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PARTISAN REVIEW
history and fiction, there can be no question of separating the one from
the other, as in the case of
War and Peace.
In the first place the great
bulk of the book is scrupulously accurate in its facts which are derived
from research, of which the author indicates some of the sources. No
one need be in any doubt about the authenticity of this account of some
three crucial years in Lenin's life. But Solzhenitsyn is perhaps con–
cerned less with history than with the minds and hearts of its actors, in
this case Lenin-he is historian and novelist combined, who has
already shown himself a master of this form of writing. I have
particularly in mind Chapter 20 of
The First Circle,
which describes an
interview between Stalin and his then Chief of Secret Police, Abaku–
mov, which is imaginary-yet tells one more about Stalin's true
character than a shelf full of biographies.
So it is with
Lenin in Zurich.
In his pursuit of the real Lenin (and
not the cross between the boy scout leader and science fiction super–
man , so beloved of Soviet biographers) Solzhenitsyn searches for
hidden thoughts and emotions, and probes the innermost depths of
Lenin's motives. To do this he does what no historian can do: he
enriches his narrative with conversations and reflections. For example,
the facts which have been assembled, notably by Bertram Wolfe, show
that Inessa Armand was the one love of Lenin's life. Solzhenitsyn not
only portrays (as reflected in Lenin's memory) the well-known menage
a
trois which Krupskaia seems to have tolerated. He also probes
Lenin's thoughts in the matter: his loneliness without Inessa; the need
which she fulfilled in his desolate and inhuman life; his practical
acceptance of the fact that Krupskaia was the only possible wife for his
kind of career; and his fears that this advocate of free love might also be
practising what she preached. It is imaginary and utterly convincing.
Incidentally, I wish Solzhenitsyn had done the same for Krupskaia. I
have always suspected that her traditional exemplary tolerance of
Inessa was a
fa~ade,
and that her resentment at Vladimir's infidelity
took the form of revenge on him when she frustrated his attempts
during his last months, when he was totally disabled, to discredit
Stalin. Another such instance is the description of the meeting of Lenin
and Parvus, the megalomaniac who promised the earth in German
subsidies in 1916. The meeting and the surrounding facts are authentic,
the conversation between them is imaginary-and how revealing of
both men.
It is beyond dispute that
Lenin in Zurich
displays all the qualities
which have led to Solzhenitsyn's being acclaimed as one of the greatest
writers of our time. The merits of the book are enhanced for the
English reader by the superb translation-if only Solzhenitsyn had
