Nadezhda Krupskaya | Autograph letter signed, denying her husband Lenin is a Tsarist spy, to Dr H. Diamant, 1914

Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaya

Autograph letter signed ("N. Ulianowa"), to Dr Herman Diamant

in Polish, protesting against the accusations that her husband Lenin is a Tsarist spy, explaining the circumstances of his recent arrest ("On August 6th the Poronin police searched our house saying that my husband was suspected of being a Russian spy..."), enlisting Diamant's help in refuting the accusation against him ("...You, comrade, know my husband personally as a member of the International, and you therefore know that the charge of espionage which has been made against my husband is absurd...") and urging Diamant to telegraph immediately to Cracow in order to vouch for Lenin's innocence, 4 pages, 8vo, on graph paper, Poronin, Galicia, 14 August 1914, with autograph envelope, weak at folds

"...in war-time nothing is certain. If a man can be arrested merely because statistical papers are found in his house, anything can happen..."

A RARE LETTER BY KRUPSKAYA DENOUNCING LENIN'S ARREST AS A POSSIBLE SPY FOR TSARIST RUSSIA AT THE OUTBREAK OF WORLD WAR I. Lenin and his wife had been in exile from Russia since 1907. The outbreak of war in August 1914 found them in the southern Polish village of Poronin, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Lenin was denounced by a local informant and arrested almost immediately after the outbreak of hostilities between Russia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.   

This outraged letter was written in the anxious days of Lenin's imprisonment in Cracow. Krupskaya later recalled her fears during these days in the face of fierce anti-Russian sentiment in her memoir, Reminiscences of Lenin. Her correspondent, Herman Diamant, was a prominent Socialist politician and deputy for Lvov who was - like Lenin - a member of the Second International. Diamant duly vouched that Lenin was a very improbable spy for the Tsarist regime and he was he was released after eleven days in prison. The couple then left Galicia for Switzerland, where they were to remain until Lenin's return to Russia in the famous sealed train after the February Revolution.

Nadezhda Krupskaya (1869-1939) was a major Revolutionary figure in her own right. Letters by her are rare on the market, and we find no record of another letter from the pre-Revolutionary period, or of such biographical import, having appeared previously at auction.

LITERATURE:

Published in Adamczewski, Lenin na Pohkiej Ziemi 1912-1914 (Cracow, 1987)

PROVENANCE:

Sotheby's, London, 5 December 1991, lot 526