Nadezhda Krupskaya

Life & Legacy

Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaya (Russian: Надежда Константиновна Крупская, IPA: [nɐˈdʲeʐdə kənstɐnʲˈtʲinəvnə ˈkrupskəjə]; 26 February [O.S. 14 February] 1869 – 27 February 1939) was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. She was a leading figure in the Bolshevik party and was married to Vladimir Lenin.
Krupskaya was born in Saint Petersburg to an aristocratic family that had descended into poverty, and she developed strong views about improving the lives of the poor. She embraced Marxism and met Lenin at a Marxist discussion group in 1894. Both were arrested in 1896 for revolutionary activities and after Lenin was exiled to Siberia, Krupskaya was allowed to join him in 1898 on the condition that they marry. The two settled in Munich and then London after their exile, before briefly returning to Russia to take part in the Revolution of 1905.
Following the 1917 Revolution, Krupskaya was at the forefront of the political scene, becoming a member of the Communist Party's Central Committee in 1924. She was deputy education commissar from 1929 to 1939, with strong influence over the Soviet educational system, including development of Soviet librarianship.
Krupskaya died in Moscow in 1939, a day after her seventieth birthday. The circumstances of her death and personal tensions with Joseph Stalin have prompted several claims, some of which derived from Stalin's inner circle, that she was poisoned.