Larissa Mikhailovna Reissner (russian: Лариса Михайловна Рейснер; 1 (13) May 1895 – 9 February 1926) was a Russian writer and revolutionary.
She is best known for her leadership roles on the side of the
Bolsheviks
The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...
in the
Russian Civil War
{{Infobox military conflict
, conflict = Russian Civil War
, partof = the Russian Revolution and the aftermath of World War I
, image =
, caption = Clockwise from top left:
{{flatlist,
*Soldiers ...
that followed the
October Revolution
The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key mome ...
and for her friendships with several Russian poets of the early 20th century.
Biography
Larissa Reissner was born in
Lublin,
Congress Poland, to
Mikhail Andreevich Reisner, a jurist of
Baltic German
Baltic Germans (german: Deutsch-Balten or , later ) were ethnic German inhabitants of the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, in what today are Estonia and Latvia. Since their coerced resettlement in 1939, Baltic Germans have markedly declined ...
origin, then on the staff of the nearby
Puławy
Puławy (, also written Pulawy) is a city in eastern Poland, in Lesser Poland's Lublin Voivodeship, at the confluence of the Vistula and Kurówka Rivers. Puławy is the capital of Puławy County. The city's 2019 population was estimated at 47,4 ...
Agricultural Institute, and his wife Ekaterina of the Russian noble
Khitrovo family.
She spent her early childhood in
Tomsk
Tomsk ( rus, Томск, p=tomsk, sty, Түң-тора) is a city and the administrative center of Tomsk Oblast in Russia, located on the Tom River. Population:
Founded in 1604, Tomsk is one of the oldest cities in Siberia. The city is a n ...
, where her father was appointed Professor of Law at the University in 1897. Between 1903 and 1907, she and her family resided in
Berlin, Germany, where the family fled because of the father's political activity, with Larisa attending a primary school in the
Zehlendorf district. In the aftermath of the 1905-06 Russian Revolution, they moved to
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
where she passed her final school exams with a gold medal in 1912 and went on to study at St. Petersburg University, including studying courses at the Faculty of Law and Philology as well as psychoneurology at the
Bekhterev Research Institute.
During the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, she published an anti-war literary journal, ''Rudin'', financially supported by her parents who pawned their possessions to fund it.
[Radek, K. (1977) "Larissa Reisner" In Reissner, L. ''Hamburg At the Barricades and Other Writings of Weimar Germany'' London: Pluto pg.189]
Affair with Gumilyov
At the age of 20, Reisner met the poet
Nikolai Gumilyov, then aged 29, in the audience at a cabaret called the 'Comedian's Halt', which opened in October 1915, and they became lovers, with nicknames for one another. She called him 'Gafiz'; he called her 'Lefi'. He was her first lover; she idolised him, and tried to imitate his poetry. She also met Gumilyov's wife, the poet
Anna Akhmatova
Anna Andreyevna Gorenko rus, А́нна Андре́евна Горе́нко, p=ˈanːə ɐnˈdrʲe(j)ɪvnə ɡɐˈrʲɛnkə, a=Anna Andreyevna Gorenko.ru.oga, links=yes; uk, А́нна Андрі́ївна Горе́нко, Ánna Andríyivn ...
, at the Comedian's Halt (or Stray Dog according to Larissa Reissner "Autobiographic Novel") and burst into tears of gratitude when Akhmatova shook hands with her. Akhmatova later said: "What was this all about? ... How could I have known then that she was having an affair with Gumilyov? And even if I had known — why wouldn't I have given her my hand?" He wrote passionate letters to her while he was away on war service, and may also have offered to marry her, but during 1916 she learnt that he was simultaneously having an affair with another woman. They met for the last time in April 1917, and in his last postcard to her, he urged her not to get involved in politics.
Revolution and the civil war
After the February Revolution, Larisa began to write for Maxim Gorky's paper ''
Novaya Zhizn
''Novaya Zhizn'' (, ''New Life'') was the first legal Bolshevik daily newspaper. It was founded by Alexander Bogdanov and its first editor was Nikolai Minsky. It was first published in October 1905 in Petersburg, under the guidance of Lenin. It ...
'' (New Life).
She also took part in the Provisional Government's spelling reform programme, teaching at workers' and sailors' clubs in Petrograd.
A week after the
Bolshevik Revolution
The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key moment ...
, Reisner helped the newly appointed People's Commissar
Anatoly Lunacharsky
Anatoly Vasilyevich Lunacharsky (russian: Анато́лий Васи́льевич Лунача́рский) (born Anatoly Aleksandrovich Antonov, – 26 December 1933) was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and the first Bolshevik Soviet People ...
to issue an appeal to
Petrograd's artists and cultural workers to assemble at an evening meeting in the
Smolny Institute
The Smolny Institute (russian: Смольный институт, ''Smol'niy institut'') is a Palladian edifice in Saint Petersburg that has played a major part in the history of Russia.
History
The building was commissioned from Giacomo Qua ...
, where the Bolsheviks had their headquarters, to show support for the regime. The turnout was so poor that "there was enough room to sit on one sofa" — but it included three major figures in Russian culture, the poets
Alexander Blok
Alexander Alexandrovich Blok ( rus, Алекса́ндр Алекса́ндрович Бло́к, p=ɐlʲɪˈksandr ɐlʲɪˈksandrəvʲɪtɕ ˈblok, a=Ru-Alyeksandr Alyeksandrovich Blok.oga; 7 August 1921) was a Russian lyrical poet, writer, publ ...
and
Vladimir Mayakovsky
Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky (, ; rus, Влади́мир Влади́мирович Маяко́вский, , vlɐˈdʲimʲɪr vlɐˈdʲimʲɪrəvʲɪtɕ məjɪˈkofskʲɪj, Ru-Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky.ogg, links=y; – 14 Apr ...
and the theatre director
Vsevolod Meyerhold
Vsevolod Emilyevich Meyerhold (russian: Всеволод Эмильевич Мейерхольд, translit=Vsévolod Èmíl'evič Mejerchól'd; born german: Karl Kasimir Theodor Meyerhold; 2 February 1940) was a Russian and Soviet theatre ...
, who spent hours discussing how to organise the intelligentsia. Later, she worked at the
Smolny Institute
The Smolny Institute (russian: Смольный институт, ''Smol'niy institut'') is a Palladian edifice in Saint Petersburg that has played a major part in the history of Russia.
History
The building was commissioned from Giacomo Qua ...
with Lunacharsky, cataloguing art treasures.
She became a member of the
Bolshevik Party
" Hymn of the Bolshevik Party"
, headquarters = 4 Staraya Square, Moscow
, general_secretary = Vladimir Lenin (first)Mikhail Gorbachev (last)
, founded =
, banned =
, founder = Vladimir Lenin
, newspaper ...
in 1918, marrying
Fyodor Raskolnikov
Fyodor Fyodorovich Raskolnikov (russian: Фёдор Фёдорович Раскольников; (28 January 1892, Saint Petersburg, Russia – 12 September 1939, Nice, France),Zalessky K.A. ''Stalin Imperia'' Moscow, ''Veche'', 2002 citing by re ...
in the summer of that year. During the
Civil War
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
, she was a soldier and a political commissar of the
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army ( Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, afte ...
. She served as chief of an intelligence section of the Volga River flotilla in August 1918 battle for Sviazhsk. During 1919, she served as the Commissar at the Naval Staff Headquarters in
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...
.
Relations with poets
Reisner was on friendly terms with
Osip Mandelstam
Osip Emilyevich Mandelstam ( rus, Осип Эмильевич Мандельштам, p=ˈosʲɪp ɨˈmʲilʲjɪvʲɪtɕ mənʲdʲɪlʲˈʂtam; – 27 December 1938) was a Russian and Soviet poet. He was one of the foremost members of the A ...
, who prevailed upon her in 1918 to accompany him in approaching
Felix Dzerzhinsky, head of the feared
Cheka, to plead for the life of an aristocratic art historian — whom neither of them knew — who was under sentence of death. Mandelstam was evidently impressed both by her determination — he described her as "heavy artillery" — and by elegance of her movements. "She danced along like a wave on the sea," he said. In 1921, Reisner invited Mandelstam and his wife
Nadezhda to accompany her to Afghanistan. They wanted to go, but Raskolnikov, who did not like Mandelstam, vetoed the idea.
In 1920, she took revenge on Gumilyov for his infidelity, by arranging for the rations he was receiving from the Baltic Fleet to be cancelled. She sent a bag of rice to Anna Akhmatova, who was close to starvation, and met her to complain bitterly about how Gumilyov had treated her. After the meeting, in Reisner's flat overlooking the Neva, she gave Akhmatova a lift home in her horse drawn cab, and told her: "I would give everything, absolutely everything to be Anna Akhmatova." She presumably meant that she wished she had Akhmatova's poetic gift, but Akhmatova was not flattered. She told
Lydia Chukovskaya
Lydia Korneyevna Chukovskaya ( rus, Ли́дия Корне́евна Чуко́вская, p=ˈlʲidʲɪjə kɐrˈnʲejɪvnə tɕʊˈkofskəjə, a=Lidiya Kornyeyevna Chukovskaya.ru.vorb.oga; – February 7, 1996) was a Soviet writer, poet, ed ...
: "stupid words, aren't they? What does that mean — everything? Three windows on the Neva?" While she was in Kabul, Reisner learnt that Blok had died, and wrote a passionate letter to Akhmatova, saying: "Now, when he no longer exists, your equal, your only spiritual brother... Most tender poet. are you still writing poems?... don't be silent — do not die while still alive."
Shortly afterwards, she heard that Gumilyov had been executed, and wished that she had been on hand to intervene and save his life. Her mother, who was in Russia, also bitterly regretted not realising the danger Gumilyov was in when she heard that he had been arrested. Nadezhda Mandelstam believed that Reisner might have saved Gumilyov, because "the one thing Larisa could not overcome was her love of poetry... Larisa not only loved poetry, but she also secretly believed in its importance, and for her the only blot on the Revolution's record was the shooting of Gumilyov... I somehow believe that if she had been in Moscow when Gumilyov was arrested, she would have got him out of jail, and if she had been alive and still in favour with the regime during the time when M. (Osip Mandelstam) was being destroyed, she would have moved heaven and earth to try and save him."
International Affairs
In 1921, while married to Raskolnikov, she and her husband traveled to
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
as representatives of the Soviet Republic, carrying out diplomatic negotiations.
In October 1923 she traveled illegally to Germany to witness the revolution there first-hand and write about it, producing collections of articles entitled ''Berlin, October 1923'' and ''Hamburg at the Barricades''.
During her stay in Germany she had become
Karl Radek's lover. On her return to Russia she and Raskolnikov divorced in January 1924. The failure of the German revolution provoked furious arguments in the USSR about whose fault it was. Aino Kuusinen, wife of
Otto Kuusinen
Otto Wilhelm "Wille" Kuusinen (; russian: О́тто Вильге́льмович Ку́усинен, Otto Vilgelmovich Kuusinen; 4 October 1881 – 17 May 1964) was a Finnish-born Soviet communist and, later, Soviet politician, literary hi ...
, secretary of the
Comintern, described one such dispute that broke out when visitors gathered in her husband's flat:
![Funeral of revolutionary leader Larissa Reissner 1926](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6f/Funeral_of_revolutionary_leader_Larissa_Reissner_1926.jpg)
It has also been suggested that she was briefly the lover of
Liu Shaoqi, who rose to be the third most powerful leader in the communist China. This story appears to have originated from a biography of Liu by a German communist named Hans Heinrich Wetzel, a book scathingly likened by one reviewer to Ian Fleming's novel ''From Russia with Love''. Reisner was in Kabul during the entire time that Liu was in Moscow, where the 'affair' is supposed to have been conducted.
Final Years
During 1924–1925, she worked as a special correspondent for ''Izvestiya'', first in the Northern
Urals
The Ural Mountains ( ; rus, Ура́льские го́ры, r=Uralskiye gory, p=ʊˈralʲskʲɪjə ˈɡorɨ; ba, Урал тауҙары) or simply the Urals, are a mountain range that runs approximately from north to south through western ...
where she adopted a boy by the name of Alyosha Makarov. Her later writings came from
Hamburg
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
, timezone1 = Central (CET)
, utc_offset1 = +1
, timezone1_DST = Central (CEST)
, utc_offset1_DST = +2
, postal ...
, whilst she was visiting a malaria clinic near
Wiesbaden
Wiesbaden () is a city in central western Germany and the capital of the state of Hesse. , it had 290,955 inhabitants, plus approximately 21,000 United States citizens (mostly associated with the United States Army). The Wiesbaden urban area ...
. She also wrote articles on a corruption scandal in
Byelorussia.
During this time, she also worked on
Leon Trotsky
Lev Davidovich Bronstein. ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky; uk, link= no, Лев Давидович Троцький; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trotskij'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky''. (), was a Russian ...
's Commission for Improvement of Industrial Products.
Larissa Reissner died on 9 February 1926, in the
Kremlin Hospital, Moscow, from
typhoid
Typhoid fever, also known as typhoid, is a disease caused by ''Salmonella'' serotype Typhi bacteria. Symptoms vary from mild to severe, and usually begin six to 30 days after exposure. Often there is a gradual onset of a high fever over several d ...
; she was 30 years old.
Tributes
In his autobiography
My Life the Bolshevik leader and founder of the Red Army
Leon Trotsky
Lev Davidovich Bronstein. ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky; uk, link= no, Лев Давидович Троцький; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trotskij'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky''. (), was a Russian ...
paid tribute to her:
Almost every memoirist who knew Reisner, apart from Trotsky, felt moved to remark on her beauty. Anna Akhmatova described her as "a beautiful young woman" later remarking: "No-one would ever have imagined I would outlive Larisa... She wanted so much to live; she was cheerful, healthy, beautiful." Nadezhda Mandelstam remembered her as "beautiful in a heavy and striking Germanic way." The critic
Viktor Shklovsky
Viktor Borisovich Shklovsky ( rus, Ви́ктор Бори́сович Шкло́вский, p=ˈʂklofskʲɪj; – 6 December 1984) was a Russian and Soviet literary theorist, critic, writer, and pamphleteer. He is one of the major figures ass ...
variously described her as "the young lovely", and "beautiful"
Alexander Barmine
Alexander Grigoryevich Barmin (russian: Александр Григорьевич Бармин, ''Aleksandr Grigoryevich Barmin''; August 16, 1899 – December 25, 1987), most commonly Alexander Barmine, was an officer in the Soviet Army and dipl ...
described her as "a slender young woman with auburn curls and the beauty of a Minerva without her helmet."
Alexander Voronsky wrote that "her noble face was both strong-willed and feminine, reminding one of the legendary Amazons, and was framed by chestnut... this beautiful and truly rare example of the human species."
References
External links
''Larissa Reisner'' by Karl RadekWomen and Marxism: Larissa Reissner
{{DEFAULTSORT:Reisner, Larisa
1895 births
1926 deaths
Writers from Lublin
People from Lublin Governorate
Bolsheviks
Soviet people of German descent
People of the Russian Revolution
Commissars
Soviet military personnel
Deaths from typhoid fever
German revolutionaries
Russian revolutionaries
Female revolutionaries