The leader of the October Revolution of 1917 spent a significant part of his life in a political struggle, full of arrests, exile and emigration. At the age of 18, ranked among unreliable persons by the authorities and under close police supervision, he only got a job as an assistant lawyer for a short time, and then quit and devoted himself entirely to the idea of creating the world's first socialist state.
In this regard, a completely natural question arises, where did the unemployed Lenin have the means for a very secure life?
Rent
One of the sources of income for the leader of the proletarian revolution was rent - the income received by his mother, Maria Alexandrovna, from family property: a small estate in Alakayevka, profitably sold ten years after the purchase; and the inherited estate in Kokushkin.
The annuity, which replenished the family budget, and the monthly pension for the loss of her husband, allowed his mother to help Vladimir. For example, in 1900, Lenin received a translation from his parent that allowed him to settle in Munich, and in a letter dated September 21, 1901, he thanks her for 35 rubles, noting: “We finally got them after a long delay that happened by accident through the fault of one friend."
In 1913, the married couple Lenin-Krupskaya unexpectedly became the owners of 7,000 rubles, bequeathed to them by aunt Nadezhda Konstantinovna. By the way, 3000 rubles of this amount were spent on the operation of Lenin's wife, who was diagnosed with Graves' disease, and 1000 rubles was spent on the revival of the newspaper Sotsial-Demokrat.
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Help from relatives
In addition to his mother, financial assistance to Lenin was provided by relatives. There is evidence that brother Dmitry transferred 75 rubles to him, and sister Anna, in an epistle to her mother on October 4, 1915, noted: “The other day there was a postcard from Volodya Writes that we need earnings. When I receive their winter address, I will send over 100 rubles. Ask them if you need more money."
Publications and translations
Lenin's journalistic and translation activities contributed to the family budget.
In 1900-1901, a two-volume book "Theory and Practice of English Trade Unionism" was translated from English, each page of which was estimated at 20 rubles.
In the same period, Lenin's book "The Development of Capitalism in Russia" was published, which brought him a fee, which he mentions in a letter to his relatives dated June 7, 1901: "I received 250 rubles from my publisher the other day, so with the financial side is now not bad."
Vladimir Ilyich's account was replenished with transfers for the publication of the book Materialism and Empirio-criticism, an article about Marx for the Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Granat brothers, numerous essays in the revolutionary editions Iskra, Pravda, Sotsial-Democrat, Proletarian, Vperyod.
Studying Lenin's epistolary legacy, we can conclude that in 1908, he was quite well off, because on October 27 he wrote to his sister: “Keep in mind that I am not chasing royalties now, that is, I agree to make concessions (whatever) and deferred payment until the income from the book is received - in a word, the publisher will not have any risks."
But in 1916 he was already looking for a job and in his correspondence with Shlyapnikov he noted: “I will personally say about myself that earnings are needed. Otherwise, just give up, she-she! I will sit down to write, whatever it may be, for the devil's high cost, and there is nothing to live with. We have to get the money by force from the publisher of Letopisi, to whom my two brochures have been sent (let him pay; more immediately!)”.
Party support
Since the official formation of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (RSDLP), which was to become a movement of professional revolutionaries, Lenin, as one of the four editors of political publications, was entitled to a salary of 50-70 rubles a month.
At the same time, the party treasury was replenished by membership fees, robberies on postal carriages and the robbery of Russian banks.
Paradoxes
However, all these articles of Lenin-Krupskaya's income would still hardly be enough for almost 20 years of a completely free life in European emigration, and excerpts from his other letters to his relatives directly indicate that it was not him who helped with money.
Living in Geneva, Vladimir Ilyich advocated the visit of his relatives, about which he wrote in a message dated September 30, 1908: “It would be nice if she [Sister Maria] came in the second half of this October … I will be in Brussels for three days, and then I will come back here and would have thought to roll to Italy. Why doesn't Mitya [brother] come here? He also needs to rest … I now hope to earn a lot."
From another letter dated December 19, 1908 and addressed to his sister, we learn that Lenin moved from Switzerland to Paris, where he first stayed in a hotel, and then moved "a very good apartment, luxurious and expensive."
Sponsors
There is a version according to which all prominent Russian revolutionaries who stayed for years in different cities of Europe and did not experience problems with money lived and worked at the expense of voluntary financial donations from sponsors, among whom were ordinary entrepreneurs and intelligence agents of developed capitalist (!) Countries.
Old Believers Morozov and Schmidt
According to some facts, the famous philanthropist and industrialist Savva Morozov voluntarily donated large sums to the needs of the Social Democratic Party, invested in newspaper printing, and also distributed leaflets with revolutionary appeals banned by the government at his factories.
Another version says that deeply married Morozov began to make financial investments in the Russian Revolution of 1905 after the actress Andreeva, whom Lenin's associate called "comrade phenomenon", turned his head.
Another sponsor of the RSDLP was the grandson of Morozov's cousin, Nikolai Schmidt, who invested in it income from a furniture factory that he owned, where many professional revolutionaries worked under cover.
Schmidt bought weapons for his comrades and called for an uprising, and after the events of 1905, he was imprisoned, where a year later he was found with his throat cut.
By the way, Morozov also died under unclear circumstances, allegedly committing suicide, for which his mistress received insurance. She handed over part of this payment to the party, and Schmidt's entire fortune turned out to be there, according to her will.
Parvus
Another mysterious person associated with the name of Lenin was the German social democrat, the ideologist of the permanent revolution, and part-time agent of the German special services, Alexander Parvus, who wanted to put an end to tsarism with the hands of the Russian people and make a lot of money on this matter.
According to the historian Narochnitskaya: “Lenin was a cynic, and even among the revolutionaries, not everyone was ready to take money from the enemy's side at the time of the Patriotic War. He [Parvus] made it clear that Lenin will have new opportunities, and these opportunities are money."
And the biographer of Parvus Elisabeth Kheresh even named the amount he gave to Lenin for the implementation of the German plan to destroy Russia - it was 20 million rubles.
Ashkhen Avanesova