Inessa Armand

Inessa Fyodorovna Armand (born Elisabeth-Inès Stéphane d'Herbenville; 8 May 1874) is a French syndicalist politician, Bolshevik and Feminist currently serving as the Premier of the Committee for Public Safety. A major figure of the international Syndicalist movement she has previously served as the head International Conference of Socialist Women and as a major leader of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. After spending most of her life in Russia she returned to France after the failure of the Russian Revolution and the death of her close partner and friend Vladimir Lenin where she joined the nascent Jacobin faction and became one of it's major leaders. An important figure in French politics Armand serves as the bridge between the Jacobins and the other factions through her exceptional charisma and political skill She was elected Premier of the Committee for Public Safety after the 1936 Communal Elections on a Jacobin ticket with the support of many other factions.

Birth and First Marriage
Armand was born in Paris. Her mother, Nathalie Wild, was a comedienne of half-French and half-English descent, and her father, Théodore Pécheux d'Herbenville, was a French opera-singer. Her father died when she was five and she was brought up by her aunt and grandmother living in Moscow, both teachers.

At the age of nineteen she married Alexander Armand, the son of a wealthy Russian textile manufacturer. The marriage produced four children. Inessa and her husband opened a school for peasant children outside of Moscow. She also joined a charitable group dedicated to helping the city's destitute women.

Second Marriage and Syndicalist Activity
In 1902, she left her husband, with whom she had an open marriage, to marry his younger brother Vladimir, who shared her radical political views, and bore him her fifth child, Andrei.

In 1903, she joined the illegal Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. Armand distributed illegal propaganda; after her arrest in June 1907 she was sentenced to two years' internal exile in Mezen in Northern Russia.

In November 1908 Armand managed to escape from Mezen and eventually left Russia to settle in Paris, where she met Vladimir Lenin and other Bolsheviks living in foreign exile. In 1911 Armand became secretary for the Committee of Foreign Organisations established to coordinate all Bolshevik groups in Western Europe.

Armand returned to Russia in July 1912. This was a risky mission. Lenin needed her to pass on the resolution of the Prague Conference, to help organise the Bolshevik campaign to get its supporters elected to the Duma, and find out what was going on in Pravda. Helen Rappaport notes that Lenin knew her entry into Russia would invite immediate arrest, yet he made light of it, his concerns for party works overcoming his personal feelings for her. Two months later she was arrested and imprisoned, only to be released against bail in March 1913, thanks to Alexander's generous support. Once again illegally leaving Russia, she went to live with Vladimir Lenin and Nadezhda Krupskaya in Galicia. She also began work editing Rabotnitsa. Krupskaya, with admiration, noted that exhausted as Armand was, she threw herself immediately into the party works. Lenin wrote to her and trusted her more than anyone else in his circles. The Okhrana considered Armand to be the right hand of Lenin. According to contemporaries, "Even more than Trotsky, she became Lenin’s ‘cudgel’ — someone to beat wavering Bolsheviks back into line, to convey uncompromising messages to his political opponents, to carry out uncomfortable missions which Lenin himself preferred to avoid".

Armand was upset that many socialists in Europe chose not to fight against the war effort during the WeltkriegI. She joined Lenin in helping to distribute propaganda that urged Allied troops to turn their rifles against their officers and to start a socialist revolution.

Lenin appointed her as the Bolshevik representative to the International Socialist Bureau conference in Brussels in July 1914. She was an associate of other contemporary socialists like Luxembourg, Katusky and Trotsky. Lenin wrote to her:

"I am convinced that you are one of those who develops, grows stronger, becomes more energetic and bolder when alone in a responsible post … I stubbornly disbelieve the pessimists who say that you — are hardly — nonsense and again nonsense."

In March 1915 Armand went to Switzerland where she organised the anti-war International Conference of Socialist Women.

Russian Revolution
On 2 March 1917 Tsar Nicholas II abdicated, leaving the Provisional Government in control of the country, which declared the Russian Republic. The Bolsheviks in exile became desperate to return to Russia to help shape the future of the country. The German Foreign Ministry, which hoped that Bolshevik influence in Russia would help bring the war on the Eastern Front to an end, provided a special train for Armand, Vladimir Lenin and 26 other revolutionaries to travel to Petrograd.

Armand herself wasn't as active as other revolutionaries during this period, spending most of her time taking care of her sick son. Despite this she still served as a Chair of the Moscow Economic Council and was an Executive member of the Moscow Soviet. In 1918 she became head of Zhenotdel the Communist Party's Women's wing alongside fellow feminist revolutionary Alexandra Kollontai. She was successful in leading a conference of various women's labour unions in support of the Communist Party and the Russian Revolution at which Lenin was a keynote speaker. Armand argued that women needed to be emancipated from their traditional duties and should be allowed to serve in the revolutionary Red Army. The spring of 1920 saw the appearance, again on Armand’s initiative, of the journal Kommunistka, which dealt with "the broader aspects of female emancipation and the need to alter the relationship between the sexes if lasting change was to be effected".

After the death of Lenin Armand distanced herself from Soviet politics and went into hiding along with other members of the Communist Party.

Return to France
In 1921 she returned to France alongside other former Bolsheviks's fleeing the counter-revolutionary terror. Here she quickly became a celebrity among the Pro-Leninist Jacobin faction due to her strong association with Lenin. Despite this her absence from France left her politically isolated and she spent most of her time writing for newspapers like L'Humanite and giving speeches to various women's groups and unions. She was noted for her strong opposition to many Anarchist principles and actively worked to rehabilitate the image of Lenin and the Russian Revolution. She attempted to run for office multiple times but was never able to get beyond the local level.

Election to the BGT
In 1928 she was elected to the BGT for the first time along a general rise in support for the Jacobin faction due to cracks in the traditional parties. She quickly became a prominent politician as her willingness to speak out against anything she disagreed with and her Vanguardist positions made her a controversial figure. She was noted for her ability to draw support across political factions for her proposals and her ability to compromise as well as her charisma helped the Jacobin faction rise from obscurity and political isolation.

In 1935 after Marcel Cachin refused the ticket Armand was offered to run for the Premiership as the Jacobin candidate. In order to secure her candidacy she spent many tireless hours campaigning across France. Here her record with the Russian Revolution became an asset and she was also able to gain the support of many working women by appealing directly to their concerns. After a tight race she secured the Premiership and became the first woman and the first Jacobin to serve in the office.

1936-1937
With her position confirmed Inessa Armand negotiated an alliance between the Jacobin and Travailleur factions. She however had to face the opposition of Chairman Nestor Makhno who became a bitter political opponent of hers. However her alliance was able to pass many major Jacobin reforms including the creation of a Leninist style Central Economic Council, the reform of the Communal army and the expansion of the powers of the Government.

1938: Paramount Leader of France
After Nestor Makhno publicly announced his sickness and took a leave from French politics Inessa Armand began to take on many of his responsibilities. With a commanding hold over both the BGT and the CPS Armand has become the most powerful person in France and is regarded by outside observers as the "Paramount Leader" of the Commune. The Jacobin victory in the 1938 BGT elections confirmed Armand's popularity among the people and Armand's power seems unquestioned.