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
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…
(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!