Lenin's Mistress: The Life of Inessa Armand - Michael Pearson - Hardcover - 1ST

Chapter 1 PUSHKINO 1893 It was before the early snows in October 1893, and already dark by mid-afternoon, when Inessa Stephane married Alexander Armand in the Church of St. Nikolai in the little town of Pushkino-and transformed a future that would take her eventually into the highest levels of power in Russia. Until this day, as an educated, unmarried girl, the only occupation open to her in Russia was to be a tutor, and even that was under question, since technically Inessa was illegitimate. Now, in that beautiful church ablaze with candles, she walked behind the ikon boy in his scarlet shirt and shared with Alexander the rituals-such as the kissing of the rings and the circling of the praying desk beneath the crowns of silver-and became a young wife of status and wealth. Her husband was the eldest son in a large family that owned local textile plants as well as estates in the region and property in Moscow. A slight, pretty girl with auburn hair and green eyes, she was immature even for her nineteen years. The letters she had written to Alexander before the marriage suggest an emotional muddle. There was no doubt, though, about her artistic potential. She was well-read, fluent in four languages, and a talented pianist, able to play classics from memory for two hours at a stretch. But none of those present in the church that day could have guessed that she also had the qualities to survive the intellectual rough-and-tumble of Lenin's years in exile, nor that she could ever stay stubbornly cool in debate against such formidable heavyweights as Trotsky or Plekhanov or Axelrod, while Lenin himself would usually lose his temper. Inessa Armand was to become Lenin's lover, in a relationship that was volatile but bound them, even when she was barely speaking to him, by deep emotional roots. She was his troubleshooting lieutenant, his "front" when he wished to stay in the background, and his friend who could discuss tactics with him, console him after setbacks, and also share his victories. At meetings and conferences, some of which she organized, she helped to execute his torturous strategies, which were ultimately to yield him greater authority than even the tsar could command. Lenin had, for twelve years, been married, but Nadya-Nadezhda Konstantinovna, whose cover name was Krupskaya-looked after the back office, the running of his faction of the Social Democratic Party, and the coded correspondence with its members.1 Inessa, though, would be in the field, directing the hand-to-hand combat in the large exile community that, riddled with frustrations and conflicts, was preparing for the day they all dreamed of, even if they disagreed about its form. All that, of course, lay years ahead. At nineteen, Inessa was politically innocent, even disinterested. But without this marriage and possibly this husband, she might never have been drawn to meet Lenin-nor, for that matter, gained the power that enabled her to write in 1918 to the commissar of a military district, requesting the "Respected Comrade" to "receive my acquaintance," a childhood friend. She was then confident that her wish would be enough to achieve the object, since anyone in authority would know how close she was to the ruler of all the Russias. ooo The Church of St. Nikolai, with its twin bell towers and blue-and-gold cupola, was on a hill that overlooked Pushkino. In the 1890s, the forest town, with its lake, two rivers, and a thriving summer theater, was a favored place for holiday dachas, being only an hour by train from Moscow-especially by the families of the city's French community, in which the Armands were prominent. It was also a company town. Two tall brick chimneys, which still exist today, reached high above the Armand textile plant. Workers' cottages, built in timber, with carved wooden friezes, lined the roads. The Armand family homePearson, Michael is the author of 'Lenin's Mistress: The Life of Inessa Armand - Michael Pearson - Hardcover - 1ST' with ISBN 9780375505898 and ISBN 037550589X.