Co-founder of Istpart, who laid the institutional foundations of Party historiography
Once I visited him at home. He was then living in the Government Building by the Stone Bridge, now Serafimovich Street. I remember that in his study, right by his desk, millet was scattered on the floor and little chicks were pecking at it. In reply to my startled look he said: 'It's pleasant to see young life.' — From the memoirs of Boris Urlanis
Born the son of a village priest, he studied at St. Petersburg University before joining the revolutionary movement. He shared Siberian exile with Lenin in 1897 and later served as an agent for Iskra. After October he led school reform at the People's Commissariat of Enlightenment, and in 1921 he became one of the founders of Istpart, the commission that institutionalised the study of Party history. In his later years he directed the Historical Museum and the Museum of the Revolution, and he is remembered for his vivid memoir At the Turning Point, which chronicles Lenin's years in exile.
Career Timeline
- 1886–1891Studied at St. Petersburg University; organised underground student circles; expelled in 1890; completed degree externally at Kiev University
- 1895–1897Active in the League of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class; arrested, imprisoned and exiled to Yenisei province alongside Lenin
- 1900–1905Iskra agent in Pskov; in emigration helped build the Party library and archive in Geneva
- 1918–1920Collegium member at the Commissariat of Enlightenment and head of school reform; co-drafted the Statute on the Unified Labour School; founded an experimental school-commune in Litvinovichi
- 1919–1920Deputy People's Commissar of Enlightenment for the Turkestan Republic; organised teacher training and the first republic-wide education congress in Tashkent
- 1921–1924Co-founder and deputy chairman of Istpart (Commission on Party History); built the institutional foundation for Party historiography
- 1925–1927Chairman of the Central Committee of MOPR (International Red Aid) in the USSR
- 1927–1930, 1935–1936Director of the State Historical Museum, then director of the Museum of the Revolution
Related historical events
The Litvinovichi Experimental School-Commune (1918–1919)
In the summer of 1918, fresh from helping draft the Statute on the Unified Labour School as head of school reform at the People's Commissariat of Enlightenment, Lepeshinsky set out to test his educational vision in practice. He travelled to the remote Belarusian village of Litvinovichi, where he and three fellow teachers opened the first Soviet 'experimental-demonstration school-commune' in a former landowner's manor. About one hundred children, nearly all from the poorest families, enrolled as full-time boarders.
Lepeshinsky's aim was to demolish the old 'reactionary school' and place labour at the centre of education. The children ran the community through a self-government council and performed virtually all the work themselves (farming, tending livestock, cooking, and cleaning) to achieve self-sufficiency. Classroom lessons occupied only the time left after labour; pupils were grouped by ability rather than age, and 'work-books' replaced standard textbooks. It was a radical attempt to dissolve hierarchy between teachers and pupils and to instil collectivism and comradeship through daily practice.
The local population, hostile to the word 'commune' and its communist aims, treated the school as an alien intrusion. The school operated as 'an island surrounded by a counter-revolutionary sea.' Yet the children, many of whom had never known regular meals or adult care, formed a deep attachment to their community. In autumn 1919, unable to withstand local hostility, the school relocated to Moscow, where it continued as the Moscow Experimental School-Commune. The Litvinovichi experiment became a landmark case in the early Soviet labour-school movement and later influenced Anton Makarenko's collectivist pedagogy. In 1987 the story was turned into the feature film Netermenie dushi (Impatience of the Soul), with Vyacheslav Tikhonov playing Lepeshinsky.