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I first wrote about Lenin’s stay
in London in May. By chance, I have just
come across a book published in 2000 that gives some interesting details
of Lenin’s visits to London from 1902.[1]
My previous article provided the solution to that author’s question about what
happened to the bust of Lenin that was originally unveiled in 1942. Here I note some of the
points she makes about Lenin’s visits. I am not usually one to dwell on such
details, but it is a nice irony of history that the UK, a centre of
anti-communism in the 20th century, and still today, was also a minor aid to
the success of the Russian Revolution in 1917.
Lenin’s visits to London were
more by necessity than choice, with political restrictions on operating in
Russia under the Tsar or in some other, closer European countries, such as
Germany and Belgium. London housed a number of radical Russian émigrés, but
also a small group of UK radicals with a printing press. So Lenin wrote to
Harry Quelch of the Social Democratic Federation, asking if he could print Iskra
(The Spark, the revolutionary journal) from their offices in
Clerkenwell.
In April 1902, Lenin moved to 30
Holford Square in Islington, renting two rooms with his wife Nadezhda
Krupskaya. Pamela Shields notes that they breakfasted on bacon and eggs, washed
down with beer because the poor water quality was a health risk. Lenin worked
on Iskra in the Twentieth Century Press offices at 37a Clerkenwell
Green, the building which is now the Marx Memorial Library, and which was not far
to walk from Holford Square. He sat at a desk in a tiny office close to Harry
Quelch, while Krupskaya was busy at Holford Square, deciphering cryptograms and
sending coded messages to agents in Russia.
From April 1902 to May 1903, the
Clerkenwell printers were responsible for Iskra numbers 22 to 38. During
this period, a certain Lev Bronstein, later known as Leon Trotsky, arrived at
Lenin’s home and told him that Iskra, for various reasons, was not
getting through to Russia. The decision was taken to smuggle in the four-page Iskra
into Russia on thin paper wrapped inside the knee-high boots of supporters!
In 1902-03, with his comrades,
Lenin organised meetings of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP),
usually in pub rooms and with them pretending to be trade unionists. One room
was also booked in the name of the ‘Foreign Barbers of London Association’,
which was just as well since they were speaking Russian. On several occasions,
the London Metropolitan Police attempted to eavesdrop or find out what was
going on, but they had little luck, not least because their fluency in Russian
left much to be desired. Lenin made further visits to London, including in 1907,
and the last one, I believe, was in 1911.
The Old Red Lion pub in St John Street, London EC1, today:
The Old Red Lion pub in St John Street, London EC1, today:
It is not known what Lenin liked
to drink in the various London pubs he frequented, including the Crown and
Woolpack, which closed some years ago, and the Old Red Lion, both in St John
Street EC1. This was before his work on imperialism, so it is possible that he
sampled India Pale Ale. However, one suspects that he would have rejected light
and bitter as a typical Menshevik compromise.
[1] Pamela
Shields, Essential Islington, Sutton Publishing. It is not clear that
there were as many as six separate visits to London as she claims. Her book is
available on Amazon.
