Top secret
PersonalCopy to Comrades Kamenev and Zinoviev
Dear Comrade Stalin:
You have been so rude as to summon my wife to the telephone and use bad language. Although she had told you that she was prepared to forget this, the fact nevertheless became known through her to Zinoviev and Kamenev. I have no intention of forgetting so easily what has been done against me, and it goes without saying that what has been done against my wife I consider having been done against me as well. I ask you, therefore, to think it over whether you are prepared to withdraw what you have said and to make your apologies, or whether you prefer that relations between us should be broken off.[1]
Respectfully yours,
LeninMarch 5, 1923
This is a case where i would personally say the authenticity is somewhat dubious given the history of the period from which it is said to date and also the history of how and when it first came to light.
It might not surprise you to learn that the existence of this letter was first revealed by Khrushchev during his secret speech denouncing Stalin, which we know to have been riddled with falsifications and slander. For instance in the same speech Khrushchev referenced the so-called “Lenin’s testament” which harshly criticized Stalin and called into question his suitability for leadership partly due to his “rudeness”.
The problem is that this “testament” is almost certainly fake, as Lenin after his stroke was no longer in a condition to write himself by that time. It was Krupskaya who he supposedly dictated it to. Krupskaya however, though she was a great revolutionary and did a lot of good work for the Soviet Union in her official positions, is known to have had a bit of a personal grudge against Stalin at this point in time. (This is not a criticism of either of them, just a fact that sometimes personalities clash.)
While Stalin, for political reasons, never said anything about this, these documents were not signed by Lenin and there are numerous inconsistencies and problems with them (see links below).
So while this letter itself may be real and supposedly a copy of it is in the archives, it is not clear whether it was really Lenin himself who wrote it. At least he didn’t and couldn’t have signed it. It is also suspicious that the story told by anti-communist historians about how it was supposedly found on accident in Stalin’s desk along with letters from Bukharin and Tito definitely does not stand up to scrutiny. There is absolutely no evidence of those other letters existing anywhere in the archives and they are clearly part of a narrative created to make Stalin look bad.
This letter about Krupskaya was officially published in 1989 by the then extremely anti-communist Soviet government under Gorbachev who was practically on a crusade to publish any and all slander against Stalin and anything that would portray the Soviet Union’s past in a bad light. Some are genuine but many “admissions” and “uncovered documents” that appeared during that Glasnost & Perestroika period and afterwards under the bourgeois Russian government are very suspicious and probably fake.
Also, consider the circumstances that Lenin was in at that time. He would have found out about Stalin’s rudeness toward Krupskaya through Krupskaya of course, who was one of his only contacts to the rest of the party when Lenin was gravely ill. Again i want to stress i have a lot of respect for her, and her revolutionary pedigree is not under any doubt, but she was also just human and of course when you have a personal beef with someone you are more prone to exaggerate their transgressions against you.
Also, here is a footnote from the Marxists archive about this letter giving some additional context:
After Lenin, with the permission of his doctors, had, on December 21, 1922, dictated a letter to Trotsky on the foreign trade monopoly (see this volume, Document 811), J. V. Stalin, whom a C.C. Plenum decision of December 18 had made personally responsible for the observance of the medical regimen ordered for Lenin, used offensive language against Nadezhda Krupskaya and threatened to take the case to the Control Commission for having taken down the said letter. On December 23, 1922, Krupskaya sent Kamenev a letter asking for protection from “the gross interference in my personal life, offensive language and threats”.
Nadezhda Krupskaya apparently told Lenin of this fact in early March 1923. Having learned about this Lenin dictated the document here published.
Maria Ulyanova later wrote in a letter to the presidium of the July (1926) Joint Plenum of the Central Committee and the Central Control Commission of the R.C.P.(B.), at which the question had been raised by G. Y. Zinoviev, one of the leaders of the “new opposition”, that Stalin had offered his apologies.
https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1923/mar/05.htm
Here is something you can read about the so-called “Lenin’s testament” forgery:
https://mltheory.wordpress.com/2017/02/07/on-the-alleged-forgery-of-lenins-testament/
https://www.revolutionarydemocracy.org/rdv7n1/LenTest.htm
And here is a debunking of the alleged Bukharin and Tito “found letters” story, in which the Lenin letter about Krupskaya is also mentioned:
https://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/research/bukhlastplea.html
it seems that the beef between stalin and lenin was invented by revisionists…typical
Yep, basically the butthurt losers who were annoyed that their viewpoint didn’t win out in the Bolshevik party in the 1920s and 30s so they had to invent all sorts of cope and gossip.
Wow that is a lot of information about a relatively small incident in the grand scheme of Marxist lore. Thank you!
I just thought that having some historical context can be good to give people perspective, and a reminder that we have to engage critically with historical documents and sources and not always take them at face value.
I mean, if such dubious documents including the “testament” were created with Krupskaya help and knowledge, it would mean Plenum apparently didn’t trust her and was correct.
Although it’s understandable and human, it is unfortunate and gets very messy when people put personal feelings ahead of the interest and will of the party…
“On the question of Stalin’s ‘rudeness’ Maria Ulyanova asserted her opinion that the incident between Stalin and Nadezhda Krupskaya was ‘completely personal and had nothing to do with politics’.”
(Maria Ulyanova was Lenin’s sister)
From: On the Relations between Lenin and Stalin
I actually recommend reading this whole piece where Ulyanova is quoted extensively because it’s very informative about the relations on a personal level that Lenin had with other Bolsheviks, a topic that is not often talked about since we are usually more concerned with theory and policy.
And if you have some time and are looking for something more extensive to read you should also read Nadezhda Krupskaya’s Reminiscences of Lenin. As i said, don’t let this interpersonal friction between her and Stalin negatively influence your opinion of her. She was a great revolutionary and did very good work for the Soviet Union.
And by the way, i think that if i was in her situation i would probably have reacted the same way; i mean yes, Stalin was right about what was in the best interest of the party, but if someone called to admonish me, and not in a very polite way, that i was not taking care correctly of my spouse who had just had a stroke, i would be furious at them and would hold a massive grudge!
I’d rather die than lose Lenin’s friendship.
Losing Lenin’s friendship is like throwing gold into the sea and then eating watermelon rinds.
the very top part of the watermelon rind isn’t bad prove me wrong
Valid crashout. What the hell was Stalin thinking being so rude to a disabled man’s wife?
She kept giving him political materials that would get him worked up when he was directly tasked by the politburo to do nothing that would put risk to his post-stroke, post-assassination frail health.
Stalin was tasked by the politburo to oversee Lenin and ensure the directives to rest were followed. Krupskaya went against the will of the party and was admonished so.
After Lenin, with the permission of his doctors, had, on December 21, 1922, dictated a letter to Trotsky on the foreign trade monopoly (see this volume, Document 811), J. V. Stalin, whom a C.C. Plenum decision of December 18 had made personally responsible for the observance of the medical regimen ordered for Lenin, used offensive language against Nadezhda Krupskaya and threatened to take the case to the Control Commission for having taken down the said letter. On December 23, 1922, Krupskaya sent Kamenev a letter asking for protection from “the gross interference in my personal life, offensive language and threats”.
Nadezhda Krupskaya apparently told Lenin of this fact in early March 1923. Having learned about this Lenin dictated the document here published.
Maria Ulyanova later wrote in a letter to the presidium of the July (1926) Joint Plenum of the Central Committee and the Central Control Commission of the R.C.P.(B.), at which the question had been raised by G. Y. Zinoviev, one of the leaders of the “new opposition”, that Stalin had offered his apologies.
https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1923/mar/05.htm
Didn’t Stalin apologize later though?
https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1923/mar/05.htm
The footnote there appears to confirm that he did indeed apologize.
Also, we don’t know exactly what it means that “he was rude”. How rude exactly? What kind of “bad language”? In what context? I can imagine how, if he was worried about Lenin’s health and annoyed at the fact that Lenin was not being sufficiently allowed to rest, he would lose his calm and use some expletives. We can’t forget that historical figures were just human too.
