Anna Larina

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Anna Larina (January 27, 1914 - February 24, 1996) was the wife of the Bolshevik leader Nikolai Bukharin, and spent many years trying to rehabilitate her husband after he was purged by Joseph Stalin in 1938. She was the author of a memoir entitled This I Cannot Forget.

Born in 1914, Anna Larina grew up amongst professional revolutionaries who stood at the head of the new Soviet Union. As a young girl, she came to know Bukharin, who was 26 years older than her, and she constantly wrote girlish love notes to him. She married Bukharin and had a son, Yuri. Anna was separated from her son when he was about one year old, then the NKVD came and arrested her. In 1937, there were accusations against Bukharin for spying, attempting to dismember the Soviet Union, organising kulak uprisings, plotting to murder Stalin and attempting mysterious acts towards Lenin in the past. Bukharin never understood why he was being slandered, and was mentally and psychologically prepared for death.

Before his imprisonment, he asked Anna, his wife, to memorise his testament because he knew it would have been suppressed under Stalin's rule. His treatment in prison destroyed his personality and before his execution he was declaring his solidarity with Stalin. It has been said that his last letter to Stalin was still in Stalin's desk when Stalin died, a fact which gives a macabre insight into the dictator's personality.

Anna was first sent into exile then arrested on September 5th and taken to Astrakhan prison. Twenty years of her life were wasted in prison, exile and labour camps. In a labour camp she met her second husband. He was arrested numerous times because of his relationship with Anna. With her second husband she had two children, Mischa and Nadia.

In the 1980s she wrote her memoirs and toured Europe to give talks. She would explain that she remained committed to the ideals of the Russian Revolution which she believed Stalin had betrayed.