Nadezhda Konstantinovna Ulyanova

Кру́пская, Наде́жда Константи́новнач — Krupskaya, Nadezhda Konstantinovna

• * 1869-02-14 O.S.
• * 1869-02-26 N.S.
• oo 1898-07-10 O.S.
• oo 1898-07-22 N.S.
• † 1939-02-27 N.S.

The asteroid 2071 Nadezhda, discovered 1971-08-18, is named after Krupskaya.

Nadezhda was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and the daughter of a military officer. She married Bolshevik founder Lenin in 1898 when they were both in exile, banished by the Okhranka. Since her term of exile (5 years) started three years into Lenin's, upon his release Lenin went off to travel across Europe for 3 years, leaving her in exile, only returning upon her release. Her political life was active. She was a functionary of the Bolshevik faction of the RSDLP from the early days. After the October Revolution, she was appointed deputy to Anatoliy Lunacharskiy, the People's Commissar for Education. Her relationship with Lenin was more professional than marital - which Kollantai compared to slavery - but she remained loyal, never once considering divorce.

Krupskaya is believed to have suffered from Graves' disease, an illness affecting the thyroid gland in the neck which causes the eyes to bulge and the neck to tighten. In female sufferers it can also disrupt the menstrual cycle, which may explain why Lenin and Krupskaya never had children (and the rumours about Lenin allegedly choosing to have an affair with Inessa Armand). As a result of her disease she was codenamed 'Fish' inside the Party, and Lenin allegedly used to call her "my little herring".

Krupskaya is the author of the biography Reminisces of Lenin, which chronicles the life of her husband. However, the accuracy of this work has come into question due to her conspicuous omission of certain details about Lenin’s life: the book fails to mention the execution of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and his family shortly after Lenin’s rise to power, and she omits any reference to the Red Terror. Her biography is the most detailed account of Lenin’s life before coming to power, but it ends in 1918, shortly after the Bolsheviks took power. ___________________________________ from Wikipedia: Soviet education and libraries Nadezhda Krupskaya.

Before the revolution, Krupskaya worked for five years as an instructor for a factory owner who offered evening classes for his employees. Legally, reading, writing and arithmetic were taught. Illegally, classes with a revolutionary influence were taught for those students who might be ready for them. Krupskaya and other instructors were relieved of duty when nearly 30,000 factory workers in the area went on strike for better wages.[16] Even after the revolution her emphasis was on "the problems of youth organization and education."[17] In order to become educated they needed better access to books and materials.[18]

Pre-revolutionary Russian libraries had a tendency to exclude particular members. Some were exclusively for higher classes and some were only for employees of a particular company's "Trade Unions". In addition they also had narrow, orthodox literature. It was hard to find any books with new ideas, which is exactly why the underground libraries began. Another problem was the low level of literacy of the masses. Soviet education Further information: Education in the Soviet Union

The revolution did not cause an overnight improvement in the libraries. In fact, for a while there were even more problems. The Trade Unions still refused to allow general public use, funds for purchasing books and materials were in short supply and books that were already a part of the libraries were falling apart. In addition there was a low interest in the library career field due to low income and the libraries were sorely in need of re-organization.

Krupskaya directed a census of the libraries in order to address these issues.[19] She encouraged libraries to collaborate and to open their doors to the general public. She encouraged librarians to use common speech when speaking with patrons. Knowing the workers needs was encouraged; what kind of books should be stocked, the subjects readers were interested in, and organizing the material in a fashion to better serve the readers. Committees were held to improve card catalogs.

Krupskaya stated at a library conference: "We have a laughable number of libraries, and their book stocks are even more inadequate. Their quality is terrible, the majority of the population does not know how to use them and does not even know what a library is."[20]

She also sought better professional schools for librarians. Formal training was scarce in pre-revolutionary Russia for librarians and it only truly began in the 20th century. Krupskaya, therefore, advocated the creation of library "seminaries" where practicing librarians would instruct aspiring librarians in the skills of their profession, similar to those in the West. The pedagogical characteristics were however those of the Soviet revolutionary period. Librarians were trained to determine what materials were suitable to patrons and whether or not they had the ability to appreciate what the resource had to offer.[21]

Krupskaya also desired that librarians possess greater verbal and writing skills so that they could more clearly explain why certain reading materials were better than others to their patrons. She believed that explaining resource choices to patrons was a courtesy and an opportunity for more education in socialist political values, not something that was required of the librarian. They were to become facilitators of the revolution and, later, those who helped preserve the values of the resulting socialist state.[22]

Krupskaya was a committed Marxist for whom each element of public education was a step toward improving the life of her people, granting all individuals access to the tools of education and libraries, needed to forge a more fulfilling life. The fulfillment was education and the tools were education and library systems.[23]

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References

• Kruse, Günter. ”Die Familie des fränkischen Dichters und Sprachwissenschaftlers Friedrich Rückert und Ahnengemeinschaften mit Lenin.” [The family of the Franconian poet and linguist Friedrich Rückert and the ancestral ties with Lenin.] [in German] Archiv für Familiengeschichtsforschung no. 4 (2006), quoted in Renner, Manfred. ”Lenins Parchimer Vorfahren.” Ahnenforschung.net (2008). (accessed January 14, 2011).
• Kruse, Günter. "Vorfahren Lenins in Mecklenburg" [Lenin's ancestors in Mecklenburg]. Verein für mecklenburgische Familien- und Personengescheiste e. V. (2007). mfp.math.uni-rostock.de
• Rodovid, s.v. “ruЗапись:58621” (accessed January 19, 2011).
• Zenkovich, Nikolaj A. Самые секретные родственники. [The most secret relatives] [in Russian] Moscow: OLMA-Press, 2005. ISBN 5948504085

Notes

• Scientific transliteration: Nadežda Konstantinovna Krupskaja.

Наде́жда Константи́новна Кру́пская (14 (26) февраля 1869 год, Санкт-Петербург, Российская империя — 27 февраля 1939 года, Москва, РСФСР, СССР) — российская революционерка, советская государственная, партийная, общественная и культурная деятельница, организатор и главный идеолог советского образования и коммунистического воспитания молодёжи. Известна главным образом как супруга Владимира Ильича Ленина.

Доктор педагогических наук. Почётный член АН СССР (1931). Член Президиума Верховного Совета СССР. Член ЦК ВКП(б).

• С 1891 по 1896 годы преподавала в Петербургской воскресной вечерней школе для взрослых за Невской заставой на Шлиссельбургском тракте, занимаясь пропагандистской работой. ЦГИА ЦГИА СПб. Фонд 997. Опись 1. материалы школы
• РАПСИ Фонд №-12. КРУПСКАЯ (Ульянова) Надежда Константиновна (1869-1939)