Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaya (1869–1939)

Nadezhda Krupskaya, born to an impoverished aristocratic Russian family, became a major Bolshevik revolutionary and politician. Her marriage of convenience to fellow radical Vladimir Ulyanov -- later known as Lenin -- lasted from 1898 until his death in 1924. Krupskaya and Lenin worked to undermine the Tsar's government from exile in Siberia and abroad until the October Revolution of 1917. Thereafter, Krupskaya was named to the Central Committee of the Communist Party. During the Communist Party congress of 1925, she voted for the exclusion of Trotsky, Zinoviev and Kamenev. She became a member of the Supreme Soviet in 1931. Late in life, Krupskaya wrote a memoir of her life with Lenin, translated in 1930 as Memories of Lenin and in 1970 as Reminiscences of Lenin.