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Tolstoyan ideals. She met her future partner,
Vladimir Lenin, in 1894 through the Social Dem-
ocratic underground circles of the capital. Both
were arrested in 1895-96, and she was allowed
to accompany him into exile by claiming to be
his fiancée. They formally married in July 1898
but never had children; the revolutionary cause
was their full-time occupation. She then fol-
lowed Lenin a year later, moving with him from
place to place in 1901-16. During these years,
Krupskaya made an invaluable and overlooked
contribution as Lenin's main secretarial assistant
to the growth of the
BOLSHEVIK
faction. She also
kept her lifelong interest in education and the
movement for the emancipation of women,
helping ensure that the party did not ignore
these issues. Krupskaya returned with Lenin
from Switzerland aboard the “sealed train” in
April 1917. In the period leading up to the
OCTO
-
BER REVOLUTION
, she saw little of him as their
political paths and views briefly diverged.
Unconvinced of the need for an early Bolshevik
revolution, she instead worked on reforming
education. She visited him twice while he was
hiding in Finland, after the failure of the
JULY
DAYS
. After the October Revolution, they were
reunited. Krupskaya was appointed deputy peo-
ple's commissar of enlightenment under Anatolii
LUNACHARSKY
, where she continued her work on
education.
STALIN
's rudeness toward her was the
spark that made Lenin plan his dismissal from
influential posts, but Lenin's illness intervened
and it was never done. After Lenin's death in
1924, her status as Lenin's widow protected
Krupskaya from Stalin's animosity and growing
vindictiveness. Opposed to Lenin's deification by
his successors, she tried without success to influ-
ence the management of the Lenin cult. She died
on February 27, 1939.
Prince Petr Kropotkin
(Library of Congress)
the anarchists before the
OCTOBER REVOLUTION
but came down hard on them afterward. Kropot-
kin served as the conscience of the anarchist
movement and protested against the Allied inter-
vention and the growing excesses of the new
regime. His funeral was the last great anarchist
demonstration, and his home in Moscow became
a shrine and a museum until 1938. Kropotkin
was and remains the most widely read anarchist
writer, and his version of anarchist theory was
the most influential contribution to the anarchist
movement in Russia as elsewhere, though his
direct participation was only slight.
Krupskaya, Nadezhda Konstantinovna
(1869-1939)
revolutionary
LENIN
's longtime companion, spouse, and com-
rade, Krupskaya was born in St. Petersburg. Her
father, an impoverished military officer, har-
bored secret radical sympathies, and Krupskaya
grew up with a desire to promote the well-being
of Russia's downtrodden masses. Before becom-
ing a Marxist, she was strongly influenced by
Kruzenshtern, Ivan Feodorovich
(1770-1846)
admiral and explorer
A sailor and explorer, Kruzenshtern is best
known for directing the first Russian naval expe-
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