Lenin the nihilist

I recently read The Life and Death of Lenin by Robert Payne and thought I would transcribe a short excerpt that I found amusing. Oh, Krupskaya is Lenin's wife. The story is as follows:

In the spring of 1915 Krupskaya's mother died. There is a story that one night Krupskaya left her vigil by here mother's bedside and went to bed, after asking her husband to wake her if her mother needed her. Lenin went on working. During the night his mother-in-law died. When Krupskaya awoke the next morning to find her mother dead, she turned to hewr husband and asked him why he failed to wake her. "You Told me to wake you if your mother needed you," Lenin answered. "She died. She didn't need you." (pg. 250)

If you decide to read a biography on Lenin, I would recomend a differnt author. Payne tends to run on with his sentences. He also leaves out world events where most other authors would make reference to for the sake of historical context. I do like the statue of the monkey looking at the human skull, it sat on Lenin's desk.