Customer Reviews

Lenin's Mistress: The Life of Inessa Armand

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Lenin's Mistress is a fascinating story not only about his mistress but about a whole class of people who worked to achieve the revolution in Russia while Lenin was out of the country. The author makes his contempt for Lenin obvious.
One of the best books I've read about this period in Russia.
This book would also be good for people interested in Women's history.

I've had an interest in Inessa Armand for some time now, as I am fascinated by Soviet history. Overall, Pearson does an excellent job in telling her story based on researched historical fact. Inessa was a Bolshevik revolutionary in a time when women had no rights/education/etc., and stood out remarkably from other women of her time. She had an open marriage, several affairs (most famously her lasting affair with Lenin), a revolutionary career, and still managed to be a caring mother to her children. Also unusual was her lasting friendship with Lenin's wife, which is uncharacteristic of such relationships.

However, I do have one criticism of this book. It's rather obvious that Pearson despises Lenin, which seems to hang over the second half of the book. He has a hard time focusing on Inessa after the revolution, but instead devotes more time to being critical of Lenin. This book isn't supposed to be his biography; it is supposed to be hers.