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Among the leaders of the revolution there were many representatives of the fair sex. We have chosen four bright characters and invite you to read the brief biographies of these revolutionaries. Which one evokes the strongest feeling in you (whether it be admiration or pity)? Once you have decided, you will be able to study the description compiled by clinical and Jungian psychologist Maria Dolgopolova and learn new things about yourself.
Fanny Kaplan (1890–1918)
Performer of the assassination attempt on Lenin.
She was born in Ukraine in a religious Jewish family, which she left, carried away by the ideas of anarchism. She worked as a seamstress, fell in love with the raider Viktor Garsky, and together with him she was preparing an assassination attempt on the Kiev governor-general. The bomb exploded prematurely, damaging her eyesight. After her arrest, she remained silent during interrogations. She was 16 years old, so the execution was replaced by Akatui penal servitude. There the Socialist-Revolutionary Maria Spiridonova gave her her shawl. Fanny was released only after 9 years, almost blind. She underwent surgery at the Kharkov eye clinic. At the station, she ran into Victor, arranged a date and sold her shawl to buy scented soap. But after a passionate night, Victor said that he did not love her. A year later, she (on her own initiative or on behalf of the Socialist-Revolutionaries) wounded Lenin, who was speaking at the factory. A 28-year-old terrorist was shot, her body was doused with gasoline and burned in a barrel.
Her features: fidelity, inflexibility, fatalism, patience, perseverance.
Inessa Armand (1874–1920)
Revolutionary, feminist, mother of five.
Born in France in the family of an operatic tenor, after his death she moved to Moscow to her aunt: she taught music to the children of the manufacturer Armand, whose son Inessa later married. But, having given birth to four children, she became interested in socialism, fell in love with her husband’s younger brother, Vladimir (who shared her interests), and gave birth to a fifth child from him. She did not divorce her husband, he continued to support her, including rescuing her from exile, where she was sent more than once. Vladimir died of tuberculosis. Inessa’s acquaintance with Lenin in 1910 in Paris grew into a romance. After parting, they remained friends and returned to Russia together with Krupskaya in 1917 in a “sealed carriage”. Armand had a diploma in economics, she fought for equal pay for women and freedom from everyday life. She was very tired, went to Kislovodsk for treatment, contracted cholera on the way back and died at the age of 46.
Her features: tenderness, curiosity, disinterestedness, intelligence, devotion.
Alexandra Kollontai (1872–1952)
The world’s first female minister, ambassador, promoter of free love.
The daughter of a colonel of the General Staff, spoke seven languages. She married against the will of her parents, gave birth to a child, divorced, went abroad, where she met Lenin. Until 1917, she established ties with the Social Democrats, was the mistress of two prominent revolutionaries, abandoned both: one was married, the other wanted to marry her too much. Promoted the “glass of water” theory: sex is as simple as quenching one’s thirst; condemned “bourgeois” jealousy, but left her second husband (17 years younger than her), having learned about the betrayal. In 1917-1918 she served as People’s Commissar. Since 1922, she represented the USSR in the Scandinavian countries. There she began an affair with a French communist 21 years younger than her, but broke up with him at the request of the government. After a stroke in 1945, she ended her career. She died at the age of 79.
Her features: decisiveness, amorousness, observation, love of freedom, audacity.
Nadezhda Krupskaya (1869–1939)
The faithful wife of the “leader of the world proletariat.”
The daughter of a lieutenant and a governess, she did not have a higher education. She taught at an evening school for workers. A friend introduced her to the young Marxist Vladimir Ulyanov, whom she herself refused. Both were sent into exile in Shushenskoye, where they got married. Krupskaya did not know how to cook, her mother ran the household. In exile, Nadezhda edited her husband’s articles, corresponded, and taught at the party school. Not distinguished by her beauty, she was not offended, having received secret nicknames “Fish”, “Lamprey” from her husband. She herself offered Lenin and Armand freedom, but her husband stayed with her. She underwent surgery for Basedow’s disease. Krupskaya, one of the authors of the Soviet education system, opposed the persecution of children by “enemies of the people.” She taught Ilyich, who had had a stroke, to speak again. She died at the age of 70 from peritonitis.
Her features: dedication, devotion, modesty, high efficiency, caring.
Determine how these women make you feel:
+ Mostly admiration, the desire to be something like them, or a general elation.
– Predominantly anxiety, fear, irritation, indignation, pity or hard to describe emotional discomfort.
Fanny Kaplan
+ You are attracted by inflexibility, a willingness to uphold ideals and resist powerful external forces. You feel that you are not capable of such a thing, or you think that this is how you need to manifest yourself if circumstances require. Perhaps one day you could not move in the direction you wanted without getting support from outside, and chose to adapt to the expectations of the environment, and not to do it your own way. They retreated for fear of being alone. Or do you consider yourself an experienced fighter by vocation.
– The heroine is your opposite: you will not show intransigence if the risk of failure is high, you will not commit radical acts even for the sake of desired goals. Or do you think that suggestibility, maximalism, infantilism stand behind her actions. Perhaps those values that Fanny neglected are important to you (family, religious tradition …), and you are perplexed: how can they be sacrificed by getting involved in dangerous adventures.
Or you are proud of the flexibility of your views, the ability to “squeeze the best” out of circumstances and humbly accept the result.
Inessa Armand
+ Having every opportunity to live a happy and peaceful family life, she took up “big politics”. Her close rapprochement with Lenin may evoke various reactions, despite the warm words of the leader’s wife in an article in memory of Armand (“It was brighter in the house when Inessa came”). You admire her willingness to join in life and be indifferent even at the end of her own strength. You tend to see her story as a manifestation of fortitude, no matter what virtues of the heroine touch you the most.
– The priorities or personal qualities of the heroine do not find a positive response from you. Perhaps you treat the events of your life with less vehemence, or even appreciate the iron self-control in yourself, which allows you to soberly analyze circumstances and regulate your ardor. Perhaps, in the motives of the decisions and actions of the heroine, as they seem to you, you find those that do not correspond to your personal ethics or are incomprehensible to you. But remember that attention to the “incomprehensible” impulses of someone else’s soul is an opportunity to discover something that has not yet been mastered in oneself.
Alexandra Kollontai
+ It seems to you that this historical figure is not at all like you, or, on the contrary, has those features that you like about yourself, but they are more pronounced in her. Perhaps your talent, which is waiting to be recharged, is quick adaptation to new conditions, readiness to act, express and embody intentions and views. You are characterized by an expressive and honest manifestation of yourself in communication, acceptance and subtle knowledge of your emotional and sensory states. Although it is possible that you believe that you have qualities that are not characteristic of the heroine, the intensity of which you would like to reduce in your character. For example, you feel annoyed when shyness does not allow you to defend your ideas in the face of everyday circumstances or under someone’s pressure. Or the restraint of feelings forced you to retreat when trying to get to know a person you are interested in.
– The glorified revolutionary is the bearer of those qualities that you do not support in yourself. You consciously and systematically educate your personality, following those values that exclude the manifestation of its character traits. Maybe,
you try not to bring your feelings to the heat, choose more familiar and calm conditions, preferring them to situations that will doom you to “extra” adventures and experiences that are unusual for you. Maybe you are familiar with the content of the heroine’s views (for example, on issues of love and sexuality), and then not only judgments about her personality, but also Kollontai’s ideas can fuel your reactions, indicating that these topics are currently very significant for you.
Nadezhda Krupskaya
+ Productivity, dedication, commitment, a life full of events and accomplishments, passion for what you do, total dedication, and/or a desire to invest in family values can be exciting. Contemporaries did not consider Nadezhda Krupskaya a beauty, but appreciated her intelligence, pedagogical talent and ability to work. You can also respect her “feminine wisdom”, which allowed her to recognize a man with great potential, to whom she was able to become a faithful and irreplaceable companion. Whatever captivates you in her image, use your admiration as a hint – what your hidden talents are looking for embodiment.
– Something in Krupskaya’s character acts on you like a red rag on a bull. Perhaps the choice of submissive service to a partner or cause causes a great internal protest in you. Selflessness goes against today’s trends, which dictate the ability to balance between public and private, obligations and pleasures. The implementation of the skills of “healthy egoism” hardly occupied the great wife, who devoted herself to something outside herself – her husband, the interests of the country. Her lifestyle can easily be associated with the loss of freedom in the name of commitments and chosen priorities. Particularly acute emotions arise if your family history inclined you towards certain forms of sacrifice and reverence, patience, despite the fact that you have not been able to sincerely appropriate and adopt these views.
Revolutionary keep step!
By determining what your similarities and differences with the chosen heroine are, you can advance even further in self-development. Psychologist Maria Dolgopolova suggests two steps for this.
Step 1. List the qualities you admire. Recall even minor cases when you manifested them. Develop your potential: create conditions in which you need to show these qualities, gradually increasing the level of difficulty. Do not scold yourself if it didn’t work right away, maybe your skills are not yet strong enough.
Step 2. Come up with advice that would help the heroine achieve important goals or live a more prosperous and happy life. Now make the opposite recommendation out of it and apply it to yourself. For example, the advice to “spend more time with loved ones” means that it is good for you to learn solitude.
and independence.