When Lenin died. Is it true that V.I. Lenin suffered from syphilis. Improving the well-being of the leader

Instruction

Lenin became unwell in 1921. It was at this time that he began to have frequent severe headaches and fatigue. He began to experience unexplained bouts of nervous excitement. During these attacks, the politician carried all sorts of nonsense and waved his arms. Also, Lenin's limbs begin to go numb, up to complete paralysis. Doctors for the leader of the proletariat are summoned from Germany. But neither domestic doctors nor foreign doctors can give him an accurate diagnosis.

By the end of 1933, his condition deteriorated sharply. At times, he can no longer speak articulately. In the spring of 1923, Lenin was transported to Gorki. In the last lifetime photographs, Vladimir Ilyich looks simply terrifying: he is strong, and his eyes are simply crazy. He is constantly tormented by nightmares, he often screams. At the beginning of 1924, Lenin is getting a little better. On January 21, the doctors who examined him did not find any alarming symptoms in Ilyich, however, by the evening he suddenly became ill and died.

After death, many possible diagnoses were put forward. Doctors talked about epilepsy, Alzheimer's disease, multiple sclerosis and lead poisoning. In 1918, an assassination attempt was made on Lenin, and one of the two bullets that hit him was removed after his death. Allegedly, the fact that the bullet passed close to the vital arteries, and caused premature sclerosis of the carotid artery.

However, ordinary vascular sclerosis has completely different symptoms. During his lifetime, Lenin's disease was more like syphilis. By the way, some doctors who were invited to treat the leader specialized specifically in syphilis. However, some facts do not fit into this version. The doctors who performed the autopsy did not find any symptoms of syphilis in him. True, it was unacceptable to make public that the leader died of a venereal disease. This would have cast a shadow on the "bright image of Ilyich."

More recently, the American scientist Harry Winters and the St. Petersburg historian Lev Lurie proposed a new version of Lenin at a medical conference at the University of Maryland. The main reason was called poor heredity. Ilyich's father also died at a fairly early age. Perhaps Lenin's predisposition to hardening of the arteries was inherited. Stress is one of the most important factors that can cause a stroke, and there were a lot of worries and experiences in Lenin's life.

Lev Lurie suggested that Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin could have poisoned Lenin. Winters, having studied the results of the autopsy and the medical history of Lenin, noted that toxicological tests that could detect traces of poisons in the leader's body were not carried out. Poison poisoning is just one of the many versions of the cause of death of V.I. Lenin.

Vladimir Lenin is the great leader of the working people of the whole world, who is considered the most prominent politician in world history, who created the first socialist state.

Embed from Getty Images Vladimir Lenin

The Russian communist theoretical philosopher, who continued the work and, whose activities were widely deployed at the beginning of the 20th century, is still of interest to the public today, since his historical role is of significant importance not only for Russia, but for the whole world. Lenin's activity has both positive and negative assessments, which does not prevent the founder of the USSR from remaining the leading revolutionary in world history.

Childhood and youth

Ulyanov Vladimir Ilyich was born on April 22, 1870 in the Simbirsk province of the Russian Empire in the family of school inspector Ilya Nikolaevich and school teacher Maria Alexandrovna Ulyanov. He became the third child of parents who invested their whole soul in their children - my mother completely abandoned work and devoted herself to raising Alexander, Anna and Volodya, after whom she also gave birth to Maria and Dmitry.

Embed from Getty Images Vladimir Lenin as a child

As a child, Vladimir Ulyanov was a mischievous and very smart boy - at the age of 5 he already learned to read and by the time he entered the Simbirsk gymnasium he became a "walking encyclopedia". During his school years, he also showed himself to be a diligent, diligent, gifted and accurate student, for which he was repeatedly awarded commendable sheets. Lenin's classmates said that the future world leader of the working people enjoyed great respect and authority in the class, since every student felt his mental superiority.

In 1887, Vladimir Ilyich graduated from the gymnasium with a gold medal and entered the law faculty of Kazan University. In the same year, a terrible tragedy happened in the Ulyanov family - Lenin's older brother Alexander was executed for participating in organizing an assassination attempt on the tsar.

This grief aroused in the future founder of the USSR a protest spirit against national oppression and the tsarist system, therefore, already in the first year of high school, he created a student revolutionary movement, for which he was expelled from the university and sent into exile in a small village Kukushkino, located in the Kazan province.

Embed from Getty Images Vladimir Lenin's family

Since that moment, the biography of Vladimir Lenin has been continuously connected with the struggle against capitalism and autocracy, the main goal of which was the liberation of workers from exploitation and oppression. After the exile, in 1888, Ulyanov returned to Kazan, where he immediately joined one of the Marxist circles.

In the same period, Lenin's mother acquired an estate of almost 100 hectares in the Simbirsk province and convinced Vladimir Ilyich to manage it. This did not prevent him from continuing to maintain contacts with local "professional" revolutionaries, who helped him find Narodnaya Volya and create an organized movement of Protestants of the imperial power.

revolutionary activity

In 1891, Vladimir Lenin managed to pass the exams externally at the Imperial St. Petersburg University at the Faculty of Law. After that, he worked as an assistant to a sworn advocate from Samara, dealing with the "state protection" of criminals.

Embed from Getty Images Young Vladimir Lenin

In 1893, the revolutionary moved to St. Petersburg and, in addition to legal practice, began writing historical works on Marxist political economy, the creation of the Russian liberation movement, the capitalist evolution of post-reform villages and industry. Then he began to create a program of the Social Democratic Party.

In 1895, Lenin made his first trip abroad and made the so-called tour of Switzerland, Germany and France, where he met his idol Georgy Plekhanov, as well as Wilhelm Liebknecht and Paul Lafargue, who were leaders of the international labor movement.

Upon his return to St. Petersburg, Vladimir Ilyich managed to unite all the disparate Marxist circles in the "Union of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class", at the head of which he began to prepare a plan to overthrow the autocracy. For active propaganda of his idea, Lenin and his allies were taken into custody, and after a year in prison he was sent to the Shushenskoye village of the Elysian province.

Embed from Getty Images Vladimir Lenin in 1897 with members of the Bolshevik organization

During his exile, he established contact with the Social Democrats of Moscow, St. Petersburg, Voronezh, Nizhny Novgorod, and in 1900, at the end of his exile, he traveled all over Russian cities and personally established contact with numerous organizations. In 1900, the leader created the Iskra newspaper, under whose articles he first signed the pseudonym Lenin.

In the same period, he became the initiator of the congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party, in which after that there was a split into Bolsheviks and Mensheviks. The revolutionary headed the Bolshevik ideological and political party and launched an active struggle against Menshevism.

Embed from Getty Images Vladimir Lenin

In the period from 1905 to 1907, Lenin lived in exile in Switzerland, where he was preparing an armed uprising. There he was caught by the First Russian Revolution, in the victory of which he was interested, since it opened the way to the socialist revolution.

Then Vladimir Ilyich illegally returned to St. Petersburg and began to act actively. He tried at all costs to win over the peasants to his side, forcing them to an armed uprising against the autocracy. The revolutionary urged people to arm themselves with everything at hand and to attack civil servants.

October Revolution

After the defeat in the First Russian Revolution, the solidarity of all Bolshevik forces took place, and Lenin, having analyzed the mistakes, began to revive the revolutionary upsurge. Then he created his own legal Bolshevik party, which published the newspaper Pravda, of which he was editor-in-chief. At that time, Vladimir Ilyich lived in Austria-Hungary, where he was caught by the World War.

Embed from Getty Images Joseph Stalin and Vladimir Lenin

After being imprisoned on suspicion of spying for Russia, Lenin prepared his theses on the war for two years, and after his release went to Switzerland, where he came up with the slogan of turning the imperialist war into a civil one.

In 1917, Lenin and his associates were allowed to leave Switzerland through Germany to Russia, where a solemn meeting was organized for him. The first speech of Vladimir Ilyich before the people began with a call for a "social revolution", which caused discontent even among the Bolshevik circles. At that moment, Lenin's theses were supported by Joseph Stalin, who also believed that power in the country should belong to the Bolsheviks.

On October 20, 1917, Lenin arrived at Smolny and took over the leadership of the uprising, which was organized by the head of the Petrograd Soviet. Vladimir Ilyich proposed to act promptly, toughly and clearly - from October 25 to 26, the Provisional Government was arrested, and on November 7, at the All-Russian Congress of Soviets, Lenin's decrees on peace and land were adopted, and the Council of People's Commissars was organized, headed by Vladimir Ilyich.

Embed from Getty Images Leon Trotsky and Vladimir Lenin

This was followed by a 124-day "Smolnin period", during which Lenin carried out active work in the Kremlin. He signed a decree on the creation of the Red Army, concluded the Brest peace treaty with Germany, and also began to develop a program for the formation of a socialist society. At that moment, the Russian capital was moved from Petrograd to Moscow, and the Congress of Soviets of Workers, Peasants and Soldiers became the supreme body of power in Russia.

After the main reforms, which consisted in withdrawing from the World War and transferring the lands of the landlords to the peasants, the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic (RSFSR) was formed on the territory of the former Russian Empire, the rulers of which were the communists led by Vladimir Lenin.

Head of the RSFSR

With the coming to power, Lenin, according to many historians, ordered the execution of the former Russian emperor along with his entire family, and in July 1918 he approved the Constitution of the RSFSR. Two years later, Lenin eliminated the supreme ruler of Russia, Admiral, who was his strong opponent.

Embed from Getty Images Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

Then the head of the RSFSR implemented the "Red Terror" policy, created to strengthen the new government in the face of flourishing anti-Bolshevik activities. At the same time, the decree on the death penalty was restored, under which anyone who did not agree with Lenin's policy could fall.

After that, Vladimir Lenin set about destroying the Orthodox Church. Since that period, believers have become the main enemies of the Soviet regime. During that period, Christians who tried to protect the holy relics were subjected to persecution and executions. Special concentration camps were also created for the “re-education” of the Russian people, where people were imputed in especially harsh ways that they were obliged to work for free in the name of communism. This led to a massive famine that killed millions of people and a terrible crisis.

Embed from Getty Images Vladimir Lenin and Kliment Voroshilov at the Congress of the Communist Party

This result forced the leader to retreat from his planned plan and create a new economic policy, during which people, under the "supervision" of the commissars, restored industry, revived construction sites and industrialized the country. In 1921, Lenin abolished "war communism", replaced the food distribution with a food tax, allowed private trade, which gave the broad mass of the population to independently seek means of survival.

In 1922, on the recommendations of Lenin, the USSR was created, after which the revolutionary had to step down from power due to a sharp deterioration in health. After a sharp political struggle in the country in pursuit of power, Joseph Stalin became the sole leader of the Soviet Union.

Personal life

The personal life of Vladimir Lenin, like that of most professional revolutionaries, was shrouded in secrecy for the purpose of conspiracy. He met his future wife in 1894 during the organization of the Union of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class.

She blindly followed her lover and participated in all the actions of Lenin, which was the reason for their separate first exile. In order not to part, Lenin and Krupskaya got married in a church - they invited Shushensky peasants as best men, and their ally made of copper nickels made wedding rings for them.

Embed from Getty Images Vladimir Lenin and Nadezhda Krupskaya

The sacrament of the wedding of Lenin and Krupskaya took place on July 22, 1898 in the village of Shushenskoye, after which Nadezhda became a faithful companion in the life of the great leader, whom she bowed to, despite his harshness and humiliating treatment of herself. Having become a real communist, Krupskaya suppressed her sense of ownership and jealousy, which allowed her to remain the only wife of Lenin, in whose life there were many women.

The question "Did Lenin have children?" still attracts worldwide interest. There are several historical theories regarding the paternity of the communist leader - some claim that Lenin was barren, while others call him the father of many children of illegitimate children. At the same time, many sources claim that Vladimir Ilyich had a son Alexander Steffen from his beloved, an affair with which the revolutionary lasted about 5 years.

Death

The death of Vladimir Lenin occurred on January 21, 1924 in the estate of Gorki, Moscow province. According to official figures, the leader of the Bolsheviks died of atherosclerosis, caused by severe overload at work. Two days after his death, Lenin's body was transported to Moscow and placed in the Hall of Columns, where the farewell to the founder of the USSR was held for 5 days.

Embed from Getty Images Funeral of Vladimir Lenin

On January 27, 1924, Lenin's body was embalmed and placed in a specially built for this Mausoleum, located on the Red Square of the capital. The ideologist of the creation of Lenin's relics was his successor Joseph Stalin, who wanted to make Vladimir Ilyich a "god" in the eyes of the people.

After the collapse of the USSR, the issue of Lenin's reburial was repeatedly raised in the State Duma. True, he remained at the stage of discussion back in 2000, when he came to power during his first presidential term put an end to this issue. He said that he did not see the desire of the overwhelming majority of the population to rebury the body of the world leader, and until it appears, this topic will no longer be discussed in modern Russia.

On January 21, 1924, exactly 95 years ago, Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, better known as Lenin, died after a long illness at his dacha in Gorki. The leader of the revolution has not appeared in public for many months, and according to some evidence, he could not speak at all due to problems with the flow of blood to the brain.

Despite the fact that Lenin's death was expected for the party elite, and for urban residents in general, the news of the death of the leader caused a real shock. Someone could not believe what was happening, someone was crying, others even prayed for the repose of Comrade Lenin. One of the most iconic deaths of the 20s of the 20th century not only changed the history of the USSR forever, but also gave rise to many legends and speculations about how Vladimir Ilyich died after all. MIR 24 figured out the most popular of them.

Chronology of events

1921 The country has just gone through a major civil war that has killed several million people, the idea of ​​creating the USSR is being discussed, Lenin is becoming the most famous person in the country. And at the same time, something strange happens to the leader.

He still fervently broadcasts from the rostrum, urging his comrades-in-arms not to stop on the threshold of the world socialist revolution and the building of communism. But he played the invariably strong and steadfast man only on the podium and at large party meetings. At home, Lenin endlessly complained of headaches and fatigue. After a couple of months, he begins to have numbness of the limbs. What is happening with Vladimir Ilyich - no one could answer.

At first, Ulyanov thought that he had caught syphilis somewhere. Judging by the records of his doctors and closest associates, the leader of the revolution constantly took the funds that were prescribed at that time for this terrible infectious disease. But the pills and potions quickly stopped helping, and the headaches only intensified.

For a lot of money, the party elite invited German doctors to Gorki: Foerster, Klemperer, Nonne. But not even the last people in world science could diagnose what was happening to Lenin. In any case, there was nothing they could do to help him. At the end of 1922, Ulyanov appeared in public for the last time. He stops speaking articulately, cannot walk. And according to eyewitnesses, he only uttered two words at all: “revolution” and “conference”, as well as a number of interjections. In 1923, the leader was finally transferred to Gorki. Basically, die. This was understood by all his associates. For more than a year, doctors could not even diagnose a progressive disease - what hope for recovery is there. Around this time, one of the most famous photographs of Lenin was taken: an emaciated Ilyich in a carriage with a wild look.

The whole next year, the party only discussed the state of the country after the death of Ulyanov. Who will be the new head of government? What to do with the body of Ilyich? The first ideas about embalming arise. On January 21, 1924, after a long torment, Ulyanov died.

Version number 1. Bullet Kaplan

What kind of unknown illness befell Lenin, and why did he live to be only 53 years old? Versions fell down immediately after opening. Doctors found in the body a piece from the same bullet that Fanny Kaplan fired at the leader in 1918.

That year, on August 30, Lenin spoke at the Michelson factory in Moscow. When he left the institution and was about to get into the car, an unknown woman approached him. She began a story about the confiscation of bread at railway stations. Having lulled the vigilance of the leader, the Socialist-Revolutionary Fanny Kaplan fired three shots from a pistol. It was revenge for the dispersal of the constituent assembly.

Then Ilyich managed to be saved: good doctors were caught, who quickly eliminated mortally dangerous wounds. But, apparently, not completely. According to one version, the bullet was poisoned. According to another, the body could have been poisoned by the very fact that a lead bullet had been in it for many years.

The symptoms that led to Lenin's death are indeed incredibly similar to those experienced by a person who has been poisoned with lead. But there are much more plausible versions of what happened.

Version number 2. Poisoning

It is no secret that among the gathering of passionaries in the Soviet Communist Party, every second dreamed of being Napoleon. That is, Lenin. The struggle for the legacy of Ilyich unfolded long before his death. And it is quite possible that someone could help the head of government to leave our world early.

Fans of conspiracy theories most often point to Leiba Bronstein (Trotsky), the Zinoviev-Kamenev group and, of course, Joseph Dzhugashvili - Stalin. It was he who, as a result of a long inner-party struggle, took the place of Lenin. He, according to the memoirs of party leaders, wanted to return the famous triad to the Russian people. With himself instead of the king and the leader of the revolution instead of God. It worked in places.

On October 18, 1923, shortly before his death, the almost completely paralyzed Lenin suddenly returned to his Kremlin apartment for a day. According to the official version - to an agricultural exhibition. According to unofficial information, he was looking for dirt on Stalin in his own archive, who was gaining too much power. I didn’t find it - the documents miraculously disappeared somewhere.

Could Stalin kill Lenin to take his place, and from Ilyich himself create a new religion with "relics under communist sauce"? In any case, such motivation can be traced. However, no traces confirming this theory were found in Ulyanov's body during the autopsy. But conspiracy theorists will also note with pleasure that specially selected doctors loyal to Stalin worked on the body.

Version number 3. Medical

The main version of historians, as is usually the case, is the most boring. Over the years, versions with epilepsy, Alzheimer's disease, multiple sclerosis and other diseases that Lenin could well have been discussed. Indeed, according to the autopsy, the final cause of death was sclerotic changes in Ulyanov's left internal carotid artery. On the day of her death, blood completely stopped flowing through her.

Disputes about the causes of death are ongoing in the medical community at the present time. Already in the 21st century, the idea of ​​death from neurosyphilis was raised. However, it was quickly refuted, based on the diaries of the chief's attending physicians. Now, however, almost anyone can put forward their own version: after all, Lenin's brain, cut into 30 thousand parts, is stored in the Scientific Center for Neurology.

No matter what modern doctors and historians invent, science is merciless: the basis of the disease was the widespread atherosclerosis of blood vessels due to premature wear. There was a malnutrition due to insufficient blood flow to the brain. As a result, on January 21, 1924, a hemorrhage occurred in the pia mater, the patient died. And there can be no other versions, as medical researchers say.

Vladimir Lenin (real name: Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov) is a famous revolutionary, the leader of the Land of Soviets and the leader of the working people of the whole world, the founder of the first socialist state in world history, the creator of the Communist International.

He was one of the key ideological inspirers of the October Revolution of 1917 and the first head of a new state created on the basis of a union of equal republics and the theory of a subsequent world revolution.

In the USSR, he was the object of incredible worship and cult. He was glorified, exalted and idealized, called a visionary, a giant of thought and a visionary genius. Today, in different sectors of society, the attitude towards him is very contradictory: for some, he is the largest political theorist who influenced the course of world history, for others, he is the author of especially cruel concepts for the destruction of compatriots, who destroyed the foundations of the country's economy.

Childhood

The future major politician was born on April 22, 1870 in Simbirsk (now Ulyanovsk is named after him), a city on the Volga, in an intelligent family of teachers. There were no Russians in his family: mother Maria Alexandrovna came from Germans with an admixture of Swedish and Jewish blood, father Ilya Nikolaevich - from Kalmyks and Chuvashs. He was inspecting public schools and made a very successful career: he received the rank of real state councilor, which gave the right to a noble title.

Mom devoted herself to raising children, of whom there were five in their family: daughter Anna, sons Alexander, Vladimir, Dmitry and the youngest child - Maria or Manyasha, as her relatives called her. The mother of the family graduated from a pedagogical college as an external student, knew several foreign languages, played the piano and passed on her knowledge and skills to the children, including exceptional accuracy in everything.

Volodya knew Latin, French, German, English very well, and Italian a little worse. His love for languages ​​remained with him throughout his life; shortly before his death, he began to learn Czech. In the gymnasium, he preferred philosophy, but he also had excellent marks in other disciplines.

He grew up as an inquisitive boy, he liked to arrange noisy games with his brothers and sisters: in a horse, in Indians, in soldiers. Reading Uncle Tom's Cabin, he imagined himself as Abraham Lincoln smashing the slave owners.

In the last year of study, in 1986, his father died. A year later, their family suffered another ordeal - the execution of brother Alexander by hanging. The young man was good in the natural sciences, so the terrorists who were preparing an assassination attempt on Alexander III recruited him to create an explosive device. In the case, Ulyanov was held as one of the organizers of the attempt to assassinate the tsar.

Formation of political consciousness

After graduating from high school, the young man began to study law at Kazan University. At 17, he was not politically active. Biographers of Lenin believe that the decision to change the political system was largely dictated by the death of Alexander. Deeply experiencing the death of his brother, Volodya was carried away by the idea of ​​overthrowing tsarism.

Soon he was expelled from the university for participating in student riots. At the request of his mother's sister, Lyubov Blank, he was exiled to the village of Kukushkino, Kazan province, and lived with his aunt for about a year. Then his political views began to take shape. He took up self-education, read a lot of Marxist literature, as well as the works of Dmitry Pisarev, Georgy Plekhanov, Sergei Nechaev, Nikolai Chernyshevsky.

The revolution of the proletariat will completely abolish the division of society into classes, and consequently, all social and political inequality.

In 1889, demonstrating her immense love and support to her son, who needed money, Maria Alexandrovna sold her house in Simbirsk and bought a farm in the Samara province for 7.5 thousand rubles. She hoped that Vladimir would find an outlet in the ground, but without the experience of farming, the family did not succeed in becoming successful. They sold the estate and moved to Samara.

In 1891, the authorities allowed Ulyanov to pass the exams for the first year of the law faculty of St. Petersburg University. A little less than a year, Vladimir was an assistant attorney. This service was boring for him, and in 1893 he left for the Northern capital, where he took up the practice of law and the study of the ideology of Marxism. By this time, he had finally taken shape as a person, his views had evolved: if earlier he bowed to the ideas of the populists, now he has become a supporter of the social democrats.

Road to revolution

In 1895, the young man went to Europe, where he met with members of the Russian Marxist group Emancipation of Labor. Returning to the city on the Neva, he, in partnership with Julius Martov, founded the Union of Struggle. They were engaged in the management of strikes, the release of a workers' newspaper with articles by Ulyanov, and the distribution of leaflets.

We must fight religion. This is the ABC of all materialism and, consequently, of Marxism. But Marxism is not materialism that stops at the ABC. Marxism goes further. He says: one must be able to fight against religion, and for this it is necessary to explain materialistically the source of faith and religion among the masses.

Soon Vladimir was arrested and sent into exile for 3 years in the Siberian village of Shushenskoye, where he subsequently wrote more than three dozen articles. At the end of his sentence, Ulyanov went abroad. Once in Germany, in 1900 he initiated the release of the famous underground newspaper Iskra. Then he began to sign his writings and articles with the pseudonym Lenin. Vladimir Ilyich had high hopes for Iskra, believing that it would rally the divided revolutionary organizations under the banner of Marxist ideology.

In 1903, the Second Congress of the RSDLP, prepared by the revolutionary, was held in Brussels, where a split occurred between adherents of his idea of ​​seizing power by force of arms and supporters of the classical parliamentary path - the Mensheviks, and the party program developed together with Plekhanov was adopted. In 1905, at the 1st party conference in Finland, he met Stalin for the first time.

Any extreme is not good; everything good and useful, taken to an extreme, can become and even, beyond a certain limit, necessarily becomes evil and harm.

Victory in the February Revolution of 1917, which led to the overthrow of the monarchy, Lenin met abroad. Arriving at home, he called for an uprising against the Provisional Government. It was organized by Lev Trotsky, head of the Petrograd Soviet. On October 25, the Bolsheviks, with the support of the proletariat, seized power. Lenin headed a completely new government of the RSFSR - the Council of People's Commissars, signed decrees on land (confiscation of landowners' lands) and peace (negotiations on non-violent reconciliation of all warring countries).

After October

Devastation reigned in the country, and in the minds of the people - confusion to them chaos. Lenin signed the decree on the creation of the Red Army and the humiliating Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in order to be able to focus on internal problems. Many bright minds of the country, not appreciating his ideas, emigrated, others joined the White movement. The Civil War broke out.

No one is to blame if he was born a slave; but a slave who not only shies away from striving for his freedom, but justifies and embellishes his slavery, such a slave is one who evokes a legitimate feeling of indignation, contempt and disgust - a lackey and a boor.

During this period, the leader of the Bolsheviks ordered the execution of the entire royal family. Nicholas II with his wife, five of their children and close servants were killed on the night of July 16-17 in Yekaterinburg. Note that the question of Lenin's involvement in the execution of the Romanovs is still debatable.

In 1918, there were two assassination attempts on Lenin (in January and August) and the assassination of Moisei Uritsky, the chief Chekist of Petrograd. As a response to what happened, the Red Terror was organized by the authorities at the initiative of Felix Dzerzhinsky. Within its framework, they revived the decree on the death penalty, began the creation of concentration camps, practiced forced conscription into the army, and pogroms of Orthodox churches.

Lenin's speech to the Red Army soldiers (1919)

The Bolsheviks introduced a tough and inefficient concept of "war communism", involving people in free public works up to 16 hours a day, confiscated food, and liquidated the market.

These actions provoked massive famine and crisis, forcing the country's leader to develop a new economic policy (NEP). She gave positive results, but he could not correct all the mistakes made because of his failing health.

Personal life of Vladimir Lenin

The first head of the USSR was married. With his chosen one, smart and dedicated Marxist Nadezhda Krupskaya, he met in 1894 during the creation of the Union of Struggle. After 4 years, they got married, legalizing their relationship in order to obtain permission to serve a link in Shushenskoye together.

The couple did not have offspring, although people who knew them claimed that they really wanted to have at least one child. The reason for this was the unfavorable living conditions for the appearance of children of a married couple (exiles, prisons, emigration), as well as the consequences of Krupskaya’s illness, who had been seriously ill “in the female part” during imprisonment.

Man needs an ideal, but human, corresponding to nature, and not supernatural.

According to researchers, until his death, the couple was connected not by intimacy, but by strong friendship. The leader considered his wife his reliable and main support in life. She repeatedly offered him freedom, in particular, so that he could marry his next mistress, Inessa Armand, with whom Nadezhda had an excellent relationship. But he always refused, did not want to let her go.

The politician was not particularly attractive, had a speech defect - burr, but had powerful charisma, piercing eyes, could almost hypnotically influence others.

Death

In May 1922, the Bolshevik leader suffered a stroke with speech impairment and paralysis on the right side of his body. By the fall, the disease subsided, and he returned to business, demonstrating a colossal capacity for work. He spoke at the Fourth Congress of the Comintern, held a number of meetings of the Council of People's Commissars, meetings of the Politburo, wrote about two hundred business notes and orders in 2 months. But in December and then in March of the following year there were repeated strokes. Lenin moved from the capital to the residence of Gorki near Moscow, closer to nature, healing silence and fresh air.

Rare footage from the funeral of Vladimir Lenin

In January 1924, there was a sharp deterioration in the health of the people's leader, and on the 21st he died of a cerebral hemorrhage. The reasons for his death were also called atherosclerosis, syphilis, a genetic disease that led to the "petrification" of the vessels of the brain, and even poisoning from a bullet. However, these are all just hypotheses.

After the death of the leader, it was decided to create a mausoleum near the Kremlin wall for his burial. By the day of the funeral on January 27, a temporary wooden burial structure was erected, where Ilyich's body was placed. Now in its place stands a mausoleum made of red brick. The embalmed leader of the peoples rests there to this day.

After the death of Lenin on January 21, 1924, at the mourning meeting of the Second Congress of Soviets, it was decided to build
Mausoleum near the Kremlin wall. By January 27, the day of the leader's funeral, a temporary wooden mausoleum designed by Shchusev was erected

The first bell about the illness, which in the 23rd turned Ilyich into a weak and feeble-minded person, and soon brought him to the grave, rang in 1921. The country was overcoming the consequences of the civil war, the leadership was rushing from war communism to the new economic policy (NEP). And the head of the Soviet government, Lenin, whose every word was eagerly caught by the country, began to complain of headaches and fatigue. Later, numbness of the limbs, up to complete paralysis, inexplicable attacks of nervous excitement are added to this, during which Ilyich waves his arms and talks some kind of nonsense ... It comes to the point that Ilyich “communicates” with those around him with just three words: “ just about", "revolution" and "conference".

In 1923, the Politburo already managed without Lenin.

"Makes some strange noises"

Doctors for Lenin are being discharged from Germany. But neither "guest workers" from medicine, nor domestic luminaries of science can in any way diagnose him. Ilya Zbarsky, the son and assistant of the biochemist Boris Zbarsky, who embalmed Lenin's body and for a long time headed the laboratory at the Mausoleum, being familiar with the leader's medical history, described the situation in the book "Object No. 1" as follows: "By the end of the year (1922. - Ed.), his condition noticeably worsens, instead of articulate speech he makes some obscure sounds. After some relief in February 1923, complete paralysis of the right arm and leg sets in ... The gaze, previously penetrating, becomes inexpressive and dull. The German doctors Förster, Klemperer, Nonne, Minkowski and Russian professors Osipov, Kozhevnikov, Kramer, who were invited for big money, are again completely at a loss.

In the spring of 1923, Lenin was transported to Gorki - in fact, to die. “In a photograph taken by Lenin's sister (six months before her death. - Ed.), We see a thinner person with a wild face and crazy eyes,” continues I. Zbarsky. - He cannot speak, night and day he is tormented by nightmares, at times he screams ... Against the background of some relief on January 21, 1924, Lenin feels general malaise, lethargy ... Professors Foerster and Osipov, who examined him after dinner, do not find any alarming symptoms. However, at about 6 pm the patient's condition worsens sharply, convulsions appear ... the pulse is 120-130. Around half past seven, the temperature rises to 42.5°C. At 6:50 p.m.... doctors declare death.”

The broad masses of the people took the death of the leader of the world proletariat to heart. On the morning of January 21, Ilyich himself tore off a page of the flip calendar. Moreover, it is clear that he did it with his left hand: his right was paralyzed. In the photo: Felix Dzerzhinsky and Kliment Voroshilov at Lenin's coffin.

What happened to one of the most extraordinary figures of his time? Doctors discussed epilepsy, Alzheimer's disease, multiple sclerosis, and even lead poisoning from a bullet fired by Fanny Kaplan in 1918 as possible diagnoses. close proximity to vital arteries. This allegedly could also cause premature sclerosis of the carotid artery, the extent of which became clear only during the autopsy. Academician of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences Yuri Lopukhin cited excerpts from the protocols in his book: sclerotic changes in the left internal carotid artery of Lenin in its intracranial part were such that blood simply could not flow through it - the artery turned into a solid dense whitish cord.

Traces of turbulent youth?

However, the symptoms of the disease were little like ordinary vascular sclerosis. Moreover, during the life of Lenin, the disease most of all resembled progressive paralysis due to brain damage due to late complications of syphilis. Ilya Zbarsky draws attention to the fact that this diagnosis was definitely meant at that time: some of the doctors invited to Lenin specialized in syphilis, and the drugs that were prescribed to the leader made up a course of treatment for this particular disease according to the methods of that time. However, some facts do not fit into this version. Two weeks before his death, on January 7, 1924, on the initiative of Lenin, his wife and sister arranged a Christmas tree for children from the surrounding villages. Ilyich himself seemed to feel so well that, sitting in a wheelchair, for some time he even took part in the general fun in the winter garden of the former manor estate. On the last day of his life, he tore off a sheet of a loose-leaf calendar with his left hand. As a result of the autopsy, the professors who worked with Lenin even made a special statement about the absence of any signs of syphilis. Yuri Lopukhin, however, on this occasion refers to the note he saw of the then People's Commissar of Health Nikolai Semashko to the pathologist, future academician Alexei Abrikosov - with a request "to pay special attention to the need for strong morphological evidence of the absence of luetic (syphilitic) lesions in order to preserve the bright image of the leader." Is it to justifiably dispel rumors or, conversely, to hide something? The “bright image of the leader” remains a sensitive topic today. But, by the way, it is never too late to put an end to the debate about the diagnosis - out of scientific interest: Lenin's brain tissues are stored in the former Brain Institute.

Hastily, in 3 days, the knocked together Mausoleum-1 was only about three meters in height.

"Relics under communist sauce"

Meanwhile, while Ilyich was still alive, his associates began an undercover struggle for power. By the way, there is a version why on October 18-19, 1923, the sick and partially immobilized Lenin got out of Gorki to Moscow for the only time. Formally - to an agricultural exhibition. But why did he visit the Kremlin apartment for the whole day? The publicist N. Valentinov-Volsky, who emigrated to the United States, wrote: Lenin was looking for documents that compromised Stalin in his personal papers. But the papers, apparently, someone has already "thinned out".

Even with the leader alive, the members of the Politburo in the autumn of 23 began to vividly discuss his funeral. It is clear that the ceremony should be majestic, but what to do with the body - cremate according to the proletarian anti-church fashion or embalm with the latest word of science? “We ... instead of icons, hung leaders and will try for Pakhom (a simple village peasant. - Ed.) And the “lower classes” to open the relics of Ilyich under communist sauce,” wrote party ideologist Nikolai Bukharin in one of his private letters. However, at first it was only about the farewell procedure. Therefore, Abrikosov, who performed the autopsy of Lenin's body, also performed embalming on January 22 - but the usual, temporary one. “... Opening the body, he introduced into the aorta a solution consisting of 30 parts of formalin, 20 parts of alcohol, 20 parts of glycerin, 10 zinc chloride and 100 water,” explains I. Zbarsky in the book.

On January 23, the coffin with the body of Lenin, with a large gathering of people who had gathered, despite the severe frost, was loaded into a mourning train (the locomotive and carriage are now in the museum at the Paveletsky railway station) and taken to Moscow, to the Hall of Columns of the House of Unions. At this time, near the Kremlin wall on Red Square, deep frozen ground is being crushed with dynamite to equip the tomb and the foundation of the first Mausoleum. The newspapers of that time reported that in a month and a half the Mausoleum was visited by about 100 thousand people, but a huge queue is still lining up at the doors. And in the Kremlin, they begin to convulsively think about what to do with the body, which in early March begins to rapidly lose its presentable appearance ...