On 26th March 2018 I visited Karl Marx Memorial Library & Workers’ School, 37a, Clerkenwell Green, London along with my niece.
The Comrade who is in-charge of the library happily received us and and her colleague offered to guide and show the library.
She asked us to follow and took us to a corner room and opened the doors and told us this is the “Lenin’s Room”. I was surprised and emotionally excited. She gave a brief historical background of the room.
The heroic & revolutionary leader and founding father of USSR V.I.Lenin worked from this room during his exile in London. He shared the office of Harry Quelch, Justice Editor and Director of the Twentieth Century Press and edited 17 issues of “ISKRA(The Spark)” during 1902 – 1903. The “ISKRA’ was a journal of Russian Social Democratic and Labour Party. It was printed in the press downstairs the building and transported to Czarist Russia through trusted comrades utilizing the underground party organisation.
The chair used by Lenin is preserved and it remained in the same place of room where he edited ‘ISKRA’. Editorial board meetings and discussions were held in that small room.
In a corner of Lenin’s room was exhibited a old coat. I curiously asked is it Lenin’s coat? The guide gave another surprising reply that the coat belonged to Bulgarian Communist Party first General Secretary Georgi Dimitrov. The “ISKRA” editions from first issue published in 1902 bound and that voluminous book was kept on the same table Lenis used to work on . Photos of comrades who worked in composing, proof reading, printing, packing and transportation activities of ‘ISKRA’ were also displayed.
After the guide briefed and gave inputs, I made a request to take photos. She happily agreed. I stood behind Lenin’s chair and took photos. When I stood behind the Lenin’s chair, I felt immense pleasure and excitement. It was the greatest moment of pleasure in my life.
The pictures of VVietnamese Communist Revolutionary Ho Chi Minh and the Cuban Communist Revolutionary Fidel Castro were also on display.
A small statue of Sylvia Pankhurst was installed prominently in one corner of the library. She fought for voting rights for British women and achieved. Now Centenary celebrations of the great movement are organised in different forms.
The visit to Karl Marx Memorial Library & Workers School is a memorable experience.
-T.Lakshminarayana, Activist and Political Analyst. Hyderabad, Ph. 94909 52221