Forgotten Lives: The Role of Lenin's Sisters in the Russian Revolution, 1864-1937

270 Pages·2007·4.737 MB·English

by  K. Turton

Forgotten Lives

Forgotten Lives
The Role of Lenin's Sisters in the Russian
Revolution, 1864-1937
Katy Turton
pa Ig rave
macmillan
© Katy Turton 2007
AU rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this
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of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.
First published 2007 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
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175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010
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PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave
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ISBN 13:978-0-230-00762-8 hardback
ISBN 10: 0-230-00762-7 hardback
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A catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
10 987654321
16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
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Contents
List of Illustrations vii
Acknowledgements viii
System of Transliteration and Clarification of Dates ix
Introduction 1
On sources 6
Chapter 1 Childhood and Education 10
The learning curve 16
The eldest 19
The next generation 23
The last recruit 29
Chapter 2 The Underground 32
The spark 40
"The revolution is beginning' 48
Chapter 3 From Saratov to February 59
New projects 66
A revolutionary year 77
Chapter 4 The Revolution Realised 82
The Rabsel'kors' great friend 85
The children of the revolution 91
A new history 99
Family life 103
Chapter 5 The New Order 109
The eye of the storm 110
The edge of the storm 127
The Il'ich University 132
Chapter 6 The Sisters and History 137
Writing Lenin 137
The sisters' story 144
The legacy 150
Conclusion 161
v
vi Contents
Notes 165
Appendix 1 Ul'ianov Family Tree 205
Appendix 2 Chronology 206
Appendix 3 Glossary of Names 216
Appendix 4 Bibliography of Works by Anna Il'inichna
Ul'ianova-Elizarova 224
Appendix 5 Bibliography of Works by Mariia Il'inichna Ul'ianova 227
Select Bibliography 23 1
Index 245
List of Illustrations
1 The Ul'ianov family, 1879 61
2 Mariia Aleksandrovna, Mariia Il'inichna, Anna's husband
Mark Elizarov and Dmitrii, 1902 63
3 Anna and Mariia in Saratov, 1912 63
4 Mariia with Vladimir, 1923 74
5 Mariia, 1930 80
6 Mariia, Nadezhda and Dmitrii 105
7 Mariia and Nadezhda, 1936 106
Acknowledgement
All photographs reproduced by kind permission of the David King
Collection.
vii
Acknowledgements
This book has been seven years in the making and my thanks are due to
various people and institutions that have helped me during that time.
My first thanks go to my PhD supervisors, James White, who suggested
the topic of Lenin's sisters to me, and Rebecca Kay. Both provided me
with invaluable help and encouragement in researching and writing my
thesis, which was the basis for this book. For their useful comments on
various elements of this manuscript, I thank Melanie Ilic, Eleanor
Gordon and Moira Donald. My work has only been improved by their
comments. Any errors of fact or interpretation are, of course, my own
responsibility.
The Department of Central and East European Studies at the
University of Glasgow was an excellent environment for researching my
thesis and the School of History and Anthropology at Queen's
University, Belfast, provided generous support while I completed the
book. I am grateful to the SAAS and the AHRB for funding my post-
graduate study. For their assistance in finding documents and materials,
I thank the staffs of RGASPI, GARF and the Moscow State Library, as
well as David King, who allowed me to use a number of photographs of
the Ul'ianov family from his collection.
I am grateful to my family, Dorothy McPhillimy and the Moirs, the
Applecrossers and the Top-Up tutors for their encouragement and sup-
port. Lastly, I owe my greatest thanks to my husband, Grant. He has
supported me in countless ways throughout this long project and has
given me all the love and inspiration for which I could ever ask. I dedi-
cate this book to him.
viii
System of Transliteration and
Clarification of Dates
I have used the Library of Congress system of transliteration
throughout.
Until the Bolsheviks changed the Russian calendar on 14 February
1918, Russia followed the Julian (old style) calendar rather than the
Gregorian (new style) calendar, which was used in the rest of Europe.
The Julian calendar was twelve days behind the Gregorian calendar in
the 19 th century and thirteen days behind it in the 20th century. I have
used the Julian calendar for dates before 14 February 1918.
ix