Translator’s Note: I suspect Lenin’s preferred pronoun was ‘he’ and ‘his’, etc. I do not mean that he would have expressed any negative opinion against gayness or transgenderism – far from it – I suspect he would have led the world in profound and innate understanding! He would have combined wisdom with compassion and would certainly have rejected all the forms of vicious anti-LGBTQNB+ fascism that prevails today. Even if Lenin had been gay – it makes not a jot of difference to me! ACW (8.12.2020)
Even in the most distorted of Western, anti-Soviet historical narratives, seldom is VI Lenin presented as a ‘homosexual’. Considering that virtually every other lie and misrepresentation has been used to demonise the world’s first Workers’ State, it is a matter of disbelief that no-one in Washington or the CIA ever thought to weaponize ‘gayness’ and use it in a derogatory manner against him. Even the (fascist-supporting) Trotskyites – despite many of their movements around the world having been charged with all kinds of sexual deviancy – have generally ‘failed’ to utilise this potential gold-mine of disinformation! Why is this? It could be that although there is ‘no limit’ to the lies that can be fabricated against the USSR – Lenin being a rampaging homosexual might well be considered an ideological ‘bridge too far’, so-to-speak. Sometime, much is made about Lenin abolishing the old Czarist Law – which happened to include an overtly ‘anti-gay law’ (demanded by the Russian Orthodox Church) – and that he never instituted a similar ‘Socialist’ Law forbidding male and female homosexual practice. In Tamas Krausz’s book entitled ‘Reconstructing Lenin – an Intellectual Biography, MR Press, (2013), Page 71:
‘‘At the same time Lenin stood up for freedom of lifestyle, apparent from the fact that a decree signed by him in Soviet Russia was the first in the world to end the criminality of homosexuality. Chicherin, the commissar for foreign affairs, did not make a secret of the fact that he loved men, and many others did not hide their sexual orientation either. It is another matter that under Stalin, as of March 1934, homosexuality came to be considered a medical disorder and an offense.’
In fact, Lenin did not ‘legalise’ homosexuality – he simply (and inadvertently) ‘de-criminalised’ – which is not exactly the same thing. There was never a Soviet Law overtly encouraging the practice of homosexuality. However, I am reliably informed that homosexuality was first ‘legalised’ in Italy in 1918 – apparently as a result of the success of the Russian Revolution! More to the point, Lenin’s common-law partner – Nadezhda Krupskaya – was married to Lenin from 1898 to 1924, some twenty-six years, and she makes no reference whatsoever to Lenin preferring the company of men over women either before their marriage or during it. Indeed, it is only in modern Russian-language texts that capitalist friendly individuals try to disparage the reputation of VI Lenin and the Soviet Union he founded. Due to the collapse of Communism in 1991, and despite the bourgeois West ‘forcing’ the fledgling ‘capitalist’ Russian State to openly ‘legalise’ male and female homosexuality in 1993, the simultaneous re-emergence of the Russian Orthodox Church into the political arena has meant that regardless of this ‘godless’ secular law – the ‘True Faith’ has once again been linked to the fanatical holding of ‘homophobic’ viewpoints. The following is an English translation of a typical Russian-language article that accuses Lenin of being ‘gay’ whilst implying that there is something ‘wrong’ about this:
‘The founder of the Soviet Union – VI Lenin – was a passive homosexual. His partners (at different times) were such Revolutionaries as Grigory Zinoviev and Leon Trotsky. These conclusions are based upon the study of personal correspondence of the “leader of the world proletariat” made by the Russian researcher I.V. Sokolov.
This researcher mentions the fact that at the legendary Razliv Station – Lenin was resting alone with Zinoviev in a “bedroom for two” – this is even contained in his last official biography (1981).
Where did Zinoviev come from? Why did he not find his own accommodation? Why did Lenin permit him to stay in the same small room?
The main question is: since Lenin was resting, what was Zinoviev doing there? Why is every other part of Lenin’s life explained in detail – such as the people he met, the places he visited and even the pathways he walked – but episodes like this are breezed over?
The materials from the personal archive of Grigory Zinoviev – a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks – and the First Secretary of the Leningrad Regional Party Committee, helped this researcher to understand the leader’s personal life. In particular, in a letter from Lenin to Grigory Zinoviev (dated July 1, 1917) it is said:“Grigory! Circumstances have developed so that I must immediately hide in Petrograd. I can’t go far, business does not allow. The Comrades suggest one place, which they say is quite safe. But it’s so boring to be alone, especially at such a time … Join me, and we will spend wonderful days together, far from everything … If you can retire with me, telephone faster – I will give instructions that everything should be prepared for two people. .. ” .
This letter was written in July 1917, when Lenin was about to leave Petrograd and settle with Zinoviev in Razliv.
This homosexual activity was hidden from Lenin’s common-law wife, Nadezhda Krupskaya.
In one of his letters, Gregory writes:
“Do you remember, back in Geneva, when we had to hide from this woman … No one will understand us, our feeling, our mutual affection … Come soon, I am waiting for you, my flower. Your Gershel (Zinoviev’s real name is Gersh Radomyshl) . ”
In his love letters, the friend skimped on intimate details:
“Ilyich! Everything that you entrusted me, I have done. And what I have not yet done, I will definitely do … It is very difficult and difficult here, but the thought warms me that in a few days I will see you and embrace you. Do you keep our nest? Don’t you take others there? I am very worried here, and only the hope of your loyalty warms me …
I kiss you on your Marxist arse. Your Hershel .”
In the next letter to Lenin from the front, Zinoviev asks jokingly:
“Vova! Didn’t your arse get overgrown during our separation? Does it miss me at this time? .. Soon I will come, as soon as I manage here with business, and we will be engaged in cleaning your sweet arse” .
In Geneva, when Zinoviev and Lenin first met in bed, they were caught by Nadezhda Krupskaya, Ulyanov’s common-law wife. And then, after that, Lenin opened up to her, and she resigned herself to his inclinations and did not interfere with the stormy romance with Zinoviev.
The historian claims that Lenin was passive and Zinoviev was an active lover. And this is confirmed by the following letter. It was written from near Narva in the spring, when Yudenich was defeated. The Red Army stopped at the Estonian border, and Zinoviev was going to return with a victory to Petrograd. He is jubilant and completely loses care in his expressions.
“Vova, I’ll come soon and I’ll never let you out of my embrace, no matter what your wife says! The enemy is fleeing along the entire front and, I think, will not poke his nose from this side anymore. So wait for me and hurry to wash, I’ll be there soon . ”
However, not even a few months have passed before a break is brewing in the relationship of lovers. He, as always happens in such cases, is associated with jealousy. We learn about this from a letter from Lenin himself, which he wrote to Zinoviev, who was at that time in the North Caucasus. For some reason Lenin writes to him in German.
“Dear Hershele! You shouldn’t be offended at me at all. I feel that you are deliberately prolonging your stay in the Caucasus, although the situation does not require it at all. You probably resent me. But it’s not my fault. These are all your silly suspicions. As for Leiba and me – it was only once and will not happen again … I am waiting for you, and we will make peace in our wonderful nest. ”
And the signature at the end in Russian: “Yours is always Vova . ”
“Ilyich ,” Zinoviev’s answer follows immediately from Vladikavkaz. – These are not at all stupid suspicions about you and Leiba. Who hasn’t seen you circling around him lately? Anyway, I have eyes, and I have known you long enough to judge … Should I not know how your eyes light up when you see a man with a large weapon. You yourself have always said that small-figured men have magnificent weapons … I’m not blind, and I saw perfectly well that you are ready to forget our love for the sake of an affair with Leiba. Of course, he is next to you now, and it is easy for him to seduce you. Or did you seduce him? ..”’
The BBC Russian Foreign Service – which is in no way ‘friendly’ or even ‘fair’ when reporting matters of Soviet history – was asked to investigate the ‘rumours’ of Lenin being ‘gay’. Elena Annenkova replied that after consulting reliable Russian historians upon this subject – the conclusion was that there was ‘NO’ reliable evidence that Lenin was ‘gay’ – end of story. This would mean that the above supposed ‘evidence’ is nothing but fabrication that is so untrustworthy (not to mention ‘unconvincing’) that even the usual Western detractors of the USSR won’t touch this body of work with a barge pole!
‘Lenin was not gay: the historian responded to popular Internet queries of Russians
The leader of the proletariat, perhaps a little German and a Jew!
Lenin was certainly not gay, and he did not have a twin brother and most likely was a quarter of a Jew. Historian Alexei Gusev responded to the most popular Internet inquiries about the leader of the proletariat, Vladimir Lenin, for the BBC Russian Service.
“There is no evidence of this,” Gusev replied to the query “Is it true that Lenin was gay?” … “Sometimes they say that, according to Trotsky’s recollections, they rested together on the same greatcoat … So What? But nothing follows from this, just as nothing follows from the fact that Lenin was hiding from the Provisional Government in a hut in Razliv with Zinoviev – and that ‘fake’ letters were either written or altered to make the dialogue look as if it’s discussing homosexuality and gay inuendo. This type of language does not exist in Russia, or is very poorly developed and is mostly ‘copied’ from the West – in a very poor way due to a lack of familiarity.”
I have also read fictional stories accusing Lenin of ‘gay’ rape whilst at university! Although the idiots of the world might find this convincing – there is no objective or reliable evidence of it. Being ‘gay’ is not necessarily a good or bad thing – it’s just the way things are. I would prefer that gay people in the West accord Lenin the respect he deserves for ‘de-criminalising’ homosexuality in a country that had been heavily homophobic for centuries!
Russian Language References:
SANGHA KOMMUNE (SSR) 