Lenin (b April 22 1870) cats & socialism
Making a connection between the politics of Lenin who was born 153 years ago today and cats is a complex and dialectical question.
Lenin however was certainly a cat lover, having several in his Kremlin apartment from 1918.
John S Clarke who was a professional lion tamer visited Moscow in 1920 and reportedly helped to train and organise cats. Clarke went on to become a Labour MP (those were the days)
The picture of Lenin with a cat was taken in the village of Gorki in 1922
We should however be cautious about assuming an automatic link between cats and any particular trend on the left, Rosa Luxemburg described what happened when her cat Mimi met Lenin:
“She also flirted with him, rolled on her back and behaved enticingly toward him,” Luxemburg writes. “But when he tried to approach her she whacked him with a paw and snarled like a tiger.”
Training cats? Lol. Impossible. That last bit made me smile. That’s typical of the little beasts. That’s why I live them so much.