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Authors: Christopher Read
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‘ruthless cruelty’ of small landowners typical of Siberia whose labourers worked ‘as if in servitude, only snatching a little rest at holiday time’. [Krupskaya 34]
Krupskaya also describes a practice of Lenin’s which brought broad contact with local problems. On Sundays he set up a juridical consultation to advise peasants of their rights and, as was the way in the Russian countryside, also to deal with personal and informal problems. According to Krupskaya he began to have an impact. ‘It was often sufficient for the offended person to threaten to complain to Ulyanov and the offender would desist.’ Of course, Lenin was not authorized to conduct such consultations ‘but these were liberal times in Minusinsk’. Apparently their assessor was more concerned to sell the middle-class couple some of his veal than to control their activities. [Krupskaya 35]
‘Liberal times’ also meant that, occasionally, journeys could be made, on some, often devious, pretext or other, which would bring them into contact with other exiles. Once permission was granted for them to make a trip to see the unusual geographical formations of an area which just happened to contain other exiles. Another time they met up with other exiles to pass a resolution on a growing debate in social democracy. They might also go to the funerals of comrades who died in exile. Krupskaya mentions a particularly large New Year (1899) gathering in the town of Minusinsk at which a premature escape by a social-democratic exile provoked a ‘scandal’ with other, mainly older, Narodnaya Volya exiles who had not had time to conceal things before the inevitable police searches which followed such an event. It is less surprising that Lenin and the social-democratic exiles broke with the elderly populists over this ‘scandal’ than the spirit of sympathy in which it was done. ‘These old men have got bad nerves,’ Lenin said. ‘Just look at what they’ve been through, the penal sentences they have undergone.’ In Krupskaya’s words, ‘We made the break because a break was necessary. But we did it without malice, indeed with regret.’ [Krupskaya 41–2] Once again, Lenin’s latent respect for the older generation of revolutionaries was in evidence.
Altogether, Krupskaya’s comment that ‘Generally speaking, exile did not pass so badly. Those were years of serious study’ [Krupskaya 42] was entirely appropriate. In no area was that more true than that of Lenin’s health. Throughout his life Lenin had a tendency, which we have already observed, to work himself into a nervous frenzy which would bring on illness at critical moments. Being remote meant Lenin had to face fewer crises and less excitement. As a result his health was better than ever, despite temperatures as low, on occasions, as – 40 °C. The initial detention in prison had put a strain on him, pointed out by his mother-inlaw in terms familiar to many sons-in-law. ‘My mother,’ wrote Krupskaya, ‘told me he had even got fatter in prison and was a terrible weight.’ [Krupskaya 30] However, on meeting him in Shushenskoe, Krupskaya noted that ‘Il’ich looked much fitter and fairly vibrated with health.’ [Krupskaya 33] Only when the time was approaching for Lenin to leave Shushenskoe and return to the hurly-burly of political conflict did his anxieties return. ‘Vladimir Il’ich began to spend sleepless nights. He became terribly thin.’ [Krupskaya 43]
In these later years he also had less time for ‘distractions’. At one time he had asked for a chess set to be sent out to him because there were a number of players in the area. He even played by correspondence, but, like hunting, once he returned to Russia proper he gave it up because he had no time for it. Similarly, he gave up skating as a boy because ‘it tired me so that I always wanted to go to sleep afterwards. This hindered my studies. So I gave up skating.’ He even abandoned his interest in Latin because ‘it
Krupskaya also describes a practice of Lenin’s which brought broad contact with local problems. On Sundays he set up a juridical consultation to advise peasants of their rights and, as was the way in the Russian countryside, also to deal with personal and informal problems. According to Krupskaya he began to have an impact. ‘It was often sufficient for the offended person to threaten to complain to Ulyanov and the offender would desist.’ Of course, Lenin was not authorized to conduct such consultations ‘but these were liberal times in Minusinsk’. Apparently their assessor was more concerned to sell the middle-class couple some of his veal than to control their activities. [Krupskaya 35]
‘Liberal times’ also meant that, occasionally, journeys could be made, on some, often devious, pretext or other, which would bring them into contact with other exiles. Once permission was granted for them to make a trip to see the unusual geographical formations of an area which just happened to contain other exiles. Another time they met up with other exiles to pass a resolution on a growing debate in social democracy. They might also go to the funerals of comrades who died in exile. Krupskaya mentions a particularly large New Year (1899) gathering in the town of Minusinsk at which a premature escape by a social-democratic exile provoked a ‘scandal’ with other, mainly older, Narodnaya Volya exiles who had not had time to conceal things before the inevitable police searches which followed such an event. It is less surprising that Lenin and the social-democratic exiles broke with the elderly populists over this ‘scandal’ than the spirit of sympathy in which it was done. ‘These old men have got bad nerves,’ Lenin said. ‘Just look at what they’ve been through, the penal sentences they have undergone.’ In Krupskaya’s words, ‘We made the break because a break was necessary. But we did it without malice, indeed with regret.’ [Krupskaya 41–2] Once again, Lenin’s latent respect for the older generation of revolutionaries was in evidence.
Altogether, Krupskaya’s comment that ‘Generally speaking, exile did not pass so badly. Those were years of serious study’ [Krupskaya 42] was entirely appropriate. In no area was that more true than that of Lenin’s health. Throughout his life Lenin had a tendency, which we have already observed, to work himself into a nervous frenzy which would bring on illness at critical moments. Being remote meant Lenin had to face fewer crises and less excitement. As a result his health was better than ever, despite temperatures as low, on occasions, as – 40 °C. The initial detention in prison had put a strain on him, pointed out by his mother-inlaw in terms familiar to many sons-in-law. ‘My mother,’ wrote Krupskaya, ‘told me he had even got fatter in prison and was a terrible weight.’ [Krupskaya 30] However, on meeting him in Shushenskoe, Krupskaya noted that ‘Il’ich looked much fitter and fairly vibrated with health.’ [Krupskaya 33] Only when the time was approaching for Lenin to leave Shushenskoe and return to the hurly-burly of political conflict did his anxieties return. ‘Vladimir Il’ich began to spend sleepless nights. He became terribly thin.’ [Krupskaya 43]
In these later years he also had less time for ‘distractions’. At one time he had asked for a chess set to be sent out to him because there were a number of players in the area. He even played by correspondence, but, like hunting, once he returned to Russia proper he gave it up because he had no time for it. Similarly, he gave up skating as a boy because ‘it tired me so that I always wanted to go to sleep afterwards. This hindered my studies. So I gave up skating.’ He even abandoned his interest in Latin because ‘it
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