It turns out for a long time in the media and on the Internet there is a version about the existence of LENIN'S SON. In general, this is more reminiscent of the story of the "children of Lieutenant Schmidt", but I decided to inquire anyway. And then, as expected, I found more than one contender for this title. Here are some stories:
Alexander Vladimirovich Steffen
Readers will certainly be interested to learn about what almost all schoolchildren in Germany know about. There, in the history textbooks for the eighth grade, in the chapter dedicated to Vladimir Ulyanov (Lenin), it is said about Alexander Steffen, the only son of the leader of the revolution and the sixth child of Inessa Armand. But the main sensation is not even that.
In 1998, journalist Arnold Bespo tracked down 85-year-old Alexander Vladimirovich Steffen in Berlin, where he lived near the Brandenburg Gate. His wife died long ago, the children (that is, the true "grandchildren of Ilyich") live separately. A modest pension of 1,200 Deutsche-rock was enough for a living, but he was looking for a publisher to publish a book of his memoirs.
The advanced age of this man was not conducive to a long conversation, but Herr Steffen nevertheless agreed to give the journalist a short interview. Here's what he said about himself:
V. I. Lenin visiting A. M. Gorky plays chess with A. A. Bogdanov. 1908, between 10 (23) and 17 (30) April. Capri, Italy. Photographer: Yu. A. Zhelyabuzhsky.
“I was born in 1913, 3 years after my mother met Vladimir Ilyich. And it happened in Paris in 1909, right after the death of her second husband, Vladimir Armand, from tuberculosis. As I suppose, my parents did not really want to advertise the fact of my birth. Therefore, 7 months after I was born, I was placed in the family of an Austrian communist. There I grew up until 1928, when unknown people took me away, put me on a steamer in Le Havre, and I ended up in America. I think these were Stalin's people who most likely wanted to use me for propaganda purposes in the future. But, apparently, it did not work out. In 1943, already an American citizen, I volunteered for the Army and served at the Portland Naval Base until 1947.
Promotional video:
I know about my father from my mother. In the spring of 1920, shortly before her death, she visited Salzburg. She told about him, brought a letter from her personal archive, written to Vladimir Ilyich in Paris in 1913, and asked to keep it as a keepsake.
In the USA, life did not go well. My wife died in 1959 and I went to Europe, to the German Democratic Republic (GDR). I guessed why the East Germans immediately answered my request with consent and granted citizenship along with a good apartment. Later, my guess was confirmed. I was invited to a reception with Comrade Walter Ulbricht, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany - he knew everything. And in 1967, during the Berlin meeting of the leaders of the world communist movement in the Soviet embassy, Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev met with me. He presented me with the Order of Friendship of Peoples and kissed me hard at parting. He promised to invite him to the XXIII Congress of the CPSU as a guest of honor. Did not work out. And today Lenin is not liked in Russia. So I have nothing to do with you."
Alexander Vladimirovich kindly gave permission to publish an excerpt from Inessa's letter to Armand to Vladimir Ulyanov, who lived at that time in Poland, in Krakow.
“… Looking at well-known places, I clearly realized, as never before, what a great place you still occupied here in Paris in my life, that almost all activities here in Paris were connected by a thousand threads with the thought of you. I was not at all in love with you then, but even then I loved you very much. Even now, I would have done without kissing, just to see you, sometimes it would be a joy to talk to you - and it could not hurt anyone. Why was it necessary to deprive me of this?.."
Here is what Helium Kleymenov writes about this:
At first glance, the information is plausible, especially since Walter Ulbricht himself received Alexander Steffen, and Leonid Brezhnev awarded him. Yes, and in history textbooks it is not so easy to write without verification. Let's analyze this most reliable version of the birth of a bastard (illegitimate son) to a leader.
1. Let's dwell on the date of birth in 1913. From the biography of Inessa, we know that in the spring of 1912, Inessa, on behalf of Lenin, left for Russia, on September 14 she was arrested, she was released in the spring of 1913 on bail of 5,400 rubles, which was her first husband Alexander. On August 6, 1913, the term of public surveillance of the police ended, and she could leave Russia. In September she appeared in Krakow and left for Paris before October 7, 1913.
The fruit of the love of Lenin and Inessa, born in 1913 (the month of birth is not specified) could have appeared from their meetings between April 1912 and April 1913. Inessa left for Russia in the spring of 1912, which means that such an event could have happened only in April-May 1912. in Paris. Based on these calculations, the child could be born only in the prison of St. Petersburg. Birth in prison had to be recorded in the church book. If such a record existed and was discovered, it would be the main evidence for this version. Inessa was supposed to leave prison with the baby in the spring of 1913, and for sure, judging by the actions of Alexander Armand, he would have offered Inessa to adopt the boy, as he did with his brother Vladimir's son, Andrey.
2. As follows from the version, "7 months after birth" the son was placed in the family of an Austrian communist. Following this version, we must assume that Inessa made her way through Finland and Stockholm to Krakow with a child and had to appear in the Ulyanov family with a baby, and then in a hurry within a month, since in October she had already left Krakow, transfer him to family of Austrians (they were then in Galicia). Krupskaya spoke with great warmth about Inessa, who was constantly in their house at that time, but she did not even hint at the baby even in passing. Can we assume that they conspired and decided to get rid of the illegitimate child of the defamatory leader of the revolution? But this is unlikely.
First, Lenin was only the leader of the Bolshevik party, and it was still very far from the revolution.
Secondly, if Inessa had appeared with Lenin's child, the actions of the Ulyanov family would have been absolutely opposite - they were expecting children so much, especially Maria Alexandrovna, well, how could they refuse such a fallen happiness.
Thirdly, Inessa was a great mother. Politics dragged her out, tore her away from the children, but at all possible occasions spent time with them. After escaping from exile in the Arkhangelsk province, she met with children in Moscow at the risk of herself. When she lived in Paris near the Ulyanovs' apartment, she came to Krupskaya and Lenin with their children, for whom they became an uncle and aunt. Even for courses in Longjumeau, she came with her son Andrei. She was unable to throw her child into someone else's family for education. Such an act was not in her nature. She was a gentle, considerate mother who always cared about her children. Returning to Paris in 1913, where her children lived with their father Alexander Evgenievich, in the summer of 1914 she left to rest with them on the Adriatic Sea, in Lovrana, on the Istrian peninsula.
From the diary entries of Inessa on September 1, 1920: “In relation to children, I do not at all resemble a Roman matron who easily sacrifices her children in the interests of the republic. I am incredibly afraid for my children."
3. It is necessary to dwell on the phrase from the version: "In the spring of 1920, shortly before her death, she visited Salzburg." In 1918, Inessa, together with the Lenin government, moved to Moscow, became the head of the women's department of the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party. Her apartment was in the Kremlin, next to Anna Ilyinichna's apartment, and Lenin walked in to visit the women. In 1920 it was decided to convene the 1st International Women's Communist Conference simultaneously with the second Congress of the Communist International (Comintern) from July 19 to August 7, 1920 in Moscow. Inessa Armand was appointed the organizer and leader of this conference and did not leave Moscow anywhere. She could not be in Salzburg, and there was no time for travel, the war with Poland began. On March 1, the Poles occupied Slonim, and then Pinsk, on April 19 Lida, Novogrudok and Baranovich and Vilno,April 28 - Grodno. Moscow was cut off from Europe, and it was simply physically impossible to get there.
4. The version about Lenin's son was compiled and concocted in a hurry, and its authors did not even bother to look into the directory and clarify the facts and dates. Another serious mistake in the version: “And in 1967, during the Berlin meeting of the leaders of the world communist movement in the Soviet embassy, Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev met with me. He presented me with the Order of Friendship of Peoples and kissed me hard at parting. Leonid Ilyich was in the GDR in early October 1964, being a member of the presidium and secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, he, as the head of the Soviet delegation, took part in the celebration of the fifteenth anniversary of the GDR. One evening, the Soviet ambassador Pyotr Andreevich Abrasimov arranged a dinner in honor of the distinguished guest, to which he invited the singer Galina Pavlovna Vishnevskaya and the cellist Mstislav Leopoldovich Rostropovich. In September 1967, Brezhnev was on an official visit to Hungary,and in the GDR his official visit, as General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, took place in October 1971 and was received at the highest level, and there could be no question of receptions at the embassy.
All these fabrications about Lenin's son are sewn with white thread and have nothing to do with actual events. And it doesn't matter whether Alexander Steffen was born in 1912 or 1914, in any case Inessa had to bear him, and with her biography so carefully written by chronographs for months, there is no time for the birth of her sixth child. Naturally, the pregnancy cannot be hidden, and one of the associates in their memoirs would certainly have mentioned this fact. Inessa did not have a sixth child, and Lenin did not have a son.
Andrey Armand
At the suggestion of Kollontai, there are many rumors about the proximity of Inessa Armand and Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. They said that Inessa had a child from Lenin.
In the Lithuanian town of Marijampole, local guides will certainly take you to the memorial cemetery and show you the monument to Captain Andrei Armand, who died on October 7, 1944 in the battles for the liberation of the Baltic States from the Nazis.
According to local historians of local lore, the captain of the Red Army, Andrei Armand, is the illegitimate son of … Vladimir Lenin and Inessa Armand. Official documents of the war times really say that "the buried Andrei Alexandrovich Armand (1903-1944) is the son of Inessa Armand and Vladimir Ulyanov."
Today these papers are kept in the city administration of Marijampole. But how this entry appeared in the registration book in the regional center, none of the locals can explain.
Professor of the Russian Academy of Theater Arts Faina Khachaturyan is sure that she was friends with Lenin's grandson as a child. “One of the brightest memories of my childhood is visiting relatives of Inessa Armand,” says Faina Nikolaevna. “My mother was friends with Hiena Armand, the wife of Inessa's youngest son, Andrei. These were the post-war years. Their family lived in a house on Manezhnaya Square.
Later I learned that they had been given an apartment by order of Lenin. It was a huge communal apartment. They lived very modestly. The apartment was furnished with old government furniture. But there was a special atmosphere in it, bright representatives of the Moscow intelligentsia gathered here.
For us, children, wonderful holidays were organized in this hospitable house. Hiena raised two sons. The youngest was named Volodya. We became friends with him. He amazed with his intelligence, erudition. It constantly seemed to me that he was very reminiscent of someone. Later, the older sister opened my eyes, saying: "Look in the history book and you will understand everything." And indeed. Volodya Armand as a child was almost a copy of the photograph, which depicts Volodya Ulyanov in a gymnasium uniform. The same bulging forehead, the same piercing gaze. When I grew up, my mother told me that his father, Andrei Armand, was Lenin's son. " Such is the legend.
OPINION OF HISTORIAN Akim ARUTYUNOV, famous scientist-historian, author of books about Lenin
- To answer the question of who Andrey Armand is, one must remember the fate of his mother - Inessa (Eliza) Fyodorovna Armand. She was born on May 9, 1874 in Paris. Her father, Theodor Stefan, was a renowned opera singer. Mother, Natalie Wild, is a housewife. After the death of her husband, she was left with three small children without funds.
In search of a way out of the most difficult financial situation, the aunt (teacher of French language and music), together with Inessa, emigrated to Russia. In Moscow, the girl received a good education.
The very gifted Inessa, fluent in French, English and Russian and an excellent piano player, became a home teacher for children from wealthy Moscow families. In October 1893, she married the son of a merchant of the first guild, owner of factories in the Moscow region, Alexander Armand. For eight years of marriage, Inessa gave birth to two boys (Alexander in 1894 and Fedor in 1896) and two girls (Inessa in 1898 and Vera in 1901).
Living in complete harmony and understanding with Alexander, Inessa unexpectedly left in 1902 … to her husband's younger brother, Vladimir. In 1903, she gave birth to her fifth child, a boy who was named Andryusha. But a long life with Vladimir did not work out. After Inessa's exile for political activity, he followed her, although he suffered from tuberculosis. In the north, my husband's illness became acute.
Vladimir Armand was forced to urgently move to Switzerland for treatment. Inessa, having escaped from exile, went to her husband. Alas, the doctors were unable to save him. In early January 1909, Vladimir died. Having buried her husband, Inessa decided to move to her native Paris. Her first husband, Alexander, took care of all five children at that time in Russia.
Inessa first met Vladimir Ulyanov in Paris in the spring of 1909. Before that, these two people had never met. In the year Lenin met Armand, Inessa's youngest son Andrei was already 5 years old. So, they are mistaken in Marijampole: Vladimir Ilyich could not be the father of Andrei Armand.
It was possible to establish that after the death of his mother on September 24, 1924, Andrei - not without the support of the chairman of the Council of People's Commissars Lenin - received a higher education. Until 1935, he worked as a mechanical engineer at the Gorky Automobile Plant, then moved to Moscow. At the beginning of the war, he volunteered for the front with the Moscow militia. In 1944 he became a member of the CPSU (b) and soon died heroically.
Now we know that the Red Army captain of the Guard Andrei Armand is buried in Lithuania
But here is what Vladimir himself says in an interview:
But the same Volodya, who looks like a textbook photograph of little Ilyich, lives and lives in Moscow. He is now 72 years old. He runs a small business of his own. The first thing that comes to mind when meeting him: indeed, he looks a lot like Lenin! Especially when he gesticulates and smiles.
- Several years ago, all the newspapers were bypassed by a sensation: the grave of Lenin's son, Andrei Armand, was found in Lithuania. Is this your father?
- They also wrote that he was a colonel. But in fact he was the captain. Yes, he was seriously wounded in 1944 in battles with the Nazis near Vilkaviskis. He died in the hospital. Here he was buried. The family knew where he rested. We went to his grave long before the press talked about it. Before the war, dad worked as a mechanical engineer at the Gorky Automobile Plant. He was sent here, not allowing him to finish the fourth year of the institute. He even went to Sergo Ordzhonikidze with a request to let him finish his studies at the university. But he replied: "We are well acquainted with you, but this is not a reason not to carry out the instructions of the party." The father had a reservation from the army. But he volunteered for the front.
- It is known that after the death of Inessa Armand in 1920, Krupskaya took care of her children.
- When Inessa died, my father was seventeen years old. His upbringing was handled by a home teacher. He lived with us as a member of the family even after the death of dad. Krupskaya was attentive to children. Vladimir Ilyich also communicated with them, from time to time he clarified their worldview moods. There was no guardianship: just a normal relationship. Our surname meant nothing. Therefore, no benefits, no special conditions. True, Iosif Vissarionovich clearly reacted to his mother's requests when she wrote: "Fix the roof." The roof often leaked: it was broken during the bombing. A day after the letter, the commandant of the Kremlin came running. Although the Armands still had one privilege: none of the family members fell under repression. The adopted children of Dmitry Ulyanov, the leader's younger brother, received the same indulgence.
- They wrote that one of the Armands kept Inessa's personal correspondence with Vladimir Ilyich for a long time. And in the early 50s, he burned it, fearing that she could become a reason for arrest.
- All personal correspondence with Lenin was seized immediately after Inessa's death. So all the secrets of their personal relationships, if any, are still kept in the archives of the NKVD. Only the memories of my grandmother about Vladimir Armand have disappeared from us. They were stolen during the evacuation along with my diapers. It was from Vladimir that she gave birth to her fifth child - my father. She went to him, leaving the father of her previous four children - Alexander Armand, my grandfather's older brother. This is a famous family story.
- And how does the family relate to the legend that Andrei Armand is the son of Ilyich?
- These are all journalists-inventors, - Vladimir Andreevich answered. - I don’t know where the legend came from. For some reason, no one says that Inessa Armand created the Rabotnitsa magazine, that she is the first chairman of the executive committee of Moscow and the Moscow region. This is no longer interesting to anyone. My father was born in 1903, and Inessa met Lenin in 1909.
- But the leader and his girlfriend could have corrected the biography. Maybe they met earlier, because Inessa wrote that she met Lenin's works precisely in 1903, the year of the birth of her youngest son …
Vladimir Andreevich only dismissed it.
- Once Volodya spoke at a meeting. Someone took a picture of him. In the picture, he really was an exact copy of the leader, - laughs Olga, the wife of Vladimir Andreevich.
- Vladimir Ilyich and Inessa, figuratively speaking, stood next to the machine. He is an outstanding theorist. She is a very literate person in terms of culture, economics, jurisprudence and a talented organizer. And nothing more, - Vladimir Andreevich finished the conversation.
And his face lit up with a smile with a characteristic sly. Well, the spitting image of Vladimir Ilyich!
According to local residents, the military cemetery was visited several times by people who called themselves "relatives of Andrei Armand." Between themselves, they allegedly spoke French, and were accompanied by KGB officers. And in the early 90s, a whole delegation from Russia came here. The residents of Marijampole claim that the Russians begged the local authorities to allow them to open the grave in order to take DNA samples from the remains of Captain Armand's Guard. But they were refused.
At the cemetery, I noticed that a separate monument was erected only to the Guard Captain Armand. A faded photograph on stone is almost impossible to see. Only the contours of an oblong male face with lush, most likely red hair have survived. The location of the original photograph could not be established.
Andrey Mironov (not an artist) - Lenin's illegitimate son?
According to Melis Arypbekov, a Kyrgyz businessman who studies the life of Ilyich in his free time, the leader took his pseudonym in honor of a certain woman named Lenin.
This is evidenced by the documents that were given to Melis by none other than the grandson of the famous Russian artist Perov - Roman Alekseevich.
“We talked a lot with him when I lived and worked in Leningrad,” Arypbekov says. - Studying history has always been my passion. Roman Alekseevich knew about this and gave me amazing documents!
Arypbekov takes out a powerful and dusty suitcase from the closet and takes out a battered album with charcoal sketches of the most famous paintings by Vasily Perov himself!
- Compare! - Melis puts modern color reproductions of famous paintings in front of us. The pictures really show fragments of masterpieces, faces and even a hand with a modest signature: “My hand. Perov.
- And here is a photo of Roman Perov, who gave me this treasure, - says Arypbekov and shows on the card a person very similar to Leo Tolstoy. - And next to him, you know who? Andrei Mironov, the son of Lenin, in whose honor Vladimir Ilyich took his pseudonym.
Arypbekov pauses:
- And perhaps this is the son of Ilyich!
Melis pulls out an old black and white photograph to prove this mind-boggling theory. We, disassembling thin letters, read on the back almost in warehouses: “Dear, dear and beloved Tatyana Alekseevna and Roman Alekseevich Perov, in memory of my own mother Inna Vasilievna Lenina, who took part in revolutionary work with V. I. Lenin and helped to save him in early May 1900 A. Mironov.
The same woman as in the photo is also captured on a frayed page from the pre-revolutionary magazine "Neva", where under the heading "Artist and Stage" with all the yats and solid signs it is reported that "Inna Vasilievna Filippova-Lenina is an opera singer, lyric soprano." will perform "in the role of Margarita from the opera" Faust ". It turns out that the son of Inna Lenina, Andrei Mironov, sent these photos to his friend, Roman Perov. There are several more letters written in the same handwriting from Andrey to Roman.
- Maybe Lenin really took his pseudonym in honor of her? Why, then, did you not tell about this charming lady leader earlier? - I ask Melis Arypbekov.
- In the days of the KGB? - Melis answers the question with a question. - Besides, Perov generally told me that Andrei is the secret son of Vladimir Ilyich and Inna Lenina. Well, how do you think this information would have been received in Soviet times?
According to Arypbekov, Volodya Ulyanov and Inna Lenina had a stormy romance in St. Petersburg, they were even going to get married. But the parents of the young person did not want to give their daughter off to a man whose brother had been hanged for an attempt on the king's life. Ulyanov had to part with the girl, and only then did she find out that she was pregnant. And she married another character, completely uninteresting for Soviet history, a certain Mironov. Even his name has not survived to this day.
Why did Ulyanov take the pseudonym Lenin?
Researchers of the life of the leader of the world proletariat have three more versions of the appearance of the pseudonym Lenin.
Version one: imitated Plekhanov
It is considered by other researchers of Ilyich's life: in honor of the Lena River. But Ilyich was not in exile on the Lena. True, in 1912, the authorities shot the strikers at the Lena gold mines. Ulyanov was allegedly greatly shocked by these events, having read about them an essay by Vladimir Korolenko. However, historians say that the Lena events took place after he took this pseudonym for himself. For the first time the signature "Lenin" appeared in 1901 in a letter from Ilyich to Georgy Plekhanov. By the way, Ulyanov could have chosen such a signature by analogy with one of Plekhanov's pseudonyms - "Volgin" (in honor of the great Russian river Volga). So "Lenin" may just be an imitation.
Version two: took the name of the agronomist
Ilyich often used pseudonyms. He had more than a hundred of them, he often signed his articles simply with initials, but more often - with the surnames K. Tulin, Petrov, Karpov, K. Ivanov, R. Silin. Then Ulyanov often quoted the well-known agronomist and public figure Sergei Nikolaevich Lenin. He could borrow the real name of the scientist for a pseudonym.
Version three: got used to someone else's passport
In 1900, when Vladimir Ulyanov had to go abroad, he applied to the Pskov governor to issue a passport. However, he was afraid that because of his revolutionary activities he would not receive a passport. Therefore, his wife, Nadezhda Konstantinovna, asked her friend from evening school Olga Nikolaevna Lenina, and she asked her brother Sergei to help Ilyich. For this, Olga and Sergei took the passport of their father, Nikolai Yegorovich Lenin, who was terminally ill. The date of birth was forged in the passport (under Ulyanov's age). But it is not known by what document Ilyich left, because on May 5, 1900, he received a long-desired passport in his name at the office of the Pskov governor. However, at the request of the owner of the printing house that printed the Zarya magazine, he showed him a passport in the name of N. Ye. Lenin.
Be that as it may, after October 1917, the head of the Bolshevik Party and the new state signed all documents, articles, books with his real name, but added his main pseudonym in brackets - V. Ulyanov (Lenin).
