Ivan Dmitrievich Sytin and his wife had ten children: six sons and four daughters.

The picture presumably from 1906 shows the publisher’s third son, Vasily Ivanovich, with his wife Lyudmila Vladimirovna and their eldest daughter Lena. Vasily Ivanovich Sytin graduated from the Faculty of Natural Sciences of Moscow University. He was a rebellious person by nature, was fond of revolutionary ideas and promoted them at his father’s enterprises. It is known that in 1905 he conducted propaganda activities, published a revolutionary newspaper, was involved in the production of proclamations and false passports, for which he was held in Butyrka (a prison in Moscow). In 1912, he was in charge of the department of children’s literature in his father’s company.

He organized his own “revolution” in the family: against the will of his parents, he married a teacher of his younger brothers and sisters — Lyudmila Vladimirovna Zubkova. For that, Vasily was excommunicated from his family and, while continuing to work in his father’s publishing house, lived separately with his young wife. Only after the birth of their daughter Elena, his relationship with his parents improved. Lyudmila and Vasily were very talented. Vasily wrote children’s stories under the pseudonym Lenin (he took the pseudonym after the birth of his eldest daughter Lena). Lyudmila composed poetry, cared for and taught her four children. Addressing her eldest daughter in a letter, she wrote,

Lyudmila translated foreign articles for the magazine “Around the World”, which was published weekly. For example, once Vasily asked Lyudmila to translate two articles as soon as possible, in two or three days. She managed to complete them, surprising her husband and the editorial staff with her accuracy and discipline. Later it turned out that it was possible to send in the translation a week later. For the translation of four and ¾ pages, she received 71 rubles and 25 kopecks.