Lenin's duty secretary, recorder of his final dictations
In 1963, at age 72, Volodicheva told Yuri Karyakin: "Comrade Lenin was very hard to decipher, and Comrade Stalin — so easy..."
Lenin's duty secretary (1918–1924), she took dictation of his last works, including 'The Question of Nationalities or Autonomisation' on 30–31 December 1922. On 5 March 1923 she recorded and delivered Lenin's note asking Trotsky to defend the Georgian cause at the congress. She later burned an early typed copy of the Testament on Stalin's orders.
Career Timeline
- 1917Worked in the secretariat of the VII (April) All-Russian Party Conference; stenographer at the VI Party Congress
- 1917.11–1918.07Secretary of the Press Bureau of the Council of People's Commissars
- 1918–1924Typist and stenographer at Sovnarkom; assistant secretary of the C.P.C. and C.L.D.
- 1922.12–1923.03Took dictation of Lenin's last articles and letters, including the 'Letter to the Congress' and 'On the Nationalities Question'
- 1924–1928Researcher at the V.I. Lenin Institute (later Marx-Engels-Lenin Institute)
Related historical events
- 1922.12Formation of the USSRSecretary who took Lenin's last dictationOver 30-31 December 1922 she took down Lenin's dictation 'The Question of Nationalities or Autonomisation', and on 5 March 1923 she relayed Lenin's note to Trotsky.
- 1923–1927The Succession Struggle and the Left OppositionLenin's duty secretary who took down the TestamentTook shorthand of Lenin's Testament (Dec 23-25, 1922) and postscript (Jan 4, 1923). Later burned the originals on Stalin's orders; five copies survived in a safe.