Aliases V.I. Lenin

I.N. Wolper

Aliases V.I. LENINA

"Pseudonym" (ψεuδωνuμoξ) is a Greek word and means "false name". But in practice, the content of this concept is somewhat narrowed. Usually only those fictitious names that writers, journalists and public figures choose for themselves to appear in the press are called pseudonyms.

In this book we will talk about the pseudonyms of V. I. Lenin in the broadest sense of the word, that is, not only about his literary pseudonyms, but also about party nicknames, about secret surnames and even about playful nicknames. By the way, in the life of Vladimir Ilyich it happened more than once that party nicknames and conspiratorial surnames also became literary pseudonyms. And, besides, the party nickname is nothing more than an oral pseudonym.

The author, of course, by no means pretends to be categorical in his judgments, to a complete and exhaustive solution of the question of the origin and history of this or that Lenin pseudonym. In some cases, other interpretations are possible, and sometimes the pseudonym taken by Vladimir Ilyich quite by accident could become the object of analysis. However, the deep philological knowledge of V. I. Lenin and his excellent sense of the word allow us to assume that most of the pseudonyms he chose have quite definite, specific etymological roots.

In a word, these notes are only searches, and in some cases - conjectures and assumptions. In general, the topic still awaits in-depth research.

The author expresses his deep gratitude to E. A. Korolchuk, Doctor of Historical Sciences, I. F. Kovalev, Candidate of Philological Sciences, D. S. Kislik and R. M. Savitskaya, senior researchers of the Institute of Marxism-Leninism, and L. V. Uspensky, writer, for valuable comments. and advice given by them in preparing the manuscript for publication.

WINNER OF A HUNDRED NAMES

The greatest man of our time is known by millions of people around the world by one name. This name is Lenin!

Lenin himself, in an autobiographical sketch in May 1917, wrote: “My name is Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov.”* 1

Yes, the real name of Lenin (after his father) was, as you know, Ulyanov, and Lenin is one of his aliases.

Being engaged in revolutionary work in tsarist Russia or being in exile, Vladimir Ilyich was forced to hide his real name for the purpose of secrecy. After all, the tsarist secret police, and the German gendarmerie, and the British police - all were at the same time in the fight against the revolutionaries.

And Lenin, from the first steps of his revolutionary activity, became an implacable enemy for the tsarist autocracy. It was not for nothing that back then, at the very beginning of this century, the head of the Moscow secret police, gendarmerie colonel Zubatov, reported to his superiors that “there is no one bigger than Ulyanov now in the revolution,” and suggested that the police department quickly “cut off this head from the revolutionary body.” 2

Under such conditions, fictitious surnames helped Vladimir Ilyich to confuse police agents and detectives and made it possible, in the difficult conditions of the underground and emigration, to conduct great party and literary work, to publish more and more new works.

Only after the Great October Socialist Revolution, when Vladimir Ilyich became the head of the Soviet government, did he begin to sign all official documents with his real name. But he became so close to his pseudonym that even then he usually signed: V. Ulyanov (Lenin). We will meet this double signature of Lenin both in his party ticket, and under the decrees of the Council of People's Commissars, and on the decisions of the Council of Labor and Defense, and in other documents of national importance.

It is curious to note that Vladimir Ilyich still signed literary works, party documents, letters and notes with the pseudonym "Lenin". So, for example, on the cover of the book “The Proletarian Revolution and the Renegade Kautsky”, published in 1918, it is not V. Ulyanov (Lenin), but, on the contrary, N. Lenin (Vl. Ulyanov) that is listed.

Well, until 1917, Vladimir Ilyich was more known by his pseudonyms than by his real name. As a rule, he signed all his works with pseudonyms.

What pseudonyms did Vladimir Ilyich have? How did he choose them? What is their origin?

The first question is not difficult to answer. In 1963, the book “Auxiliary Indexes to the Chronological Index of the Works of V. I. Lenin” was published, which lists all currently known pseudonyms of V. I. Lenin. An incomplete list of Lenin's pseudonyms was also published in the well-known Dictionary of Pseudonyms of Russian Writers, Scientists and Public Figures, compiled by I. F. Masanov. 3

Vladimir Ilyich signed his writings, letters and notes with literary pseudonyms, secret surnames, party nicknames, and individual letters ...

The aforementioned reference book "Auxiliary Pointers ..." lists 148 different pseudonyms of V. I. Lenin. **

Even if we exclude from this list different variants of the same pseudonym associated with the peculiarities of the transcription of a particular language, and discard various abbreviations, then there will remain about a hundred original and non-repeating pseudonyms. One hundred names of one person!

In all likelihood, these are not all the pseudonyms of Vladimir Ilyich. Until now, unknown or considered lost works of Lenin are being found, and new pseudonyms are being identified. It can be thought that when the publication of the Complete Works of V. I. Lenin is completed, then, apparently, a relatively complete dictionary and index of pseudonyms will be compiled.

But it is one thing to reveal a pseudonym, another thing is to answer the questions: how did it arise? How did Vladimir Ilyich choose pseudonyms? After all, more than forty years have passed since Lenin is no longer with us. His closest relatives, many friends and associates have long since passed away. And, of course, it is difficult (and sometimes impossible) to establish why Vladimir Ilyich signed one or another of his works in this way and not otherwise.

Meanwhile, it is very interesting and fascinating to trace the history and fate of each of Lenin's pseudonyms, each of his party nicknames. After all, everything connected with the name of Lenin has always been and will be infinitely dear and important to us!

The practical side of this issue lies in the fact that knowledge of Lenin's pseudonyms sometimes makes it possible to establish his authorship, to find new works that were previously considered anonymous. And as the experience of recent years shows, there are still quite a few such "anonymous" works written by Lenin's hand.

* See Appendix 3.

** It is appropriate to note that in the bibliographic index to the XX (additional) volume of the first edition of the Collected Works of V. I. Lenin, only 66 pseudonyms are listed. In less than forty years, an additional 82 pseudonyms have been identified.

THE VERY FIRST

What is the first pseudonym of Vladimir Ilyich? If we strictly adhere to the chronology, then it must be said that this first pseudonym is not, and cannot be, in any reference book.

The elder sister of Vladimir Ilyich, AI Ulyanov-Elizarova, writes about the very first Leninist pseudonym in her memoirs. It's about an alias. Kubyshkin, which Volodya Ulyanov invented for himself at the age of ... nine years.

It is known that in the Ulyanov family children spent a lot of time reading books. From an early age, their father and mother instilled in them a love of literature, music, and art. In the Ulyanovs' house, wonderful works of Russian literature were often read aloud, poems were recited; sang songs. Anna Ilyinichna once noted in poetic form the great passion of the children of the Ulyanov family for books.

This poem contained these lines:

And for reading serious

The circle has gathered.

Everyone sits buried in books,

Everyone is strictly silent.

Though Manyushin's * little eyes

It hurts to sleep... 1

It was in such an atmosphere that the idea of ​​creating their own homemade handwritten magazine was born in this wonderful family. The initiator of the idea was the elder brother - Alexander Ulyanov.

Conceived - done. Sasha Ulyanov became the editor of the magazine, sister Anna became the literary critic, and nine-year-old Volodya and seven-year-old Olya became permanent literary collaborators. In this journal, the first pseudonym of V. I. Lenin appeared - “Kubyshkin”.

Here is what A.I. Ulyanova-Elizarova writes about this: “... Both of them (Volodya and Olya, - I.V.) set to work very willingly, inventing literary pseudonyms for themselves: Volodya (rather stocky in those years little boy) called himself Kubyshkin, Olya, nicknamed a monkey for agility and liveliness, - Obezyankov. 2

So, it becomes clear why Volodya chose the pseudonym "Kubyshkin" for himself. In the well-known explanatory dictionary of the Russian language, Vladimir Dal, a second, figurative, meaning of the word "pod" is given: "a tight short man, a fat man, especially a child." That's the whole point! As you can see, already in childhood, Lenin was no stranger to a sense of humor, the desire for a good-natured joke on himself.

Of course, this children's comic pseudonym has nothing to do with the literary or party-revolutionary activities of V. I. Lenin.

The first real pseudonym of Vladimir Ilyich was the surname Tulin(more precisely - K. Tulin). With this pseudonym, Vladimir Ilyich signed one of his first scientific works - "The economic content of populism and criticism of it in the book of Mr. Struve", published in 1895. Lenin's article was published in the collection Materials for a Characteristic of Our Economic Development. The collection suffered a sad fate: the tsarist censorship saw in it a "harmful direction", it was confiscated and burned. Of the two thousand copies, only about a hundred survived, which were distributed illegally. The ban was largely due to an article by K. Tulin, which seemed to the censor "harmful and dangerous."

But who Tulin was, not only the censors did not know this then, but even many of Vladimir Ilyich's inner circle.

A very curious episode occurred when Vladimir Ilyich met with P. B. Axelrod, who, like everyone else, paid special attention to K. Tulin's article.

To Vladimir Ilyich’s question: “Have you looked through the collection?” Akselrod replied: “Yes, I must say that I enjoyed it very much... Tulin’s article made a particularly good impression on me...” 3 Akselrod did not suspect that “Tulin” himself ” was at that time his interlocutor!

According to the old Bolshevik Ts. S. Zelikson (Bobrovskaya), Tulin's article was a great celebration for genuine Marxists. But Zelikson did not know who the real author of the article was either.

But why did Lenin choose the pseudonym "Tulin" for himself? It is difficult to answer this question. Let us make such an assumption. In Russian there is an obsolete and now almost never used in speech word "tulit". From it came the reflexive verb "to snuggle", which means: to hide, bury, hide.

Vladimir Dal also cites another, derived from this verb, the word "tula"; he explains it this way: a hidden, inaccessible place.

Vladimir Ilyich, with his deep knowledge of the Russian language, these words were, of course, known.

So, perhaps, while engaging in illegal activities and choosing a pseudonym for himself, he settled on the word that most correctly expressed the essence and meaning of the pseudonym, that is, secrecy, secret? If we agree with such an assumption and proceed from the verb “tulit” or “tulit”, then the surname Tulin can be interpreted as follows: “secret”, “secret”, “underground”. After all, this fully corresponded to the then illegal position of V. I. Lenin.

Or maybe the pseudonym "Tulin" is derived from the name of the city of Tula? Such surnames, formed from the names of cities, are not uncommon in Russian onomastics**.

Of course, both are just guesses.

At that time, Vladimir Ilyich resorted to the pseudonym "Tulin" quite often. Among the works written in 1894 - 1897, one can find articles signed like this: K. T - n, K. T., T - ying, T. It is quite obvious that all these pseudonyms are abbreviations of the same surname Tulin.

* Manyusha - Maria Ilyinichna Ulyanova, Lenin's younger sister.

** Onomastics is the science of proper names and surnames.

"Petersburger" against "V.V."

Here
every stone
Lenin knows...
V. Mayakovsky

These inspired words, spoken by the poet about Moscow, can equally be attributed to St. Petersburg - Petrograd.

St. Petersburg was always beautiful, sung by Pushkin. More than once, of course, Ilyich wandered along its wonderful embankments, admiring the immortal creation of Falcone, the classical ensemble of Palace Square, the wonderful Felten lattice of the Summer Garden and other magnificent architectural monuments.

But Lenin also knew another Petersburg - that Petersburg that stretched out beyond the Neva and Moscow outposts, the Petersburg of slums and factory barracks, the dilapidated houses of the Shlisselburg tract, the smoky bulks of factory buildings.

For the sake of this - marginal, working-class Petersburg, he came here ...

Many outstanding events in the life of V. I. Lenin are connected with St. Petersburg. Here he initiated the creation of a Marxist workers' party in Russia. From Red Petersburg, Vladimir Ilyich led the struggle of the proletariat during the first Russian revolution. In Petrograd, the Great October Socialist Revolution began under his leadership. Here, finally, Vladimir Ilyich headed the first workers' and peasants' government in history and laid the foundations of the Soviet socialist state...

More than two hundred memorable places in Leningrad are connected with the life and work of V. I. Lenin. And, of course, it was no coincidence that in 1924, immediately after the death of Lenin, the Second All-Union Congress of Soviets decided to rename Petrograd to Leningrad. “Let from now on,” the congress resolution said, “this largest center of the proletarian revolution will forever be associated with the name of the greatest of the leaders of the proletariat, Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Lenin).” one

For more than four decades, Leningrad has honorably carried its great and glorious name...

But let's turn the pages of history and resurrect the events of the nineties of the last century.

Vladimir Ilyich first came to St. Petersburg in August 1890, and three years later he settled here permanently. On August 31, 1893, he became a Petersburger.

In our story, the word "Petersburger" will mean not only a resident of St. Petersburg. In the biography of V. I. Lenin, it also became his party nickname, just as the surname Tulin was his first literary pseudonym.

On the circumstances associated with the party nickname " Petersburger”, says in his memoirs V. D. Bonch-Bruevich, who later became the closest assistant and collaborator of Vladimir Ilyich - the first Executive Director of the Council of People's Commissars. 2

Having met Anna Ilyinichnaya Ulyanova-Elizarova in Moscow in 1893, Bonch-Bruevich often heard from her stories about the young and talented Marxist "Petersburger", whom no one in Moscow knew at that time.

In January 1894, an unknown young man came to an illegal gathering in Moscow, held under the guise of a student party.

At the meeting that evening, one of the ideologists of populism, Vasily Pavlovich Vorontsov, known under the pseudonym “V. AT.".

He easily defeated the young Marxists who objected to him and, together with his like-minded people, triumphed. But a young stranger asked to speak. At first, the venerable speaker condescendingly, with an ironic smile, glanced at his opponent. However, with all the ardor of youth, armed with weighty arguments, convincingly selected statistical data, he smashed to smithereens all theories of the Narodnik "leader".

After the "party" everyone asked who is this "daring opponent" who dared to oppose V.V. himself? The answer was short: "Petersburger".

But who is "Petersburger" - continued to remain a mystery.

And only in 1895, when V. I. Lenin’s famous work “What are the “friends of the people” and how do they fight against the Social Democrats?” was published, did it become clear that its author and “daring opponent”, who spoke out in Moscow against V. V., the same person.

To Bonch-Bruevich's suggestion on this occasion, Anna Ilyinichna replied with a smile:

Yes, you guessed it... It's the same face.

What the Moscow Marxists did not yet know in 1894, however, the Moscow police already knew. Here is what the Moscow police chief informed the police department about the “party” at which the “Petersburger” spoke:

“The well-known substantiator of the theory of populism, the writer “V. AT." (doctor Vasily Pavlovich Vorontsov) forced Davydov * to shut up with his argumentation, so that a certain Ulyanov (supposedly the brother of the hanged man) took over the defense of the views of the latter, who carried out this defense with full knowledge of the matter. 3

Many years later, the secret nickname "Petersburger" became the literary pseudonym of Vladimir Ilyich. In December 1911, Lenin's article "Three Requests" was published in the Marxist journal Enlightenment, under which there was a signature: "Petersburger." In the same issue, another Leninist article was printed, signed: P. It is likely that this is the first letter of the same alias.

* Davydov Iosif Mordukhovich, a student at Yuriev University, a Marxist who objected to Vorontsov at a party.

PARTY NAME OR JOKE?

"Petersburger" was not the only party nickname of Vladimir Ilyich at that time. M.A. Silvin tells about one curious nickname in his memoirs. one

Members of the Marxist circle of students of the St. Petersburg Institute of Technology (the Radchenko circle), which Vladimir Ilyich joined upon arrival in St. Petersburg, decided to come up with secret nicknames for each other. So, G. M. Krzhizhanovsky was called "Gopher", P. K. Zaporozhets - "Hutsul", V. V. Starkov - "Strawberry". Vaneev and Silvin (both from Nizhny Novgorod) - "Minin and Pozharsky", etc.

More than once rescued these nicknames of young revolutionaries. In less than two years, Vladimir Ilyich will use these semi-joking, semi-secret nicknames for his own purposes.

It is known that in December 1895 Lenin was arrested and placed in the House of Preliminary Detention. Once in prison, Vladimir Ilyich was still keenly interested in everything that was done in the wild. He was especially worried about the fate of his friends in the Union of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class. But how to find out about this, how to deceive the vigilance of the jailers?

And so Lenin compiles a long list of literature, and between the titles of the books he really needs, he skillfully interweaves some titles, which he accompanies with small question marks. From these question marks, Lenin's relatives and friends guessed that he did not need these books at all, and the questions related to those who are hiding behind book titles.

So, a question mark against the title of the book of the historian Kostomarov "Heroes of Troubled Times" meant the question: "What about Minin and Pozharsky?", That is, with Vaneev and Silvin. Brem's book "On Small Rodents" definitely hinted at G. M. Krzhizhanovsky, because it was he who bore the nickname "Gopher". And the request for Mine-Read's book "Lamprey" had in mind N.K. Krupskaya, since she had the nicknames "Fish" or "Lamprey". 2

Vladimir Ilyich in Radchenko's circle was also "christened" with a playful nickname... " Tyapkin-Lyapkin».

Remember the judge from N. V. Gogol's immortal comedy "The Government Inspector"? True, Gogol's character is called somewhat differently: not Tyapkin-Lyapkin, but Lyapkin-Tyapkin. Either Vladimir Ilyich deliberately, in order to emphasize the playful nature of the nickname, turned this surname in his own way, or Silvin forgot something.

Regarding the choice of this nickname, M. A. Silvin in his book remarks in brackets: “he comes to everything with his own mind.” And in fact, the judge in The Inspector General once utters the following phrase about himself: “Why, he came by himself, with his own mind!” It was this remark, apparently, that served as the basis for Vladimir Ilyich's comrades in the circle to give him the joking nickname "Tyapkin-Lyapkin."

This nickname is typical in its own way. It speaks, firstly, of the sense of humor that was inherent in Lenin, and secondly, that in itself this remark, even in the mouth of such a person of little respect as Lyapkin-Tyapkin, to some extent corresponded to one of ideological principles of Vladimir Ilyich "to reach everything with your own mind." And in fact, a sharp critical mind, deep erudition, great education allowed him to show amazing creative independence even at that time in solving the most complex issues of social life and science.

That is why the question is a party nickname or a playful nickname? - you can answer: both.

However, it should be noted that "Tyapkin-Lyapkin" was never the real pseudonym of Vladimir Ilyich.

NIKOLAY PETROVICH AND LAWYER ULYANOV

Arriving in St. Petersburg, Lenin, as you know, did not limit himself to participating in an underground Marxist circle, but immediately set about wide-ranging propaganda of Marxist ideas.

The progressive workers of St. Petersburg soon recognized and fell in love with the young propagandist - a stocky, short man, with a small reddish beard and with surprisingly clear, penetrating eyes.

The workers called their propagandist Nikolai Petrovich. One of the participants in these circles, M. M. Bodrov, later recalled that the days of classes with "Nikolai Petrovich" were the best days of his life. He wrote: “Our eyes opened right away. We felt that it becomes brighter after talking with him” 1 .

But who "Nikolai Petrovich" really was, none of the participants in the circles knew. Once, when after classes "Nikolai Petrovich" left, the members of the circle asked

organizer: "Who is he?". But the organizer of the circle, V. A. Knyazev, could not answer this question - he himself did not know the real name of the propagandist. The case, however, allowed Knyazev to find out who "Nikolai Petrovich" was, and he subsequently spoke about this in his memoirs. 2

In 1893, Knyazev's grandmother, who served with a general, died. To get the small inheritance left from her, it was necessary to go to court. The comrades advised Knyazev to enlist the help of a lawyer and recommended that he turn to the assistant barrister Ulyanov.

It is known that Vladimir Ilyich was a lawyer by education and in the first years after graduating from the university he was engaged in advocacy.

Suspecting nothing, Knyazev went to the address indicated to him in house number 7 on Bolshoi Kazachy Lane *.

He went up the gloomy, dirty stairs to the third floor and rang the bell for apartment no. 13. The owner of the apartment answered the bell. She said that Ulyanov was not at home, but he should come soon. Knyazev decided to wait and went into Ulyanov's room. He was surprised by the extremely modest furnishings of the lawyer's quarters. An iron stove in the corner, a simple bunk, a table with a kerosene lamp, two Viennese chairs, and a bookcase for books - that's all the furniture.

"He doesn't live well!" - thought Knyazev. At this time, the bell rang, and soon the owner himself entered the room.

Oh, are you waiting already? - he turned to Knyazev. - Well, just a minute: I'll change my clothes, and we'll deal with you.

Knyazev looked attentively at the lawyer and for a moment was taken aback by surprise: in front of him stood "Nikolai Petrovich."

That means who the lawyer Ulyanov is!

So suddenly the incognito of a young revolutionary propagandist was revealed.

It was here, in a modest apartment on Bolshoi Kazachy Lane, that “Nikolai Petrovich,” or, to put it more clearly, Vladimir Ilyich, wrote the above-mentioned article “The Economic Content of Populism and Its Criticism in Mr. Struve’s Book.” Here, in all likelihood, he came up with his first real pseudonym - Tulin.

If in the working circles of the Petersburg side Vladimir Ilyich was called Nikolai Petrovich, then on Vasilyevsky Island he was known as Fedor Petrovich. Hence the abbreviated pseudonym “F. P.".

It is apparently useless to try to find out the origin of these two party nicknames. Obviously, they arose quite by accident. Their main property is their mass character, and yet the very fact of the duality of party nicknames (different in the two districts) speaks of their main purpose - to serve as conspiracy. It is interesting to note something else: from these conspiratorial nicknames, more precisely, from their common patronymic (Petrovich), in all likelihood, one of Lenin's pseudonyms originated - Petrov. The surname Petrov means, after all, the same thing as Petrovich, that is: the son of Peter.

Now it can be considered established that even during the use of the party nickname "Nikolai Petrovich" Vladimir Ilyich came up with the pseudonym "Petrov" for himself. This is evidenced by the memoirs of S. N. Motovilova, published relatively recently. 3

It turns out that back in 1895, while in Lausanne (Switzerland), Vladimir Ilyich, getting acquainted with the Motovilovs, introduced himself: "Petrov."

A few years later, in 1900 - 1901, dozens of letters from Vladimir Ilyich were signed in Russian: "Petrov" or in Latin: "Petroff".

Subsequently, the surname Petrov was supplemented with a name, and in Lenin's writings one can find the pseudonym " Iv. Petrov". The pseudonym "Petrov" had one very important advantage: it is a mass, very common surname in Russia and therefore did not attract attention.

* Now Ilyich Lane.

YOUNG "OLD MAN"

Does it happen that a person who is not yet twenty-five years old is called an old man? Usually not, but when Old man"- a party nickname or pseudonym, then this, of course, is quite possible.

If in the working circles of St. Petersburg Vladimir Ilyich was known as Nikolai Petrovich, if the Muscovites called him "Petersburg", then friends and comrades in the St. Petersburg "Union of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class" called him otherwise - "Old Man". Such was the party nickname of Lenin in 1893-1895.

But why "Old Man"? This question is answered in his memoirs about V. I. Lenin by one of his closest associates in the revolutionary struggle, and later by a prominent statesman and academician G. M. Krzhizhanovsky.

“For a bare forehead and great erudition,” writes Krzhizhanovsky, “Vladimir Ilyich had to pay with the nickname “Old Man”, which was in sharp contrast to his youthful mobility and youthful energy that was in full swing in him. But the deep knowledge with which this young man freely operated, that special tact and that critical dexterity with which he approached life's questions and the most diverse people, his extraordinary ability to place himself among the workers to whom he approached, as was rightly noted by Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaya, not as an arrogant teacher, but above all as a friend and comrade - all this firmly fixed the nickname we invented for him. one

Ts. S. Zelikson (Bobrovskaya) recalled that, having arrived in her native city of Velizh in 1896, she no longer heard about the “mysterious Tulin”, but “about the even more mysterious “Old Man”, who, in addition, is not an old man in years, but it is called so for reasons of pure conspiracy. 2

Lenin's party nickname "Old Man" can often be found in the revolutionary correspondence of those years. Subsequently, Vladimir Ilyich repeatedly used it as a pseudonym.

Many letters of that time have been preserved that begin with the words: (to such and such) from the Old Man. Here, for example, in February 1904, a letter to G. M. Krzhizhanovsky: “Hans from the Old Man”; letter to L. B. Krasin (May 1904): “Personal from the Old Man Horse.”* In the same 1904, Lenin wrote a letter to the Central Committee of the Party and began it like this: “The Old Man is writing.” The signature under the letter is the same: Old man. Other letters (for example, to F.V. Lengnik, I.I. Skvortsov, etc.) he signed like this: “Your Old Man” or “All Your Old Man”. And on two letters (to E. D. Stasova and F. V. Lengnik) in the same 1904, Vladimir Ilyich even signed like this: “The Old Man and Co.”

Lenin did not forget this pseudonym of his and two years later, upon returning to his homeland. This episode is curious in this respect. At the end of 1906, hiding in the Vaza dacha in Finland, Vladimir Ilyich once talked with S. V. Markov, who then served as a liaison between Lenin and the St. Petersburg party organization. Vladimir Ilyich gave the young party member to read Karl Liebknecht's pamphlet with his - Ilyich - foreword. When Markov carefully read the preface, Lenin asked him:

Have you already read The Old Man?.. 3

Lenin called himself an old man.

It is interesting to note that this party nickname of Vladimir Ilyich became a household name in the nineties. According to it, then the whole group of revolutionary Marxists, headed by Lenin, was called "old men", as opposed to the group of "young" led by I. V. Chernyshev. A group of "young" people propagated opportunist ideas.

And one more important point should be noted in connection with the pseudonym "Old Man".

At the beginning of this book it was mentioned that the disclosure of pseudonyms sometimes helps to establish the authorship of V. I. Lenin. This just refers to the pseudonym "Old Man".

In the 8th volume of the Complete Works of V. I. Lenin, a leaflet about the Russo-Japanese War was printed for the first time under the title "To the Russian Proletariat." 4 It was written in 1904 and published under the signature of the Central Committee. Until now, this leaflet has not been included in any of the collected works of V.I. Lenin, since it was not known exactly who its author was.

But relatively recently, while analyzing the unpublished letters of N. K. Krupskaya, the researchers found a mention that "The old man will write about the war ...". In another letter dated February 16, 1904, N. K. Krupskaya wrote to R. S. Zemlyachka and L. E. Galperin: “The old man wrote a leaflet about the war...” 5

And immediately everything became clear. "The old man" is after all Lenin! We compared the dates, compared the style of the leaflet with the style of Ilyich, and all doubts disappeared: the author of the leaflet was Vladimir Ilyich.

And how many more such anonymous articles, leaflets, leaflets, written by Lenin! And perhaps the deciphering of some other unknown pseudonym of Vladimir Ilyich will make it possible again and again to establish its authorship?

Not a single Leninist document can and must not remain anonymous! After all, everything that was created by the mighty genius of Lenin belongs to all the people, all mankind!

* Hans is the pseudonym of Krzhizhanovsky, the Horse is the secret nickname of Krasin.

ILYIN - SON OF ILYA

Returning at the beginning of 1900 from exile, Vladimir Ilyich stopped by Moscow. And immediately, the head of the Moscow secret police, Zubatov, hurried to inform his superiors in St. Petersburg: “... A well-known in literature (under the pseudonym “Ilyin”) representative of Marxism, Ulyanov, who had just served his term of exile in Siberia, arrived in the local capital ...” 1

Zubatov was not mistaken. Nickname Ilyin- one of the most common in Lenin. It is also given in the well-known pre-revolutionary critical-biographical dictionary of S. A. Vengerov. In the first volume of this dictionary (edition of 1915), one can read the following two lines: “Ilyin Vlad, a well-known economist and publicist. Nickname Ulyanova Vl. I. (Lenin)." 2

In any case, everyone who studies the works of V.I. Lenin met more than once with the pseudonym "Ilyin".

Back in November 1895, Vladimir Ilyich signed a letter to P. B. Axelrod from St. Petersburg to Zurich: “Your Ilyin.” Under this name, a collection of articles by Vladimir Ilyich was published in 1898 under the general title "Economic Studies and Articles", and in 1899 - his classic work "The Development of Capitalism in Russia".

A copy of the second edition of this book has been preserved, on the cover of which, next to the name and surname of the author printed in the printing house (Vladimir Ilyin), Lenin himself wrote by hand in Latin letters: Uljanow (Ulyanov).

Alias ​​"V. Ilyin” also signed the famous article by V.I. Lenin “Karl Marx”, published in the Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Granat Brothers Company. 3

By the way, not so long ago, under curious circumstances, four letters from Lenin were found related to the preparation for publication of the article “Karl Marx” and signed: V. Ilyin. The circumstances of this discovery are as follows. In 1942, one of the publishers of the Encyclopedic Dictionary sold his extensive library to Moscow University. The books have been released. One day a reader opened an old book from this library and found the said letters.

When Vladimir Ilyich began to use another, most famous for his pseudonym Lenin, he often added in brackets: Ilyin. For example, on the cover of V. I. Lenin’s famous work “Imperialism as the Highest Stage of Capitalism” * it says: “N. Lenin (Vl. Ilyin)."

It goes without saying that abbreviated aliases such as V. I., V. I - n, V. Il., I., originated from the same pseudonym.

Where did the pseudonym "Ilyin" come from?

It is not difficult to guess that this is, in fact, a modified form of Lenin's patronymic. After all, Ilyin and Ilyich mean the same thing - the son of Ilya.

In a number of official documents of Lenin at the end of the last century, this is what it says: Ulyanov Vladimir Ilyin. So, for example, a graduation diploma from St.

It is quite logical to assume that it was in his patronymic that Lenin chose the pseudonym "Ilyin" for himself.

Living under this name, Vladimir Ilyich once put liberal-minded bourgeois professors in a very awkward position. It was in Paris at the beginning of our century, during the years of Lenin's first emigration. At that time, the Russian Higher School of Social Sciences existed there. The leaders of this school did not sympathize with the Social Democrats, but when they needed a lecturer on the agrarian question, they decided to invite Ilyin, a well-known Marxist theorist and author of a number of legal works on the agrarian question. "Ilyin" accepted the invitation and began lecturing on the topic "Marxist views on the agrarian question in Europe and in Russia." Imagine the surprise and confusion of the organizers of these lectures when it soon became clear that Ilyin and Lenin were one and the same person! 4

Lenin himself called himself Ilyin, but our people most of all call him Ilyich.

V. I. Lenin only once called himself Ilyich. It was literally on the eve of the October uprising. Returning from Finland to Petrograd, Vladimir Ilyich illegally lived in the apartment of Margarita Vasilievna Fofanova on the Vyborg side. On the evening of October 24, having sent the hostess of the apartment with an order to N. K. Krupskaya, Lenin went to Smolny and left the following note on the table: “He went where you did not want me to go. Goodbye. Ilyich. 5

Ilyich! With what warmth and tenderness the Soviet people pronounce this word. They put into it the whole depth of their feelings and love for the great teacher. Recall the widespread expression "light bulb of Ilyich." It seems that these very words radiate a wonderful Leninist light!

It is not surprising that the word "Ilyich" not only named settlements and urban areas, factories and factories, parks and clubs were named - Lenin's patronymic turned into his own male name. Writer Lev Uspensky says that he met a Komsomol member in Armenia, whose name was Ilyich Petrosyan. And in Denmark, it turns out, there lives a poet with the same name. His name is Ilyich Johansen. 6

* This book was published in the summer of 1917 under a modified title: Imperialism as the Newest Stage of Capitalism. The circumstances of the publication of this book by V. I. Lenin and the pseudonyms associated with it will be discussed below.

BASIC AND MAIN

The name of Lenin, like a banner,
burns with a scarlet flame.
Rasul Rza

At the beginning of our century, a work by Vladimir Ilyich was published, signed by the then new pseudonym Lenin. It was the article Mr. "critics" in the agrarian question. Essay One", published in December 1901 in the journal Zarya. Thus, for the first time, Lenin's name appeared on the pages of the revolutionary press.

True, even earlier, in January of the same 1901, Vladimir Ilyich signed a letter to G. V. Plekhanov from Munich with the pseudonym "Lenin". one

In any case, since the beginning of 1902, this pseudonym has become the main and main pseudonym of Vladimir Ilyich.

We also find it in the already mentioned critical biographical dictionary of S. A. Vengerov. The second volume (ed. 1916) of the dictionary says: “Lenin N. is a well-known Marxist publicist, the pseudonym of V. I. Ulyanov.” 2

In March 1902, the famous book by Vladimir Ilyich “What is to be done?” was published, on the cover of which the author’s name appeared: Lenin.

This book aroused great interest among revolutionaries and leaders of the labor movement. The tsarist police also became interested in her in their own way. Already at the beginning of April - less than a month after the publication of the book - a special case number 872 was opened against her in the police department.

In the “Note for Memory”, compiled by one of the police officials, one can read the following lines: “About a month ago, N. Lenin’s pamphlet, which caused a great sensation, appeared abroad ...“ What is to be done? 3

However, the new pseudonym of Vladimir Ilyich at first confused the police cards. In the "Note" cited above, after the words "N. Lenin's pamphlet," the compiler notes in brackets: "the pseudonym of Iskra editorial board member Yuli Tsederbaum."

The tsarist police made a mistake in this case twice. The pseudonym "Lenin" never belonged to Zederbaum (later leader of the Mensheviks, known by his pseudonym "Martov"). Well, besides, even then there were serious differences between Martov and Lenin in their views on the party and on the future of the Russian revolution.

Soon it became widely known to everyone who was really hiding under the pseudonym "Lenin".

Speaking of the pseudonyms "Tulin" and "Old Man", we have already twice cited the memoirs of Zelikson (Bobrovskaya). Here is another excerpt from her book "Notes of an underground worker", concerning the pseudonym "Lenin".

Here is what she writes about this: “Since 1895, for seven years - in Warsaw, Velizh, Zurich, Kharkov under various names - Tulin, “Old Man”, Ilyin, Petrov - the image of a teacher flashed before me. Only in the summer of 1902, when I read What Is to Be Done? - a book that served us as such a wonderful guide to action - these names are concentrated in one thing - Lenin. 4

Today we can say more: the name "Lenin" has become not only the name of a person, but also entered the name of a great doctrine, the most militant, revolutionary doctrine that transforms the world. Is there a country on earth today where the word "Leninism" is not known?!

The word "Lenin" has become synonymous with the word "party". Remember, as Mayakovsky wrote:

We say - Lenin,

we mean -

We are speaking -

we mean -

Where did Lenin get his main pseudonym from? This question has come up more than once. Back in 1924, after the death of Vladimir Ilyich, the editors of the Moscow newspaper Komyacheyka turned to Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaya for clarification. This is what she then replied: “Dear comrades! I do not know why Vladimir Ilyich took the pseudonym “Lenin” for himself, I never asked him about it. His mother's name was Maria Alexandrovna. The deceased sister's name was Olga. The Lena events were already after he took this pseudonym for himself. He was not in exile on Lena. Probably, the pseudonym was chosen by chance, like the way Plekhanov once wrote under the pseudonym, Volgin. 5 The same explanation was given by the brother of Vladimir Ilyich - Dmitry Ilyich Ulyanov. In the branch of the Central Museum of V. I. Lenin in the city of Ulyanovsk there is a recording of a conversation with him on this topic. Dmitry Ilyich said:

"It so happened that Plekhanov took the name Volgin, probably, and Vladimir Ilyich took Lenin along the river in Siberia." 6 Psychologically, it is quite justified that the image of this mighty Siberian river could call the name Lenin in the mind of Vladimir Ilyich. Besides, Lenin is a classic Russian surname; it simply and naturally fits into the scheme of Russian surnames. One might think that this is why the pseudonym "Lenin" became the second surname of Vladimir Ilyich. *

So, most likely, "Lenin" from the name of the Lena River. It is curious that, apparently without knowing or suspecting this, the Mexican poet Jose Munoz Costa used the image of the Lena River in a poem dedicated to V. I. Lenin.

He wrote:

You justified your name Lenin.
You became Lena, a river full of water.
You were a mighty and free stream,
Fire of love and cutting metal.

It can also be assumed that the impetus for choosing the pseudonym "Lenin" was also acquaintance with the works of the well-known agronomist and public figure S. N. Lenin at that time. In his classic work "The Development of Capitalism in Russia" (1899), Vladimir Ilyich quotes from this author's article "Agricultural Tools and Machines".

* Note that such surnames are not uncommon among Russians. Let us recall some well-known surnames from literature - Pechorin, Onegin, Nevsky, Tomsky and others, formed from the names of rivers. By the way, N. K. Krupskaya at one time lived in St. Petersburg on a false passport in the name of Onegin.

WHAT DOES THE LETTER "H" MEAN?

In connection with the pseudonym "Lenin" another question arises. Every attentive reader of the works of V. I. Lenin will certainly pay attention to the fact that before the revolution, Vladimir Ilyich signed not just Lenin, but N. Lenin. And after the revolution, the first edition of the works of Vladimir Ilyich was published under the following author's title: “N. Lenin (V. Ulyanov)." What does the "N" stand for here? Of course, this is the initial letter of the name, but what?

This fact comes to mind. In 1921, the famous English writer and playwright Bernard Shaw sent one of his books to V. I. Lenin with the following inscription:

“To Nikolai Lenin, the only statesman in Europe who has the talent, character and knowledge corresponding to his responsible position. June 16, 1921 From Bernard Shaw. one

Bernard Shaw was not alone in calling Lenin Nikolai. The famous Czech poet Vitezslav Nezval once wrote a poem, which he gave the following title: “Proclamation of Nikolai Lenin”. This poem ended with these words: "Read its immortal lines - in the proclamation of Nikolai Lenin!".

It should be noted that abroad in the twenties, Lenin was often called Nikolai.

For the first time this name appeared in the foreign press in 1919 under the following circumstances. In October 1919, Vladimir Ilyich gave an interview to a correspondent for the American newspaper The Chicago Daily News. Lenin's answers were signed: “Wl. Oulianoff (N. Lenin)”, and in this form this interview was published in our country. In the American newspaper of October 27, 1919, it is not “N. Lenin" and "Nikolai Lenin".

A similar story happened with Vladimir Ilyich's preface to John Reed's famous book Ten Days That Shook the World. Vladimir Ilyich signed this preface, as usual at that time: “N. Lenin. In the New York edition of the book (in 1922) under this preface is the signature: "Nikolai Lenin".

This mistake was then repeated in the magazine "Literator" in an article about the book by John Reed.

Vladimir Ilyich himself never signed himself "Nikolai Lenin", and the editors of American publications, of course, had no right to arbitrarily, in their own way, disclose Lenin's initial. It is one thing when Shaw or Nezval wrote about Lenin, calling him Nikolai, and another thing when, without proper reason, the choice of this name is attributed to Vladimir Ilyich himself.

And by the way, maybe, in fact, Lenin took the initial of his secret party nickname "Nikolai Petrovich"? But, of course, an assumption is far from a proof.

PROUD NAME

The name of a person lives even after his death. It lives in the deeds that a person left behind. If a person was a builder, the houses, public buildings and structures built by him remained. If he was a forester, then for decades, centuries, the trees planted by him stand, giving people beauty and coolness.

The name of Lenin - the great creator and reformer - has remained for centuries and millennia. It lives in the names of cities and squares, canals and mountain peaks, factories and collective farms, universities and houses of culture - in a word, everywhere, in all our great and many-sided life.

The name of Lenin stepped far beyond the borders of our Motherland. It travels the world, knowing no boundaries, and everywhere calls people to fight, instills in them hope for a better future.

The Italian writer Giovanni Germanetto, in his Notes of a Barber, said that he saw the name of Lenin inscribed on the vaults of the Roman catacombs, carved on the hard stones of the Alpine rocks, in places where, it seems, only an eagle can climb. He met this name on the bronze doors of the Vatican, and on the wall of the cathedral in Florence, on prison walls and on monuments, in factories and schools.

The name of Lenin remained to live in the new names of the Soviet people. It is known that after the death of Vladimir Ilyich, the word "Lenin" in various combinations and anagrams* became a widespread name in our country. Who does not know such names as Vladlen, Vilen, Vladilena, Lenin, Ninel and others? Thousands of people proudly bear these names.

But the most interesting, perhaps, is that the word "Lenin" has become a name in its literal expression, without any changes. It is appropriate to note that in our country a surname, as a rule, cannot become a personal name, since it is formed according to different dictionary laws than a given name. For most other peoples, there is no formal difference in the formation of names and surnames **, and therefore the word "Lenin" could become a name. However, something else is important. The name "Lenin" appeared in a number of countries where the word itself was or is still under strict police prohibition.

Here are a few facts that were once reported in the press. In distant Portugal, languishing under the yoke of the fascist dictator Salazar, a man with the legendary name Lenin lives and lives. He was born in the sadly memorable year of 1924 in the city of Porto in the family of young workers Luis and Dolores. The parents who chose such a glorious name for their first child died on the barricades during the uprising of 1927, when little Lenin was only three years old.

Time passed, the boy grew up and, like his parents, became a worker. And then he felt what a formidable force for the exploiters lurks in his name! Lenin was endlessly summoned to the police, demanding only one thing - to change his name. The owners fired him from work, and again the same reason - an objectionable name for them. They tried by any means to get rid of the young worker, to deprive him of his life. But each time, the common people of the Portuguese city of Porto came out in defense of a man named Lenin.

And so he lives, a Portuguese with a legendary, undying name, surrounded by the hatred of enemies, the love and protection of friends. one

Sadder and more tragic was the fate of another person, who also bore the name Lenin. He was born in the same 1924, but not in Portugal, but in the capital of Greece - Athens. His father, the prominent Greek historian Janis Kordatos, also chose the name of the leader of the Russian revolution for his son. Lenin Kordatos grew up and became a communist. When asked about it, he answered with an embarrassed smile:

Can you doubt? Yes, I'm a communist too!

The second world war has come. In the terrible years of the Nazi occupation, Lenin Kordatos managed to save his life and his name. But in 1944, the Nazis were expelled from Greece; they were replaced by Greek home-grown fascists - hitos. In 1945, Lenin Kordatos was arrested.

What is your name? - the fascist executioners angrily asked him.

Lenin! The young man replied proudly.

You lie, you damn communist! - yelled at him the brutalized chitos.

Lenin, my name is Lenin! Kordatos kept repeating. The Nazis shot him. The young hero died defending his glorious and proud name! 2

On the island of Liberty - in Cuba, in the city of Trinidad, lives and lives a modest librarian, whose name is Lenin Trujillo. 3

When he walks through the streets of his small town, the townspeople greet him warmly and with a smile:

Buenos diez, Lenin! Hello Lenin!

And in Chicago, in this largest industrial center of the United States of America, the old communist worker Frank Pellegrino and his son and grandson are named Lenin 4 .

Lenin Kordatos, Lenin Trujillo, Lenin Pellegrino... How many more people proudly bear this glorious name?! But even more are those who bear the name Lenin in their hearts. There are millions and millions of them...

* An anagram is a permutation of letters in a word to form another word, for example: Lenin - Ninel (b).

** Let's recall the names and surnames of two famous American writers Upton Sinclair and Sinclair Lewis. The first "Sinclair" has a surname, the second has a given name. There are many such examples.

WHO WAS FREY?

We have somewhat deviated from the straight line of our narrative. Let us return to other pseudonyms of Vladimir Ilyich. Let us open the 6th volume of the Complete Works of V. I. Lenin and recall the years connected with the preparations for the Second Party Congress and with the development of the first party program.

It is in this volume that the draft of the first Program of the Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party was published. On the very first page we will see a footnote stating that the fundamental part of this project was proposed by one of the members of the editorial board (meaning the editorial board of the Iskra newspaper - I.V.) - Frey. one

Who was this Frey?

It is known that the editorial staff of Iskra at that time included Lenin, Martov, Potresov and members of the Emancipation of Labor group - Plekhanov, Axelrod and Zasulich. Six members of the editorial staff, but none of them with the last name Frey.

It turns out that Frey (more precisely William Frey) is the pseudonym of Vladimir Ilyich, which he used during the years of the first emigration. For the first time, Lenin signed a letter to L. I. Axelrod-Orthodox with this pseudonym on September 22 (October 5), 1901. 2 But he used it much later.

Many of Lenin's articles and letters are signed like this: William Frey, W. Frey, Frey and also in short: V. Fr., V. F., F.

In correspondence with the editors of Iskra, the version of the first Party Program written by Vladimir Ilyich on five notebook-size sheets was usually referred to as Frey's project. And much later, a set of manuscripts, documents and letters from Lenin, left by him in Switzerland, was called "Frey's suitcase." This “suitcase”, fortunately, was saved, and after the death of Vladimir Ilyich, the documents entered the Lenin Institute.

It happened that Vladimir Ilyich, referring to some of his published articles, called himself Frey. So, for example, in connection with the election campaign to the State Duma in 1912, he wrote to the editorial office of the newspaper Zvezda: “I strongly advise you to reprint Frey’s article from Zvezda No. 34 (17/XII. 11) ...” 3

Where did this pseudonym, somewhat unusual for Russian hearing, come from? Hard to say. One can only notice that in the 80s and 90s of the last century, the well-known Russian public figure Vladimir Konstantinovich Gaines also used the pseudonym "William Frey". Gaines's articles were published in the journals Otechestvennye Zapiski, Delo, and others. One of his articles, entitled V. Frey's Letter to L. N. Tolstoy, was banned by the tsarist censorship for criticizing the autocracy and the Orthodox Church.

Gaines' articles were, of course, known to V. I. Lenin. In addition, it can also be noted that Lenin's older brother, Alexander Ulyanov, was personally acquainted with Gaines.

Did Lenin borrow the pseudonym "William Frey" from Vladimir Gaines?

Maybe the foreign sound of the pseudonym seemed to him more conspiratorial and not inspiring suspicion?

In addition, the surname Frei in its German meaning could not but impress Lenin. After all, the German word "frei" means "free"!

The surname Frei Lenin also used under other circumstances - in connection with a visit to the Swedish Royal Library.

Libraries of Europe! Which of them did not see this diligent reader within their walls?! And each, like precious relics, keeps Lenin's autographs.

The public library in St. Petersburg, the Rumyantsevskaya library in Moscow, the British Museum Library in London, the National Library of Paris, the libraries of Zurich and Geneva and, finally, the Stockholm library ...

Probably, the fact that we want to talk about would have remained unknown for some time if the anniversary of the Lenin All-Union Library in Moscow had not arrived.

In 1962, during the celebration of the centenary of this library, the director of the Swedish Royal Library, Uno Villers, reported that in 1907, while in Stockholm, Lenin visited the library there three times. It was December 28, 29 and 31, 1907. For reasons of secrecy, he signed in the registration journal not with his real name, but with a fictitious name and surname John Frey (John Frey). This time Vladimir Ilyich replaced the name William with the name John. 4

The pseudonym "Frey" once again served its purpose!

THIS IS OUR MEYER!

So, during the years of the first emigration, Vladimir Ilyich most often used the pseudonyms "Petrov", "Frey", "Ilyin", "Lenin". But, strange to say, he asked that all correspondence to himself in Munich, where he lived at first, be addressed not to Petrov, not to Freya, but to Meyer.

Perhaps, for the purpose of secrecy, the correspondence was deliberately sent not to Lenin, but to an outsider? After all, in the conditions of emigration it was necessary to act more than once. Quite right, but this time Vladimir Ilyich himself remained the addressee. It is easy to verify this by reading Lenin's letter to P. B. Axelrod of March 7 (20), 1901. It is signed: "Meyer".

In the letter, Vladimir Ilyich indicated his address in German: "Herrn Georg Rittmeyer, Kaiserstrasse, 53/0 Miinchen." Inside: "fur Meyer".

In Russian, this address sounds like this: "To Mr. Georg Rittmeyer, Kaiserstraße, 53/0 Munich." Inside: "for Meyer".

Meyer is, of course, not a literary pseudonym, but a conspiratorial surname under which Lenin lived in Munich. Why did he choose such a surname? It seems that the above letter to Axelrod, more precisely, the address given in it, sheds some light on this.

Georg Rittmeyer was a German Social Democrat, owner of the hotel where Lenin lived. Doesn't his surname hide the key to Vladimir Ilyich's conspiratorial surname? It can be assumed that Lenin simply discarded the first syllable of a complex surname and received a short and, moreover, quite common surname Meyer in Germany. (This surname is as common for Germans as the surname Petrov or Ivanov is for Russians.)

The Czech journalist Miroslav Ivanov came to a similar conclusion in his book Lenin in Prague. one

One small but important detail also speaks in favor of this assumption: in the German spelling of the end of the surname Rittmeyer (Rittmeyer) the letter “u” (y) appears. If there was not the letter “u”, but “i”, then the surname would not be pronounced Rittmeyer, but Rittmeyer. Lenin signed the letter: "Meyer", not "Mayer". This means that this letter alone also testifies in favor of the fact that Vladimir Ilyich borrowed his illegal surname from the owner of the hotel.

Be that as it may, in Munich, in revolutionary-minded circles, everyone knew that the young Russian Social Democrat's name was Meyer. The children of the innkeeper were very fond of their guest and called him "Uncle Meyer." From time to time he gave them small gifts.

This Munich surname of Vladimir Ilyich became the cause of a misunderstanding, which N. K. Krupskaya spoke about in her memoirs.

Here is how it was. In January 1900, Vladimir Ilyich's term of exile ended. He returned to Russia, and in July of the same year he went abroad. N. K. Krupskaya was able to go to him only a few months later. Vladimir Ilyich promptly informed her of his Munich address. For reasons of secrecy, the correspondence was not conducted openly; the address was in the binding of a book that had been sent to a zemstvo official. This last book, as they say, "read out", and Nadezhda Konstantinovna did not receive the address. But she knew the address of a certain Modracek, whose name Lenin marked his letters with. Krupskaya decided that Vladimir Ilyich himself lived in Prague under the name of Modracek.

She came to Prague, found Modracek's house. The landlord came out and, to the surprise of Nadezhda Konstantinovna, declared:

I am Modracek.

However, he immediately guessed who exactly the Russian woman was looking for, and recommended that she go to Munich. In Munich, having arrived at the Rittmeyer's hotel, she met the owner's wife, and she immediately realized with whom she was dealing.

Are you Herr Meyer's wife, perhaps? - she turned to N. K. Krupskaya. - He is waiting for his wife from Siberia. - And then she pointed out to Nadezhda Konstantinovna the apartment in the backyard, in which Vladimir Ilyich lived with his sister Anna Ilyinichnaya.

The arrival of Nadezhda Konstantinovna necessitated a change of surname. The Bulgarian Social Democrats got Vladimir Ilyich a passport in the name of the Bulgarian I. Iordanov. Lenin had to let go of his “Bulgarian mustache”, and since then he and Nadezhda Konstantinovna were listed in the Munich police as a “doctor of jurisprudence jordan jordan and his wife Maritza. 2

And one more case connected with the pseudonym "Meyer". After the October Revolution, a Czech communist visited Moscow and talked with V. I. Lenin. Returning to Prague, this comrade sought out Modracek, who was discussed above, and asked him:

Have you met Lenin?

No, he replied. I have never seen Lenin.

The visitor was very surprised.

And the modest Czech worker really did not suspect that the young Russian revolutionary Meyer and the leader of the October Revolution, Lenin, were one and the same person!

Only in 1917, when he saw a portrait of V.I. Lenin in a newspaper, Modracek called his wife and told her:

Do you know who Lenin is? This is our Meyer! 4

However, not only Modraček did not know Lenin by sight at that time. The German comrade Xaver Streb writes in his pamphlet about Lenin's stay in Germany:

"Many of his German acquaintances suddenly learned that "Uncle Meyer", who loved children so much, "Doctor Iordanov", who was so willing to enter into disputes, stood at the head of the first workers' and peasants' state. 5

MR. RICHTER IN LONDON

On the banks of the wide muddy Thames,
In a remote corner of the working quarter
A simple, old, poor house stood.
Ashot Grashi

That house at 30 Holford Square is gone now. It was destroyed by a Nazi bomb during World War II. But at the beginning of our century, in 1902, this house was known to many.

One day a man knocked on the door of one of the apartments. The landlady, Mrs. Yo, came out.

May I see Mr. Ulyanov, that is, no, Mr. Richter? the stranger turned to her.

Yes, - after some thought, the hostess answered and escorted the guest to the apartment where Richter and his wife lived.

The stranger who asked Richter was Ivan Vasilyevich Babushkin. 1 A Richter, as readers, of course, guessed - Vladimir Ilyich himself. Under this name, he and Nadezhda Konstantinovna signed up, having arrived in London in April 1902 to establish and continue the publication of Iskra.

In the memoirs of N. K. Krupskaya, there is the following phrase on this subject: “They did not ask for any documents in London at that time, it was possible to sign up under any surname. We signed up as the Richters." 2

The surname Richter V. I. Lenin “prepared” for himself even before his arrival in London. In a letter from Munich, he wrote to N. A. Alekseev, a Bolshevik émigré who then lived in London, that letters would be sent to Alekseev for a certain Jacob Richter and these letters were intended for him, Vladimir Ilyich.

Arriving in London, Vladimir Ilyich and Nadezhda Konstantinovna rented two small, modest rooms in the house we have already spoken about. The owner of the apartment, Mrs. Yo, was very embarrassed by the unpretentious furnishings in the rooms of her tenants. But the apartment suited Lenin quite well, since it was located not far from the British Museum. Here, in the library of the museum, Vladimir Ilyich, as a rule, spent the first half of the day. By the way, we note that Karl Marx once worked within the walls of this library. 3

More than ten years ago, two letters from Lenin to the director of the British Museum, written in English, became known. In the first letter, Vladimir Ilyich asked for a ticket for the right to enter the reading room. Vladimir Ilyich signed this letter as follows: “With deep respect for you, sir. Jacob Richter. This letter was written on April 21, 1902. Three days later, in connection with the complications that arose, Lenin again turned to the director of the museum, with a second letter in which he wrote: “Sir! In addition to my letter

and in response to your Notice No. 4332, I submit a new recommendation from Mr. Mitchell. Respectfully yours, Jacob Richter. 4

Both of these documents were exhibited in 1953 in London at an exhibition dedicated to the bicentenary of the founding of the British Museum.

So, Richter! This pseudonym is not noted either in Masanov's dictionary or in the reference volume for the fourth edition of Lenin's Works. It is only in "Auxiliary indexes to the Chronological index ..."

Why did Lenin call himself Richter? Again a mystery. Maybe an old London newspaper and an entry in the library's register will help us solve it?

In 1961, the old Bolshevik N. A. Alekseev, whose name has already been mentioned above, sought out the English newspaper Ateneum, which was published in London on May 10, 1902. 5 What interested him in this old newspaper, yellowed from time to time? The fact is that it contains an announcement related to Lenin's stay in London. Alekseev, who lived there earlier, carried out all the preparations for the arrival of Vladimir Ilyich.

Here is the text of that announcement:

“A Russian LL. D. (and his Wife) would like to exchange Russian lessons for English with an English Gentleman (or Lady). - Address Letters Mr. J. Richter, 30 Holford Square, Pentonville. W.C."

The meaning of the announcement is as follows: “Russian LL. D. and his wife would be willing to take English lessons from an English gentleman or lady in exchange for Russian lessons. Send letters to Mr. J. Richter ... "*

Only the abbreviation “LL. D". This word is not in the English-Russian dictionary. It turns out that "LL. D "- the generally accepted abbreviation of the Latin words" Legum Doctor "; translated into Russian, they mean: "Doctor is right."

Now back to the British Museum Library Journal. There is such an entry: "Jakob Richter, doctor of rights ... library card No. 72453." Again, the doctor is right! Is it not in this title of "Mr. Richter" that the key to his surname is hidden? Let's try to figure it out.

Richter is a very common surname among Germans. What we noted about the surname Meyer applies to the surname Richter. This, apparently, decided Lenin's choice. The very word "Richter" in translation into Russian means "judge". This word, in turn, comes from another German word "Recht", which means "law" or in general "legal sciences".

Lenin, as you know, was a lawyer by training. He graduated from the Faculty of Law of St. Petersburg University with a first degree diploma, and this allowed him to be called a Doctor of Laws**.

In 1892, Vladimir Ilyich received official permission to conduct court cases and several times acted as a defense counsel in peasant and other cases in the Samara District Court. Should we not admit that it was precisely the profession of a lawyer that suggested to Vladimir Ilyich his illegal surname Richter?

Whether this is so or not is now, of course, impossible to ascertain. In any case, under the German surname Richter, Lenin lived in London for a whole year.

It was well known in party circles that Richter was Lenin. It is characteristic that in the announcement of the May Day 1903 in Alexander Park, published in the London newspaper Justice, it is said that N. Lenin will speak at the May Day. Exactly Lenin, not Richter!

N.K. Krupskaya wrote in her memoirs that the landlady of the apartment, Mrs. Yo, always considered her and Vladimir Ilyich to be Germans, which was probably due to their purely German surname.

So this surname has served its purpose!

* After the publication of this announcement, Vladimir Ilyich immediately had three teachers and at the same time a student. They were: a respectable old man who worked in a London publishing firm, a certain Mr. Rayment, an office worker Williams, and also Yong - a worker.

** Arriving in Krakow in 1912, Lenin, when questioned by the police, also testified that he had a diploma of a "Doctor of Laws."

"UNKNOWN KARPOV"

The tribune was a battlefield ...
Sergei Orlov

In 1905 a revolution broke out in Russia. It was the first people's revolution of the era of imperialism - the "dress rehearsal", as Lenin later called it.

Vladimir Ilyich languished in a foreign land; he was drawn to his homeland, to the very thick of the revolutionary masses. And so, at the end of November 1905, Lenin arrived in St. Petersburg and plunged headlong into revolutionary work.

Soon, however, the tsarist secret police got on the trail of Vladimir Ilyich. He was forced to leave St. Petersburg and move, as they said then, to "near emigration." The place of this near emigration was Finland, which, although it was part of the Russian Empire, enjoyed a certain autonomy.

Lenin then lived in the village of Kuokkala (now Repino) and once visited the capital of Finland - Helsingfors.

Professor V. M. Smirnov, with whom Vladimir Ilyich stayed during his visit to Helsingfors, recalls that his mother called Lenin "a Russian professor." She did not know and did not suspect that the famous scientist, professor of Moscow University M. M. Kovalevsky once remarked: “What a good professor could have come out of Lenin!”

“The title” of a professor, writes V. M. Smirnov, “was not too brilliant” for Vladimir Ilyich!” one

But Lenin was not up to the professorial chair! A revolution began in Russia, and Vladimir Ilyich devoted himself entirely to it.

Hiding in Finland, he nevertheless often came to St. Petersburg. He spoke at party and workers' meetings: he sharply criticized the Mensheviks and defended the tactics of the Bolsheviks in relation to the State Duma.

The majority in the First Duma was won by the bourgeois party of Cadets. In order to strengthen their influence among the workers, the Cadets decided to hold a large popular meeting in St. Petersburg on May 9, 1906. This rally took place in the "People's House" of Countess Panina on Tambovskaya Street*.

Petersburg intelligentsia was invited to the meeting; there were also many workers. The hall was packed. One after another, members of the Cadet Party spoke - well-known professors, lawyers, deputies of the State Duma. They spoke beautifully, smoothly, shielding their party in every possible way and trying to mislead the workers.

The speakers were applauded. Many workers were confused: "Are the Cadets telling the truth?"

But the chairman of the rally, Countess Panina, announced:

Our next speaker is Mr. Karpov**.

A short stocky man in a simple and somewhat shabby suit stepped onto the stage with a swift step. Bowing politely to the chairwoman, he began his speech.

Comrades! he turned to the workers.

At first, the audience listened somewhat indifferently. People asked themselves the question: “Who is this Karpov? What party is he from?

The audience didn't know this. True, some people were familiar with the peculiar squinting of the eyes, the characteristic gesture of the orator's hand. And soon many of those present at the meeting recognized Ilyich in the “unknown Karpov”. He exposed the Cadets with such iron logic and smashed the Mensheviks so that there could be no doubt. Only Lenin could speak so clearly and convincingly!

One of the oldest communists, A. G. Shlikhter, many years later recalled: “... What the “unknown” Karpov said riveted, captured with novelty and surprise ...” 2

And here is what the worker of the Putilov factory S. V. Markov, who was present at the rally, later wrote about Lenin’s speech: “We were delighted with his speech ... That evening our hearts were filled with bright joy and inspired with the hope that our street holiday..." 3

In a word, as Vladimir Ilyich spoke, the attention of the audience grew more and more; more and more applause began to be heard.

The results of this meeting were very instructive. Not only did V. I. Lenin manage to deliver a bright Bolshevik speech at an open meeting, in front of the police, he also proposed his own resolution. And, what the organizers of the rally did not expect at all, the Karpov-Lenin resolution was adopted by an overwhelming majority of votes! This resolution ended with such prophetic words: "The meeting expresses confidence that the proletariat will continue to stand at the head of all the revolutionary elements of the people." Excited and agitated, singing revolutionary songs, the workers went out into the street. Some workers tore their red shirts and made flags out of them. Disguised policemen and spies rushed about in vain. Karpov disappeared, as if dissolving into a mass of workers...

But less than a month passed - and Karpov showed up. Using again this secret surname, Vladimir Ilyich on June 6 delivered a report to the delegates of the All-Russian Congress of Folk Teachers in St. Petersburg, and a month later, on July 7, at a meeting of agitators, propagandists and party workers. At this meeting, Lenin made a report on the tactics of the Social Democratic faction in the State Duma and proposed an appropriate resolution.

The history of these speeches by V. I. Lenin is a vivid example of how pseudonyms helped him in party work.

Lenin later used the name Karpov more than once as a literary pseudonym. So, in 1917 and 1918, a number of articles by Vladimir Ilyich were signed: N. Karpov. And even earlier, in 1913, some of Lenin's works were signed with an abbreviated version of this pseudonym ( Kar - ov, K - pov, K - in and etc.).

Around the time when the pseudonym "Karpov" arose, another secret nickname of Vladimir Ilyich dates back, which is very rarely mentioned in historical and memoir literature. It's about the party nickname " Ivan Ivanovich”, which became famous at the end of 1906, when Lenin was hiding in the dacha “Vaza” in Finland. This nickname was reported by Vera Rudolfovna Menzhinskaya to S. V. Markov, who acted as a liaison between Vladimir Ilyich and the St. Petersburg Committee of the Party.

We have already had a chance to tell about one episode from Markov's activity, connected with the pseudonym "Old Man". It is possible that Markov already knew who the "Old Man" was, he had already met "Karpov" (after all, Markov was a participant in the rally in the "People's House"), but Markov apparently had no idea about "Ivan Ivanovich". Arriving for the first time at the Vaza dacha, Markov turned to Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaya:

I need to see Ivan Ivanovich, I'm from Vera Rudolfovna...

Nadezhda Konstantinovna left, and immediately Vladimir Ilyich came out to him.

“I immediately recognized him,” writes Markov. 4

* There, in building No. 63, the Central Club of workers of the Oktyabrskaya Railway is now located.

** The poet Nikolai Brown in his poem "Comrade Karpov" made a historical inaccuracy. He writes: “Here the new speaker was announced to the meeting: - Comrade Karpov has the floor ...” Countess Panina, who presided over the rally, could not call Karpov a comrade.

SIGNOR DRIN-DRIN

Let's make a reservation in advance: this is not a party nickname, not a literary pseudonym, and not even a conspiratorial surname, but a playful nickname given to Lenin by Italian fishermen. This story characterizes Lenin the man to such an extent, his cheerful and sociable disposition, his love for a good joke, that, really, it is worth telling about it.

It was in April 1908. Vladimir Ilyich came to the island of Capri to visit Alexei Maksimovich Gorky. They talked about party and literary affairs. It was then that Lenin advised that Gorky should write about the years of his childhood and youth. Thanks to Lenin's advice, the famous Gorky trilogy "Childhood", "In People", "My Universities" later appeared.

Together with A. M. Gorky, Vladimir Ilyich visited the Neapolitan Museum, climbed Vesuvius, admired the wonderful, colorful nature of Italy.

It is known that Lenin liked to hunt and go fishing at his leisure. And there, on Capri, accompanied by Italian fishermen, Lenin went fishing with Gorky. The fishermen of Capri immediately noticed Ilyich's surprisingly sincere laughter. According to A. M. Gorky, the old fisherman Giovanni Spadaro once said about Lenin:

Only an honest person can laugh like that. one

On fishing, that curious nickname was born, which is placed in the title of this chapter. Both adults and especially Italian children invariably greeted Lenin with a joyful exclamation:

Oh signor Drin-drin!

Twelve years later, in 1920, when V. I. Lenin's fiftieth birthday was celebrated, A. M. Gorky spoke about this curious nickname for the first time in a speech at the anniversary meeting. 2 Subsequently, after Lenin's death, in his well-known memoirs of him, Gorky also devoted several lines to this nickname.

How did it come about?

The Bulgarian comrade Pyotr Raichev, who was visiting Capri in 1908, once asked Vladimir Ilyich about the origin of the nickname "signor Drin-drin." In his essay, he quotes the following answer from Lenin:

“Once an Italian fisherman expressed a desire to teach me how to fish “with my finger” - a line without a rod. I tried and, imagine, I caught a big fish. Overjoyed at my good fortune, I shouted loudly, “Drip, drop!” And got himself in trouble. Everyone in Capri now calls me Signor Drin-drin.

“But you think that makes me sad? Oh, on the contrary, it gives me pleasure. 3

Of course, this did not upset Ilyich! With his characteristic good nature and sense of humor, he took this comic nickname in the same way as in his youth the nickname "Old Man" or "Tyapkin-Lyapkin".

One more curious episode can be cited that characterizes the attitude of V. I. Lenin to such nicknames. In 1913, in Switzerland, he once met a village teacher, V. S. Kurbatova (Vlasova), who had just arrived from Russia. Lenin was very happy about this acquaintance, and when asked by the teacher what his name was, Vladimir Ilyich replied:

"My name... You see, one little girl... a crybaby called me "Uncle Vodya." Call me that and you ... "

The fact that "Uncle Vodya" is V. I. Lenin, the teacher found out only five years later during the First All-Russian Congress of Teachers, at which Vladimir Ilyich made a short welcoming speech. 4

But let us return for a moment once again to the nickname "signor Drin-drin." When Lenin left Capri, the fishermen kept asking A. M. Gorky:

How does Signor Drin-drin live? The king won't catch him, will he?

No, the king did not succeed in seizing "Signor Drin-drin." Less than ten years have passed. The Great October Socialist Revolution took place in Russia. The Soviet government came to power, and V. I. Lenin became its head. Once (this was in Petrograd, in 1918), after a report on the international situation, Vladimir Ilyich noticed among his listeners an old acquaintance from the island of Capri, the Bulgarian Pyotr Raichev. Now it was a famous opera singer. Vladimir Ilyich greeted him, then laughed and asked:

Do you still remember signor Drin-drin? .. 5

LOYKO OR LESCHENKO?

In essence, this will be a small dispute with the "Dictionary of Pseudonyms" by I.F. Masanov about one Leninist pseudonym.

The time when this pseudonym became known is February - April 1912. Vladimir Ilyich then lived legally in Paris under his real name. In his letters, he gave the following address: Paris, XIV, rue Marie Rose, 4. V. Ulyanov.

He usually signed letters to his relatives with the initials V. U., and business, party correspondence - N. Lenin.

In Russia at that time they were preparing for the elections to the Fourth State Duma, and while in exile, Vladimir Ilyich devoted much time and attention to the election campaign. Back in December 1911, and then in January 1912, the legal Bolshevik newspaper Zvezda published several articles by V. I. Lenin on the elections to the Duma, which were signed by the pseudonyms “William Frey” and “V. Frey." Around the same time, his article was published in the Enlightenment magazine signed “K. Tulin.

The pseudonyms "Frey" and "Tulin" are already well known to us. But on February 19, and then on April 1, 1912, two articles by Vladimir Ilyich appeared in the same newspaper Zvezda, also about elections. They are signed by a new, unfamiliar pseudonym - F. L - ko. 1 This pseudonym is mentioned twice in the very text of the second article, which is called "Bad Defense of Liberal Labor Policy".

Ironically about Martov's unsuccessful controversy, Vladimir Ilyich writes that he - Martov, "having defeated F. L -ko, "wounded" V. Frey, who de "oppresses in the same direction"". 2 From this quotation, by the way, we can conclude that Martov, to whom the pseudonym "Frey" was well known, apparently did not know who "F. L-ko.

Below in the same article we read: "If Martov is right, then the reader must blame me, F.L-ko..."3

So why is F. L - to "? The letter "F" is not uncommon in the pseudonyms of Lenin - remember "F. P., F. F.", party nickname "Fyodor Petrovich", etc.

And what should "L-ko" mean? Masanov's dictionary says this: L - to F. (i.e., F. Loiko). 4

The pseudonym "Loiko" vividly reminds us of the name of one of the characters in M. Gorky's story "Makar Chudra". The story was published in 1892. Maybe twenty years later Vladimir Ilyich decided to use this name for his pseudonym? It is possible, of course, but unproven!

Masanov's dictionary contains a reference to the "Bibliographic index to the XX (additional) volume of the first edition of the Collected Works of V. I. Lenin", compiled by B. S. Schneerson. However, in this index the pseudonym "F. L - ko" is only mentioned, 5 but not deciphered.

Perhaps I.F. Masanov had other reasons for such an explanation, but, unfortunately, it is not possible to find out, since Masanov is no longer alive.

What other surname can mean "L - ko"?

Let's remember some suitable surnames: Levchenko, Lyubchenko, Leshchenko ...

Involuntarily, the last of the named surnames attracts attention - Leshchenko. It can be found more than once in the historical-party literature and in the memoirs of V. I. Lenin. This surname appears in one of Ilyich's own notebooks. In his alphabet book for addresses and phone numbers there is this entry:

Leshchenko Dm. Il. Lakhtinskaya, 25/20, apt. 17". 6

Who was D.I. Leshchenko and what was his relation to V.I. Lenin? Dmitry Ilyich Leshchenko, an old member of the party, had known Vladimir Ilyich since the time of the first Russian revolution. In 1906, he was the secretary of the Bolshevik newspapers Volna and Ekho, and shared common party affairs and interests with Lenin.

In his memoirs about Vladimir Ilyich, Leshchenko writes that he often met with Lenin in 1906 in St. Petersburg, then at the dacha in Kuokkale, where Lenin was hiding, in London at the Unity Congress, in 1911 in Paris, etc. 7

V. I. Lenin often visited Leshchenko’s apartment, where editorial meetings were held, and on May 9 (22) after the famous speech of the “unknown Karpov” at a rally in the “People’s House” by Countess Panina, Lenin, as N. K. Krupskaya testifies, went to him to spend the night. eight

Much later, in the summer of 1917, during the last underground of Ilyich, Leshchenko photographed him and helped to make a fake document.

In a word, Vladimir Ilyich was well acquainted with Leshchenko, and shortly before he wrote an article signed “F. L-ko”, met him in Paris.

So isn't it logical to assume that it was the surname Leshchenko that became the basis for the pseudonym "L - ko"?

Of course, such an assumption requires proof, which, unfortunately, we cannot provide. Therefore, the question “Loiko or Leshchenko?” continues to be open...

NO, NOT ONLY THE READER!

"Truth" - white wings,
that Lenin gave me.
Abd Al-Wahhat Al-Bayati

The readers of Pravda, of course, paid attention to the fact that from mid-June 1962, more precisely from the number 16023, a laconic inscription appeared in the upper left corner of the first page of the newspaper: “The newspaper was founded on May 5, 1912 by V. I. Lenin” .

Yes, everyone knows this: Pravda was organized on the instructions and under the direct leadership of Lenin.

In 1962, when the fiftieth anniversary of Pravda was celebrated in our country, the first issue of the newspaper was exhibited in the Saltykov-Shchedrin Leningrad Public Library. It is impossible to look at this precious relic of our communist press without deep spiritual emotion. How much a newspaper sheet yellowed by time can sometimes tell!

In the upper right corner of the newspaper there is the address of the office and the editorial office, and under the heading on the left, in a frame of typographic curlicues, a long list of authors who have agreed to cooperate in the newspaper is printed. There are the names of writers Maxim Gorky and Demyan Bedny, well-known party journalists M. Olminsky and V. Vorovsky, an outstanding figure in the international labor movement Rosa Luxembourg and many other prominent public and political figures...

But where is the name of the initiator and organizer of the newspaper?

Lenin's name is not on the list. But you can easily find another name that is well known to us - Ilyin. It probably went like this. The name of Lenin - the famous revolutionary and party leader - was too familiar to the censors and the police; Ilyin was better known as a theoretical scientist. At first, this surname could go unnoticed and not cause unnecessary complications. The following fact also speaks of its convenience for conspiracy. In the address book "All Petersburg" for any pre-revolutionary year, there are many dozens of Petersburgers with the surname Ilyin. So, in 1912, when the first issue of Pravda came out, in this book you can find 172 Ilyins, including 14 Vladimir Ilyins, but there are only four people with the surname Lenin. Naturally, finding Ilyin by the police would be many times more difficult than finding Lenin. In addition, two Ilyins are mentioned in the list of authors. Apparently, both Vladimir Ilyich and the editors took this circumstance into account when they included Lenin's old pseudonym in the list of collaborators.

In any case, Vladimir Ilyich contributed much and fruitfully to Pravda. After all, he specially moved from Paris to Krakow, closer to Russia, in order to better manage the newspaper. It was easier to keep in touch with Russia from Krakow than from Paris. Sometimes it was even possible to forward letters with messengers crossing the Russian-Austrian border, they dropped them into a mailbox on the Russian side. This aroused less suspicion.

However, Lenin not only wrote to Pravda, but also received a lot of correspondence from Russia. After all, even while in exile, he was connected with the working class of Russia as closely as many revolutionaries who lived in Russia were not connected.

It was not easy to send correspondence: after all, both the Russian and Austrian police were watching Ilyich and his correspondence. I had to come up with all sorts of tricks, send letters to rather strange, at first glance, addresses. Who would have thought, for example, that the envelope with the address: “Germany, Breslau, Humboldtstrasse, 8, cigar manufacturer Mr. Gustav Tietze” contained an important letter for V. I. Lenin. 1 The tsarist gendarmes had no idea about this, and, incidentally, the “Mr. manufacturer” himself did not know this either. On the other hand, letters to Lenin arrived more or less accurately and provided him with abundant material for his articles and correspondence.

In 1912-1914, Lenin wrote almost daily to Pravda; during this time, more than 280 Lenin's articles and notes were published on its pages. Many articles are printed without any signature, others are signed by a variety of pseudonyms. 2

It is easy to imagine how furious and angry the police and gendarme officials were when they opened a fresh issue of Pravda every morning. After all, they were well aware that N. Lenin, V. Frey, V. Ilyin were one and the same person.

But the authors of other articles, for example Layman, Silin, Karic, Statistician, Pravdist or Reader, did not cause much concern among the Okhrana. And the ranks of the police and censorship were unaware that these were the pseudonyms of V. I. Lenin!

What is the origin of the pseudonyms now named? Some of them become clear after reading the text and content of the articles. Here, for example, is an article containing a number of statistics. She signed: Statistician. Everything is clear here.

Other pseudonyms, as it were, follow from the titles of articles: sometimes they have a clearly ironic connotation. Let's say, speaking of the clergy, Lenin signs the article: Layman. 3 Ironically about an article published under the pseudonym "Skeptic" in the liberal newspaper "Rech", Vladimir Ilyich signs his article: Non-liberal skeptic. 4

Two or three more similar examples. The article dedicated to the opening of the State Duma, Vladimir Ilyich signs: Non-MP. 5

Although V. I. Lenin daily supervised the activities of the Bolshevik faction of the Duma, he himself was not a deputy.

Talking about Prince Meshchersky's article in the reactionary journal Grazhdanin, Lenin remarked with irony: "A true observation." Isn't that where the signature under the article comes from - Observer? 6

The number of such examples could be increased. There are also pseudonyms that are directly related to Pravda. One article, for example, is signed like this: Regular reader of Pravda", 7 the other is even shorter - Reader. 8

Yes, Vladimir Ilyich was a regular and careful reader of Pravda! Who does not know the wonderful photograph taken by P. Otsup - “Lenin is reading Pravda”?! This wonderful picture inspired the Belarusian poet Petrus Brovka to write such lyrical lines:

The sun goes across the vast country Inextinguishable, like our aspiration.

The world is waking up.

I'm happy -

Pravda is read by Lenin.

But was Lenin the only reader of Pravda? No, he daily supervised it, directed the work of the editorial board, in the full sense of the word he was the soul of the newspaper!

Therefore, another Leninist pseudonym of that time should be considered more in line with the actual state of affairs. We're talking about an alias Pravdist. 9 It was Vladimir Ilyich who was the first and chief Pravdist.

alias-paradox

Everyone who has been to the Central Museum of V. I. Lenin in Moscow, could not help but pay attention to the large cabinet, which exhibited books in different languages. Here is only a part of the literature that Vladimir Ilyich studied when he wrote his work "Imperialism, as the highest stage of capitalism." Hundreds of books and pamphlets, statistical collections and journal articles published in different countries of the world in different languages, he had to read and outline in order for a book of one hundred printed pages to appear. Meanwhile, the preparatory materials for the book alone (extracts, abstracts, rough drafts), the well-known Notebooks on Imperialism, make up a solid volume - about eight hundred pages.

V. I. Lenin began working on Imperialism in 1915, and by the summer of 1916 the manuscript was ready. The book was to be published in St. Petersburg by the Parus publishing house. M. N. Pokrovsky, a well-known Bolshevik historian, who then lived in Paris, was appointed its editor. And now Vladimir Ilyich sends a completely rewritten manuscript by registered post from Switzerland to France addressed to M. N. Pokrovsky.

However, the addressee did not receive the parcel. In 1916, as you know, the First World War was still going on, and the French military authorities confiscated the manuscript.

Then Vladimir Ilyich decided to resort to the old tried and tested method of underground revolutionaries and, sending the manuscript rewritten on the thinnest paper, sealed it up in the bindings of two large format books. The books were sent first from Bern to Geneva, from there to the suburbs of Paris - So, and already from France - to Russia, to St. Petersburg. Only in such a roundabout way was it possible to deliver the manuscript to the publisher. one

And finally, in July 1917, after the February Revolution, the work of V. I. Lenin came out of print under a slightly changed title: "Imperialism, as the latest stage of capitalism." On the cover and on the title page of the book was the name of the author: “N. Lenin (Vl. Ilyin)."

It should be noted that at the last moment the publishers were afraid of the revolutionary content of the book and removed the name of the publisher from the cover. Such an attitude towards the work of V. I. Lenin is quite understandable: after all, in the leadership and apparatus of the Parus publishing house there was a dominance of the Mensheviks, who clearly did not like Lenin's ideas.

All these circumstances became known relatively recently. 2 But the question is: why are we talking about all this, what does this have to do with the pseudonyms of V. I. Lenin? The most direct: four, and possibly five pseudonyms of Vladimir Ilyich are associated with the book "Imperialism, as the highest stage of capitalism." We have already spoken about two (“N. Lenin” and “Vl. Ilyin”); they are already widely known. The rest will be discussed below.

When Lenin sent his manuscript to Paris for the first time, foreseeing the censorship complications that his name might cause, he wrote to M. N. Pokrovsky: “As for the author’s name, I would prefer my usual pseudonym, of course. If it is inconvenient, I propose a new one: N. Lenivtsyn. 3

Here on this pseudonym we want to hold the attention of readers.

Lenivtsyn! Isn't it a paradox?.. A man who all his life was a tireless worker who did not know rest, decides to call himself ... Lenivtsyn! It is worth recalling the result of what enormous, literally titanic labor and mental effort, this book itself was written in order to see once again how the literal meaning of the pseudonym does not correspond to the true character of the author.

However, there can be no doubt. The pseudonym "Lenivtsyn" was prepared by Vladimir Ilyich while still working on the manuscript, long before its publication. You can be convinced of this by reading Lenin's Notebooks on Imperialism.

In the notebook "y" ("gamma") there is such an entry: "Lenivtsyn. Title: "The main features of modern capitalism." 4

So, back in 1915, Lenin prepared this pseudonym for himself. How could it have arisen? Hard to say. But it is worth comparing the main pseudonym of Vladimir Ilyich (“N. Lenin”) with the newly proposed one (“N. Lenivtsyn”), as their common initial (“N.”) is striking, as well as the same first four and last letters of the surname.

Maybe Vladimir Ilyich just made an insert into his main pseudonym (-vtsy-)? How to know? In any case, the fact remains that this pseudonym belongs to Lenin.

And one more possible pseudonym. Rereading the correspondence between A. M. Gorky and M. N. Pokrovsky, connected with the publication of Lenin's work, we learn the following. In a letter to Pokrovsky dated September 29, 1916, Gorky wrote: “Yes, a pamphlet Ilyinsky(Italics mine. - I. V.) is really excellent, and I completely agree with you: it is necessary to publish it in its entirety, but - outside the series. 5

What brochure are you talking about? And who is Ilyinsky? It turns out that A. M. Gorky had in mind the book of V. I. Lenin "Imperialism, as the highest stage of capitalism." But why - Ilyinsky? After all, Lenin's pseudonym was not "Ilyinsky", but "Ilyin". Maybe Gorky made a mistake (although the name Ilyinsky is mentioned twice in the letter), or maybe in other letters unknown to us, another pseudonym of Vladimir Ilyich - Ilyinsky really appeared?

This question remains open. But there is also a fifth pseudonym associated with Lenin's work "Imperialism, as the highest stage of capitalism."

WHY "IVANOVSKY"?

In 1918, the classic work of V. I. Lenin "The State and Revolution" was published. The book has the following subtitle: "The Teaching of Marxism on the State and the Tasks of the Proletariat in the Revolution."

In this work, Vladimir Ilyich restored the views of Marx and Engels, distorted by the opportunists, and creatively developed the Marxist doctrine of the state.

On the cover of the book are printed two pseudonyms of the author: “V. Ilyin" and - in brackets - "N. Lenin.

Let's open the 33rd volume of the Complete Works of V. I. Lenin. We will find here not only the cover, but also a photocopy of the first page of the State and Revolution manuscript. one

Any manuscript (even if not genuine, but a photocopy) always makes some special impression: it seems to breathe the living breath of the author's work from it.

Let us consider carefully the first page of Lenin's work. On a yellow sheet of paper, next to the title underlined thrice, Vladimir Ilyich's handwritten name of the author, but this is not Ilyin or Lenin, but ... Ivanovsky. The initials are right there: F. F. What's the matter? Why "Ivanovsky"?

It turns out that Vladimir Ilyich intended to publish his book under this pseudonym, otherwise it would have been confiscated by the Provisional Government. Fortunately, while the book was being prepared for publication, a socialist revolution took place in Russia, the book came out after October, and the need for a new pseudonym disappeared.

But where could the pseudonym "Ivanovsky" come from? Before trying to answer this question, let us recall the events of the time when Lenin conceived and began to write his book.

In July 1917, the Provisional Government finally threw off its mask and acted as a clearly bourgeois and counter-revolutionary government. It issued an order for the arrest and prosecution of Vladimir Ilyich, presenting him with a monstrous slanderous accusation of espionage. The persecution of Lenin, which began back in April, immediately after his return to Russia, took on a wild and unbridled character. There was a real danger that the enemies of the revolution would kill Lenin.

Under these conditions, Vladimir Ilyich, fulfilling the decision of the Central Committee of the Party, was forced to go underground. At first, under the guise of a Finn mower, he hid in Razliv. Here he began work on the book "State and Revolution". But the summer ended, it became cold, the autumn rains poured down, and it was impossible to stay longer in Razliv. And besides, it became dangerous there, since suspicious "hunters" appeared from time to time in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bLenin's hut.

The party decided to send Ilyich to Finland, where he could live for some time in safety. But how to cross the border? She was strictly guarded. And then they decided to get Lenin a forged document in the name of a worker at the Sestroretsk arms factory and, having made him up accordingly, send him across the border with this document.

Many probably know the Leninist photograph of that time. A completely unfamiliar face is looking at us from it. The work cap is pushed back, and strands of hair fall from under it onto the forehead, the mustache and goatee are shaved off. So unrecognizably the appearance of Ilyich was changed.

After Lenin was made up, Dmitry Ilyich Leshchenko, already known to us, came to Razliv and photographed Ilyich.

The necessary document volunteered to get a worker of the Sestroretsk arms factory N. A. Emelyanov. In his memoirs about Lenin, he said that he got five factory passes with different surnames. 2 Vladimir Ilyich chose a pass ticket in the name of Konstantin Petrovich Ivanov*. Why Ivanova? Probably because this most common surname in Russia should not have caused any particular suspicion in Finland.

Under the surname Ivanov, Lenin spent about two weeks in the small village of Yalkala, lost among the forests and lakes of the Karelian Isthmus **, and then moved to the capital of Finland, Helsingfors (now Helsinki).

In Helsingfors, Vladimir Ilyich lived on a certificate in the name of K. P. Ivanov in different apartments - with the Finnish Social Democrat Gustav Rovno and others. Here he worked hard and productively - he wrote a number of articles and finished the book "State and Revolution". In his letters from Helsingfors, and then from Vyborg, Lenin signed some letters with this new surname of his - Ivanov or abbreviated - K. Iv.

Shall we not admit that the conspiratorial surname Ivanov, under which Ilyich lived, became the source for the pseudonym "Ivanovsky"?

As for the initials of F. F., they were found in the writings of V. I. Lenin before. Thus, the article “The Significance of the Elections in St. Petersburg”, published on July 1, 1912 in the newspaper “Nevskaya Zvezda”, was also signed “F. F."

In a word, it seems quite probable that the pseudonym "Ivanovsky" is formed from the conspiratorial surname Ivanov. This version would have looked more or less plausible if it had not been refuted ... by V. I. Lenin himself.

The fact is that Lenin intended to use the pseudonym "Ivanovsky" about a year before the start of work on the book "State and Revolution", when he was preparing for publication his other work - "Imperialism, as the highest stage of capitalism." This is exactly the fifth alias that we mentioned above. The circumstances associated with this pseudonym became known relatively recently.

In 1958, new Leninist documents were published, including several letters to M.N. Pokrovsky, from which we learned all this. Thus, in a letter written between August 5 and 31, 1916, Lenin informed Pokrovsky: “I am afraid that my letter has also been copied***. I asked there, if it is inconvenient to take the usual pseudonym (V. Ilyin), take: N. Lenivtsyn. Now we need to take another: V. I. Ivanovsky, at least. 3

The initials of V. I. do not need explanation, and the name Ivanovsky, as we see, was already prepared in 1916 by Lenin, who did not suspect at all that a year later he would have to live under the name Ivanov.

This means that the explanation given by us turns out to be untenable and the origin of the pseudonym "Ivanovsky" remains unclear. Most likely, Lenin simply accidentally chose this rather common Russian surname.

* Note that N. A. Emelyanov made some factual inaccuracies in his story, which, however, do not change the essence of the matter. So, he calls passes tickets certificates (in fact, there were two documents: a pass ticket and a certificate); he talks about the seal of the military commissariat, while in reality the documents bear the seal of the police commission, calls Dmitrievsky the head of the plant, while, judging by his signature on the pass ticket, he was the assistant to the head of the plant for technical matters.

** Now the village of Ilyichevo.

*** This is a letter sent after the manuscript.

UNDER THE MODEST LETTER

Great mind, great talent
Under the humble letter we will find.
D. D. Minaev

And now let's continue talking about abbreviated pseudonyms*. In the works of Lenin

there are quite a few aliases consisting of one or two letters. Most often - these are initials, sometimes - abbreviations of other pseudonyms, and often completely random letters that serve only one purpose - conspiracy.

Some of these pseudonyms are easy to decipher. For example, it does not require special evidence that the pseudonyms “V. AND." - these are the initials of Vladimir Ilyin, “N. L." - N. Lenin, “K. T." - K. Tulina, etc. The same can be said about the pseudonyms “F. P." (Fyodor Petrovich), "V. F." (William Frey), "I." (Ilyin), "T." (Tulin) and others.

But there are many such abbreviated pseudonyms that require explanation, and sometimes a little research.

Here is one example. In August 1912, Pravda published an article by V. I. Lenin “Workers and Pravda”, signed by the pseudonym St. 1

What does "st" mean here? "Old Man" or "Statistician"? After all, both of these pseudonyms belong to Vladimir Ilyich, and the abbreviation "St." can equally apply to one or the other. But it is worth referring to the content of the article and comparing some dates, as everything will become clear.

Vladimir Ilyich used the pseudonym “Old Man” for the last time in 1909, but shortly before the publication of the article “Workers and Pravda”, another large article by Lenin was published, which was signed with the pseudonym “Statistician”. We have already discussed this article and the pseudonym "Statistician".

Well, if we turn to the contents of the article "Workers and Pravda", then in it we will find a statistical summary of the number of workers' contributions to the newspaper "Pravda". It seems that both facts (the date of publication and the availability of a statistical summary) indicate that "St." means "Statistician", not "Old Man".

And here is another pseudonym of V. I. Lenin, designated by two Latin letters NN. This is a fairly common pseudonym among writers. So at different times Gogol and Griboedov, Dostoevsky and Aksakov signed their works. What does he mean? NN - the initial letters of the Latin words Nomen nescio, which are literally translated - "I don't know the name." Usually they are used in the meaning of "someone" or "a certain person."

Three articles by V. I. Lenin, published in 1905 - 1906, are signed as follows: b. According to the old spelling, all words ending in a consonant necessarily had "ъ" at the end. A solid sign was placed at the end of most Russian male surnames (ending in -ov, -ev, -in, etc.). Therefore, it is hardly worth linking this signature with any of Lenin's pseudonyms known to us.

Apparently, solely for the purpose of secrecy, Vladimir Ilyich signed one of his articles with one letter " e”, limited by two hyphens (dashes).

There are many such examples. Most of these one-letter signatures are recorded in the lists of Lenin's pseudonyms (see Appendix 1).

A peculiar cryptonym is the unfinished pseudonym " Your..." Here, three dots replace the first or last name. Especially often Lenin signed his letters with this cryptonym during the years of the first emigration.

With abbreviated pseudonyms (cryptonyms), Vladimir Ilyich signed various of his works at different times. So, for example, an article on underground coal gasification “One of the great victories of technology” 2 is signed with the letter “ And»; another article - "On our agrarian program" 3 ends with a solid sign ( -ъ).

And each of these articles, containing a huge wealth of thoughts, a sober scientific analysis of the present, a penetrating look into the future, is modestly signed with only one letter. How right the old Russian poet was when he asserted that under a modest letter one can sometimes find “a great mind, a huge talent”! ..

* Abbreviated aliases are usually called cryptonyms.

SEARCH AND PROVE!

Many of Lenin's pseudonyms do not require much explanation. These are, for example, Bolshevik, Russian communist, Petersburger etc. Everything is very clear here. Who, for example, would doubt the legitimacy of the pseudonym "Bolshevik"? Or who will doubt the pseudonym "Russian Communist"? But among the pseudonyms of Lenin there are those to which, as they say, no keys can be found. Here, not only evidence, but also guesswork is difficult to find.

Here is an example. In January 1917 Vladimir

Ilyich began working on the pamphlet Statistics and Sociology. This unfinished work was published in the 30th volume of the Complete Works of V.I. Lenin under the signature: P. Piryuchev. 1

The sister of Vladimir Ilyich, M. I. Ulyanova, wrote in her memoirs that the pseudonym “P. Piryuchev" Lenin took for himself in order to facilitate the publication of this work. 2 But why "Piryuchev"? Is it a random pseudonym or is it associated with any associations? Unknown. In the same way, the origin of a number of other pseudonyms of V.I. Lenin is unknown, such as, for example, B. V. Kuprianov, N. Konstantinov, P. Osipov, R. Silin, Karic, A. Linitsch etc.

It remains unclear and undocumented the emergence of the pseudonym "Karpov", about which we had a detailed conversation. And what is the history of most alphabetic pseudonyms, covering almost half of the Russian alphabet?

Of course, it must be borne in mind that some pseudonyms are taken quite by accident, and sometimes, perhaps, without the participation of V. I. Lenin. Yu. I. Masanov in his book 3 gives a lengthy quotation characterizing the conditions and practice of work of pre-revolutionary party editorial offices (in particular, the editorial board of the Marxist journal Enlightenment). This quote sheds some light on the question that interests us. Here is what was written about this in the book “From the Epoch of Stars and Pravda”4: corresponding Russian pseudonyms. So, for example, there is some question about the State Duma, it is necessary to whip the Cadets properly, etc., articles appear signed by a Petersburger (read Lenin), his legal and seemingly long-forgotten pseudonyms are used, like K. Tulin , or they simply come up with pseudonyms that are completely unknown even for foreign countries.

This means that in some cases Lenin might not even know that some of his articles were signed " B. B.' or, say, ' V.V." etc.

And yet, what is possible must be explained and proved.

Here it should be noted that when searching for and interpreting Lenin's pseudonyms, it is sometimes easy to fall into error.

So, for example, in the "Chronological Index to the Works of V. I. Lenin" one can find a bibliographic reference of the following content:

„Mandate to P. A. Krasikov. February 1 (14), 1905a. Signature: "Membreadjoint pour l'etranger du Bureau Central P. Stepanoff**." 5

In Russian, this signature sounds like this: “P. Stepanov, Commissioner of the Central Bureau for Abroad.”

The question arises: is not “P. Stepanov" another unknown pseudonym for Lenin? Why is this surname not in the list of aliases? Yes, because P. Stepanov "- a pseudonym not of Lenin, but of another party leader of that time - A. M. Essen. This mandate was written out personally by V. I. Lenin, and signed by A. M. Essen (P. Stepanoff). As you can see, not every signature-surname, even on Lenin's autograph, is his pseudonym.

Analyzing the publications of Lenin's works in the periodical press, the researchers found some typos and errors that could be misleading about some of the new pseudonyms. So, in 1917, in the Estonian newspaper "Kiir" ("Kiir"), Lenin's "Open letter to the delegates of the All-Russian Congress of Peasants' Deputies" was printed, under which there was a signature N. Janin (N. Yanin). V. I. Lenin never had such a pseudonym, and now this mistake, like some others like it, has been corrected in the book Auxiliary Indexes to the Chronological Index of V. I. Lenin's Works. 6

Above, we have given a number of surnames (Tulin, Petrov, Frey, Meyer, etc.), which eventually became the literary pseudonyms of V. I. Lenin. With these names, he signed his works, letters, party documents, and they are included in the list of Lenin's pseudonyms.

But the Bulgarian surname Jordans, under which Lenin lived for some time in Munich, was never used by him in this capacity. At one time this surname in a slightly modified transcription ( Yurdanov) was included in the list of Lenin's pseudonyms. There is it in the reference volume for the 4th edition of the Works of V. I. Lenin, and in the dictionary of I. F. Masanov. However, later it turned out that Vladimir Ilyich did not sign a single of his works with the surname Iordanov or Yurdanov, and therefore she is now not included in the list of Lenin's pseudonyms.

Or here's another surname - Chkheidze. As is known, this name belonged to one of the leaders of the Russian Mensheviks (N. S. Chkheidze), who in 1917 was the chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the first convocation.

It turns out that in 1906, upon returning to St. Petersburg from Stockholm from the 4th (Unity) Congress of the RSDLP, Vladimir Ilyich lived for several days under the name Chkheidze in house No. 18-20 on Zabalkansky (now Moscow) Prospekt. 7 Most likely, this surname turned out to be in a fake passport accidentally obtained for registration, and she had nothing to do with N. S. Chkheidze. And it goes without saying that this completely random conspiratorial surname did not and could not become Lenin's pseudonym.

The work of searching for and deciphering Lenin's pseudonyms is by no means complete. After all, not all of Lenin's literary heritage has yet been collected. Arrests and exiles, underground and emigration, frequent moving from country to country, from city to city led to the fact that a significant part of Lenin's priceless archives was lost. Not found completely, for example, the famous Poroninsky archive of V. I. Lenin. The fate of the so-called "Artsybush treasure" is also unknown, containing many letters from Vladimir Ilyich written during his Siberian exile. The archive from Lenin's office in Smolny 8 has been lost, etc.

In each volume of the Complete Works of V. I. Lenin, lists of his works, which have not been found so far, are published.

Historians every year find more and more new articles and notes, letters and notes of Lenin. At the same time, new aliases are also revealed. Here is one example. This book was already in production when the 49th volume of the Complete Works of V. I. Lenin came out. This volume contains two hitherto unknown pseudonyms - "Uncle" and "Basil". The pseudonym "Basil", in particular, signed the first published letter of Vladimir Ilyich to Inessa Armand dated January 19, 1916. 9 Undoubtedly, the lost or unknown works of Lenin will continue to be found. And then, perhaps, it will be possible, directly or indirectly, to establish the secret of Lenin's undeciphered pseudonyms.

The individual conjectures and assumptions expressed in this book also need documentary confirmation.

In a word, we must seek and find evidence! The topic of Lenin's pseudonyms is still waiting for a large and in-depth study.

Appendix 1

Alphabetical index of pseudonyms of V. I. Lenin*

B. V. Kuprianov

Bolshevik

V. Ilyin Vl.

Vl. Ilyin

Vl. Ilyin (Lenin)

Vlad. Ilyin

Vl. Lenin

William Frey

Iv. Petrov

K. Ivanov

K. F. Karic

Lenin (V. Ulyanov)

N Konstantinov

(N. Lenin)

N. Lenin

N. Lenin (V. Ulyanov)

N. Lenin (V. I. Ulyanov)

N. Lenin (Vl. Ulyanov)

Observer

Non-MP

non-liberal skeptic

P. Osipov

P. Piryuchev

Petersburger

Outsider

Regular reader of Pravda

Almost a Conciliator

Pravdist

Russian communist

Employee of the "Way of Truth"

Old Man & Co.

Statistician

Reader

Reader of Pravda and Luch

Jakob Richter, Dr.

Un communiste Russe

Jacob Richter. LLD.

Lenin (W. Oulianoff)

Lenin (Wl. Uljanow)

N. Lenin (VI. Oulianoff)

N. Lenin

N. Lenin (Wl. Uljanow)

N. Lenine (Wl. Oulianoff)

N. Lenine (Wl. Uljanow)

Russischer Kommunist

V. I. Lenine W.

* Auxiliary indexes to the Chronological index of Lenin's works. Politizdat, 1963, pp. 389 - 392.

Annex 2

Pseudonyms, nicknames and secret surnames not included in the alphabetical index of V. I. Lenin's pseudonyms

V. I. Ivanovsky

John Frey

Ivan Ivanovich

jordan jordan

Konstantin Petrovich Ivanov

Nikolai Petrovich

N. Lenivtsyn

Signor Drin-drin

Tyapkin-Lyapkin

Fedor Petrovich

F. F. Ivanovsky

Annex 3

Literary sources

Holder of a hundred names

1 Lenin collection XXI, p. 57.

2 Autobiographical statements of V. I. Lenin.

"New World", 1963, No. 7, p. 192.

3 "Auxiliary indexes to the Chronological index of the works of V.I. Lenin". Gospolitizdat, 1963, pp. 389-392.

Reference volume to the 4th ed. Works of V. I. Lenin, part 2. Gospolitizdat, 1956, pp. 129 - 130.

I. F. Masanov. Dictionary of pseudonyms of Russian writers, scientists and public figures, vol. 4. M., Publishing House of the All-Union Book Chamber, 1960, pp. 277 - 278.

The very first

1 M. I. Ulyanova. About Lenin. Politizdat, 1964, pp. 27 - 28.

2 A. I. Ulyanova-Elizarova. Subbotnik magazine. Collection "Stories about Lenin". M., Detgiz, 1957, pp. 28 - 29.

A. Ivanovsky. Young Lenin. Politizdat, 1964, pp. 97 - 98.

G. Volin. V. I. Lenin in the Volga region. Gospolitizdat, 1955, p. 18.

3 R. Peresvetov. Three lives of one article. "Science and Life", 1963, No. 12.

4 Ts. S. Zelikson (Bobrovskaya). Unforgettable meetings. Collection "Memoirs of V.I. Lenin". Gospolitizdat, 1955, p. 36.

Petersburger vs. V. AT."

1 Collection "City of the great Lenin". Lenizdat, 1957, p. 6.

2 V. D. Bonch-Bruevich. My first meeting with V. I. Lenin. Selected works, vol. 2. Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, M., 1961, pp. 165 - 174.

S. Mitskevich. V. I. Lenin and the first Moscow Marxist organization in 1893-1893. Collection "Memoirs of V. I. Lenin", vol. 1, Gospolitizdat, 1956, pp. 152 - 153.

3 History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, vol. 1. Politizdat, 1964, p. 198.

Party nickname, or a joke?

1 M. A. Silvin. Lenin during the birth of the party. Lenizdat, 1958, p. 56.

2 A. I. Ulyanova-Elizarova. About Ilyich.

Collection "Memoirs of V. I. Lenin", vol. 1, pp. 41 - 42.

Nikolai Petrovich and lawyer Ulyanov

1 History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, vol. 1, p. 217.

2 V. A. Knyazev. Nikolay Petrovich. Collection "Memoirs of V. I. Lenin", v. 1, p. 136.

3 S. Motovilova. Past. "New World", 1963, No. 12, p. 120.

Young "Old Man"

1 G. M. Krzhizhanovsky. About Vladimir Ilyich.

Collection "Memoirs of V. I. Lenin", vol. 1, pp. 175 - 176.

2 Ts. S. Zeliken (Bobrovskaya). Unforgettable meetings. Collection "Memoirs of V. I. Lenin", Gospolitizdat, 1955, p. 36.

3 S. V. Markov. At the cottage "Vase". "Znamya", 1956, No. 4, pp. 135 - 139.

4 V. I. Lenin. Full coll. cit., vol. 8, pp. 170 - 174.

5 V. V. Gorbunov, G. M. Yakovlev. V. I. Lenin's leaflet about the Russian-Japanese war. "Questions of the history of the CPSU", 1960, No. 1, p. 122.

Ilyin - son of Ilya

1 G. M. Deutsch. Stories about Lenin and Lenin's Iskra. Sverdlovsk, 1964, p. 37.

2 Prof. S. A. Vengerov. Critical Biographical Dictionary of Russian Writers and Scientists, vol. I. Pg., 1915, p. 322.

3 Encyclopedic Dictionary t-va br. Pomegranate, vol. 28. 1915, pp. 219-243.

4 Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. Biography. Gospolitizdat, 1963, p. 93.

5 M. Fofanova. Ilyich before October 1917.

Collection "Memoirs of V. I. Lenin", v. 1, p. 620.

6 L. Uspensky. You and your name L., Detgiz, 1960, p. 138.

Main and main

1 “Chronological index to the works of V. I. Lenin”, part 1, p. 57.

Lenin collection III, pp. 128 - 130.

2 Prof. S. A. Vengerov. Critical-biographical dictionary of Russian writers and scientists, vol. II. Pg., 1916, p. 31.

3 Exposition of the Central Lenin Museum in Moscow.

4 Ts. S. Bobrovskaya (Zelixon). Underground notes. Gospolitizdat, 1957, p. 47.

5 V. Sergeeva. When did Vladimir Ilyich choose the pseudonym Lenin? "Young Communist", 1960, No. 4, p. 117.

What does the letter "N" stand for?

1 His shining banner. Writers and public figures about Lenin. Moscow, 1960, No. 4, p. 4. Bernard Shaw. Dedicatory inscription on the book "Back to Methuselah". "Foreign Literature", 1957, No. 4, p. 27.

2 V. Uncalled. Proclamation of Nikolai Lenin. Collection "In the Hearts of Nations". M., Publishing House of Foreign Literature, 1957, p. 336.

Proud name

1 Juan Pereira. A Portuguese named Lenin. "The same age", 1962, No. 1.

3 A. Sakhnin. He is known by name. "Moscow", 1964, No. 1.

Who was Frey?

1 V. I. Lenin. Full coll. cit., vol. 6, p. 203.

2 Lenin collection XI, p. 322.

3 V. I. Lenin. Full coll. cit., vol. 48, p. 61.

4 Uno Villers. Speech at the celebration of the centenary of the Lenin Library. "Literaturnaya Gazeta", 1962, July 3, No. 78.

This is our Meyer!

1 Miroslav Ivanov. Lenin in Prague. Gospolitizdat, 1963, p. 34.

2 N. K. Krupskaya. Memories of Lenin. Gospolitizdat, 1957, pp. 41 - 42.

3 Milan Yarosh. In Prague. Collection "Through the Eyes of Humanity", M., Detgiz, 1957.

4 Egon Erwin Kisch. Greetings from Comrade Lenin. "East Siberian Truth", 1956, April 22, No. 94.

5 Xaver Streb. Lenin in Germany Gospolitizdat, 1959, p. 55.

Mr Richter in London

1 M. Novoselov. Ivan Vasilievich Babushkin. M., "Young Guard", 1954, p. 263.

2 N. K. Krupskaya. Memories of Lenin, p. 60.

3 N. A. Alekseev. V. I. Lenin in London. Collection "Memoirs of V. I. Lenin", vol. 1, p. 250.

4 Lenin in the British Museum. "Foreign Literature", 1957, No. 4, p. 21.

5 N. A. Alekseev. From the past to the present day. "Week", 1961, No. 37.

"Unknown Karpov"

1 V. M. Smirnov. Meetings with Lenin in Finland. Collection "Memoirs of V. I. Lenin", vol. 1, p. 396.

2 A. Schlichter. Ilyich's first speech at an open meeting in Russia. Collection "Memoirs of V. I. Lenin", vol. 1, p. 386.

3 P. E. Nikitin. VI Lenin among St. Petersburg workers. L., publishing house "Knowledge", 1964, pp. 19 - 20.

4 S. V. Markov. At the cottage "Vase". "Znamya", 1956, No. 4, pp. 135 - 139.

Signor Drin-drin

1 M. Gorky. V. I. Lenin. Collection "Memoirs of V. I. Lenin", v. 1, p. 434.

2 Collection "V. I. Lenin and A. M. Gorky. Letters, memoirs, documents. M., Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1961, p. 231.

3 P. Raichev. Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. Collection "Memoirs of foreign contemporaries". Gospolitizdat, 1962, p. 100.

4 V. S. Kurbatov-Vlasova. In a Swiss train car. Collection “About Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. Memories. 1900 - 1922". Gospolitizdat, 1963, p. 162.

5 P. Raichev. Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, p. 103.

Loiko or Leshchenko?

1 V. I. Lenin. Full coll. cit., vol. 21, pp. 160, 229.

2 Ibid., p. 226.

4 I. F. Masanov. Dictionary of pseudonyms of Russian writers, scientists and public figures, vol. 2, p. 104.

5 B. S. Shneerson. Bibliographic index to the XX additional volume of the Collected Works of N. Lenin (V. Ulyanov). M. - L., GIZ, 1927, p. 60.

6 S. Yurov. Address book travel. "Moscow", 1963, No. 4, p. 7.

7 D. I. Leshchenko. Memories. Collection "Memoirs of V. I. Lenin", vol. 3. Gospolitizdat, 1960, pp. 65-69.

8 N. K. Krupskaya. Memories of Lenin. Gospolitizdat, 1957, p. 120.

No, not only the reader!

1 L. Acceleration. His, the closest. M., Detgiz, 1962, p. 17.

2 Collection "V. Both Lenin and Pravda. M., Pravda Publishing House, 1962, pp. 7, 507 - 662.

3 V. I. Lenin. Full coll. cit., vol. 21, p. 470.

4 Ibid., p. 368.

5 V. I. Lenin. Full coll. cit., vol. 22, p. 209.

6 TOC \o "1-5" \h \z V. I. Lenin. Full coll. cit., vol. 24, p. 21.

7 V. I. Lenin. Full coll. cit., vol. 22, p. 145.

8 V. I. Lenin. Full coll. cit., vol. 23, p. 172.

9 V. I. Lenin. Full coll. cit., vol. 25, p. 162.

Alias ​​is a paradox

1 M. N. Pokrovsky. How "Imperialism" was born. Collection "Memoirs of V. I. Lenin", v. 3, p. 134.

2 R. Peresvetov. They were considered lost. "Culture and Life", 1963, No. 4.

M. R. KHEIFETS. A find in the Sails archive. "Spark", 1963, No. 40.

3 V. I. Lenin. Poly, sobr., soch., v. 49, p. 259.

4 V. I. Lenin. Full coll. cit., vol. 28, p. 220.

5 Collection “V. I. Lenin and A. M. Gorky. M., Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1961, pp. 229, 448.

Why "Ivanovsky"?

1 V. I. Lenin. Full coll. cit., vol. 33, pp. 1, 2.

2 N. A. Emelyanov. In the last underground. Collection "Memoirs of V. I. Lenin", v. 1, p. 610.

3 New documents of V. I. Lenin. "Questions of the history of the CPSU", 1958, No. 4, p. 32.

Under the humble letter

1 V. I. Lenin. Full coll. cit., vol. 22, pp. 69 - 71.

2 V. I. Lenin. Full coll. cit., vol. 23, pp. 93 - 95.

3 V. I. Lenin. Full coll. cit., vol. 9, pp. 356 - 361.

Seek and prove!

1 V. I. Lenin. Full coll. cit., vol. 30, p. 356.

2 M. I. Ulyanova. About Lenin. Politizdat, 1964, p. 47.

3 Yu. I. Masanov. In the world of pseudonyms, anonymous names and literary forgeries. M., Publishing House of the All-Union Book Chamber, 1963, p. 55.

4 From the era of "Stars" and "Pravda", no. 3. M. - Pg., 1923, p. 47.

5 "Chronological index to the works

V. I. Lenin”, part 1, p. 170.

Lenin collection XXVI, 1934, p. 422.

6 "Auxiliary Pointers...", p. 400.

7 Collection "Lenin in St. Petersburg". Lenizdat, 1957,

8 R. Peresvetov. The search for a priceless heritage.

(On the fate of some of the manuscripts of V. I. Lenin). Gospolitizdat, 1963, pp. 140, 237, 306.

R. Peresvetov. The search was not in vain. "Paths to the Unknown", Sat. 3. M., publishing house "Soviet writer", 1963, p. 38.

M. Veseliy a. How Lenin's documents are searched for and stored. "Young Technician", 1962, No. 1.

A. Solovyov, L. Vinogradov. The Quest for an Immortal Legacy. "Izvestia", 1963, April 19. Shaft. Goltsev. And again you meet with Ilyich. "Izvestia", 1964, April 23.

9 V. I. Lenin. Full coll. cit., vol. 49, p. 176.

Holder of a hundred names 7

very first 11

Petersburger vs. V. AT." sixteen

Party nickname or joke? 20

Nikolai Petrovich and lawyer Ulyanov 22

Young "Old Man" 26

Ilyin - son of Ilya 31

Main and main 38

What does the letter "N" stand for? 43

Proud name 45

Who was Frey? 49

This is our Meyer! 52

Mr Richter in London 56

"Unknown Karpov" 62

Signor Drin-drin 68

Loiko or Leshchenko? 72

No, not only the reader! 76

Alias ​​Paradox 82

Why "Ivanovsky"? 85

Under the modest letter 93

Seek and prove! 96

Appendix 1. Alphabetical index of V. I. Lenin's pseudonyms 102

Appendix 2. Pseudonyms, nicknames and secret surnames not included in the alphabetical index of V. I. Lenin's pseudonyms 104

Annex 3. Literary sources 105

Famous personalities have always used pseudonyms. This is very convenient, especially for creative people: poets, artists chose a name for themselves that had a special meaning, talking about something. Sometimes the choice of a pseudonym is associated with political activities and helps to hide for a long time. Especially often such famous people as V. I. Lenin, I. V. Stalin used this. Many people are interested in why Lenin is Lenin?

Leader of the proletariat

Ulyanov Vladimir Ilyich used many pseudonyms for his own. The future leader of the Russian proletariat led a stormy and was a member of the Social Democratic Party. Of course, he often had to hide, change his name. One of his pseudonyms was Lenin. This name remained with him until the end of his life. There are several versions of why Lenin took the pseudonym Lenin, and they all seem plausible.

Lena river

Some historians say that Vladimir Ilyich took this surname from the name of the Lena River. The legend says that in 1912, workers who went on strike were shot on this river. This event shocked V. I. Lenin, and in memory of the dead, he decided to take this pseudonym for himself. But the fact is that he began to sign with this name much earlier - back in 1901. So, there was another reason or reason to take the name Lenin (a pseudonym). Why can't it be an imitation?

Plekhanov - Volgin

It is impossible not to take into account the fact that the comrades-in-arms in the struggle communicated with each other, often imitated each other. So, knowing that Plekhanov took the pseudonym Volgin for himself, Vladimir Ilyich decided to use a similar name - also from the name of the river. And that was in 1901.

In the same period, the well-known agronomist S. N. Lenin also took part in public events. The future leader of the proletariat often quoted this scientist and could well use his last name. So, it turns out why Lenin is Lenin. But no - there is another, more plausible version.

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It turns out that there was another episode in the life of Lenin, which brought him to this surname. Before all the events described above, in 1900, Vladimir Ilyich had to urgently leave the Russian Empire. But this required a foreign passport. Because of his political activities, Lenin was sure that he would not be allowed to go abroad. I had to look for another opportunity to get a passport. And at this time, an unexpected meeting of Krupskaya with her good school friend, who also sympathized with the democratic movement of socialists, happens. It was she who stole the passport from her father - Lenin Nikolai Yegorovich - and provided it to the future leader of the proletariat. It was enough to fake only the year of birth, and Vladimir Ilyich became Nikolai Lenin. Since then, the leader of this surname and signed. From history it becomes clear why Lenin is Lenin.

Companion of the leader of the proletariat

The history of the revolution gave birth to its heroes, leaders, politicians. The current generation receives a different education, different from education in the USSR. Many do not know the details of the life of Lenin and his associates. Therefore, they ask the question: why is Lenin - Lenin, and Stalin - Stalin?

At the end of the 19th century, an excellent translator E.S. Stalinsky lived and worked. He was engaged in journalism, was a publisher - editor. He owns the best translation of the work of Shota Rustaveli - "The Knight in the Panther's Skin". During this period, I. Dzhugashvili also wrote poetry and even published. Of course, he heard about Stalinsky, read his translations. From his youth, he loved the newspaper "Caucasus". And "The Knight in the Panther's Skin" is one of Stalin's favorite works.

History events

So, reading Georgian literary magazines and newspapers, acquaintance with the works of E. Stalinsky led to the fact that I. Dzhugashvili had great respect for this person. He also had an excellent memory: many years later, being an ally of Lenin, Iosif Vissarionovich took advantage of Stalinsky's surname, shortening it. That is why Lenin is Lenin and Stalin is Stalin. These pseudonyms became known to the whole world.

Of course, the pseudonyms of politicians are closely connected with the historical events of the period when the state was going through a turning point. But often the name taken matches the person so much that many remember him only by a pseudonym and do not know his real surname. But it is necessary to study history so that such questions as this one do not arise: why Lenin is Lenin?

Not everyone shares the convictions of the revolutionaries, social democrats and similar figures of the beginning of the last century. But the events have already happened, they must be remembered, studied and known to the leaders of the movement, including their names and pseudonyms.

Until 1917, the leader of the world proletariat V. I. Ulyanov, like other professional revolutionaries, had to live in the strictest secrecy. It was impossible for him to sign his articles and other works with his own name. Therefore, V. I. Ulyanov had to use pseudonyms, party nicknames.

He had many pseudonyms for printing. Some of the articles and brochures published abroad, he signed simply - N. In other cases, he signed S. Tulin, V. Ilyin, V. I-in. Sometimes, as a pseudonym, Ilyich used foreign surnames - Frey, Richter, Meyer.

The pseudonym Lenin, more precisely - N. Lenin appeared at the leader in 1901. With this pseudonym, he began to sign his printed works. And it was under this name that he went down in history. This name became so widely known that after the revolution of 1917 he began to sign "V. I. Ulyanov (Lenin).

There are several versions of why the leader of the world proletariat chose this pseudonym. Let's consider each of them.

Family version, it is also official or toponymic

The pseudonym of the leader comes from the name of the Lena River. The niece of Vladimir Ilyich, the daughter of his brother Dmitry Olga Dmitrievna Ulyanova, wrote: “I have reason to believe,” my father wrote, “that this pseudonym comes from the name of the Lena River, so beautifully described by Korolenko. Vladimir Ilyich did not take the pseudonym Volgin, since he was rather worn out, in particular, as you know, Plekhanov used it, as well as other authors, for example, the notorious God-seeker Glinka, etc.

Researchers who support this version believe that the name of this particular great river arose due to the fact that Ilyich was in exile in Siberia, in Shushenskoye. But apparently that's not the point. Shushenskoye stands on the Shush River, a tributary of the Yenisei. If we were talking about Siberian impressions, then it would be more logical to expect the pseudonym "Shushin" or "Yenisein". The well-known "Lena execution" in the gold mines could not play any role here either, since it happened in 1912, when Ilyich was already using this pseudonym with might and main.

Probably, if the pseudonym really comes from the name of the Lena River, it's a matter of mere chance. Lenin - simply because he is not Volgin, in defiance of Plekhanov.

Conspiracy version

It belongs to the historian V. Loginov. In 1900, when Vladimir Ulyanov needed to go abroad, there was a problem with a passport. According to his "native" documents, of course, he would not have been released anywhere. And then a friend of Nadezhda Konstantinovna, who sympathized with the revolutionary movement, handed over to Ilyich the passport of her father, Nikolai Yegorovich Lenin, in which she sent the date of birth. Having left on a fake document abroad, Vladimir Ulyanov remained Lenin forever.

Literary version

It belongs to the writer Alexei Golenkov.

Everyone knows that Vladimir Ilyich was very fond of the work of Leo Tolstoy. Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaya recalls that on the way to exile, in Shushenskoye, Vladimir Ulyanov read Tolstoy's story "The Cossacks". The hero of this story, by the name of OLENIN, also goes into exile, however, to the Caucasus, and not to Siberia. Tolstoy, according to Lenin, was the "Mirror of the Russian Revolution". And thoughts, partly consonant with the revolutionary moods of Ulyanov-Lenin himself, are also expressed by the hero of the story OLENIN.

Romantic version

In one of the TV shows of the late 90s, there was a version that Vladimir Ulyanov took the pseudonym Lenin in honor of the Kazan student Elena Rozmirovich, with whom, they say, he was unrequitedly in love with in his youth. And this is not the only Lena, who is credited with the honor of breaking the heart of the young leader. Other contenders for this role are the Kazan beauty Elena Lenina, the actress of the Mariinsky Theater Elena Zaretskaya, and even some Elena of Petersburg, with whom Ilyich allegedly was in love.

This version, for obvious reasons, does not stand up to criticism, however, it is quite popular.

exotic versions

If you read the word Lenin the other way around, you get Ninel. Ninel is a female name, and it is hidden, because the leader of the world proletariat hid his homosexual ties with Zinoviev and Trotsky. Absolutely incredible, of course, but no more incredible than deriving the party nickname Lenin from the name of the Lenin monastery ( Kloster Lehnin) in Germany, near Potsdam. The monastery is known, among other things, for the famous "Lenin's prophecy", set out in the documentXVIIcentury, allegedly dating back to the manuscriptXIIcenturies. The prophecy says that someday Central and Eastern Europe will unite into a single state from the Rhine to the Volga.

Seems weird? However, such versions also have a place to be.

Currently, researchers of the life of Vladimir Ulyanov are considering three versions of the appearance of the pseudonym "Lenin", while the most probable, despite the statements of the relatives of the leader of the world proletariat, is called the third.

First version: imitative

* So far only Ulyanov

Let's start with the fact that the "family version" of the origin of the pseudonym Lenin does not hold water. Let me remind you that, according to the family tradition of the Ulyanov family, the pseudonym of the leader comes from the name of the Lena River. For example, the daughter of his brother Dmitry Ulyanov, Olga Dmitrievna, reported the following in her memoirs: “I have reason to believe,” my father wrote, “that this pseudonym comes from the name of the Lena River, so beautifully described by Korolenko. Vladimir Ilyich did not take the pseudonym Volgin, since he was rather worn out, in particular, as you know, Plekhanov used it, as well as other authors, for example, the notorious God-seeker Glinka, etc.

At first glance, the version is not without meaning. Indeed, in 1912, Korolenko described the events at the Lena gold mines, where the strikers were shot. Vladimir Ilyich, they say, was very shocked by these events, having read an essay about them by a famous writer. But historians say the opposite, they say, the events at the mines happened after he took the pseudonym Lenin. Besides, Ilyich had never been in exile on the Lena.

For the first time, Lenin's signature - and this has been established for certain - appeared in 1901 in a letter from the future leader Georgy Plekhanov. And, as they say, Ulyanov chose this signature precisely by analogy with one of Plekhanov's pseudonyms - Volgin (in honor of the great Russian river). Therefore, Lenin is, most likely, just an imitation of Plekhanov, according to the researchers.

Second version: agricultural

Another part of historians is inclined to consider, as the most probable, "agrarian theme" the emergence of a pseudonym.

Ilyich allegedly often used pseudonyms, which, according to various estimates, he had about a hundred, signing his articles with the names K. Tulin, Petrov, Karpov, K. Ivanov, R. Silin. At the same time, Ulyanov often quoted the famous agronomist and public figure Sergei Nikolaevich Lenin. Based on this attachment to the agrarian, he could also borrow the real name of the scientist for his pseudonym. The version, as you can see, has the right to exist.

Third version: habit

* "Strong man" Lenin became such thanks to the passport of the State Councilor

And here is the most plausible version. The story goes that in 1900, when Vladimir Ulyanov was impatient to go abroad, he applied for a passport. The fear that he would not be allowed to leave his homeland for political sins made him look for workarounds. And this was found in a completely unexpected way. It so happened that Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaya met her friend from evening school, Olga Nikolaevna Lenina, who sympathized with the emerging social democratic movement in Russia. Hearing about the difficulties of Ilyich, Olga undertook to help him - she stole the passport of her father, Nikolai Yegorovich Lenin, forged the date of birth and handed over the document to Ulyanov. Since then, the pseudonym Lenin has stuck with Ilyich. With it, he often signed articles in the Zarya newspaper, presenting the owner of the printing house with a passport in the name of the real state adviser Nikolai Lenin. The same pseudonym after the October coup, Ilyich, signing documents, articles, books, added in brackets to his real name Ulyanov.