Lydia Fotiyeva was born on 18 October 1881 in
Ryazan, then in the
Russian Empire. She began studying at the
Moscow Conservatory in 1899 but transferred to the
Bestuzhev Courses women's education institution in 1900. However, she could not finish her studies because, in 1901, she was expelled and exiled to the city of
Perm for her participation in the youth movement there. In 1904, she became a member of the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union and active in the Bolshevik revolutionary movement, and was arrested multiple times because of this. In the following years, she aided
Nadezhda Krupskaya in her communication with party officials in Russia from abroad and additionally undertook other work for the party in
St. Petersburg,
Geneva, and
Paris. In 1917, she worked for
Vyacheslav Molotov in the office of the
Pravda newspaper and obtained a degree from the Moscow Conservatory. Between 1918 and 1924, Fotiyeva worked as Lenin's personal secretary. Beginning in 1933, she worked at the
All-Russian Thermal Engineering Institute. During
World War II, Fotiyeva worked for the
International Red Aid organisation. In 1956, she retired and began receiving a personal pension. She was subject to persecution during the reign of
Joseph Stalin, as many of the
Old Bolsheviks were. Lenin originally dictated his
Testament to her while she was his secretary. Fotiyeva died in
Moscow on 25 August 1975 at the age of 93. She was buried at the
Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow. Her obituary was signed by
General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev and other Soviet officials. == Legacy ==