home Cosmetics Krupskaya had Graves' disease. Nadezhda Krupskaya

Krupskaya had Graves' disease. Nadezhda Krupskaya

It’s paradoxical, but in modern Russian historiography and historical journalism dedicated to N.K. Krupskaya, there were two directly opposite, even mutually exclusive opinions. Some researchers consider this woman to be perhaps the main culprit, an invisible but powerful driver of events that turned the history of Russia in the 20th century. Others, on the contrary, are inclined to assign Krupskaya the modest role of the silent, unloved wife of the “leader of the world proletariat,” which no one would ever remember if she were not his only official wife. However, N.K. Krupskaya went down in history only due to the fact that her fate turned out to be most closely connected with the fate of V.I. Lenin. It is impossible to argue against this.

The entire biography of Nadezhda Konstantinovna is usually divided into three parts, far from equal in importance: before Lenin (1869-1898), with Lenin (1898-1924) and after Lenin (1924-1939). It turns out that for most of his adult life N.K. Krupskaya held next to her famous husband. In exile, in exile, in Soviet Russia, they almost never separated. But so little is known about the marital relations of the Ulyanov couple that even today historians do not undertake to seriously deny or affirm anything. Of course, against the backdrop of a whirlwind romance with Inessa Armand family life Lenina looks uninteresting and boring. And is it possible to call a childless union of two fiery revolutionaries a family? Perhaps fate brought them together only to create a well-coordinated “tandem” of like-minded people, an excellent mechanism for reworking and implementing Marxist theory? Who knows?..

In Soviet times, Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaya was not at all counted among the “pantheon” of infallible leaders. Her true views on what was happening after Lenin’s death in the party apparatus and the country, as a rule, were carefully hushed up. Having made Lenin an untouchable symbol, the Stalinist leadership deprived the person closest to him (his wife) not only of the right to dispose of the body of the deceased, but also of the right to dispose of his own memory of him. For all 15 years of life without Lenin, Krupskaya never “went beyond the bounds.” She did not say anything that could contradict the already created and retouched image of “the most humane of people”; she did not allow herself to recall a single intimate detail or weakness of her husband in order to break the revered idol carefully molded by her descendants. Krupskaya knew how to keep secrets? Yes.

Therefore, speaking about her life, even today we are forced to be content with only brief biographical information, memories of eyewitnesses and obvious Soviet myth-making. All this gives rise to the most ridiculous assumptions, accusations, historical mysteries and new myths of the “post-Soviet” and “post-perestroika” era...

Before Lenin

Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaya was born in St. Petersburg, into a poor noble family. Father - Lieutenant Konstantin Ignatievich Krupsky (1838-1883) participated in the suppression of the Polish uprising, was no stranger to the revolutionary democratic movement and did not leave any fortune to the family. Her mother, governess Elizaveta Vasilievna Tistrova (1843-1915), raised her daughter alone, lived on the pension she received, and worked part-time teaching lessons.

Description early years Nadezhda Konstantinovna bears little resemblance to a human biography. Even in the memories of the friends of her childhood and youth, warm, with a twist, non-standard details rarely slip through, there are no interesting cases: everything is smooth, boring, calm, as if we are talking about a robot. Meanwhile, young Nadenka also asserted herself and was original, but in such a unique way that none of the biographers even understood it. Even during her years at the gymnasium, she became interested in Leo Tolstoy and his teachings, and was a consistent “sweatshirt.” In 1889, Krupskaya entered the prestigious Higher Women's Courses in St. Petersburg, but studied there for only a year. In 1890, while attending courses, she joined a Marxist circle and from 1891 to 1896 taught at a workers' school. Instead of thinking about outfits and dreaming about grooms, the noble young lady was engaged in propaganda work, memorized German, in order to enjoy Marx in the original. Many noted the external unattractiveness of Nadezhda Konstantinovna, but if you look closely at her youthful photographs, there is nothing repulsive in them. On the contrary, she is a rather pretty “Turgenev” girl. Maybe it was complete absence what is called charm and feminine attractiveness? How else can we explain that by the age of thirty, all of Nadezhda Konstantinovna’s interests were focused on Marxism? She never did housework, didn’t even try to start a family, and her mother was happy with any groom who would suddenly cross the threshold of their house...

Life with Lenin

Nadya first saw Vladimir Ulyanov at her workers’ school in 1894. Now biographers can only guess who struck whom then with decisiveness and categorical judgments. Vladimir Ilyich at that time was only a young provincial, who probably wanted to make acquaintance, and perhaps even marry, a resident of the capital. Historian Dmitry Volkogonov claims that young Ulyanov first “hit” Nadezhda Konstantinovna’s friend, also a workers’ school teacher, Apollinaria Yakubova. But she politely rejected his marriage proposal. Then the “groom” sent a similar proposal to Nadezhda from prison, and she accepted it.

As you know, the bride came to Shushenskoye accompanied by her mother. Elizaveta Vasilievna followed the Ulyanovs for the rest of her life, playing the role of housekeeper and domestic servant. Thirty-year-old Nadezhda Konstantinovna was unable to take care of herself and her husband, or create family comfort. After the death of their mother (1915) until their return to Russia, Lenin and Krupskaya ate in cheap canteens. “Our family life has become even more student-like,” Nadezhda Konstantinovna admitted in her memoirs. However, the wife’s helplessness in everyday life did not in any way affect the ideological union that was more important for Vladimir Ilyich. Krupskaya wrote that the main thing for them was the opportunity to “talk heart to heart about schools, about the labor movement.” And at night in Shushenskoye they dreamed of how they would participate in mass demonstrations of workers...

Initially, the marriage was supposed to be fictitious - “comrade woman” and “comrade man” supported each other in difficult situation, but the leader’s future mother-in-law insisted that the marriage be concluded without delay, and “in full Orthodox form.” The fiery revolutionaries obeyed. The wedding ceremony took place on July 10, 1898 in the Peter and Paul Church in the village of Shushenskoye. Officially, Nadezhda took her husband’s surname, but almost never used it, remaining “Comrade Krupskaya” to everyone until the end of her days.

Ilyich’s family was not happy with his wife: in their minds, she was a boring old maid. Lenin's older sister, Anna, was particularly intransigent. Most of all, Anna Ilyinichna was irritated by gossip about Krupskaya’s “tender friendship” with the exiled revolutionary Viktor Kurnatovsky, whom she met in the same Siberian exile. Found in the memoirs of Nadezhda Konstantinovna short story about how they walked together: “Kurnatovsky showed me a sugar factory not far from Shushenskoye. But the way there was not close. During the journey we walked through a forest and a field. Then it was green all around - beautiful.” Today, historians and biographers of Krupskaya, following Lenin’s “insightful” sister, tend to interpret this fleeting description surrounding nature almost like an erotic memory. However, Shushenskoye is not St. Petersburg. IN rural settlement, where everything is in plain sight, it was absolutely impossible to hide Nadenka’s “romance” with Kurnatovsky, but this did not bother the newlywed Lenin. It is worth noting here that Vladimir Ilyich, unlike his fellow revolutionaries, held rather conservative views on the family and willingly communicated with relatives. Mother's opinion and older sister it was always important to him. Only in the case of Krupskaya did Lenin clearly take her side and did not give rise to the development of a family conflict. It is known that in 1912 Nadezhda Konstantinovna visited the already terminally ill Kurnatovsky in Paris, brought newspapers and food, and talked with him for a long time. Was this just a courtesy visit? In 1912, Vladimir Ilyich perceived it this way.

Due to illness, Nadezhda Konstantinovna could not have children. The couple never publicly, even with close people, shared their pain about this. Krupskaya wanted to have a child, she even went for treatment to Ufa for this purpose, where she was finally diagnosed with infertility. Documents confirming this fact were discovered quite recently. Later, already abroad, Krupskaya fell ill with Graves' disease and had to undergo surgery. In a letter to his mother, Ulyanov reported that Nadya “was very bad - extreme fever and delirium, so I was pretty scared...”. However, the presence of children never stopped fiery revolutionaries. Even less often did it turn them away from their chosen path. Let's remember L.D. Trotsky, who left his wife and two little daughters in Siberia and rushed to make the revolution of 1905...

Lenin, as we know, never left the ugly, barren, and, moreover, sick woman. On the contrary, I was always very afraid of losing her. Most likely, no matter how cheesy it sounds, the Ulyanov family union was based on kinship of interests, on intellectual interaction and even complementing each other.

It was Nadezhda Konstantinovna who knew how to wisely and imperceptibly guide Lenin’s hand, change the course of his thoughts, pretending that she was only helping in his work. Ilyich did not tolerate objections, but Krupskaya, like any smart woman, was not in the habit of objecting. Gently, gradually, she forced people to listen to herself, so much so that her opinion could not be ignored. So loving mother imperceptibly directs the energy of a naughty child in the right direction.

One of Lenin's comrades G.I. Petrovsky recalled:

Isn't it a nice picture, more like a well-directed scene? “Darlings scold - they just amuse themselves.” No, Krupskaya was neither a “mother hen” nor a “darling”. She didn't need fame or cheap self-affirmation. Vladimir Ilyich became her Galatea, and she successfully coped with the role of Pygmalion.

In the story with Inessa, Armand Krupskaya also behaved like a wise woman: “Whatever the child amuses himself with...”. She knew that she was in no danger. Feelings are feelings, the most “armored” person is not immune from their explosion, and the bond between the two accomplices turned out to be much stronger. They said that Krupskaya suggested that Lenin divorce immediately after returning to Russia, but Vladimir Ilyich did not let his devoted girlfriend go one step away. Of course: it was good to relax with Inessa, but important work lay ahead in Russia. The inconspicuous old woman Krupskaya could calmly watch over his shoulder, talk to people, assess the situation and the mood of the masses much more soberly than the Bolshevik leader, always busy at revolutionary rallies. She was his “eyes and ears,” a faithful assistant, permanent secretary, muse, critic, part of himself. In the spring and summer of 1917, everything was at stake in Lenin’s life. Love, in this case, could wait.

No matter what they said, the couple were sincerely attached to each other. Everyone knows the memories of the cadet sentry who was on duty at the Ulyanovs’ apartment in the Kremlin. Vladimir Ilyich, like a devoted dog, learned about Nadezhda Konstantinovna’s approach long before her steps were heard on the stairs, ran to meet her, shared his thoughts on the go, and often asked her opinion or advice.

In 1919, when a lot had already been done together, Krupskaya unexpectedly left for the Urals. She asks her husband to leave her to work on her own, perhaps again hinting at a necessary divorce, but immediately receives a letter full of hysterics: “...and how could you come up with such a thing? Stay in the Urals?! Sorry, but I was shocked.".

Krupskaya is returned from the Urals almost by force. Armand soon dies. Alexandra Kollontai recalled:

Lenin needed support, and Nadezhda Konstantinovna again lent her shoulder. Her husband’s unexpected illness frightened her, but did not throw her off balance: at this stage, Lenin needed Krupskaya more than ever. She fulfilled her duty with honor and to the end.

Life without Lenin

All “post-Soviet” biographers of Krupskaya, to one degree or another, ask the question: why did Stalin hate Nadezhda Konstantinovna so much? If she were only an unhappy widow, a harmless old woman, as she looks in all the photographs of the 20s and 30s, then what danger could such a woman pose to his emerging power?

The confrontation between the emerging dictator and Nadezhda Konstantinovna, as we know, began even before the death of Vladimir Ilyich. The Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks instructed its General Secretary I.V. Stalin to monitor compliance with the regime prescribed to Lenin by doctors. Stalin took advantage of this in order to completely isolate the patient from political life, but Krupskaya understood: complete inactivity for Ilyich was tantamount to death. Thanks to Krupskaya, in 1922-23 Lenin was partly aware of what was happening in the Central Committee. During the “Georgian incident,” completely sharing her husband’s point of view on the “great-power chauvinism” of Stalin and Dzerzhinsky, Krupskaya tried to win over Trotsky, Stalin’s main political opponent, to her side. In December 1922, Lenin, with the permission of his doctors, dictated a letter to Nadezhda Konstantinovna to Trotsky regarding the monopoly of foreign trade. Having learned about this, Stalin rudely scolded Krupskaya over the phone, threatening her with proceedings at the level of the Control Commission. The content of this letter is quite innocent: Lenin expressed in it his satisfaction with the way the issue of monopoly was resolved at the Plenum and expressed his thoughts on the raising of this issue at the congress. Stalin himself fully agreed with Lenin’s position, but, firstly, the letter was addressed not to him, but to Trotsky (!), and, secondly, it meant the preservation of Lenin’s political activity, was a fact of his continued participation in the life of the party and state . All this greatly worried Stalin. Otherwise, it is hardly possible to explain the outright breakdown that the Secretary General allowed himself in relation to the wife of the sick leader. The content and intonation of this reprimand can be judged from Krupskaya’s letter to Kamenev, sent on December 23:

Lenin learned about Stalin's trick only on March 5, 1923. And he immediately dictated a note to the secretary:

Gritting his teeth, Stalin apologized, but the “quarrel” ended with a significant deterioration in Vladimir Ilyich’s health. By insulting Krupskaya, Stalin achieved more than all Lenin’s enemies combined: the head of state was completely paralyzed, he could neither move nor speak. In the "Letter to the Congress", which for a long time was usually called the political testament of the leader, Lenin wrote about rudeness Secretary General Central Committee with the wish for his resignation.

Stalin could not forgive this. Even when Lenin was sick, he tried to remove the “old woman” from the political scene, and when the leader died, Stalin entered into a fierce struggle with Krupskaya. He had no intention of sharing his power with anyone, especially with Lenin’s widow. Nadezhda Konstantinovna begged to bury her husband, but his body was turned into an embalmed mummy and put on public display. Krupskaya was offered a chair next to the coffin, on which she was supposed to spend the hours prescribed by Stalin. It seemed impossible to imagine a more sophisticated torture, but the always restrained, calm Nadezhda Konstantinovna withstood this test.

Krupskaya outlived Lenin by fifteen years. A long-standing illness tormented and exhausted her. She did not give up: she worked every day, wrote reviews, articles, gave instructions, taught how to live, but the “tandem” of like-minded people, alas, fell apart. Krupskaya theorized, but there was no one to give her thoughts a go and insist on the right to express them.

Nadezhda Konstantinovna’s natural kindness still coexisted quite peacefully with harsh revolutionary ideas. At the XIV Party Congress, Krupskaya supported the “new opposition” of G. E. Zinoviev and L. B. Kamenev in their struggle against I. V. Stalin, but subsequently recognized this position as erroneous. Scared? Hardly. Most likely, she was just tired of knocking on empty space.

Until the end of her life, Comrade Krupskaya appeared in print and remained a member of the Central Committee, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Central Executive Committee of the USSR. In 1926-1927, she spoke at plenums and quite voluntarily voted for bringing N.I. to trial. Bukharin, for the expulsion from the party of L.D. Trotsky, G.E. Zinovieva, L.B. Kameneva. Sometimes Lenin's widow interceded on behalf of the repressed, but mostly to no avail. Gradually, the woman who had never had children “slipped” exclusively to the problems of pedagogy and public education. In 1929, Krupskaya took the post of Deputy People's Commissar of Education of the RSFSR and became one of the creators of the Soviet public education system, formulating the main task of the new education: “The school should not only teach, it should be the center of communist education”. Glavpolitprosvet, headed by Krupskaya, dealt with the old system of humanitarian education back in the early 1920s. Philosophical, philological and historical faculties were abolished in universities. A special government decree introduced a mandatory scientific minimum, requiring the study of such disciplines as historical materialism, proletarian revolution, etc. The general elimination of illiteracy among the population was carried out by the new government with a purely utilitarian goal: every proletarian must independently be able to read the decrees and resolutions of the Soviet government.

When Stalin sharply turned his course towards industrialization and collectivization of the country, N.K. Krupskaya could not remain silent. She became, perhaps, the only person in the Central Committee who decided to openly oppose the inhumane methods of speeding up socialist construction.

“In the summer of 1930, before the 16th Party Congress, district party conferences were held in Moscow,” historian Roy Medvedev writes in his book “They Surrounded Stalin.” – The widow of V.I. spoke at the Bauman conference. Lenina N.K. Krupskaya criticized the methods of Stalinist collectivization, saying that this collectivization had nothing to do with Lenin’s cooperative plan. Krupskaya accused the Party Central Committee of ignorance of the mood of the peasantry and refusal to consult with the people. “There is no need to blame the local authorities,” said Nadezhda Konstantinovna, “for the mistakes that were made by the Central Committee itself.”

When Krupskaya was still making her speech, the leaders of the district committee let Kaganovich know about this, and he immediately went to the conference. Having risen to the podium after Krupskaya, Kaganovich subjected her speech to rude criticism. Rejecting her criticism on the merits, he also stated that she, as a member of the Central Committee, did not have the right to bring her critical remarks to the podium of the district party conference. “Let N.K. not think. Krupskaya,” said Kaganovich, “that if she was Lenin’s wife, then she has a monopoly on Leninism.”

These words could not help but offend Nadezhda Konstantinovna. On the other hand, if someone else had made such criticism, it is unlikely that the matter would have been limited to ordinary censure. Krupskaya was left alone: they were not expelled from the party, they were not declared an “enemy of the people,” but they began to treat her like a crazy old woman. In the 1930s, she continued to be involved in public education. Krupskaya is credited with a campaign to combat the “legacy of the tsarist regime”: the works of Dostoevsky, Krylov, La Fontaine, Merezhkovsky and other authors “harmful” for the education of youth. According to the instructions of the Glavpolitprosvet signed by Krupskaya, children's publications and fairy tales by Russian writers were confiscated from libraries and reading rooms. Either Nadezhda Konstantinovna herself was not given something in childhood, or she was trying to compensate for her failed motherhood in this way, but in one of the articles, the “all-Union grandmother” Krupskaya wrote quite seriously: “We stand against fairy tales... After all, this is mysticism”(“Selected articles and speeches.” M., 1969, p. 107). The fight against “fairy tales” prompted her in the late 1930s to launch a campaign against the works of Chukovsky, to ban some of A. Gaidar’s books, and to impose too stringent demands on children’s literature, which should not entertain, but educate fighters. Numerous works of Nadezhda Konstantinovna on pedagogy today have only historical meaning for those who are interested in the views of the Bolsheviks on the problem of raising children. The true significance of Krupskaya lies in the works of Lenin, her idol and comrade-in-arms.

In 1938, writer Marietta Shaginyan approached Krupskaya about reviewing and supporting her novel about Lenin, Ticket to History. Nadezhda Konstantinovna responded to her with a detailed letter, which caused Stalin’s terrible indignation. A scandal broke out and became the subject of discussion by the Party Central Committee.

“To condemn the behavior of Krupskaya, who, having received the manuscript of Shaginyan’s novel, not only did not prevent the birth of the novel, but, on the contrary, encouraged Shaginyan in every possible way, gave positive reviews about the manuscript and advised Shaginyan on various aspects of the life of the Ulyanovs and thereby bore full responsibility for this book. Consider Krupskaya’s behavior all the more unacceptable and tactless because Comrade Krupskaya did all this without the knowledge and consent of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, thereby turning the all-party matter of compiling works about Lenin into a private and family matter and acting as a monopolist and interpreter of public and personal life and work of Lenin and his family, which the Central Committee never gave anyone the right to do..."

The document is, of course, absurd. But on the other hand, wasn’t it Nadezhda Konstantinovna herself who once launched the flywheel of this machine, giving it to the party authorities? preemptive right on mental activity? The ideal in its implementation turned out to be much more absurd than she could have imagined...

Krupskaya left life suddenly. Almost all modern biographers and historians point to some mystery associated with the death of an already middle-aged and sickly woman. In our opinion, the biggest mystery is what she was going to talk about at the 18th Party Congress. She shared her decision to speak to the delegates with many of her colleagues. It is possible that the speech could have been directed against Stalin, but no drafts or theses of the alleged speech were found in Krupskaya’s papers. On Sunday, February 24, 1939, friends came to Nadezhda Konstantinovna to celebrate her approaching seventieth birthday. There were two days left before her birthday, but Krupskaya did not want to spend a regular working day receiving congratulations. The table was modest - dumplings, jelly. Krupskaya drank several sips of champagne, was cheerful and chatted animatedly with friends. In the evening I felt very bad. They called a doctor, but for some reason he arrived three and a half hours later. The diagnosis was made immediately: “acute appendicitis-peritonitis-thrombosis.” An urgent operation was needed, but it was not performed. Obviously, the Kremlin doctors understood that anesthesia would simply kill the elderly woman, and they would be blamed for her death. There was already a precedent: in 1925, M.V. died under anesthesia. Frunze, and in 1926 B. Pilnyak wrote his “The Tale of the Unextinguished Moon.” In 1939, Stalin would hardly have limited himself to the story...

She met Vladimir Ulyanov thanks to her friend Apollinaria Yakubova, who brought Nadya to a Marxist gathering, organized under the plausible pretext of pancakes.

“Before his marriage in July 1898 in Shushenskoye to Nadezhda Krupskaya, only one noticeable “courtship” of Vladimir Ulyanov is known,” says historian Dmitry Volkogonov. “He was seriously attracted to Krupskaya’s friend, Apollinaria Yakubova, also a socialist and teacher.

Ulyanov, no longer very young (he was then over twenty-six), wooed Yakubova, but was met with a polite but firm refusal. Judging by a number of indirect signs, the unsuccessful matchmaking did not become a noticeable drama for the future leader of the Russian Jacobins..."

Vladimir Ilyich immediately impressed Nadezhda with his leadership abilities. The girl tried to interest the future leader - firstly, with Marxist conversations, which Ulyanov adored, and secondly, with her mother’s cooking. Elizaveta Vasilievna, seeing him at home, was happy. She considered her daughter unattractive and did not predict happiness for her in her personal life. One can imagine how happy she was for her Nadenka when she saw a pleasant person in her house. young man from a good family!

On the other hand, having become Ulyanov’s bride, Nadya did not cause much delight among his family: they found that she had a very “herring look.” This statement meant, first of all, that Krupskaya’s eyes were bulging, like a fish’s - one of the signs of Graves’ disease discovered later, because of which, it is assumed, Nadezhda Konstantinovna could not have children. Vladimir Ulyanov himself treated Nadyusha’s “herring” with humor, assigning the bride the appropriate party nicknames: Fish and Lamprey.

Already in prison, he invited Nadenka to become his wife. “Well, a wife is a wife,” she replied.

Having been exiled to Ufa for three years for her revolutionary activities, Nadya decided that serving her exile with Ulyanov would be more fun. Therefore, she asked to be sent to Shushenskoye, Minusinsk district, where the groom was already located, and, having obtained permission from the police officials, she and her mother followed her chosen one.

The first thing that the future mother-in-law said to Lenin when they met was: “How you were blown away!” In Shushenskoye, Ilyich ate well and led a healthy lifestyle: he hunted regularly, ate his favorite sour cream and other peasant delicacies. The future leader lived in the hut of the peasant Zyryanov, but after the arrival of his bride he began to look for another place to live - with a room for his mother-in-law.

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Arriving in Shushenskoye, Elizaveta Vasilievna insisted that the marriage be concluded without delay, and “in full Orthodox form.” Ulyanov, who was already twenty-eight, and Krupskaya, one year older than him, obeyed. A long red tape began to obtain a marriage license: without this, Nadya and her mother could not live with Ilyich. But permission for a wedding was not given without a residence permit, which, in turn, was impossible without marriage... Lenin sent complaints to Minusinsk and Krasnoyarsk about the arbitrariness of the authorities, and finally, by the summer of 1898, Krupskaya was allowed to become his wife. The wedding took place in the Peter and Paul Church, the bride wore a white blouse and a black skirt, and the groom wore an ordinary, very shabby brown suit. Lenin made his next suit only in Europe...

Many exiles from the surrounding villages had fun at the wedding, and they sang so loudly that the owners of the hut came in to ask them to calm down...

“We were newlyweds,” Nadezhda Konstantinovna recalled about life in Shushenskoye, “and this brightened up the exile. The fact that I don’t write about this in my memoirs does not mean at all that there was no poetry or young passion in our lives...”

Ilyich turned out to be a caring husband. In the very first days after the wedding, he hired a fifteen-year-old girl-assistant for Nadya: Krupskaya never learned how to operate a Russian stove and grip. And the culinary skills of the young wife even took away the appetite of close people. When Elizaveta Vasilievna died in 1915, the couple had to eat in cheap canteens until their return to Russia. Nadezhda Konstantinovna admitted: after the death of her mother, “our family life became even more student-like.”

“The couple never shared their pain with anyone: the childlessness of Nadezhda Konstantinovna, who suffered from Graves’ disease and, as Vladimir Ilyich himself writes, not only that. In a letter to his mother, the loving son says: “Nadya must be lying down: the doctor found (as she wrote a week ago) that her illness (female) requires persistent treatment, that she must lie down for 2-6 weeks. I sent her more money (I received 100 rubles from Vodovozova), because treatment will require considerable expenses...” (D. Volkogonov).

Some of Lenin's entourage hinted that Vladimir Ilyich often gets abused by his wife. G.I. Petrovsky, one of his associates, recalled: “I had to observe how Nadezhda Konstantinovna, during a discussion on various issues, did not agree with the opinion of Vladimir Ilyich. It was very interesting. It was very difficult to object to Vladimir Ilyich, since everything was thought out and logical for him. But Nadezhda Konstantinovna noticed “errors” in his speech, excessive enthusiasm for something... When Nadezhda Konstantinovna made her comments, Vladimir Ilyich chuckled and scratched the back of his head. His whole appearance said that sometimes he gets it too.”

There is also a story that one day Krupskaya, who knew about her husband’s love for Inessa Armand, invited him to break up so that he could arrange his own personal happiness. But Vladimir Ilyich chose to stay with his wife. It was rumored that Ilyich’s friend, the exiled Kurnatovsky, was secretly in love with Nadezhda Konstantinovna. He very often went to the Ulyanovs, supposedly to talk about Marxism... Be that as it may, the revolutionaries, who linked their destinies, lived a long life together and were inseparable until the death of Vladimir Ilyich. Lenin showed deterioration in health and pronounced signs of illness in early spring 1922. All symptoms pointed to ordinary mental fatigue: severe headaches, weakened memory, insomnia, irritability, increased sensitivity to noise. However, doctors disagreed on the diagnosis. The German professor Klemperer considered the main cause of headaches to be poisoning of the body with lead bullets, which were not removed from the leader’s body after being wounded in 1918. In April 1922, he underwent surgery under local anesthesia and one of the bullets in the neck was finally removed. But Ilyich’s health did not improve. Professor Darshkevich, who diagnosed overwork, prescribed him rest. But bad feelings did not leave Lenin, and he made a terrible promise from Stalin: to give him potassium cyanide in the event that he suddenly suffered a stroke. Vladimir Ilyich feared paralysis, which doomed him to complete, humiliating helplessness, more than anything else.

He spent that spring in Gorki. On the night of May 25, as usual, I could not fall asleep for a long time. And then, as luck would have it, a nightingale sang under the windows. Lenin went out into the garden, picked up pebbles and began throwing them at the nightingale, and suddenly noticed that his right hand was hard to obey...

By morning he was already very ill. Speech and memory suffered: Ilyich at times did not understand what was being said to him, and could not find words to express his thoughts.

On May 30, Ilyich called Stalin to Gorki and reminded him of this promise. He seemingly agreed, and on the way to the car he told everything to the leader’s sister Maria Ilyinichna. Together, they persuaded Lenin to wait to commit suicide, convincing him that the doctors had not lost hope for his full recovery. He believed.

“We’ll see what kind of wife you are to him,” Joseph Vissarionovich Krupskoy hinted more than once. And one day Nadezhda Konstantinovna, an extremely reserved woman, lost her temper: she became hysterical and cried. This, according to one version, allegedly finished off the barely alive Ilyich.

In the first ten days of March of the following year, Ilyich had already lost his speech forever, although until the end of his days he understood everything that was happening to him. From the notes of the doctor on duty: “On March 9, he looked at Krupskaya and told her: “We need to call my wife...”

These days, Nadezhda Konstantinovna, apparently, nevertheless made an attempt to stop her husband’s suffering. From Stalin’s secret note dated March 17, members of the Politburo know that she “arch-conspiratorially” asked to give Lenin poison, saying that she tried to do it herself, but she did not have enough strength. Stalin again promised to “show humanism” and again did not keep his word... However, Vladimir Ilyich’s days were already numbered.

Nadezhda Konstantinovna outlived her husband by fifteen years, full of squabbles and intrigues. When the leader of the world proletariat died, Stalin entered into a fierce struggle with his widow, not intending to share power with anyone. Nadezhda Konstantinovna begged to bury her husband, but instead his body was turned into a mummy...

“In the summer of 1930, before the 16th Party Congress, district party conferences were held in Moscow,” historian Roy Medvedev writes in his book “They Surrounded Stalin.” – At the Bauman Conference, V.I. Lenin’s widow, N.K. Krupskaya, spoke and criticized the methods of Stalinist collectivization, saying that this collectivization had nothing to do with Lenin’s cooperative plan. Krupskaya accused the Party Central Committee of ignorance of the mood of the peasantry and refusal to consult with the people. “There is no need to blame the local authorities,” said Nadezhda Konstantinovna, “for the mistakes that were made by the Central Committee itself.”

When Krupskaya was still making her speech, the leaders of the district committee let Kaganovich know about this, and he immediately went to the conference. Having risen to the podium after Krupskaya, Kaganovich subjected her speech to rude criticism. Rejecting her criticism on the merits, he also stated that she, as a member of the Central Committee, did not have the right to bring her critical remarks to the podium of the district party conference. “Let N.K. Krupskaya not think,” said Kaganovich, “that if she was Lenin’s wife, then she has a monopoly on Leninism.”

Her death was mysterious. It came on the eve of the XVIII Party Congress, at which Nadezhda Konstantinovna was going to speak. On the afternoon of February 24, 1939, friends visited her in Arkhangelskoye to celebrate her hostess’s approaching seventieth birthday. The table was set, Nadezhda Konstantinovna seemed very animated... In the evening she suddenly felt ill. They called a doctor, but for some reason he arrived after more than three hours. The diagnosis was made immediately: “acute appendicitis-peritonitis-thrombosis.” For some reason the necessary urgent operation was not performed. Three days later, Krupskaya died in terrible agony at the age of seventy.

I heard that Krupskaya is scary and childless, and Armand is beautiful and mother of many children. That Lenin didn’t like the first one because she was scary, but he adored the second one because she was beautiful. And for some reason I wanted to look at these two women - the beauty and the beast...
I started digging on the Internet looking for 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’s how, for example) and a photo of the old Krupskaya... Well, like this:

But wait a minute... The first photo is from the 1890s... Inessa is 16-18 years old in it... 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. These two people had never met before. The year Lenin met Armand youngest son Inessa Andrey is already 5 years old. That is, Lenin never saw Inessa the way she is in the photo above... When they met, she was 35 years old and looked something like this (photo from 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 suffering from Graves' disease. This disease overtook Nadezhda Konstantinovna in adulthood. With Graves' disease, the thyroid gland enlarges, 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 a consequence 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, which she caught a cold during her imprisonment, and which constantly hurt her...
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 from the 1890s, when the first photo of Armand was taken:

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

Here they are with the same hairstyles:

Yes, Krupskaya is not dressed as smartly as Armand, yes, her hair is not styled as beautifully and there is not a trace of makeup on her face. They had different life And different level prosperity during that period. Armand was born in France, in Paris. Her father was a famous opera singer. My mother, an actress-comedian (of English-French origin, but 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 developed differently again.
At a very young age, Inessa married Alexander Armand, the son of the merchant of the first guild E. I. Armand, the largest Russian textile industrialist. The Armand family was truly rich. The source of the Armands' wealth were textile factories, forest lands, apartment buildings and much more...
After the death of the only breadwinner, the Krupsky family found itself on the brink of poverty. Nadezhda’s father was considered “unreliable” due to his connection with the populists, so the family received a small pension for him. Nadya did not get married early like Inessa. She began to study. First, in the private gymnasium of Princess Obolenskaya. Having received a diploma as a "home tutor", Nadezhda immediately began working at the gymnasium, preparing students for exams. Then she studied at the Bestuzhev courses: for its 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 make her friends jealous? At the beginning of her life, she had no money for this...” Ariadna Tyrkova writes that in those years Krupskaya was pretty: “Nadia had white, thin skin, and the blush that spread from her cheeks to her ears, to her chin, to her forehead was soft pink”...
And then... Inessa lived with her husband for 9 years and gave birth to four children - 2 daughters and 2 sons. And... 30-year-old Inessa left her husband for his younger 18-year-old brother Vladimir, with 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. At the beginning of 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 better that I would die on the spot than go into your room, and when for some reason you entered N.K.’s room (to Nadezhda Krupskaya), I immediately became lost and 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 has been attached to men since her youth?... For some reason it seemed so to me...
And further. Krupskaya went through both prison and exile. During her long imprisonment, she received inflammation of the ovaries, which later prevented her from having children. They tried to imprison Armand too. Twice. Each time, her men pulled her out of there. From exile in the north of Russia in Mezen, Armand traveled to Switzerland using a false passport with the help of the Socialist Revolutionaries, to whom her young partner Vladimir Armand belonged. In 1912, she was arrested again for underground work, but thanks to her ex-husband, brother her partner, with whom he had 4 children, was released on bail...
Well, a question about children. Whenever they talk about Krupskaya and Armand, they emphasize that Krupskaya was childless, and Armand had 5 children. So the children were raised 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 accelerated his (Lenin's) illness, which became fatal..." Vladimir Ilyich Lenin outlived Inessa Armand by only three years...
When Lenin died, Krupskaya turned to the government with a request to bury his remains along with the ashes of Inessa Armand. Stalin rejected this proposal...
Krupskaya maintained a close relationship 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 famous scientist in the field of thermal engineering. Guard captain Andrei Aleksandrovich Armand died in 1944. He was buried in the Lithuanian city of Marijampole, he had no children...

Graves' disease is characterized by increased activity of the thyroid gland, as well as numerous changes that occur in all systems of the human body. This type of disease manifests itself between the ages of thirty and forty, most often affecting people who have had any defects of the thyroid gland at the genetic level.

Among all diseases associated with the endocrine system, Graves' disease ranks second. It is also worth noting that this type of disease most often affects the fairer sex.

Perhaps the most famous person The person who suffered from this disease was Nadezhda Krupskaya; if you look at her photographs, you can clearly see the main signs of the disease. However, before her illness, Krupskaya was quite a pretty woman, but with age, her face began to appear characteristic features indicating illness.

Graves' disease is an autoimmune disease caused by a malfunction of the immune system. The main reasons for its occurrence are considered to be genetic predisposition and the long course of various infectious diseases. Due to constant colds, which Krupskaya suffered a lot in her youth due to the fact that there were no antibiotics at that time, she fell ill. The infection lurking in the body of young Nadezhda Krupskaya, which was impossible to get rid of without proper treatment, became her time bomb.

In addition, uncontrolled and long-term use of certain medicines, which contain iodine, as well as constant stressful situations may well become the cause of the development of Graves' disease. Also at risk are people who suffer from diabetes, hypoparathyroidism and vitiligo. Despite the fact that there are many reasons indicating the development of the disease, it is still poorly understood.

Most often, the disease begins its development unnoticed without any pronounced symptoms. Most people initially begin to worry about mood swings, bad dream, excessive sweating, as well as attacks of rapid heartbeat. In addition, patients often complain of weight loss, darkening of the skin and swelling.

The most obvious example is Krupskaya, who suffered from the disease almost all her life, but fought desperately against it. Impaired thyroid function affects the functioning of all other organs and systems, resulting in symptoms such as:

There is a change in the organs of vision that is noticeable even to the naked eye. In addition, there is a disruption in the blood supply to the eyeball, which very often leads to nerve damage, which ultimately reduces visual acuity and blindness occurs;
From the cardiovascular system, there is a disturbance in the heart rhythm, attacks of pain in the heart area occur, and blood pressure levels also increase;
From the central side nervous system there are complaints of frequent migraines, dizziness, poor sleep and anxiety;
From the digestive system, there is a disruption of the normal functioning of the liver, as well as diarrhea and nausea, and in rare cases, vomiting occurs;
On the part of metabolic processes, there is a high probability of development diabetes mellitus and carbohydrate metabolism disorders;
On the part of the endocrine system, there is a disruption in the functioning of the gonads, which in the stronger sex manifests itself in the form of impotence, and the fair half of the population has problems with conception.

It is also known that Graves' disease has several degrees of development. The mild degree proceeds unnoticed and does not have pronounced symptoms, the second is characterized by an increase in blood pressure. When a severe degree occurs, numerous damage occurs to all systems and organs of the human body.

Regarding diagnostic measures, we can say that they do not cause any particular difficulties. Recognition of the disease is possible due to characteristic symptoms, and to confirm the diagnosis, an ultrasound examination is prescribed. To determine the concentration of hormones, it is necessary to take a blood test.

Necessary treatment

Krupskaya was never able to recover from her illness, even though she was treated by the best doctors of that time. It is also known that, on the recommendations of her husband, Krupskaya was treated abroad, however, this did not produce any results. It is also worth noting that in the mild stage, treatment started on time can last a long time. But in the severe stage, the mortality rate among all patients reaches thirty percent.

Most often, the disease is benign, although patients complain of a decline in performance as a result of insufficient blood circulation. It was precisely these ailments that interfered with work that Krupskaya complained about, but she found strength in herself and fought against her illness.

Choice effective methodology Treatment depends on several factors that the specialist relies on, this includes the age of the patients and the initial causes of Graves' disease. The choice of method may also be influenced by the desire of the fairer sex to have children in the future.

Only after a thorough examination can a specialist make a diagnosis of Graves' disease. Treatment involves several methods:

Drug treatment is the main method used in modern medicine. In order to suppress the basic functions of the thyroid gland, high doses of cyrostatics are used. Despite the fact that pronounced symptoms begin to disappear within two months after the start of therapy, it is impossible to stop taking it. Treatment can usually last from six months to two years. To prevent the occurrence side effects most patients are also prescribed Inderal along with the main course of treatment;
Surgical treatment, which means complete removal of the thyroid gland. As a rule, specialists resort to this method only in the most extreme cases if medications do not produce a positive effect. It is worth noting that surgical intervention does not eliminate the underlying cause of the disease;
Another commonly used technique is the use of radioactive iodine. According to the method, iodine is taken once and is considered preferable for those who no longer plan to have children in the future.

If, when the disease is detected, a woman is in interesting position, then in order to minimize the risk of the embryo developing insufficient levels of thyroid hormones, minimal dosages of medications are prescribed. As a result of such treatment, after the birth of the baby, a significant deterioration in the condition occurs, and young women should be under the close supervision of qualified specialists.

Preventive measures

After treatment, doctors strongly recommend changing your usual lifestyle, which helps to avoid recurrence of the disease. It is necessary to maintain personal hygiene, avoid stress, as well as physical and emotional tension. It will be no less useful to adhere to a certain diet, which should consist mainly of carbohydrates. Such nutrition helps restore impaired liver and muscle functions, and will also help strengthen skeletal muscles.

The daily diet of patients should consist of food products that contain a large number of vitamins You can find out which foods are beneficial from a qualified nutritionist, who can also help you plan your diet.

In order to exclude the development of the disease, it is necessary to constantly visit a specialist in order to undergo a thyroid examination, as well as to promptly cure infectious diseases. Under no circumstances should you self-medicate Graves' disease, since improper treatment can lead to death; it is best to trust experienced specialists.

Let us remember, dear subscribers, the women whose fate turned out to be closely connected with a name known to all mankind - the name of Lenin. This name still excites humanity: some consider him a saint, others consider him a devil. Therefore, of course, it is interesting what the women the leader of the world proletariat loved were like, what his intimate life was like.
Two names remained in history: Nadezhda Krupskaya and Inessa Armand. Both are fighting friends. The first was a wife, the second was a lover.
First meeting.
The meeting between Nadezhda Krupskaya and Vladimir Ulyanov took place in St. Petersburg in 1893.

Social and political activities in a local illegal party group, where Nadezhda Krupskaya was already one of the active participants, brought young people closer together. Five years later in exile, in Shushenskoye, they got married. Inessa Armand and Vladimir Ulyanov first met in 1909 in

Paris. Inessa was delighted with him. The childless marriage of Lenin and Krupskaya was already 11 years old. Inessa was 31 years old, she outlived two husbands and had five children.
Krupskaya and Armand were the absolute opposite of each other. There was only one thing in common - a passionate desire to participate in the revolutionary movement.
Character.
Nadezhda Konstantinovna’s character was balanced and flexible. Cold, unemotional, modest, she was always ready to help her husband in party affairs and did all the dirty work. Contemporaries rightly noted the high level of her intelligence, education and tenacity. A wonderful personal secretary-assistant, they would say now.
Inessa, on the contrary, was distinguished by her impetuosity of character and increased emotionality. Her whole life is proof of this. Inessa Armand was the daughter of French actors. At the age of fifteen, together with her sister, she came to Russia to visit her aunt, who gave music lessons and French V rich family Armand. The head of the family, Evgeny Evgenievich Armand, was a very rich man: the owner of forests, estates, apartment buildings in Moscow, factories in Pushkino. Evgeny Evgenievich had two sons: Alexander and Vladimir. Pretty Inessa soon married Alexander. Temperamental The Frenchwoman gave birth to four children. And then an affair began with her own brother-in-law, Vladimir. They fell passionately in love with each other. Inessa leaves Alexander Armand and settles with her new husband Vladimir and her four (!) children. Soon they had another child - son Vladimir. The fate of Vladimir Sr. was tragic: carried away by Inessa’s revolutionary impulse, he was constantly in exile, in prison, or in exile. Health was undermined. Vladimir is dying. Inessa moved to Paris, where she wanted to “get closer to the French socialist party" Isn't it true, a stormy biography?
Conformity of views.
Nadezhda Konstantinovna agreed with her husband in everything. Inessa entered into discussions with Lenin on many issues, in which she demonstrated her more radical views, especially on the issue of free love. Inessa said that physical attraction often not associated with heartfelt love.
Appearance.
N.K. Krupskaya, to put it mildly, was far from beautiful. The fact is that she was seriously tormented by the so-called Graves' disease. Signs of the disease: bulging eyes, increased excitability, palpitations, sweating. Moreover, N.K. Krupskaya developed this disease in a very severe form; she had to undergo several operations. The party nicknames that Krupskaya’s comrades in struggle awarded are more than eloquent: “Lamprey”, “Fish” (!), etc.
From a response to a letter sent to the editor of a youth newspaper:
“Dear Katya, you should not despair. Nadezhda Konstantinovna was such a wrangler, but what a guy she grabbed!”
Inessa Armand was a recognized beauty. Deep expressive eyes, luxurious hair, chiseled figure, pleasant voice, good manners. She enjoyed unconditional success with men. Ilyich could not resist either.
Thrift.
Krupskaya did not know how and did not like to lead household. She didn’t cook well, her husband was flexible: “I ate everything they gave me quite obediently.” Krupskaya called cooking “mura.” The attitude towards comfort was very cool. When she and Lenin lived abroad, Nadezhda Konstantinovna described her home this way: “Our room was clean, lit with electricity..., but we had to clean it ourselves, and clean our boots ourselves.”
According to the memoirs of contemporaries, Inessa Armand was a very good housewife. Being married to Alexander, and later to Vladimir Armand, she was able to organize a cozy home. How else can one explain that both siblings were crazy about her?
Sexuality.
Why did the leader and his wife never have children? Krupskaya herself writes that she was pestered by some “ women's disease”, requiring “persistent treatment”. Apparently infertility Nadezhda Konstantinovna really suffered. Otherwise, how to explain the lack of heirs? The Ulyanov spouses did not have a lack of time for sex: what else could they do during the long evenings and nights in exile in the Krasnoyarsk Territory (in the famous village of Shushenskoye)? It remains a mystery whether sex brought pleasure to the Ulyanov spouses. The conclusion suggests itself that the marriage of Lenin and Krupskaya was rather an alliance of comrades in the struggle.

Meanwhile, the temperamental Inessa gave birth to five children and was married several times! There is no doubt about her sex appeal. One can only wonder how, with so many children, she actively participated in the revolutionary movement. Inessa eagerly took on any task. And Lenin was most likely attracted by her sexuality, her temperament, which, in all likelihood, was very similar between them. Inessa certainly did not suffer from infertility.
Love story.
At the end of December 1909, Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Lenin) and Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaya moved to Paris. Krupskaya wrote that “...the most difficult years of emigration had to be spent in Paris.” They were mentally difficult: it was here that Lenin and Armand met for the first time . It was clear from everything that the leader of the Bolsheviks liked Inessa not only as a party comrade, but, above all, as a charming woman.
Of course, the smart Krupskaya saw that her husband was imbued with “Comrade Inessa” with far from friendly feelings. Alexander Kollontai wrote about this. It turns out that Krupskaya knew about the mutual sympathy of her husband and Inessa Armand, and repeatedly tried to leave.
Writer Michael Pearson considers it undeniable that Armand and Lenin had more than a friendly relationship. It turns out that Inessa was the only woman besides Krupskaya , in addressing which Lenin used the intimate “you”.
Inessa Armand was the third side of the triangle. But we must give credit to both. Krupskaya did not make scandals, and Armand treated her in a friendly manner. Inessa followed the Ulyanov couple everywhere.
And yet the relationship had to be resolved somehow. Krupskaya delivered an ultimatum: either she or Inessa. And Lenin chose Krupskaya! Nadezhda Konstantinovna was a comfortable and faithful wife.
The archives contain letters that Armand wrote to Lenin, begging him to return: “No one will be worse off if the three of us (meaning Krupskaya) are together again.” In response, Lenin first asked her to forward all her correspondence, and then... returned to Inessa again! Outwardly, it looked like this: Armand Ilyich placed the Women’s Department of the Party Central Committee under the leadership.
Anyone who has experienced a feeling of love understands that such an act could be committed by a person who was unconditionally loving. The power of the flesh takes its toll. You should always keep your woman with you! Krupskaya was shocked! She constantly encountered her husband's lover. But Nadezhda Konstantinovna, as always, turned out to be wise, far-sighted and unperturbed: she undertook a series of voyages away from Moscow and Petrograd - to the Volga region. And she turned out to be right - time has done its indestructible work.
Lenin no longer belonged to himself, he belonged to the great cause of the revolution. Meetings with Armand became rare. True, Vladimir Ilyich wrote notes to Armand quite often, inquired about the health of her and her children, sent food, bought her galoshes, and sent his personal doctor to the Arbat to treat the sick Inessa.
Letters.
About intimateexperiences The letters of lovers speak eloquently.
Armand to Lenin from Paris to Krakow: “...We parted, we parted, dear, you and I! And it hurts so much. I know, I feel, you will never come here! Looking at familiar places, I was clearly aware, as never before, of what great place You occupied such a place in my life that almost all activities here in Paris were connected by a thousand threads with the thought of you. I wasn’t in love with you at all then, but even then I loved you very much. Even now I would do without kisses, and just to see you, sometimes talking to you would be a joy - and it could not hurt anyone<…>. I've gotten a little used to you. I loved not only listening, but also looking at you when you spoke. Firstly, your face comes to life, and, secondly, it was convenient to watch, because you didn’t notice it at the time... I kiss you deeply. Yours, Armand." Few people wrote Lenin as many letters as Inessa. Sometimes these were multi-page messages.

Than the heart calmed down.
As you know, Krupskaya outlived her husband by 15 years and died of her own death at the age of 70. Even by our standards, a very respectable age.
Armand died in 1920. On the advice of the same Lenin, she went south, “to Sergo in the Caucasus.” A month later a telegram arrived: “Out of line. Moscow. Central Committee of the RCP. Council of People's Commissars. Lenin. It was not possible to save my comrade Inessa Armand, who fell ill with cholera, period Ended on September 24, period We will transfer the body to Moscow Nazarov.”
Lenin was deeply shocked. According to the memoirs of Alexandra Kollontai: “we walked behind her coffin, Lenin was impossible to recognize. He walked with eyes closed and it seemed like it was about to fall.” Kollontai believed that the death of Inessa Armand accelerated the death of Lenin: he, loving Inessa, could not survive her departure.
Lenin's last wish was to bring Inessa Armand's children from France. And Krupskaya did it. But they were not allowed to see the sick Lenin.
In February 1924, Krupskaya proposed burying the remains of her husband together with the ashes of Inessa Armand. This was a posthumous declaration of their love. But Stalin rejected the offer.
This, my friends, is how this love triangle was resolved. And if Lenin had chosen not the cold Krupskaya, but the sexy Armand, would he have given birth to children? Maybe history would have turned out differently. As a rule, people who have and love children care about their future, so they reject bloodshed!