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Turton, Katy (2004) Forgotten lives : the role of Anna, Ol'ga and Mariia Ul'ianova in the Russian PDF

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Turton, Katy (2004) Forgotten lives : the role of Anna, Ol'ga and Mariia Ul'ianova in the Russian revolution 1864-1937. PhD thesis. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/2594/ Copyright and moral rights for this thesis are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Glasgow Theses Service http://theses.gla.ac.uk/ FORGOTTEN LIVES: THE ROLE OF ANNA, OL'GA AND MARIIA UL'IANOVA IN THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION, 1864-1937 Katy Turton Thesis submitted for the degree of Ph.D. to the University of Glasgow. Research conducted in the Department of Central and East European Studies. April 2004 ABSTRACT Anna, Ol'ga and Mariia Ul'ianova hold a place in history as Lenin's sisters, his supporters and helpers, but they played a far greater role in the Russian revolution and the Soviet regime as revolutionaries and Bolsheviks in their own right. However, this aspect of their lives has been consistently overlooked by English-language historians for decades. This thesis aims to redress this imbalanced portrayal of the UI'ianov women. Although not solely biographical in nature, it traces Anna, Ol'ga and Mariia's lives from their childhood and education, through their work in the underground revolutionary movement to their careers in the Soviet regime. It also investigates the personality cults that arose around the UI'ianov women and their portrayal in history since their deaths to the present day. The thesis uses extensive unpublished primary documents from the RGASPI and GARF archives in Moscow and contemporary publications such as Pravda and Proletarskaia revoliutsiia to build a picture of Anna, Ol'ga and Mariia's lives and to interrogate secondary sources about the sisters. The thesis draws various conclusions about the Ul'ianov women. 01' ga died when she was twenty, so she features only in two chapters of the thesis. Nonetheless it is clear that like Anna and Mariia she was an intelligent and well- educated young woman, who devoted herself to the study of revolutionary ideas. Anna and Mariia joined the underground movement in the early 1890s and, alongside Lenin, established themselves as competent, dedicated social democrats. Although the sisters have been portrayed as little more than Lenin's helpers, this thesis shows that Anna and Mariia had independent revolutionary careers before 1917, acting as party correspondents, newspaper workers and agitators. It is also apparent that during the underground years the UI'ianov family as a whole acted as a mutual support network, exchanging political information, advice and instructions. After the revolution, this thesis shows that Anna and Mariia pursued political careers which reflected their long-held political beliefs. Anna headed the Department for the Protection of Children, while Mariia spent ten years leading the Rabsel 'kor movement. Both women had to negotiate the changing political times after their brother Lenin's death. While Anna retreated into work for Istpart, Mariia participated in the power struggles between party fractions, first supporting Stalin and Bukharin against the oppositionists and then attempting to defend Bukharin against Stalin's attacks. This thesis investigates Anna and Mariia' s prolific biographical works on Lenin, finding them to be a means both of protecting the sisters from Stalin by raising their public profile and of educating Soviet citizens. Finally this thesis shows how Anna and Mariia's portrayal while they were alive and after their deaths shifted and changed according to the political situation, the development of the cult of personality around Lenin and even the current Soviet model of the ideal woman. Although focussed on the sisters' lives, this thesis also sheds light on the revolutionary underground, showing how issues that were of crucial importance to the party's leadership in Europe often appeared insignificant or at odds with the situation in Russia. The thesis also provides an insight into the working of the Soviet government and how political relationships from before 1917 had a great impact on the interactions between government departments and individuals. Above all, however, this thesis gives Anna, Ol'ga and Mariia their due place in Bolshevik and revolutionary history. To reclaim our past and insist that it become a part of human history is the task that lies before us, for the future requires that women as well as men shape the world's destiny. Judy Chicago, US Artist, 1939 _ 1 1 Judy Chicago, quoted in The Little Book of Great Women, (Oxford: New Internationalist Publications Ltd, 2000), p. 90. TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 1 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND CLARIFICATION OF DATES 2 INTRODUCTION 3 Methodology 8 CHAPTER ONE The Solar System Myth 16 The Learning Curve 27 CHAPTER TWO Becoming Revolutionaries 34 The Eldest 35 The Next Generation 41 The Last Recruit 49 Additions to the Family 52 CHAPTER THREE The Underground Years 60 Joining Up 64 The Spark 70 "The Revolution is Beginning" 79 From Saratov to February 87 CHAPTER FOUR The Ul'ianov Network 101 Working Together 104 The Politics of Exchange 110 A Revolutionary Year 125 CHAPTER FIVE The Revolution Realised 133 "A Great Friend of the Rabsel 'kors" 136 The Children of the Revolution 151 ANew History 164 Kremlin Life 170 CHAPTER SIX The New Order 176 The Eye of the Storm 183 The Edge of the Storm 203 The Il'ich University 209 The People's Friends 214 CHAPTER SEVEN The Sisters and History 219 W ri ting Lenin 220 The Sisters' Story 231 The Legacy 241 CONCLUSION 256 APPENDIX 1 The Ul'ianov Family Tree 262 APPENDIX 2 Chronology 263 APPENDIX 3 Bibliography of Works by Anna 277 Il'inichna Ul'ianova-Elizarova APPENDIX 4 Bibliography of Works by Mariia 281 Il'inichna UI'ianova BIBLIOGRAPHY 287 Archives 287 Published Documentary Collections 287 Contemporary Works and Memoirs 290 Secondary Accounts 304 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My thanks are due to the various institutions and people who have helped me produce this thesis. My first thanks go to James D. White who suggested the topic of Lenin's sisters to me and then provided encouragement and excellent supervision during the four years of my research. I am grateful to the SAAS not only for funding me through university and a post-graduate diploma in the Russian Language, but also for providing a grant for my PhD, which included generous provision for two research trips to Moscow. The AHRB, which took over the funding in 2002, is also due thanks. The University of Glasgow and more specifically the Department of Central and East European Studies, headed by Richard Berry, has been an excellent environment for researching my thesis. I appreciate the extra funding it provided to cover my attendance at various conferences, the opportunities it offered me to present my research, as well as the help it has given me as I look to embark on a career in academia. I would like to thank Rebecca Kay for her insightful and invaluable supervision, as well as for her day-to-day support and encouragement through application forms, conference papers, crises of confidence and the other trials and tribulations of being a PhD student. Thank you to David Longley for continuing to support my work, long after retirement, to Fiona Black and Dickon Copsey for references, and to the Study Group of the Russian Revolution for providing a friendly forum in which to present as a post-graduate as well as to meet like-minded academics. I would like to thank my family, Dorothy McPhillimy and the Moirs, the Applecrossers, the eSharpers and my Sicilian friends for the love, friendship and laughter they have given me over the last four years. Lastly, lowe my greatest thanks to Grant for following me to Russia, returning to Scotland to me and for giving me all the love, inspiration and support I could ever ask for. LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS USED IN BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES A.1. Anna Il'inichna Vl'ianova-Elizarova (To avoid confusion I will always refer to Aleksandr Il'ich by his full name.) D.1. Dmitrii II'ich Vl'ianov GARF State Archive for the Russian Federation (Archival references without GARF are from the Russian State Archive of Social and Political History, RGASPD M.1. Mariia II'inichna Vl'ianova M.A. Mariia Aleksandrovna Vl'ianova N.K. N adezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaia OJ. Ol'ga Il'inichna Vl'ianova V.1. Vladimir II'ich Vl'ianov (Lenin) CLARIFICATION OF DATES 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 th th Gregorian calendar in the 19 century and thirteen days behind it in the 20 century. I have used the Julian calendar for dates before 14 February 1918. INTRODUCTION FORGOTTEN LIVES Writing in 1932, the historian, D.S. Mirsky, judged that Anna and Mariia Ul 'ianova, Lenin's sisters were "more or less prominent members of the Social Democratic, and afterwards, of the Communist Party", but qualified his statement with the comment that "their revolutionary importance is both enhanced and eclipsed by the immense figure of Vladimir Il'ich".l This is a problem faced by all historians of women who write about the wife or sister or lover of a famous man. The achievements of a woman who was accomplished in her own right frequently appear insignificant or overshadowed by the fact that her husband, brother or lover was prime minister, president, 2 explorer or inventor. How does the historian give a fair appraisal of a woman who was known to the public and known in history mainly because she was connected to a 'great' man, but who in fact played her own distinct role in politics, culture or society? Lenin lived his life surrounded by women, including his wife, Krupskaia, and lover, Armand, his mother and mother-in-law, and his three sisters, Anna, 01' ga and Mariia, as well as fellow revolutionaries like Kollontai and his large staff of secretaries. They are all given passing mentions in biographies of Lenin as "worshipful, subservient women" who were 3 temporarily important to him or to his work. In Anna, Ol'ga and Mariia's case, the fact that they were 'only' Lenin's sisters, connected to him by chance and not his choice, has ensured that they are given even less historical attention than the women Lenin met in his lifetime. Biographies of Lenin tend to refer to his sisters only during his childhood and the early revolutionary period, and then during his illness, when Mariia, in particular, cared for him.4 Between those years, readers 1 D.S. Mirsky, Lenin, (London: The Holme Press, 1932), pp. 3-4. 2 Marilyn Yalom, 'Biography as Autobiography: Adele Hugo, Witness of Her Husband's Life', in Revealing Lives: Autobiography, Biography and Gender, ed. by Susan Groag Bell and Marilyn Yalom, (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990), p. 53. 3 Larissa Vasilieva, Kremlin Wives, ed. and trans. by Cathy Porter, (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1994), p. 9. 4 See, for example, Ronald W. Clark, Lenin: The Man Behind the Mask, (London: Faber & Faber, 1988), Louis Fischer, The Life ofL enin, (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1964) or even the very recent Robert Service, Lenin: A Biography, (London: Macmillan,2000). Service does refer to the sisters more than most, but as I shall show in this thesis, these references are problematic. 3

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