‘In Memory of Ines Armand’ by N. Krupskaya from The Daily Worker Saturday Magazine Supplement. Vol. 2 No. 154. Saturday July 11, 1925.

This year was the fifth anniversary of our periodical “Kommunistka.” During these five years, it carried out its tasks from month to month, pointing out the way in which work among women should be conducted. Those who organized the work among peasant and working women went to this periodical during these five years, but its initiator, our beloved comrade Ines Armand, is no longer with us. She organized this periodical, she put it in working order, but she herself was not given much opportunity to contribute to it. The periodical was founded in the spring of 1920, and in September of the same year Ines died in the Caucasus.

A Friend of Lenin.

Ines was something more than an ordinary worker. She was very gifted, she continually tried to improve herself, she was steady and capable of self-control, and devoted herself to the revolutions cause. She was bubbling, over with energy, and took to heart eves success and non-success of the Bolsheviks. As far back as 1906, Ines took an active part in the movement. When in 1911 she came to Paris from Brussels, where she had lived as an emigre after her imprisonment and exile, she became closely connected with our Bolshevik group and was soon one of its most active members. She got through an enormous amount of work in connection with the establishment of closer contact among our various groups abroad. She carried on an extensive correspondence and had many connections. One can say there is hardly a Bolshevik living as an emigre in 1911- 1917 who did not know Ines. She was never down-hearted, and encouraged others by her cheerfulness. I personally, received very much from Ines. I loved her dearly. She soon became a close friend of our circle.

Vladimir Ilyitch was particularly fond of discussing our plans of work with her. Half French, half English by origin, Ines knew French and English perfectly, and her services were very valuable in connection with our relations with foreign parties. She translated all documents, was before the war delegated by the Bolsheviks to defend the Bolshevik policy at the session of the International Bureau.

She fulfilled the same function at the International Women’s Conference. In 1915 she Was our delegate at the Zimmerwald and Kienthal Conference and took an active part in the work of the Comintern. In 1911, Ines played an important role in the organization of a party school near Paris, where she lectured on political economy. Among those who attended the lectures in ttys school were; Comrades Orzhohikidze, Schwartz, Breslav, Dogadov, Zevind, Sagurin and others. This school did an important piece of work by linking up the Bolshevik cadres for energetic work at the time when the revolutionary wave was in the ascendant. In 1912, Ines went illegally to work in Petersburg. She was soon thrown into prison and subsequently became again an emigre.

Her Work Among Women.

She worked very energetically in all the branches of Party work, but paid special attention to work among women. Already in 1914, she sent from abroad articles for the Petersburg “Rabotnltza” and was a member of the foreign section of the Editorial Board of this periodical. She prepared reports on work among women for the International Women’s Conference, which it was proposed to hold in Vienna in 1914 simultaneously with the general International Congress, but which did not come off after all. When Ines came to Russia in 1917, she began immediately energetic agitation and propaganda among working women. She did not only speak at meetings, she also wrote for the working women. Her excellent pamphlet: “How I Came to Defend the Soviet Power,” became very popular. Ines was the initiator of the “Working Women’s Pages” in the “Pravda’’ and “Bednota.” These pages have been very useful for propaganda among working and peasant women. But still greater were her services in connection with the organization of the working women.

A Pioneer in Women’s Work.

In 1919 she was at the head of the working women’s section attached to the C.C. of the R.C.P.(B.) and issued very careful instructions to all working women’s organizers. Now everyone can see how important it is to have women delegates, but during the first years of the revolution, the manner of carrying on work among non-party working and peasant women was a contentious question. Ines was a keen advocate of delegate meetings. She exercised considerable influence over working women.

Now, when we witness the increasing influx of working and peasant women Into our Soviets, when we see that working and peasant women are eager to join the Party, we must not forget the comrade who laid the foundation stone of the organization of working and peasant women, who accomplished and sacrificed so much for their emancipation.

Working and peasant women, let the memory of Ines Armand be ever with you.

The Saturday Supplement, later changed to a Sunday Supplement, of the Daily Worker was a place for longer articles with debate, international focus, literature, and documents presented. The Daily Worker began in 1924 and was published in New York City by the Communist Party US and its predecessor organizations. Among the most long-lasting and important left publications in US history, it had a circulation of 35,000 at its peak. The Daily Worker came from The Ohio Socialist, published by the Left Wing-dominated Socialist Party of Ohio in Cleveland from 1917 to November 1919, when it became became The Toiler, paper of the Communist Labor Party. In December 1921 the above-ground Workers Party of America merged the Toiler with the paper Workers Council to found The Worker, which became The Daily Worker beginning January 13, 1924.

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