Two women appeared in Lenin's love life without whom he could not live - his wife Nadezhda Krupskaya and his lover Inessa Armand. Get to know the story of their love triangle.
Sophisticated and charming Inessa
Inessa Armand was 35 years old when she met Lenin in May 1909 at the Café Aux Manilleurs in Paris, where left-wing activists met. Inessa was a classy woman:elegant, intelligent, fun, dynamic, sexy and the most impressive of all Russian women in Paris . She spoke four languages and was fascinated by both fashion and Marxist theories. Everyone loved being with her because she put people in a good mood and also because she was passionate about everything she did.
Inessa read Lenin's books, valued him as an intellectual, and it was during this meeting in May that she heard vividly the leader of the Bolsheviks. She was delighted with his speech. Włodzimierz Ilyich immediately made a great impression on Armand, but this did not apply to male-female relations, as Inessa herself stated:
I loved you, but I wasn't in love with you then […]. I was a bit scared of you.
However, it was only a matter of time. It took a year and a half for their romance to fully ignite. By that time, Inessa had turned into an active Bolshevik activist in France - she regularly participated in party meetings, proved herself in the tasks entrusted to her and was most devoted to Lenin. She gained experience as a political activist in the underground while still in Moscow, working for the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Russia, incl. she distributed illegal propaganda materials, ran a library with forbidden books, for which she was sentenced to two years' exile in a village near Arkhangelsk.
Inessa Armand's file from the files of the Moscow police (1905)
Her sophistication, intelligence, and knowledge of foreign languages, in particular French, which was not Vladimir Ilyich's strong suit, meant that Armand began to speak on his behalf initially during meetings in France, and then in other parts of the Old Continent. Her loyalty and high competences contributed to an important promotion . She headed the Bolshevik International Bureau, represented Lenin's interests in the French Socialist Party, and ran a school founded by Lenin near Paris.
Sprouting love and not very attractive Nadia
Lenin's fascination with Inessa was noticed by the socialist Charles Rappaport, one of the regulars at the same Parisian cafes where the lovers spent their time:
[Lenin] with those little Mongolian eyes was mesmerized by Inessa (...) he couldn't stop looking at her.
Inessa was the opposite of Vladimir Ilyich's wife, Nadezhda Krupskaya. Although Krupska was older than Armand by only 5 years, she looked much older than her husband's mistress. Nadia was not one of the most beautiful, she was not a woman in the world, she did not wear fashionable clothes and she was neglected. She constantly wore the black dress during the winter and the lighter version in the summer. She changed her hairstyle more often than in the wardrobe. Clara Zetkin, a longtime friend of Nadia, recalled the appearance of Lenin's wife:
She looked like a laborer's exhausted wife constantly worried if she could do whatever she wanted to do.
Nadezhda Krupska, Włodzmierz Ilyich Lenin and the American journalist Lincoln Eure
The Parisian Ochrana agent, who was constantly supervising the activities of Nadezhda Krupskaya, did not beat the bush when he reported on the physiognomy observed:
Only around forty, but with medium-long brown hair, hunched, gray-eyed, small nose, narrow mouth. Dressed almost sloppy.
Her health problems also contributed to the decline in Krupska's physical attractiveness, she gained weight, and also had cervical swelling and proptosis - symptoms of Basedow's disease . However, as noted by Lev Martov's sister, Lilia Dan:
Her simplicity was enlightened by her charm (…) her good character.
In the chieftain's bed
As it happens in an unhappy marriage, there was a time when Krupskaya and Lenin shared a bed and a time when they slept separately. The stay in Paris coincided with the period when Nadia mostly spent the night in her mother's room. From September 1911, that is, only a few months after the beginning of Inessa Armand's romance with Vladimir Ilyich, Inessa moved to a house on the same street where Lenin and his wife lived ...
Inessa Armand
Aversion to Paris
Despite the fact that Lenin had a mistress a few buildings from his home, he hated this city. He called Paris the "backwater" of Geneva, and he always complained about the place where he lived and called it "the hole". And so, in his opinion, the hole was Paris, Geneva, London or Moscow. The capital of France was also not friendly to Vladimir Ilyich in terms of his creative work, because during this period he did not create any significant work in his writing. In her written memoirs, Nadia described the Parisian period:
Life in Paris was chaotic. (…) Our people, party members, stayed in cafes until late at night (…) drinking. (...) Włodzimierz Ilyich often came home late, exhausted (...) Once, after a fierce discussion, I hardly recognized him when he returned. His face was tired and he could hardly speak.
Lenin's sister Anna Ulyanova said after her brother's visit to Paris:
[Włodzimierz] turned gray, he looked exhausted and gloomy.
Nadia, on the basis of previous experiences with Lenin, observed that the mental and physical condition of the Bolshevik leader was in a very bad condition, hence she decided to go to the countryside together for a month and a half. The rest of Vladimir Ilyich provided new energy for work, one of his first ideas was to create his own school near Paris.
Lenin's intimate relationships
Inessa Armand's enthusiasm and devotion to the righteous Bolshevik cause ignited a warm feeling in Vladimir Ilyich. Their romance began when Lenin founded a school near Paris, in which the chief's lover was chosen as the steward and at the same time the teacher of economics. How important Inessa was in Lenin's life can be seen from the fact that in private correspondence he referred to as "you" as the only woman who was not a member of his family.
Although Lenin and Inessa tried to be discreet and to keep their close relationship secret from the world, experienced Bolshevik activists, as well as the agents of Ochrana and the French police who were constantly watching them, knew perfectly well about the romance. Nadia and her mother were also aware that Lenin was cheating on his wife. Elizaveta Krupskaya was extremely irritated by the whole situation, because her daughter, although she did not show typical signs of jealousy, was plunged into sadness.
Lenin in Paris, photo by E. Vallois
Lenin's love triangle
Nadezhda Krupskaya was not possessive, but wanted to give Lenin a choice. As one of her close companions at the time recalls:
[Nadia offered to] walk away from him and leave him a free hand with Inessa, but he told her to stay.
It seems the Bolshevik leader did not want to give up any of the two women he was close to, and Inessa Armand did not mind Lenin's love triangle. Vladimir Ilyich noticed that over time these two of his loved ones grew closer and closer to each other. Nadia herself said:
It was getting cozier and happier when Inessa came.
Inessa even convinced Elizaveta Krupska, which Nadia herself mentioned:
My mother became very attached to Inessa, who often came to her to talk to her, to sit with her.
Inessa was equally flattering about Lenin's wife:
There was so much good in Paris in my relationship with Nadia. I got closer to her.
Nadezhda Krupskaya and Vladimir Ilyich Lenin
Inessa was a model example of a person fully devoted to Bolshevik ideas, ambitious, hardworking, in love with her leader and ready to give anything for the sake of the revolution. Nadia was also ready to endure a lot for the success of the Bolshevik cause. She showed great patience to stay with Lenin, providing him with help in every matter, also in terms of mental balance. Even if this sacrifice hurt her feelings and forced her to have a close relationship with her husband's mistress. Their love triangle had many ups, downs and twists, and Lenin himself tried to end his romance with Inessa Armand in the following years.