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Helen Rappaport
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Helen Rappaport’s most recent book is the acclaimed No Place for Ladies: The Untold Story of Women in the Crimean War (Aurum). A fluent Russian speaker and specialist in Russian history and 19th-century women’s history, she was the Russian consultant in 2002 to the National Theatre’s Tom Stoppard trilogy, The Coast of Utopia . She is also the author of biographical reference works on Joseph Stalin, Queen Victoria and women social reformers. She and William Horwood are co-authors of Dark Hearts of Chicago (Hutchinson, 2007), a thriller about journalist Emily Strauss of the New York World.
topAbout the Book
topHelen Rappaport interview/review
See this Q&A on Conspirator with Scott Pack on his Me and My Big Mouth book blog.
topStarting Points for Discussion
- Would you agree that Lenin is not an obviously ‘sexy’ historical subject like Stalin and thus more difficult to describe and make interesting for the lay reader. How does this take on his early life and revolutionary career compare with that of Simon Sebag Montefiore’s Young Stalin?
- Why does Lenin traditionally come across as so boring in comparison to Stalin and Trotsky? Is it because he is fundamentally the thinker of the revolution whereas Stalin was the doer and Trotsky its orator? Is this perhaps why women historians have largely avoided writing about him till now – because his life was ‘too political’?
- Lenin’s public image as a political icon has persisted much longer after the fall of the Soviet Union than that of Stalin. Even in Russia today, people are still reluctant to see his sainted image dented let alone contemplate the fact that he died of syphilis. Is this because he is still perceived somehow as the good guy of the Revolution and Stalin as the baddie?
- By describing Lenin’s mainly domestic/everyday life in exile the author sets out to present a more accessible image of the man, and through him the contribution of the women in his life. How crucial do you consider their contribution to be both to his well being and the revolutionary movement as a whole? Would you agree that ultimately, in the absence of sufficient evidence, the only way historians can tell the lives of underrated and neglected women in history is from the perspective of the more famous men with whom they were associated – Nadezhda Krupskaya being a case in point.
- Were there any aspects of the story of Lenin’s exile years that shocked or surprised you? Was there any new research in the book that you found of particular interest?
- In Conspirator the author set out to offer a new and different take on Lenin based on her own perspective as a woman, a feminist and a non-academic. Do you think she has succeeded in her objective and if so, how?
Other Books by Helen Rappaport
Conspirator
Conspirator is the compelling story of Lenin’s exile: the years in which he…
Ekaterinburg: The Last Days…
A vivid and compelling account of the final thirteen days of the Romanovs, …
Suggested Further Reading
- Life and Legacy ~ Dmitri Volkogonov Lenin
- Memories of Lenin ~ Nadezhda Krupskaya
- On Lenin: Notes Towards a Biography ~ Leon Trotsky
- Days with Lenin ~ Maxim Gorky
- Lenin ~ Marc Landau-Aldanov
- Lenin, A Biography ~ Robert Service
- Three Who Made a Revolution ~ Bertram D Wolfe
- The Life of Lenin ~ Louis Fischer