917 she returned to Russia, in October 1917 she participated in the preparation of an armed uprising in Moscow. After the October Revolution, she occupied a number of responsible party and Soviet posts, actively participated in the work of the Second Congress of the Comintern, and collaborated in the journal Kommunistka (pseudonym - Elena Blonina). She died on September 24, 1920 from cholera in Kislovodsk, where she went for treatment at the insistence of V.I. Lenin. She was buried in Red Square in Moscow.

Here it is necessary to say a little about other details from the life of Inessa-Elizaveta that were not included in the encyclopedias. As already mentioned, in 1893 she married Alexander Armand (Fig. 4),

She gave birth to four children, but did not continue to live with him. When the children grew up, the young woman was imbued with the revolutionary ideas of her husband's brother, Vladimir, whom Inessa, leaving Alexander, remarried. The young family settled on Ostozhenka Street in Moscow, where Inessa gave birth to their fifth child. After that, following Vladimir, she also became interested in underground revolutionary work, contriving to manage the household and educate her children at the same time. As a result, in 1904 she joined the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party, after which she actively participated in the events of the First Russian Revolution. For belonging to the RSDLP (b), Armand was arrested and in September 1907 sentenced to exile in the city of Mezen, Arkhangelsk province, from where she fled the following October.

Inessa returned illegally to Moscow, and soon the Armands managed to go to France with their children through Finland (Fig. 5),

where in early 1909 Vladimir died unexpectedly of transient tuberculosis. Living in Paris with children, despite everyday difficulties, Armand continued to engage in party work. And at the end of December 1909, a significant meeting of 35-year-old Inessa Armand with 39-year-old Vladimir Lenin took place in Paris (Fig. 6).

Biographers consider the spring of 1911 to be the beginning of their much closer acquaintance, when the socialists managed to set up a party school in the village of Longjumeau, near Paris, and Armand came here as a teacher.

Having become a person close to Lenin, Inessa also showed friendly feelings towards his official wife, Nadezhda Krupskaya (Fig. 7),

which, oddly enough, responded to her in return. Therefore, it is not surprising that in the spring of 1912, when Lenin and Krupskaya moved to Krakow, Armand ended up there almost immediately. Officially, she was here on the instructions of the party to organize underground party work in the central provinces of Russia. After staying next to the leader for more than three months, in June of the same year she went to St. Petersburg with the passport of the Polish peasant Franciska Jankiewicz. However, the peasant woman from the wife of the manufacturer, apparently, came out bad, because in September 1912, during the next check of documents, Armand was exposed and ended up behind bars.

“I chose Samara as my place of residence”

The investigation into her case dragged on until spring, and during more than six months of her stay in a prison cell, Inessa's tuberculosis worsened - the consequences of a year's residence affected her. Far North. Now, in connection with the escape, the revolutionary was threatened with a much more difficult exile - to one of the Siberian provinces. Only thanks to a very large bail for those times in the amount of 5400 rubles, made by Alexander Armand, the verdict in her case, announced by the court of justice in March 1913, turned out to be surprisingly mild. Even taking into account Armand's belonging to the RSDLP (b), she "due to her state of health" was given the opportunity ... to choose the place of exile herself.

Here is what is said about it in archival documents.

"Ministry of Internal Affairs. Department for the protection of public safety and order in St. Petersburg. April 5, 1913

Saint Petersburg. Secret. Samara police chief.

The Police Department, by its attitude of March 19, No. 54481, notified that, upon reconsideration of the circumstances of the case, the wife of a hereditary honorary citizen, Elizaveta Fedorova Armand, who was brought to formal inquiry at the St. in the Arkhangelsk province, the city of the Minister of the Interior decided: to allow Armand, in view of her painful condition, to serve the remaining term of public supervision, instead of the Arkhangelsk province, in the chosen place of residence, but outside the capital and metropolitan provinces.

To this, the Police Department added that information about exactly when, depending on the time spent on the run, the remaining period of open police supervision of Armand expires, will be additionally reported ... Upon the announcement of the above decision, Armand chose the city of Samara as her place of residence, where dropped out with a passing certificate for No. 8142.

(TsGASO, F-465, op. 1, file 2565, file 1).

By the way, it is worth saying that Alexander Armand, paying such a huge amount of bail for Inessa and actually buying for her the opportunity to serve the exile in more or less comfortable conditions, at the same time he perfectly understood that he would not receive this money back. Knowing the freedom-loving character of his former wife, the manufacturer had no doubt that at the first convenient opportunity she would run away abroad and from this new exile. That's how it ended up happening.

Here it is necessary to note one more circumstance, on the explanation of which historians will have to work. In Soviet times, in numerous biographical literature dedicated to Armand, the episode about her departure to the Samara province is mentioned everywhere only in passing, literally with only one phrase: “She spends the spring and summer of 1913 with her family, going to koumiss in Stavropol-on-Volga, improve your health." However, this is only a half-truth, and also mixed with factual inaccuracies. The fact is that nowhere in the Soviet official literature for some reason it was not said that in April 1913 Armand went to the Volga by no means of her own free will, but was deported here by a court decision under the open supervision of the police in the rank of a state criminal, which is precisely and can be seen from the above document. In addition, she first arrived in the provincial center of Samara, and not in Stavropol, and at the same time she traveled alone, and not at all accompanied by her family, as previously indicated everywhere in numerous publications.

You can learn about all this from the questionnaire filled in by Armand himself in the office of the assistant bailiff of the 2nd police unit of Samara, which is now also in her declassified personal file and is stored in the State Archives of the Samara Region. This document is so curious that it is worth quoting it almost in its entirety, with some comments. Moreover, in each paragraph, the first phrase is the question of the questionnaire, and the second phrase is the answer to it by Inessa Armand.

“List about being under public police supervision. Liter A.

1. Name, patronymic and title. Wife of hereditary honorary citizen Elizaveta Fedorova Armand.

2. Place of the motherland. City of Paris.

3. Religion. Orthodox.

4. Summer. 37 years.

5. Literacy or place of education. Home education.

6. Was she under trial or investigation. Under the court and the investigation was not previously. (Note of the assistant bailiff: Armand refused to give information on this matter).

7. Whether he is married, and if so, with whom. Married - husband Alexander Evgenievich Armand, 40 years old, comes from hereditary honorary citizens (at that moment the marriage between Inessa and Alexander Armand was officially annulled - V.E.).

8. Does he have children, and if he has, then their names and years. Children: Alexander 18 years old, Fedor 17 years old, Inna 14 years old, Varvara 12 years old. And Andrey, 9 years old.

9. Does he have parents and whom exactly, their summers and place of residence. Father died. Her mother, Natalya Petrovna Stefan, is about 60 years old, lives in Moscow - she does not know the exact address.

10. Does he have siblings, their names, years and place of residence. Sister - Anna Fedorovna Zhurina, married - lives in St. Petersburg, does not know the exact address. Has no brothers.

11. Whether someone from her family follows him to the place of expulsion and who exactly. No.

12. If the family does not follow her, then where will she live after her expulsion. Family in Moscow - can't give exact address.

13. Does it have its own means of subsistence and what are they. Lives at the expense of her husband.

14. Knows what kind of craft. No.

15. How until now she has earned her livelihood, both herself and her husband. She lived with her husband, who served in Moscow at the Armand factory - the director of this factory.

16. Whether the parents have any condition. The mother lives on personal funds left after her husband.

17. By what order and for what public police supervision was established. By order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for belonging to the St. Petersburg working group of the RSDLP.

18. The term of supervision and from what time it should be considered. The period of supervision and from what time will be reported additionally.

19. Where she was sent or supervision was established in her place of residence. In the city of Samara.

The information was collected by the assistant bailiff Sacheva.

(TsGASO, F-465, op. 1, case 2565, case files 7-9).

The regime of public police supervision, under which Armand was in our city, assumed her daily appearance at the 2nd police unit to note that the person under supervision had not escaped anywhere and was still on the territory of the station. However, in the future, in the course of strict adherence to this formality, Inessa's freedom-loving nature fully affected. Despite the fact that the police unit was literally a block from the National Hotel, Armand managed to violate the established regime several times during April-May 1913, for which, of course, she was punished.

At least twice during the indicated period, after she did not appear for a mark for several days in a row, the supervised drive was taken to the assistant bailiff, where she was left all night in the local “monkey house” along with others, as they would now say, administrative offenders from the lower classes. And once the obstinate Armand for the same violation was forced to serve more than a day in the cell of the provincial prison, after the police squad detained her during a country walk. As a memento of this stay of Inessa in the Samara "Crosses" in her personal file there were two pictures taken by a prison photographer - in front and in profile (Fig. 8).

“I left for koumiss in the city of Stavropol”

Only one person could mitigate the regime of stay under supervision in our city - the Samara governor N.V. Protasiev. Of course, already on the first day of her stay in the Volga city, Armand turned to a high-ranking official with such a request, which Protasyev informed V.V. Cretan the following:

"Urgently. Secret. Samara police chief.

Consisting under public supervision in the mountains. Samara, the wife of a hereditary honorary citizen, Elizaveta Fedorova Armand, applied to me with a request for permission to leave for the summer for treatment with koumiss in Stavropol or Bely Yar.

Encountering no obstacles to the satisfaction of Armand's petition, I inform Your Excellency about the announcement of this Armand and the adoption of dependent orders. Tell me about the time of Armand's departure and return arrival to Samara.

(TsGASO, F-465, op. 1, case 2565, case files 15-16).

Here, according to the dates preserved on this archival document, one can trace the slowness that causes eternal criticism, with which our bureaucratic bureaucratic system has worked at all times. From the office of the Samara Governor, the above letter was sent on April 24, 1913, and only on May 2 did the stamp of the office of the Samara police chief appear on it. On the table to Lieutenant Colonel V.V. It got to Crete two days later, after which the following resolution appeared on the governor's message: “I entrust the bailiff of the 2nd part of the mountains for immediate execution. Samara. May 4, 1913." According to the registration stamp, the letter arrived at the bailiff's office on May 6, and the very next day Armand wrote the following on it with her own hand: “On May 7, 1913, order No. until you decide. El. Armand. The supervised woman thought about the exact route of her trip for more than ten days, after which a certificate appeared in her file, copies of which the bailiff of the 2nd police unit sent to the higher leadership: “Reference. On May 16, Armand left the National Hotel for the city of Stavropol, Samara Province.

While Inessa was being treated with koumiss on the banks of the Volga, her ex-husband continued to beat the door at the Ministry of Internal Affairs, seeking to reduce the period of exile for his revolutionary-minded wife so that she could "quickly return to her family and children." The fact that Alexander eventually succeeded in doing this is evidenced by a letter sent on June 29, 1913 by the Samara police chief addressed to the Stavropol district police officer. It said that, according to the decision of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, “a certain deadline for the end of open police supervision for the wife of a hereditary honorary citizen, Elizabeth Fedorova Armand, expires on August 6, 1913.” However, the police official's message came a little too late. According to available evidence, the Bolshevik Armand, without waiting for her issue to be resolved in high offices, somewhere in mid-June of the same year, disappeared from Stavropol in an unknown direction. And already in early September, Inessa showed up in Krakow, where an expanded meeting of the Central Committee of the RSDLP (b) headed by V.I. Lenin. Strange as it may seem, N.K. Krupskaya on this occasion left the following phrase in her memoirs: “We Krakovites were terribly glad to see her coming…”

Here it is worth mentioning the ending of the story with the pledge money, which, as Alexander Armand foresaw, did not return to him again. The first hearing of the case on the expiration of the exile of his ex-wife on the return of the bail to Armand was scheduled in the St. Nevertheless, the hearing of her case was postponed several times, and only on September 21 did the judicial chamber adopt the following ruling: “The accused did not appear and did not provide explanations about the reasons that prevented her from appearing.” The chamber's decision turned out to be quite logical: "The pledge amount of 5,400 rubles should be turned into treasury income."

"The death of Armand hastened the death of Lenin"

It is impossible not to touch on one issue around which many copies have been broken in recent decades: the intimate relationship between Inessa Armand and Vladimir Ulyanov-Lenin. In Soviet times, this topic was deliberately hushed up in Russian literature, for obvious reasons, and historical archival research on the personal relations of the leader of Bolshevism with anyone outside his official family was not welcomed, to put it mildly. But in the perestroika and post-perestroika era, when the question of the connection between Armand and Lenin ceased to be forbidden and secret, a powerful wave of pseudoscientific speculation, false rumors and even outright fraud arose around him, in addition to serious archival research. Nevertheless, by now the vast majority of historians consider it firmly proven that very close, and, apparently, intimate relationship between Inessa Armand and Vladimir Ulyanov-Lenin really happened more than once after 1909, when they first met in Paris. At the same time, numerous publications and references to non-existent eyewitnesses, as well as other unconfirmed facts, allegedly indicating that Lenin and Armand had common children, did not stand up to scrutiny during checks and crumbled to dust.

As for the beginning of their romance, as already mentioned, biographers consider it to be the spring of 1911, when a party school was organized in the village of Longjumeau near Paris. However, in the autumn of the same year, Lenin and Krupskaya left Paris for Krakow, after which Armand wrote a desperate letter to the subject of her passion, which was published in Russian only in the 90s. Here are some excerpts from it, showing the true nature of the relationship between these leaders of the Russian revolution:

“... We parted, we parted, dear, with you! And it hurts so much. I know, I feel, you will never come here! Looking at well-known places, I clearly realized, as never before, what a big place you occupied in my life, that almost all the activities here in Paris were connected with the thought of you in a thousand threads. I wasn't in love with you then, but even then I loved you very much.

I would do without kisses even now, and just to see you, sometimes talking to you would be a joy - and it could not hurt anyone ... I got used to you a little. I so loved not only to listen, but also to look at you when you spoke. Firstly, your face revives, and, secondly, it was convenient to watch, because at that time you did not notice this ... I kiss you tightly. Your Armand.

In general, there are more than 150 letters written by Armand to Lenin, most of which have become available to Russian researchers quite recently. All this correspondence is more than eloquent evidence of the true nature of the relationship between Inessa Armand and Vladimir Ulyanov. By the way, most of Lenin's letters to Armand, included in the complete collection of his works, are also painted in bright and sensual tones, leaving no doubt that the author of these messages, to put it mildly, is deeply indifferent to his addressee (Fig. 9).

When in the autumn of 1920 news came to Moscow of the death of Inessa Armand in the Caucasus from cholera, it, according to many eyewitnesses, became a huge moral shock for Lenin. Alexandra Kollontai said in her memoirs that when on October 12, 1920, “we walked behind her coffin, it was impossible to recognize Lenin. He walked with his eyes closed and it seemed that he was about to fall. Thus, according to Kollontai, the tragic death of Armand hastened the death of Lenin himself: he loved Inessa so much that he simply could not survive her departure for a long time.

Lenin in a wig before leaving for Finland, July 1917.

It turns out that the version about the existence of the SON OF LENIN has been circulating in the media and on the Internet for a long time. In general, this is more reminiscent of the story of "the children of Lieutenant Schmidt", but I decided to ask anyway. And then, as expected, I found far from one contender for this title. Here are some of the stories:

Alexander Vladimirovich Steffen

Readers will certainly be interested to learn about what almost all schoolchildren in Germany know. There, in the history textbooks for the eighth grades, in the chapter devoted to Vladimir Ulyanov (Lenin), it is said about Alexander Steffen, the only son of the leader of the revolution and the sixth child of Inessa Armand. But the main sensation is not even that.

In 1998, journalist Arnold Bespo tracked down 85-year-old Alexander Vladimirovich Steffen in Berlin, where he lived near the Brandenburg Gate. His wife died long ago, the children (that is, the true "grandchildren of Ilyich") live separately. A modest pension of 1200 DM was enough to live on, but he was looking for a publisher to publish a book of his memoirs.

The old age of this man was not conducive to a long conversation, but Herr Steffen nevertheless agreed to give the journalist a short interview. Here is what he said about himself:

V. I. Lenin visiting A. M. Gorky plays chess with A. A. Bogdanov. 1908, between 10 (23) and 17 (30) April. Capri, Italy. Photographer: Yu.A. Zhelyabuzhsky

“I was born in 1913, 3 years after my mother met Vladimir Ilyich. And it happened in Paris in 1909, immediately after the death of her second husband, Vladimir Armand, from tuberculosis. As I suppose, my parents did not really want to advertise the fact of my birth. Therefore, 7 months after my birth, I was placed in the family of an Austrian communist. There I grew up until 1928, when unknown people took me away, put me on a steamer in Le Havre, and I ended up in America. I think that these were Stalin's people, who, most likely, wanted to use me for propaganda purposes in the future. But apparently it didn't work out. In 1943, already an American citizen, I volunteered for the Army and served at the Portland Naval Station until 1947.

I know about my father from my mother. In the spring of 1920, shortly before her death, she visited Salzburg. She told about him, brought a letter from her personal archive, written to Vladimir Ilyich in Paris in 1913, and asked to keep it as a keepsake.

In the US, life did not work out. My wife died in 1959, and I went to Europe, to the German Democratic Republic(GDR). I guessed why the East Germans immediately agreed to my request and granted citizenship along with a good apartment. Later my guess was confirmed. I was invited to an appointment with Comrade Walter Ulbricht, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany - he knew everything. And in 1967, during the Berlin meeting of the leaders of the world communist movement in the Soviet embassy, ​​Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev met with me. He presented me with the Order of Friendship of Peoples and kissed me firmly in parting. He promised to invite him to the XXIII Congress of the CPSU as an honored guest. Did not work out. And today Lenin is not liked in Russia. So there is nothing for me to do.”

“... Looking at well-known places, I clearly realized, more than ever before, what a big place you still occupied here in Paris in my life, that almost all activity here in Paris was a thousand threads connected with the thought of you. I wasn't in love with you then, but even then I loved you very much. I would do without kissing even now, just to see you, sometimes talking to you would be a joy - and this could not hurt anyone. Why was it necessary to deprive me of this? .. "

At first glance, the information is plausible, especially since Walter Ulbricht himself received Alexander Steffen, and Leonid Brezhnev awarded him. Yes, and in history textbooks they won’t write so easily without checking. Let's analyze this most reliable version of the birth of a bastard (illegitimate son) from the leader.

1. Let us dwell on the date of birth 1913. From the biography of Inessa, we know that in the spring of 1912, Inessa, on behalf of Lenin, left for Russia, on September 14 she was arrested, she was released in the spring of 1913 on bail of 5400 rubles, which was made by her first husband Alexander. On August 6, 1913, the period of public supervision of the police ended, and she could leave Russia. In September, she appeared in Krakow and left for Paris until October 7, 1913.
The fruit of love between Lenin and Inessa born in 1913 (the month of birth is not specified) could have appeared from their meetings between April 1912 and April 1913. Inessa left for Russia in the spring of 1912, which means that such an event could only occur in April-May 1912 . in Paris. Based on these calculations, the child could only be born in a prison in St. Petersburg. Birth in prison had to be recorded in the church book. If such a record existed and was discovered, it would be the main evidence for this version. Inessa was supposed to leave prison with a baby in the spring of 1913, and, judging by the actions of Alexander Armand, he would have offered Inessa to adopt the boy, as he did with the son of his brother Vladimir, Andrei.

2. As follows from the version, “7 months after birth” the son was placed in the family of an Austrian communist. Following this version, we must assume that Inessa made her way through Finland and Stockholm to Krakow with a child and was supposed to appear in the Ulyanov family with a baby, and then in a hurry within a month, since she had already left Krakow in October, to transfer him to a family of Austrians (they were then in Galicia). Krupskaya spoke with great warmth about Inessa, who was constantly in their house at that time, but she did not hint at anything about the baby even in passing. Can we assume that they conspired and decided to get rid of the illegitimate child, discrediting the leader of the revolution? But this is unlikely.

Firstly, Lenin was only the leader of the Bolshevik Party, and the revolution was still very far away.

Secondly, if Inessa had appeared with Lenin's child, the actions of the Ulyanov family would have been absolutely opposite - they were so expecting children, especially Maria Alexandrovna, well, how could they refuse such a fallen happiness.

Thirdly, Inessa was a great mother. Politics dragged her out, tore her away from the children, but at every opportunity she spent time with them. After escaping from exile in the Arkhangelsk province, she met with children in Moscow at the risk of herself. When she lived in Paris near the Ulyanovs' apartment, she came to Krupskaya and Lenin with their children, for whom they became uncle and aunt. She even came to courses in Longjumeau with her son Andrei. She was incapable of throwing her child into someone else's family to be raised. Such an act was not in her nature. She was a tender, attentive mother who always cared for her children. Returning to Paris in 1913, where her children lived with their father Alexander Evgenievich, in the summer of 1914 she went to rest with them on the Adriatic Sea, in Lovrana, on the Istrian peninsula.

From Inessa's diary entries dated September 1, 1920: “In relation to children, I do not at all resemble a Roman matron who easily sacrifices her children in the interests of the republic. I am incredibly afraid for my children.”

3. We should dwell on the phrase from the version: "In the spring of 1920, shortly before her death, she visited Salzburg." In 1918, Inessa, together with the government of Lenin, moved to Moscow, began to head the women's department of the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party. Her apartment was in the Kremlin, next to the apartment of Anna Ilyinichnaya, and Lenin went on foot to visit the women. In 1920, it was decided to convene the 1st International Women's Communist Conference simultaneously with the second congress of the Communist International (Comintern) from July 19 to August 7, 1920 in Moscow. Inessa Armand was appointed the organizer and leader of this conference and did not leave Moscow anywhere. She could not be in Salzburg, and there was no time for travel, the war with Poland began. On March 1, the Poles occupied Slonim, and then Pinsk, on April 19 Lida, Novogrudok and Baranovich and Vilna, on April 28 - Grodno. Moscow was cut off from Europe, and it was simply physically impossible to get there.

4. The version about Lenin's son was compiled and concocted hastily, and its authors did not even bother to look into the reference book and clarify the facts and dates. Another serious mistake in the version: “And in 1967, during the Berlin meeting of the leaders of the world communist movement in the Soviet embassy, ​​Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev met with me. He presented me with the Order of Friendship of Peoples and kissed me firmly in parting. Leonid Ilyich was in the GDR in early October 1964, being a member of the presidium and secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, he, as the head of the Soviet delegation, took part in the celebration of the fifteenth anniversary of the GDR. One evening, Soviet Ambassador Pyotr Andreevich Abrasimov hosted a dinner in honor of the distinguished guest, to which he invited singer Galina Pavlovna Vishnevskaya and cellist Mstislav Leopoldovich Rostropovich. In September 1967, Brezhnev was on an official visit to Hungary, and in the GDR his official visit, as General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, took place in October 1971 and was received at highest level and receptions at the embassy were out of the question.

All these fabrications about Lenin's son are sewn together with white thread and have nothing to do with actual events. And it doesn’t matter whether Alexander Steffen was born in 1912 or 1914, in any case, Inessa had to bear him, and with her biography so carefully written by chronographs by months, there is no time for the birth of a sixth child. Naturally, you can’t hide the pregnancy, and one of the comrades-in-arms would definitely mention this fact in their memoirs. Inessa did not have a sixth child, and Lenin did not have a son.

Andrey Armand

At the suggestion of Kollontai, there are many rumors about the closeness of Inessa Armand and Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. They said that Inessa had a child from Lenin.

In the Lithuanian town of Marijampole, local guides will definitely take you to the memorial cemetery and show you the monument to Captain Andrey Armand, who died on October 7, 1944 in the battles for the liberation of the Baltic states from the Nazis.

According to local historians, local historians, guard captain of the Red Army Andrey Armand - illegitimate son... Vladimir Lenin and Inessa Armand. The official documents from the time of the war actually say that "the buried Andrei Aleksandrovich Armand (1903-1944) is the son of Inessa Armand and Vladimir Ulyanov."

Today, these papers are kept in the city administration of Marijampolė. But how this entry appeared in the registration book in the regional center, none of the locals can explain.

Professor of the Russian Academy of Theater Arts Faina Khachaturyan is sure that she was friends with Lenin's grandson as a child. “One of the most vivid memories of my childhood is visiting Inessa Armand's relatives,” says Faina Nikolaevna. “My mother was friends with Hiena Armand, the wife of Inessa's youngest son, Andrey. These were post-war years. Their family lived in a house on Manezhnaya Square.

Later I learned that they were given the apartment on Lenin's orders. It was a huge community. They lived very modestly. The apartment was furnished with old government furniture. But there was a special atmosphere in it, bright representatives of the Moscow intelligentsia gathered here.

For us, children, wonderful holidays were arranged in this hospitable house. Hiena raised two sons. The youngest was called Volodya. We became friends with him. He impressed with his intelligence and erudition. It always seemed to me that he reminded me of someone very much. Later, the older sister opened my eyes by saying, "Look in a history book and you'll understand everything." And indeed. Volodya Armand in childhood was almost a copy of the photograph, which depicts Volodya Ulyanov in a gymnasium uniform. The same bulging forehead, the same piercing gaze. When I grew up, my mother told me that his father, Andrei Armand, was the son of Lenin. Such is the legend.

OPINION OF THE HISTORIAN Akim ARUTYUNOV, a well-known historian and author of books about Lenin.

To answer the question of who Andrei Armand is, one must remember the fate of his mother, Inessa (Eliza) Feodorovna Armand. She was born on May 9, 1874 in Paris. Her father, Theodor Stefan, was a famous opera singer. Mother, Natalie Wild - a housewife. After the death of her husband, she was left with three small children without funds.

In search of a way out of the most difficult financial situation, the aunt (a teacher of French and music), together with Inessa, emigrated to Russia. In Moscow, the girl received a good education.

A very gifted Inessa, who was fluent in French, English and Russian and played the piano superbly, became a home teacher for children from wealthy Moscow families. In October 1893, she married the son of a merchant of the first guild, the owner of factories in the Moscow region, Alexander Armand. During their eight years of marriage, Inessa gave birth to two boys (Alexander in 1894 and Fedor in 1896) and two girls (Inessa in 1898 and Vera in 1901).

Living in full harmony and mutual understanding with Alexander, Inessa unexpectedly left in 1902 ... to her husband's younger brother, Vladimir. In 1903, she gave birth to his fifth child, a boy, who was named Andryusha. But a long life with Vladimir did not work out. After Inessa's exile for political activities, he followed her, although he was ill with tuberculosis. In the north, my husband's illness sharply worsened.

Vladimir Armand was forced to urgently move to Switzerland for treatment. Inessa, having escaped from exile, went to her husband. Alas, the doctors could not save him. In early January 1909, Vladimir died. After burying her husband, Inessa decided to move to her native Paris. All five children at that time were cared for in Russia by her first husband Alexander.

Inessa first met Vladimir Ulyanov in Paris in the spring of 1909. The two men had never met before. In the year Lenin met Armand, Inessa's youngest son Andrei was already 5 years old. So, in Marijampole they are mistaken: Vladimir Ilyich could not be the father of Andrey Armand.

It was possible to establish that after the death of his mother on September 24, 1924, Andrei - not without the support of the chairman of the Council of People's Commissars Lenin - received a higher education. Until 1935, he worked as a mechanical engineer at the Gorky Automobile Plant, then moved to Moscow. At the beginning of the war, he volunteered for the front with the Moscow militia. In 1944 he joined the CPSU (b) and soon died heroically.

Now we know that Red Army captain Andrei Armand is buried in Lithuania

But here is what Vladimir himself says in an interview:

But that same Volodya, who looks like a textbook photograph of little Ilyich, lives and lives in Moscow. He is now 72 years old. He runs a small business of his own. The first thing that comes to mind when meeting with him: indeed, he looks a lot like Lenin! Especially when he gestures and smiles.

– A few years ago, all the newspapers were covered by a sensation: the grave of Lenin's son, Andrey Armand, was found in Lithuania. Is this your father?

- They also wrote that he was a colonel. In fact, he was a captain. Yes, he was seriously wounded in 1944 in battles with the Nazis near Vilkavishkis. He died in the hospital. Here he was buried. The family knew where he rested. We went to his grave long before the press trumpeted it. Before the war, dad worked as a mechanical engineer at the Gorky Automobile Plant. He was sent here, not allowing him to finish the fourth year of the institute. He even went to Sergo Ordzhonikidze with a request to let him finish his studies at the university. But he answered him: "We are well acquainted with you, but this is not a reason not to fulfill the instructions of the party." My father had a reservation from the army. But he volunteered for the front.

- It is known that after the death of Inessa Armand in 1920, Krupskaya took care of her children.

- When Inessa died, my father was in his seventeenth year. His upbringing was handled by a home teacher. He lived with us as a member of the family even after the death of his father. Krupskaya treated children with attention. Vladimir Ilyich also communicated with them, from time to time he clarified their ideological moods. There was no guardianship: just a normal relationship. Our last name meant nothing. Therefore, no benefits, no special conditions. True, Iosif Vissarionovich clearly responded to his mother's requests when she wrote: "Fix the roof." The roof often leaked: it was broken during the bombing. A day after the letter, the commandant of the Kremlin came running. Although the Armands still had one privilege: not a single member of the family fell under repression. The adopted children of Dmitry Ulyanov, the leader's younger brother, received the same indulgence.

- They wrote that one of the Armands kept Inessa's personal correspondence with Vladimir Ilyich for a long time. And in the early 50s, he burned it, fearing that it could become a reason for arrest.

- All personal correspondence with Lenin was confiscated immediately after the death of Inessa. So all the secrets of their personal relationships, if they were, are still kept in the archives of the NKVD. We have lost only my grandmother's memories of Vladimir Armand. They were stolen during the evacuation along with my diapers. It was from Vladimir that she gave birth to the fifth child - my father. She went to him, leaving the father of her previous four children - Alexander Armand, my grandfather's older brother. This is a famous family story.

- And how does the family feel about the legend that Andrei Armand is the son of Ilyich?

- These are all journalists-fictioners, - answered Vladimir Andreevich. Where the legend came from, I don't know. For some reason, no one says that Inessa Armand created the Rabotnitsa magazine, that she is the first chairman of the executive committee of Moscow and the Moscow region. This is no longer interesting to anyone. My father was born in 1903, and Inessa met Lenin in 1909.

- But the leader and his girlfriend could correct the biography. Maybe they met earlier, because Inessa wrote that she got acquainted with the works of Lenin in 1903, in the year of the birth of her youngest son ...

Vladimir Andreevich just waved it away.

- Once Volodya spoke at some meeting. Someone took a picture of him. In the picture, he really was an exact copy of the leader, - Olga, the wife of Vladimir Andreevich, laughs.

- Vladimir Ilyich and Inessa, figuratively speaking, were standing next to the machine. He is an outstanding theorist. She is a very literate person in terms of culture, economics, jurisprudence and a talented organizer. And nothing more, - Vladimir Andreevich finished the conversation.

And his face lit up with a characteristic cunning smile. Well, just the spitting image of Vladimir Ilyich!

According to local residents, the military cemetery was visited several times by people who called themselves "Andrei Armand's relatives". Between themselves, they allegedly spoke French, and they were accompanied by KGB officers. And in the early 90s, a whole delegation from Russia came here. Marijampole residents claim that the Russians begged the local authorities to allow them to open the grave in order to take samples of the remains of the guard captain Armand for DNA analysis. But they were refused.

At the cemetery, I noticed that a separate monument was erected only to the guard captain Armand. The faded photograph on the stone is almost impossible to see. Only the contours of an oblong male face with lush, most likely red hair have been preserved. The location of the original photograph could not be established.

Andrei Mironov (not an artist) - Lenin's illegitimate son?

According to Melis Arypbekov, a Kyrgyz businessman who spends his free time researching the life of Ilyich, the leader took his pseudonym in honor of a certain woman named Lenin.
This is evidenced by the documents that Melis was given by none other than the grandson of the famous Russian artist Perov - Roman Alekseevich.

We talked a lot when I lived and worked in Leningrad, - says Arypbekov. “Studying history has always been my passion. Roman Alekseevich knew about this and gave me amazing documents!

Arypbekov takes a powerful and dusty suitcase from the closet and takes out a shabby album with charcoal sketches of the most famous paintings by Vasily Perov himself!

Compare! — Melis puts modern color reproductions of famous paintings in front of us. In the drawings there are indeed fragments of masterpieces, faces and even a hand with a modest signature: “My hand. Perov.

And here is a photo of Roman Perov, who gave me this treasure, - says Arypbekov and shows on the card a person who is very similar to Leo Tolstoy. And next to him, you know who? Andrei Mironov, son of Lenina, after whom Vladimir Ilyich took his pseudonym.

Arypbekov pauses:

And perhaps this is the son of Ilyich!

As proof of this mind-boggling theory, Melis pulls out an old black and white photograph. We, sorting out the thin letters, read on the back almost in warehouses: “To the deeply respected, dear and beloved Tatyana Alekseevna and Roman Alekseevich Perov, in memory of my own mother, Inna Vasilievna Lenina, who took part in revolutionary work with V. I. Lenin and contributed to his salvation at the beginning of May 1900 A. Mironov.

The same woman in the photo is also captured on a tattered page from the pre-revolutionary Neva magazine, where under the heading "Artist and Stage" with all the yats and hard signs it is reported that "Inna Vasilyevna Filippova-Lenin opera singer, lyric soprano" will perform "in the role of Margarita from the opera" Faust ". It turns out that the son of Inna Lenina Andrei Mironov sent these photos to his friend, Roman Perov. There are several more letters written in the same handwriting from Andrey to Roman.

Maybe Lenin really took his pseudonym in honor of her? Why then didn't you tell about this charming lady of the chief earlier? I ask Melis Arypbekov.

During the KGB? Melis answers a question with a question. - In addition, Perov generally told me that Andrei is the secret son of Vladimir Ilyich and Inna Lenina. Well, how do you think this information would have been received in Soviet times?

According to Arypbekov, Volodya Ulyanov and Inna Lenina had a stormy romance in St. Petersburg, they were even going to get married. But the parents of the young lady did not want to marry their daughter to a man whose brother was hanged for an attempt on the king. Ulyanov had to part with the girl, and only then did she find out that she was pregnant. And she married another - completely uninteresting character for Soviet history - a certain Mironov. Even his name has not survived to this day.

Why did Ulyanov take the pseudonym Lenin?

Researchers of the life of the leader of the world proletariat have three more versions of the appearance of the pseudonym Lenin.

Version one: imitated Plekhanov

It is considered by other researchers of the life of Ilyich: in honor of the Lena River. But Ilyich was not in exile on the Lena. True, in 1912, the authorities shot the strikers at the Lena gold mines. Ulyanov was allegedly greatly shocked by these events after reading an essay by Vladimir Korolenko about them. However, historians say that the Lena events took place after he took this pseudonym for himself. The signature "Lenin" first appeared in 1901 in a letter from Ilyich to Georgy Plekhanov. By the way, Ulyanov could have chosen such a signature by analogy with one of Plekhanov's pseudonyms - "Volgin" (in honor of the great Russian river Volga). So “Lenin” may just be an imitation.

Version two: took the name of an agronomist

Ilyich often used pseudonyms. He had more than a hundred of them, he often signed his articles simply with initials, but more often with the names K. Tulin, Petrov, Karpov, K. Ivanov, R. Silin. Then Ulyanov often quoted the then-famous agronomist and public figure Sergei Nikolaevich Lenin. He could borrow the real name of the scientist for a pseudonym.

Version three: used to someone else's passport

In 1900, when Vladimir Ulyanov had to go abroad, he filed a petition addressed to the Pskov governor for a passport. However, he was afraid that due to revolutionary activities he would not receive a passport. Therefore, his wife, Nadezhda Konstantinovna, asked her evening school friend Olga Nikolaevna Lenina, and she asked her brother Sergei to help Ilyich. To do this, Olga and Sergei took the passport of their father, Nikolai Yegorovich Lenin, who was terminally ill. The date of birth was forged in the passport (under the age of Ulyanov). But it is not known on what document Ilyich left, because on May 5, 1900, he received a long-desired passport in his name from the office of the Pskov governor. However, at the request of the owner of the printing house that printed the Zarya magazine, he presented him with a passport in the name of N. E. Lenin.

Be that as it may, after October 1917, the head of the Bolshevik Party and the new state signed all documents, articles, books with his real name, but added to it in brackets his main pseudonym - V. Ulyanov (Lenin).

The 19th century is commonly referred to as the "Silver Age", since a large number of poets, writers, artists, composers, architects, inventors and adventurers appeared during this period of time. The latter include revolutionaries inspired by the Manifesto communist party"(1848) and the First International (1864). These people stood up for a better life for the working people, and their slogans were "Freedom", "Equality", "Brotherhood".

Revolutionary ideas provoked the emergence of a powerful revolutionary movement. Such fighters for the happiness of the people as Sandor Petofi, Emiliano Zapata, Rosa Luxembourg, Karl Liebknecht, Clara Zetkin, Vladimir Ulyanov, Lev Trotsky and many, many other outstanding personalities who devoted their lives to the revolution entered the political arena. Not the last place among them was taken by Inessa Armand (1874-1920) - an adventurer, beauty and revolutionary.

Biography of Inessa Fedorovna Armand

This amazing woman was born in Paris on April 26, 1874 in the family of opera singer Theodore Stefan. The father was a full-blooded Frenchman, but the mother, Natalie Wilde, had English and French roots. The baby was named Elizabeth at birth. When she was 5 years old, her father died. After that, the financial situation of the family deteriorated. Mother had a musical education and began to give singing lessons, but there was not enough money.

Therefore, it was decided to send Elizabeth with Aunt Sophie to Russia. She went to Moscow as a music teacher in the family of textile manufacturer Yevgeny Yakovlevich Armand. His ancestor served as an officer in Napoleon's army, and after its defeat he was captured and decided not to return to France. He settled in Russia, got married, and over time, the Armand family started their own business and became rich. Elizabeth came to such people at the age of 6.

Inessa before marriage

In a family with French roots, the girl was received very warmly. She was given an excellent education. After 10 years, she knew 4 languages, played the piano superbly and dressed in dresses from the best Moscow tailors. The girl began to be called in the Russian manner Inessa, and not Elizabeth. As for the patronymic, in Russia it is obligatory. But Inessa Teodorovna did not sound familiar to the Russian ear. Therefore, the young Frenchwoman was given the middle name Fedorovna.

This is how Inessa Fedorovna appeared, and on October 3, 1893, she became Armand, having married the eldest son of the Alexander family. For 9 years of marriage, Inessa Armand gave birth to her husband 4 children: Alexander (1894), Fedor (1896), as well as daughters Inna (1898) and Varvara (1901). The family lived in their own house near Pushkino near Moscow. Here, a husband and wife opened a school for peasant children, and in Moscow, Inessa became a member of an association that fought for women's rights. In 1900 a young French woman became the chairman of this association.

Inessa and her husband Alexander Armand

However, after 9 years of a happy marriage, cardinal changes took place in the personal life of our heroine. She fell in love with the younger brother of her husband Vladimir, who at that time was 18 years old. In 1902, the young woman broke with her husband and began to live with his brother. But Alexander resignedly accepted such a development of events and did not reproach his wife who left him with a word.

The couple in love left for Naples, and in 1903 in Switzerland, Inessa gave birth to a son, Andrei, from Vladimir. Everything would be fine, but the new lover had close ties with the Social Revolutionaries. Armand also met these people, and very soon became convinced that she was attracted by the revolutionary struggle. But she could not decide which party to join. However, she soon comes across Ulyanov's book The Development of Capitalism in Russia. This work made a great impression on the woman, and in 1904 she relies on the Bolsheviks by joining the RSDLP.

Armand takes an active part in the revolutionary events in Russia in 1905. She was arrested, but released in June 1905. However, from that moment on, the woman comes under the close attention of the police. She was arrested again in April 1907, but released again a few days later. This is followed by a third arrest on July 7 of the same year, and on September 30, the revolutionary is sentenced to a 2-year exile in Mezen (a settlement north of Arkhangelsk).

There, a woman gives French lessons in order to earn money and provide herself with a more or less acceptable existence. Volodya comes to her in exile, but it soon turns out that he is ill with tuberculosis. The man leaves for Switzerland for treatment, and Inessa Armand flees from exile to Moscow on October 20, 1908. In the capital, she lives under an assumed name, and then moves to St. Petersburg, where the first congress of Russian women is soon held.

Inessa with her five children

In January 1909, our heroine ends up in Switzerland through Finland to be next to her seriously ill lover. He dies in her arms, and Inessa is left alone. She leaves for Brussels, where she enters the university, and in a year masters the full course of economics. During her studies in 1909, she met Lenin. It happened in Longjumeau near Paris. There Vladimir Ilyich organized a training center for his party. He lived in this center together with Nadezhda Krupskaya when Armand came to them.

She undertook to translate Ulyanov's works into French and at the same time graduated from the University of Brussels. From the autumn of 1910 he lives in Paris and devotes his time entirely to the Bolshevik Party. Inessa becomes Ulyanov's closest associate. He rents her an apartment in house number 2 on Marie-Rose Street, and he lives with Krupskaya in another house, but in the same area. At this time, a warm relationship is born between Lenin and our heroine. It can be assumed that they become lovers, although there is no direct evidence for this.

But the relationship of these two people in any case could not be called purely friendly. In 1910, the International Socialist Congress was held in Copenhagen. Lenin arrived there without Krupskaya. During the congress and after it, he appeared everywhere with Armand. At the same time, they treated each other not as party comrades, but as close and loving friend other people. All this was seen by such revolutionaries as Karl Kautsky, Jean Jaurès, Clara Zetkin, Rosa Luxemburg, Alexandra Kollontai.

Two close associates - Armand and Lenin

In 1912, Inessa Armand came to Russia to carry out revolutionary work there. But almost immediately she was arrested and put in a St. Petersburg prison. In March 1913, her husband Alexander made a bail for her, and the woman was released from the dungeons. The husband rented a dacha, and our heroine lived on it until August, and then fled to Europe through Finland.

With the outbreak of the First World War, she began to conduct agitation work among the French workers, urging them to sabotage military orders. In 1915, she took part in the International Conference in Bern, and in April 1917, in the same carriage with Lenin and Krupskaya, she went to Russia to make a socialist revolution there.

Arriving in Russia, Lenin settled in Petrograd, and Inessa entrusted Moscow. She became a member of the Moscow District Committee of the Bolsheviks and took an active part in the seizure of power. In October - November 1917 she personally participated in the hostilities, and then became the chairman of the Moscow provincial economic council. During this period, the adventurous character traits of this amazing woman were especially clearly manifested. She risked her life and health for the victory of the revolution, for the sake of universal equality and fraternity.

In 1919, Armand headed the women's department under the Central Committee of the RCP (b). Here she works shoulder to shoulder with Alexandra Kollontai. Together, these women begin the fight against the patriarchal family of Tsarist Russia, proclaiming the right to freedom, love and passion. This slogan finds support at the Women's Communist Conference held in 1920.

This woman dedicated her life to the revolution

The last months of her life, Inessa Armand was subject to severe depression. Apparently, the enormous nervous tension that this woman experienced in the first years of the revolution had an effect. She wrote in her diary on September 10, 1920: "My heart is dead, I am a living corpse." Our heroine needs to be treated, but Lenin sends her on a revolutionary mission to the Caucasus.

This decision was fatal. The adventurer, beauty and revolutionary died on September 24, 1920 at the age of 46 in the city of Nalchik, having contracted cholera. Her body could only be delivered to Moscow on October 12 of the same year due to civil war. Inessa was buried at the Kremlin wall magnificently and with an orchestra. Lenin laid a wreath of white lilies on the grave. Subsequently, Kollontai wrote in her diary: “After the death of Armand Vladimir Ilyich, he noticeably passed. He was never able to cope with this loss, apparently considering himself guilty of the death of his beloved woman.

In the Soviet years, the name of Lenin's faithful comrade-in-arms was hardly mentioned in official history: it could cast a shadow on the pure and bright image of the leader of the world proletariat. Only after the fall of the Soviet regime did Ulyanov begin to be characterized as an ordinary person with his own passions and weaknesses. There is also an intimate correspondence between these two people who devoted themselves to the cause of the revolution. It is stored in the archives of the former Institute of Marxism-Leninism in Moscow.