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Lenin's biography is one of the most interesting and mysterious among world-famous politicians. After all, it was Lenin who was the main organizer October Revolution 1917, which radically changed the history of not only Russia, but also the world.

Vladimir Lenin wrote many works concerning Marxism, communism, socialism and political philosophy.

Some consider him the greatest revolutionary and reformer, while others accuse him of serious crimes and they call him crazy. So who is he, Vladimir Lenin, a genius or a villain?

In this article we will highlight the most significant events biography of Lenin, and also try to understand why his activities still evoke radically opposing opinions and assessments.

Biography of Lenin

Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov was born on April 10, 1870 in Simbirsk (now Ulyanovsk). His father, Ilya Nikolaevich, worked as an inspector of public depositories, and his mother, Maria Alexandrovna, was a home teacher.

Childhood and youth

During the biography period 1879-1887. Vladimir Lenin studied at the Simbirsk gymnasium, from which he graduated with honors. In 1887, his older brother Alexander was executed for preparing an assassination attempt on the Tsar.

This event shocked the entire Ulyanov family, because no one even knew that Alexander was engaged in revolutionary activities.

Special features of V. I. Lenin

Lenin's education

After high school, Lenin continued his studies at Kazan University at the Faculty of Law. It was then that he began to become seriously interested in politics.

The execution of his brother greatly influenced his worldview, so it is not surprising that he quickly became interested in new political movements.

Without studying at the university for even six months, Vladimir Ulyanov-Lenin was expelled from it for participating in student riots.

At the age of 21, he graduated from the law department of St. Petersburg University as an external student. After this, Lenin worked for some time as an assistant to a sworn attorney.

But this work did not bring him inner satisfaction, because he dreamed of great achievements.

Personal life

Lenin's only official wife was Lenin, who supported her husband in everything.

The last years of Lenin's life

It is obvious that many political events that occurred in Lenin’s biography over the past few years could not but affect his health.

Thus, in the spring of 1922, he suffered 2 strokes, but at the same time retained his sanity. Lenin's last public speech took place on November 20, 1922 at the plenum of the Moscow Soviet.

On December 16, 1922, his health condition again deteriorated sharply, and on May 15, 1923, due to illness, he moved to the Gorki estate near Moscow.

Ailing Lenin in Gorki

But even in this state, Lenin, with the help of a stenographer, dictated letters and various notes. A year later he suffered a third stroke, which left him completely disabled.

Farewell to the leader of the world proletariat took place over 5 days. On the sixth day after his death, Lenin's body was embalmed and placed in the Mausoleum.

Many cities and streets of the USSR were named after the leader. It would be difficult to find a city where there was no street or square named after Lenin, not to mention the tens of thousands of monuments erected throughout Russia.

After Lenin, power over Soviet Union accepted, reigning for almost 30 years.

Lenin and Gorki, 1922

• An interesting fact is that during his life Vladimir Lenin wrote about 30,000 documents. At the same time, he managed to speak at hundreds of rallies and lead a huge state.
• Lenin played chess all his life.
• Ilyich had a party nickname, which was used by his comrades and himself: “Old Man.”
• Lenin's height was 164 cm.
• Russian inventor Lev Theremin, who personally met Lenin, noted that he was very surprised by the leader’s bright red hair.
• According to the recollections of many contemporaries, Lenin was very cheerful and loving good joke person.
• At school, Lenin was an excellent student, and upon graduation he received a gold medal.

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Vladimir Lenin (real name: Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov) - famous revolutionary, leader of the Land of Soviets and leader of the working people of the whole world, founder of the first socialist state in world history, creator of the Communist International.

He was one of the key ideological inspirers of the October Revolution of 1917 and the first head of the new state created on the basis of a union of equal republics and the theory of a subsequent world revolution.

In the USSR he was the object of incredible admiration and cult. He was glorified, exalted and idealized, called a seer, a giant of thought and a visionary genius. Today, in different strata of society, the attitude towards him is very contradictory: for some, he is a major political theorist who influenced the course of world history, for others, he is the author of particularly cruel concepts for the destruction of his compatriots, who destroyed the foundations of the country’s economy.

Childhood

The future major politician was born on April 22, 1870 in Simbirsk (now called Ulyanovsk in his honor), a city on the Volga, into an intelligent family of teachers. There were no Russians in his family: his mother Maria Alexandrovna came from Germans with an admixture of Swedish and Jewish blood, his father Ilya Nikolaevich was from Kalmyks and Chuvash. He was inspecting public schools and made a very successful career: he received the rank of full state councilor, which gave him the right to the title of nobility.

Mom devoted herself to raising children, of whom there were five in their family: daughter Anna, sons Alexander, Vladimir, Dmitry and the most youngest child– Maria or Manyasha, as her relatives called her. The mother of the family graduated from a pedagogical college as an external student and knew several foreign languages, played the piano and passed on her knowledge and skills to the children, including exceptional accuracy in everything.

Volodya knew Latin, French, German, English very well, and Italian a little worse. His love for languages ​​remained throughout his life; shortly before his death he began to learn Czech. At the gymnasium, he preferred philosophy, but also had excellent grades in other disciplines.

He grew up as an inquisitive boy, loved to play noisy games with his brothers and sisters: horse play, Indian play, toy soldiers. While reading Uncle Tom's Cabin, he imagined himself as Abraham Lincoln, smashing slave owners.

In his last year of study, in 1986, his father died. A year later, their family suffered another difficult ordeal - the execution of brother Alexander by hanging. The young man was good at natural sciences, so the terrorists who were preparing an assassination attempt on Alexander III recruited him to create an explosive device. In the case, Ulyanov was one of the organizers of the attempt to assassinate the Tsar.

Formation of political consciousness

After graduating from high school, the young man began to study law at Kazan University. At 17 he was no different political activity. Lenin's biographers believe that the decision to change political system was largely dictated by the death of Alexander. Deeply experiencing the death of his brother, Volodya became interested in the idea of ​​overthrowing tsarism.

Soon he was expelled from the university for participating in student riots. At the request of his mother’s sister Lyubov Blank, he was exiled to the village of Kukushkino, Kazan province, and lived with his aunt for about a year. It was then that his political views began to take shape. He began self-education, read a lot of Marxist literature, as well as the works of Dmitry Pisarev, Georgy Plekhanov, Sergei Nechaev, Nikolai Chernyshevsky.

The revolution of the proletariat will completely destroy the division of society into classes, and, consequently, all social and political inequality.

In 1889, Maria Alexandrovna, demonstrating her immense love and support for her son, who needed money, sold her house in Simbirsk and purchased a farm in the Samara province for 7.5 thousand rubles. She hoped that Vladimir would find an outlet in the land, but without experience in farming, the family could not become successful. They sold the estate and moved to Samara.

In 1891, the authorities allowed Ulyanov to take the first-year exams at the Faculty of Law of St. Petersburg University. For a little less than a year, Vladimir was an assistant attorney. This service was boring for him, and in 1893 he left for Northern capital, where he began practicing law and studying the ideology of Marxism. By this time, he had finally developed as a person, his views had evolved: if earlier he admired the ideas of the populists, he now became a supporter of the Social Democrats.

The path to revolution

In 1895, the young man went to Europe, where he met with members of the Russian Marxist group “Emancipation of Labor.” Returning to the city on the Neva, he founded the “Union of Struggle” in partnership with Yuliy Martov. They were involved in leading strikes, publishing a workers' newspaper with Ulyanov's articles, and distributing leaflets.

We must fight religion. This is the ABC of all materialism and, therefore, Marxism. But Marxism is not materialism that stops at the ABC. Marxism goes further. He says: one must be able to fight religion, and for this one must materialistically explain the source of faith and religion among the masses.

Soon Vladimir was arrested and sent into exile for 3 years in the Siberian village of Shushenskoye, where he subsequently wrote more than three dozen articles. At the end of his sentence, Ulyanov went abroad. Once in Germany, in 1900 he initiated the publication of the famous underground newspaper Iskra. Then he began to sign his writings and articles with the pseudonym Lenin. Vladimir Ilyich had great hopes for Iskra, believing that it would unite disunited revolutionary organizations under the banner of Marxist ideology.

In 1903, the Second Congress of the RSDLP, prepared by the revolutionary, was held in Brussels, where a split occurred between adherents of his idea of ​​seizing power by armed means and supporters of the classical parliamentary path - the Mensheviks, and the party program developed together with Plekhanov was adopted. In 1905, at the First Party Conference in Finland, he met Stalin for the first time.

Any extreme is not good; everything that is good and useful, taken to the extreme, can and even, beyond a certain limit, necessarily becomes evil and harmful.

Lenin celebrated the victory in the February Revolution of 1917, which led to the overthrow of the monarchy, abroad. Arriving home, he called for an uprising against the Provisional Government. It was organized by Leon Trotsky, head of the Petrograd Soviet. On the memorable October 25, the Bolsheviks, with the support of the proletariat, seized power. Lenin headed a completely new government of the RSFSR - the Council of People's Commissars, signed decrees on land (confiscation of landowners' lands) and peace (negotiations on non-violent reconciliation of all warring countries).

After October

Devastation reigned in the country, and there was confusion and chaos in people's minds. Lenin signed the decree on the creation of the Red Army and the humiliating Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in order to be able to focus on internal problems. Many bright minds of the country, not appreciating his ideas, emigrated, others joined the White movement. The Civil War broke out.

No one is to blame if he is born a slave; but a slave who not only shuns the desire for his freedom, but justifies and embellishes his slavery, such a slave evokes a legitimate feeling of indignation, contempt and disgust - a lackey and a boor.

During this period, the leader of the Bolsheviks ordered the execution of the entire royal family. Nicholas II and his wife, five of their children and close servants were killed on the night of July 16-17 in Yekaterinburg. Let us note that the question of Lenin’s involvement in the execution of the Romanovs is still debatable.

In 1918, there were two attempts on Lenin’s life (in January and August) and the murder of the main security officer in Petrograd, Moisei Uritsky. As a response to what happened, the authorities organized the Red Terror on the initiative of Felix Dzerzhinsky. Within its framework, the decree on the death penalty was revived, the creation of concentration camps began, forced conscription into the army was practiced, and pogroms of Orthodox churches were practiced.

Lenin's speech to the Red Army (1919)

The Bolsheviks introduced the harsh and ineffective concept of “war communism”, involving people in free public works for up to 16 hours a day, confiscated food, and liquidated the market.

These actions provoked mass famine and crisis, forcing the country's leader to develop a new economic policy (NEP). It gave positive results, but he was unable to correct all the mistakes he had made due to his failing health.

Personal life of Vladimir Lenin

The first head of the USSR was married. He met his chosen one, the intelligent and dedicated Marxist Nadezhda Krupskaya, in 1894 during the creation of the “Union of Struggle.” 4 years later they got married, legitimizing their relationship in order to obtain permission to serve exile in Shushenskoye together.

The couple did not have any offspring, although people who knew them claimed that they really wanted to have at least one child. The reason for this was said to be unfavorable for the birth of children. living conditions a married couple (exile, prison, emigration), as well as the consequences of Krupskaya’s illness, who was seriously ill “on the female side” during her imprisonment.

Man needs an ideal, but a human one, corresponding to nature, and not a supernatural one.

According to researchers, until their death the couple was not connected intimacy, but strong friendship. The leader considered his wife his reliable and main support in life. She repeatedly offered him freedom, in particular, so that he could marry his next mistress, Inessa Armand, with whom Nadezhda had an excellent relationship. But he always refused, did not want to let her go.

The politician was not particularly attractive, had a speech impediment - a burr, but had powerful charisma, piercing eyes, and could have an almost hypnotic effect on those around him.

Death

In May 1922, the Bolshevik leader suffered a stroke, causing speech impairment and paralysis on the right side of his body. By autumn, the illness had subsided, and he returned to work, demonstrating tremendous efficiency. He spoke at the Fourth Congress of the Comintern, held a number of meetings of the Council of People's Commissars, meetings of the Politburo, and wrote about two hundred business notes and orders in 2 months. But in December and then in March of the following year, repeated strokes occurred. Lenin moved from the capital to the Gorki residence near Moscow, closer to nature, healing silence and fresh air.

Rare footage from the funeral of Vladimir Lenin

In January 1924, there was a sharp deterioration in the health of the people's leader, and on the 21st he died of a cerebral hemorrhage. The reasons for his death were also called atherosclerosis, syphilis, a genetic disease that led to the “petrification” of brain vessels, and even poisoning from a bullet. However, these are all just hypotheses.

After the death of the leader, it was decided to create a Mausoleum near the Kremlin wall for his burial. By the day of the funeral on January 27, a temporary wooden funeral structure was erected, where Ilyich’s body was placed. Now in its place stands a red brick Mausoleum. The embalmed leader of the peoples rests there to this day.

Lenin is a world-famous political figure, leader of the Bolshevik Party (revolutionary), founder of the USSR state. Almost everyone knows who Lenin is. He is a follower of the great philosophers F. Engels and K. Marx.

Who is Lenin? Brief summary of his biography

Ulyanov Vladimir was born in Simbirsk in 1870. And in Ulyanovsk he spent his childhood and youth.

From 1879 to 1887 he studied at the gymnasium. After graduating with a gold medal, in 1887 Vladimir and his family, already without Ilya Nikolaevich (he died in January 1886), moved to live in Kazan. There he entered Kazan University.

There, in 1887, for active participation in a gathering of students, he was expelled from the educational institution and exiled to the village of Kokushkino.

IN young man The patriotic spirit of protest against the then existing tsarist system and the oppression of the people awakened early.

The study of advanced Russian literature, the works of great writers (Belinsky, Dobrolyubov, Herzen, Pisarev) and especially Chernyshevsky led to the formation of his advanced revolutionary views. The older brother introduced Vladimir to Marxist literature.

From that moment on, young Ulyanov devoted all his later life the struggle against the capitalist system, the cause of liberation of the people from oppression and slavery.

Ulyanov family

Knowing who Lenin is, one cannot help but want to find out in more detail what kind of family such a brilliant person, enlightened in all respects, came from.

In their views, Vladimir’s parents belonged to the Russian intelligentsia.

Grandfather - N.V. Ulyanov - from the serfs of the Nizhny Novgorod province, an ordinary tailor-craftsman. He died in poverty.

Father - I. N. Ulyanov - after completing his studies at Kazan University, he was a teacher at secondary educational institutions in Penza and Nizhny Novgorod. Subsequently he worked as an inspector and director of schools in the province (Simbirsk). He really loved his job.

Vladimir’s mother, M.A. Ulyanova (Blank), is a doctor by training. She was gifted and had great abilities: knew several foreign languages, played the piano well. She received her own education at home and, having passed the external exam, became a teacher. She devoted herself to children.

Vladimir's elder brother A.I. Ulyanov was executed for participation in the attempt on the life of Alexander III in 1887.

Vladimir's sisters - A. I. Ulyanova (by her husband - Elizarova), M. I. Ulyanova, and brother D. I. Ulyanov at one time became prominent figures in the Communist Party.

Their parents instilled in them honesty, hard work, attention and sensitivity to people, responsibility for their deeds, actions and words, and most importantly, a sense of duty.

Ulyanov Library. Gaining knowledge

During his studies (with numerous awards) at the Simbirsk gymnasium, Vladimir received excellent knowledge.

At home family library the Ulyanovs had huge amount works of great Russian writers - Pushkin, Lermontov, Turgenev, Gogol, Dobrolyubov, Tolstoy, Herzen, as well as foreign ones. There were editions of Shakespeare, Huxley, Darwin and many others. etc.

This advanced literature of those times had a great and important influence on the formation of the views of the young Ulyanovs on everything that happened.

Formation of personal political views, publication of the first political newspapers

In 1893, in St. Petersburg, Vladimir Ulyanov studied social democratic issues, was engaged in journalism and was interested in political economy.

Since 1895, the first attempts to travel abroad have been made. In the same year, Lenin traveled outside the country to establish good connections with the Liberation of Labor group and other leaders of European social democratic parties. In Switzerland he met with G.V. Plekhanov. As a result, political figures from other countries learned about who Lenin was.

After his trips, Vladimir Ilyich already in his homeland organized the party “Union of Struggle for the Liberation of the Working Class” (St. Petersburg, 1895).

After which he is arrested and sent to Yenisei province. Three years later, it was there that Vladimir Ilyich married N. Krupskaya and wrote many of his works.

Moreover, at that time he had several pseudonyms (except for the main one - Lenin): Karpov, Ilyin, Petrov, Frey.

Further development of revolutionary political activity

Lenin is the organizer of the 2nd Congress of the RSDLP. Subsequently, he drew up the charter and plan of the party. Vladimir Ilyich, with the help of the revolution, tried to create a completely new society. During the 1907 revolution, Lenin was in Switzerland. Then the leadership passed to him after the arrest of most party members.

After the next congress of the RSDLP (3rd), he was preparing an uprising and demonstrations. Although the uprising was suppressed, Ulyanov did not stop working. He publishes Pravda and writes new works. At that time, many already knew who Vladimir Lenin was from his numerous publications.

The strengthening of new revolutionary organizations continues.

After the February Revolution of 1917, he returned to Russia and led an uprising against the government. Goes underground to avoid arrest.

After the revolution (October 1917), Lenin began to live and work in Moscow in connection with the move there from Petrograd of the Central Committee of the Party and the government.

Results of the 1917 revolution

After the revolution, Lenin founds the proletarian Red Army, the 3rd Communist International and concludes a peace treaty with Germany. From now on, the country has a new economic policy, the direction of which is growth national economy. Thus, a socialist state - the USSR - is formed.

The overthrown exploiting classes launched struggle and terror against the new Soviet government. In August 1918, an attempt was made on Lenin's life, he was wounded by F.E. Kaplan (a Socialist-Revolutionary).

Who is Vladimir Ilyich Lenin for the people? After his death, the cult of his personality increased. Monuments to Lenin were laid everywhere, many urban and rural objects were renamed in his honor. Many cultural and educational institutions (libraries, cultural centers) named after Lenin were opened. The mausoleum of the great Lenin in Moscow still preserves the body of the greatest political figure.

Recent years

Lenin was a militant atheist and fought hard against the influence of the church. In 1922, taking advantage of the dire situation of famine in the Volga region, he called for the confiscation of church valuables.

Quite intense work and injury spoiled the leader’s health, and in the spring of 1922 he became seriously ill. Periodically he returned to work. Last year its tragic. A serious illness prevented him from completing all his affairs. Here, too, a struggle arose between close associates for the great “Leninist legacy.”

He was able, overcoming illness, at the end of 1922 and at the beginning of February 1923, to dictate several articles and letters that constituted his “Political Testament” for the Party Congress (12th).

In this letter, he proposed to move I.V. Stalin from the post of General Secretary to another place. He was convinced that he would not be able to use his immense power carefully, as it should.

Shortly before his death, he moved to Gorki. The proletarian leader died in 1924, on January 21.

Relations with Stalin

Who is Stalin? Both Lenin and Joseph Vissarionovich worked together along the party line.

They met in person in 1905 at the RSDLP conference in Tammerfors. Until 1912, Lenin did not single him out among many party workers. Between them until 1922 there were more or less good relationship, although disagreements often arose. Relations deteriorated greatly by the end of 1922, believed to be due to Stalin’s conflict with the Georgian leadership (“Georgian Affair”) and a minor incident with Krupskaya.

After the death of the leader, the myth about the relationship between Stalin and Lenin changed several times: first Stalin was one of Lenin’s comrades-in-arms, then he became his student, then a faithful successor of the great cause. And it turned out that the revolution began to have two leaders. Then Lenin was not so needed, and Stalin became the only leader.

Bottom line. Who is Lenin? Briefly about the stages of its activities

Under Lenin's leadership, a new state administrative apparatus was formed. The lands of the landowners were confiscated and nationalized along with transport, banks, industry, etc. The Soviet Red Army was created. Slavery and national oppression were abolished. Decrees on food issues appeared. Lenin and his government fought for world peace. The leader introduced the principle of collective leadership. He became the leader of the international labor movement.

Who is Lenin? About this unique historical figure everyone should know. After the death of the great leader, people were brought up on the ideals of Vladimir Ilyich. And the results were quite good.

Lenin Vladimir Ilyich(pseudonym) real name -Ulyanov"

• Childhood, family, study of V.I. Lenin
  
• Revolutionary spiritLeninVladimir Ilyich
  
• Shushenskoye
• Life abroad
• PolicyLeninVladimir Ilyich after the October Revolution
• Last years of life
• The results of Lenin's activities
• Video about Lenin

"lenin Vladimir Ilich" (1870—1924)

Childhood, family, study

• The future revolutionary and leader of the proletariat was born into the Ulyanov family - representatives of the intelligentsia of Simbirsk (1870).
• His father worked as a teacher for a long time. Then he was appointed inspector of public schools in the province. And later he became their director.
• For his outstanding services in the field of public education, Ulyanov Sr. was repeatedly awarded orders, he was awarded the rank of truly state councilor and was granted nobility.
• He died when the future leader of the proletariat was barely 15 years old.
• His wife was quite educated, and she herself taught the children, of whom there were six in the Ulyanov family, a lot.
• According to genealogical research, Lenin's ancestors included Jews, Germans, Swedes (on his mother's side), and Kalmyks (on his father's side).
• Parents encouraged their children's curiosity and supported them in every possible way.
• Having entered the Simbirsk classical gymnasium (1879), he quickly became the first student, showing a special passion for history, philosophy, and literature.
• Vladimir graduated from this educational institution with excellent marks. And he decided to continue his studies at Kazan University, choosing the profession of lawyer.
• The death of the head of the family was a big blow for the Ulyanovs. And the execution of the eldest son that followed soon after. Alexander was arrested and sentenced to death for his participation in organizing an attempt to assassinate the emperor.
• And soon Vladimir was expelled from the university as one of the participants in the student gathering. And they send her to her mother’s remote village estate.
• A few years later, the Ulyanovs moved to Samara. This is where his acquaintance with Marxist ideas begins.
• Having not completed his studies at Kazan University, Vladimir Ilyich managed to study as an external student at. After which he was appointed to the position of legal assistant (sworn attorney) (1892).

Revolutionary spirit

• Most researchers believe that cravings for revolutionary activities awakened as a young Vladimir after the execution of her brother. Then there were the works of Marx, which strengthened it.
• Vladimir did not work in the legal profession for a long time - only a year. After which he left jurisprudence and moved to St. Petersburg. Here he joined the student circle of the Institute of Technology. Members of this community engaged in in-depth study of Marxist ideas.
• Two years later he went abroad, where he had the opportunity to meet many participants in the international labor movement.

Shushenskoye

• After returning from a trip abroad, together with L. Martov, he took an active part in the founding of the “Union of Struggle for the Liberation of the Working Class” in St. Petersburg, which carried out active propaganda among ordinary workers. However, he was soon arrested. He remained in custody for more than a year, and then was sent to Siberia - to the village of Shushenskoye.
• The clean air and favorable climate of Shushenskoye had a beneficial effect on the health of the young revolutionary. Here he married N. Krupskaya, just as he was exiled for prohibited activities. He also found use for his legal knowledge in Siberia, giving advice to peasants. He is also actively starting to write. His works bring him popularity among followers of Marxism.

Life abroad

• Back in 1898, the First Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party was organized in Minsk. Its participants were dispersed and many were taken into custody. Therefore, after returning from exile, the leaders of the Union of Struggle, including Lenin, are trying to gather the scattered and scattered members of this party.
• They decide to use a newspaper as one of the means of unification. To seek support and negotiate with foreign supporters, Ulyanov again goes abroad.
• Living for a long time in Munich, London, Geneva, he meets the right people. He is included in the editorial board of the new newspaper Iskra. On its pages he begins to sign with his pseudonym. Subsequently, he uses it in life.
• Here in immigration, he formed his own vision of the tasks and goals of the Social Democratic Party.
• As a result, already during the second congress of the RSDLP (1903), the party split into “Mensheviks” and “Bolsheviks”. The latter, who supported the position of Ulyanov - Lenin, got their name due to the fact that they constituted the majority in the voting. Well, their opponents began to be called “Mensheviks.”
• Almost at the same time, with the light hand of Martov, the term “Leninism” appeared. Lenin's former like-minded person outlined radical methods in the theory and practice of the revolution.
• Having only briefly arrived in Russia during the years of the first revolution (1905-07), he actively worked at the head of the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party and their new printed organ " New life" Without sharing the opinion of those who prepared the revolution, he nevertheless hoped for its victory: it was supposed to rid the country of autocracy and open further path to implement the plans of the Bolsheviks.
• However, after the unsuccessful completion of the uprising, he goes first to Switzerland and then to Finland. But while there, he is keenly interested in what is happening in his homeland.
• So, he learned about the beginning of the war while in Austria-Hungary, in the remote town of Poronino (territory modern Poland). Here he was arrested, suspecting him of being a Russian spy. Local Social Democrats helped him avoid a long imprisonment.
• Immediately after this, he began to vehemently oppose the war and advocated for its end. Moreover, the fact that if resistance ceases, Russia could completely find itself under German occupation did not bother him or stop him.
• February Revolution became for him a complete surprise(as well as for most immigrants and Russian social democrats).
• After this, after 17 years spent abroad, the leader of the proletariat headed to Russia.

Return to Russia

• He returned to Petrograd along with 35 of his comrades. Moreover, they crossed the territory of enemy Germany completely unhindered, having secured permission from the authorities of this country. It was in April (1917). And immediately upon arrival, right at the station, realizing that those gathered here had not come to arrest him, but to support him, he made his famous fiery speech, climbing onto an armored car.
• His radical idea of ​​an armed uprising of the workers was not supported by many party members. However, people liked it.
• After Lenin's first unsuccessful attempt to take power into his own hands, as a result of which he was accused of treason in favor of Germany, he and several associates took refuge in the outskirts of Petrograd. He returned only a few months later to organize a revolutionary coup, or rather to give the final impetus to its implementation.
• When the October events had already become a thing of the past, Lenin and his followers, having eliminated their political opponents and dissenters by hook or by crook, came to power. Vladimir Ilyich moved to the Kremlin, becoming not only the leader of the party, but also the country.

We can briefly say about Vladimir Ilyich Lenin that he is an outstanding figure who played significant role in Russian history. Creator of the RSDLP, etc. the leader of the world proletariat, regardless of the assessment of his activities, sent Russia along special way development, which affected the entire world history.

General characteristics and performance evaluation

• Vladimir Ilyich Lenin is a man to whom an incredible number of books, articles, and publications are dedicated. His characteristics range from servile worship, recognition as a genius of all times and peoples, to outright abuse and denigration, identification with the devil who plunged Russia into hell.
• Estimates of the first kind include, of course, all Soviet literature. This is not surprising. The man who was the leader of the Bolsheviks and carried out the October Revolution could not help but become a role model in the state he created. Despite the Stalinist purges, during which they easily fell into oblivion and were erased from memory former heroes revolution, Lenin's authority was never questioned. Interestingly, even rivals ideological struggle (Stalinists, Trotskyists, Zinovievites), disagreeing in opinions, always looked for Lenin’s statements confirming their correctness.
• After the exposure of the “cult of Stalin” and his associates, during which the very principles of the development of the Soviet state were questioned, Lenin also remained at an unattainable height. Criticism of the leader not only did not exist, but it simply could not arise among the population.
• Of course, this situation was possible for several reasons. Firstly, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin left an incredible literary heritage. All his notes, not excluding the most trivial ones, were carefully collected and published in the form of a collection of works, which seemed to be the pinnacle of human wisdom. Lenin was a fairly flexible politician, and in his works, depending on the political moment, one can find direct contradictions to himself. However, there are unlikely to be many people who have seriously read the entire collection of his works. Most often it was simply used to confirm one’s own thoughts or actions.
  Secondly, during his lifetime Lenin was literally deified, to say nothing of the halo of inaccessibility that was created after his death. Stories for children about Lenin are striking in their naivety and simplicity, and yet more than one Soviet generation was raised on them.
• Finally, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was truly an extraordinary person. Possessing enormous intelligence, he could easily talk about some high economic problems and at the same time, furiously, without understanding the expressions, attack their ideological opponents. Many, by the way, attribute to him the tradition of using not quite decent words and expressions in journalism ("sharks of imperialism", "political prostitute", etc.).
• The very fact of the implementation of a socialist revolution in a particular country, the formation of a state that announced plans to build communism, cannot but evoke a special attitude towards Lenin. Being a fanatic of the revolution, he completely subordinated his life to this goal. The mentality of the Russian people allows one to forgive the most terrible actions of a person who does not strive only for personal well-being.
• The opposite point of view belongs to Russian emigrants who were forced to flee Russia after the revolution and some modern Russian historians. The position of the emigrants is clear. Having lost all their fortune, they were expelled from their own country and declared enemies of the new state. For them, the main culprit of what happened was Lenin. These assessments carry a huge stamp of subjectivity (for example, Bunin about Lenin: “Oh, what an animal this is!”).
• Huge streams of mud were poured after Perestroika over the entire Soviet historical period, including Lenin. This is quite explainable phenomenon: After years of censorship, people are now able to express their opinions openly. But attributing all mortal sins to Lenin, declaring him the enemy of all humanity, and using unproven evidence and facts is too reminiscent of Soviet times, only with the opposite sign.
• At present, when the era of the USSR is beginning to be viewed more objectively, works are appearing that illuminate the personality of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin impartially. Both negative and positive aspects his activities.

The main directions of Lenin's policy before the seizure of power

• Having led the struggle against the tsarist government, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, at the head of the Bolshevik Party, immediately took an irreconcilable position, excluding the possibility of any compromise. He considered only revolution to be the ultimate goal of his activity, to achieve which all means were suitable.
• The success of the Bolshevik agitation cannot be explained solely by personal qualities Lenin or other party members. Russia was indeed in extreme difficult situation. Despite the vast territory, the rich natural resources and human potential, the country still lagged behind the leading world powers, but at the same time decisively declared its imperial ambitions. The mediocre Russo-Japanese War, which resulted in revolutionary events 1905-1907, clearly showed the failure of the state structure. Creation State Duma, attempts to carry out some half-hearted reforms could no longer calm the population, but only postponed another explosion of discontent.
• The true cause of the revolution, along with the poverty of the bulk of the population, was the First World War. General jingoistic enthusiasm and faith in Russian “miracle soldiers” quickly gave way to disappointment and a premonition of disaster. Whether Lenin was a genius or not, only he was able to make the most of what was happening. Having declared from the very beginning the imperialist, wrong nature of the war, he resolutely opposed its conduct and, in general, against victory in the war. Lenin agitated for the soldiers' bayonets to be turned in a different direction, towards their own government. Bolshevik agitation against the war in itself could not cause defeat, but it lay fertile ground soldiers' discontent.
• The logical result was the February Revolution, after which we can already talk about the real influence of the Bolsheviks and Lenin on political processes through the councils of workers and soldiers' deputies. The well-known Order No. 1 of the Petrograd Council actually meant the collapse of the Russian army and defeat in the war. There is no longer an authoritative political leader or movement left in the state that can correct the situation. Vladimir Ilyich Lenin played on these sentiments, calling for a radical change in the existing system. The slogans of the Bolsheviks were as simple as possible and close to the people, who were ready to do anything to at least somehow improve their situation.
  In the end, Lenin simply showed maximum concentration and readiness to take power into his own hands. The October Revolution, despite its subsequent idealization and heroic glorification, occurred almost bloodlessly. In general, there were no defenders.

The politics of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin after the October Revolution

• Having seized power, the Bolsheviks declared their government temporary, as they promised to hold elections to the Constituent Assembly, which was supposed to resolve the issue of the Russian state structure. The elections took place in November 1918 and did not bring Lenin the desired result (the Bolsheviks received only 25% of the votes). However, the leader of the RSDLP already had all the main levers state power, so the voting results did not play a big role for him.
• Lenin's critics blame him for dispersing the Constituent Assembly at the beginning of 1918. However, this body did not have any real power. The Bolsheviks’ ignorance of his decisions and his status in general did not in any way affect the political situation in the country. In fact, only the members of the Constituent Assembly were dissatisfied. The few demonstrations against its crackdown confirm this.
• One of the darkest deeds of Lenin's politics is considered to be the signing of the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty (March 1918) with Germany. The terms of the agreement were extremely humiliating. Huge territories were given to Germany, Russia was obliged to immediately demobilize the army and navy, a huge amount of reparations was imposed on it, etc. On the one hand, Lenin consciously agreed to such conditions, since he understood that he needed strength to protect his own power. On the other hand, was there any real alternative to such a solution? Russia clearly could not continue the war, torn apart by internal contradictions. Prolongation of the war could lead to even worse results. It is unknown whether Lenin foresaw subsequent events, but already in November 1918, during the revolution in Germany, the Soviet government unilaterally canceled the terms of the peace treaty. Ultimately, history confirmed that signing the treaty was not the worst decision at that time.
• One of the directions of Lenin's policy after the revolution was the elimination of political competitors. At first, the Cadet Party was outlawed, as contrary to the very idea of ​​a socialist state. However, with the exception of the arrest of the party leaders, she was not persecuted for about six months and was even able to take part in the work of the Constituent Assembly.
• Gradually, the Bolshevik Party gained strength, and the fight against political opponents became more and more brutal. There are arrests, repressions, executions of those undesirable new government people. A special focus was the fight against the church and priests. The consequence of this is the Civil War.
  In this brutal clash, the Russian people suffered great losses. The country was subjected to the greatest disasters, the consequences of which were then not easy to get rid of. It is difficult to determine who is right and who is wrong in this fratricidal war, but it cannot be said that the Bolsheviks won only thanks to their harsh repressive policies. The white movement was not popular among the broad masses of the population, and this was the reason for its defeat. Lenin managed to captivate the people with his slogans, not all of which, unfortunately, were implemented in practice.
• Vladimir Ilyich Lenin declared the proletariat to be the main driving social force; accordingly, the dictatorship of the proletariat became the form of power. Only in alliance with him will other classes (the peasantry and the intelligentsia) be able to move along the path of social progress towards the construction of a higher phase - communism.
  The main directions of Lenin's policy arising from the task were: the concentration of all power in the hands of one party; nationalization of all industries, lands, banks; abolition of private property; eradication of religion as a means of stupefying the people, etc.
• Economic difficulties and the Civil War led Lenin to proclaim the policy of war communism, which included the implementation of a large-scale “Red Terror”. The merciless destruction and robbery of the “exploiting” classes began in order to obtain material resources and food. These measures really characterize Vladimir Ilyich Lenin as a very cruel person, walking towards his goal over the corpses of his enemies. The call for the destruction of the kulaks as a class led to the fact that agriculture lost its main producers. Protection primarily of the poor led to the fact that power in the village was often given to idlenesses and parasites.
• In the years Civil War Vladimir Ilyich Lenin proved himself to be a brilliant organizer who was able to short term achieve maximum centralization of power and efficient distribution of available limited resources. The proclaimed social equality made it possible to promote many talented military leaders from among the people who won victories over white generals. As a result, by 1920 the main centers of resistance were defeated. Until 1922, only the struggle to establish Soviet power on the outskirts of the former Russian Empire continued.
• However, the end of the Civil War posed new problems for Lenin. The policy of war communism had exhausted itself; a transition to peaceful construction was needed. In March 1921, Lenin announced the transition to the New Economic Policy (NEP), which consisted of some concessions to capitalism to overcome the economic crisis. The rental of small and medium-sized enterprises was allowed, the possibility of hiring labor became possible, instead of surplus appropriation and taxes in kind, a progressive income tax was introduced for peasants, etc. In general, this policy brought results. So, by the mid-1920s. The country reached pre-war production levels.

Last years of life

• In August 1918, an attempt was made on the leader of the revolution. According to official version, he was shot by F. Kaplan, a fan from the Socialist Revolutionary camp. However, despite being seriously wounded, Lenin continued to work.
• 4 years later, according to his recommendation, the USSR was founded. At the same time, there is a sharp deterioration in the leader's health. For some time, he has been fighting the disease with varying success, continuing to work and lead the country.
• But at the beginning of 1924, the disease finally prevailed, and on January 21, the man, under whose strict leadership one state was destroyed and a completely different one was created, dies.

• Vladimir Ilyich Lenin initiated one of the largest events in Russian and world history - the October Revolution. The world's first socialist state was created. The statement about the inevitability of building communism, of course, did not justify itself, but the fact that a completely new model of the state was created is undoubtedly.
• The USSR existed for almost 70 years, achieving, along with the United States, the status of a world leader. The Soviet state won the Second World War, gave the world a large number of scientific discoveries, scientists, artists, etc. The very existence of a socialist state influenced the development of all regions of the globe.

The figure of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin attracts close attention historians and politicians around the world for almost a century. One of the most taboo topics in “Leninianism” in the USSR is the origin of Lenin, his genealogy. This same topic was subject to the greatest speculation on the part of geopolitical opponents of the state, whose founder and “banner” was V.I. Lenin.

Secrets of Lenin's biography

How children of serfs became hereditary nobles, why Soviet power classified information about the leader's maternal ancestors and how did Vladimir Ulyanov turn into Nikolai Lenin in the early 1900s?
Ulyanov family. From left to right: standing - Olga, Alexander, Anna; sitting - Maria Alexandrovna with her youngest daughter Maria, Dmitry, Ilya Nikolaevich, Vladimir. Simbirsk 1879 Courtesy of M. Zolotarev

Biographical chronicle of V.I. Lenin" begins with the entry: "April, 10 (22). Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Lenin) was born. Vladimir Ilyich’s father, Ilya Nikolaevich Ulyanov, was at that time an inspector and then the director of public schools in the Simbirsk province. He came from poor townspeople of the city of Astrakhan. His father was previously a serf. Lenin's mother Maria Alexandrovna was the daughter of the doctor A.D. Blanca."

It is curious that Lenin himself did not know many details of his ancestry. In their family, as in the families of other commoners, it was somehow not customary to delve into their “genealogical roots.” It was only later, after the death of Vladimir Ilyich, when interest in this kind of problems began to grow, that his sisters took up this research. Therefore, when Lenin received a detailed party census questionnaire in 1922, when asked about the occupation of his paternal grandfather, he sincerely answered: “I don’t know.”

GRANDSON OF A SERF

Meanwhile, Lenin’s paternal grandfather, great-grandfather and great-great-grandfather were indeed serfs. Great-great-grandfather - Nikita Grigorievich Ulyanin - was born in 1711. According to the revision tale of 1782, he and the family of his youngest son Feofan were recorded as a servant of the landowner of the village of Androsova, Sergach district, Nizhny Novgorod governorship, Marfa Semyonovna Myakinina.

According to the same revision, his eldest son Vasily Nikitich Ulyanin, born in 1733, with his wife Anna Semionovna and children Samoila, Porfiry and Nikolai lived in the same place, but were considered servants of the cornet Stepan Mikhailovich Brekhov. According to the revision of 1795, Lenin’s grandfather Nikolai Vasilyevich, 25 years old, single, lived with his mother and brothers in the same village, but they were already listed as servants of ensign Mikhail Stepanovich Brekhov.

Of course, he was listed, but he was no longer in the village then...

The Astrakhan archive contains the document “Lists of registered landowner peasants expected to be counted as fugitives from different provinces,” where under number 223 it is written: “Nikolai Vasilyev, son of Ulyanin... Nizhny Novgorod province, Sergach district, village of Androsov, landowner Stepan Mikhailovich Brekhov, peasant. He left in 1791." It is not known for sure whether he was a runaway or released on quitrent and redeemed, but in 1799 in Astrakhan Nikolai Vasilyevich was transferred to the category of state peasants, and in 1808 he was accepted into the petty bourgeois class, into the workshop of artisan tailors.

Having gotten rid of serfdom and become a free man, Nikolai Vasilyevich changed his surname Ulyanin to Ulyaninov, and then Ulyanov. Soon he married the daughter of the Astrakhan tradesman Alexei Lukyanovich Smirnov - Anna, who was born in 1788 and was younger than husband for 18 years.

Based on some archival documents, the writer Marietta Shaginyan put forward a version according to which Anna Alekseevna is not Smirnov’s own daughter, but a baptized Kalmyk woman, rescued by him from slavery and allegedly adopted only in March 1825.

There is no indisputable evidence for this version, especially since already in 1812 she and Nikolai Ulyanov had a son, Alexander, who died four months old; in 1819, a son, Vasily, was born; in 1821, a daughter, Maria; in 1823 - Feodosiya and, finally, in July 1831, when the head of the family was already over 60, son Ilya - the father of the future leader of the world proletariat.

FATHER'S TEACHING CAREER

After the death of Nikolai Vasilyevich, concerns about the family and raising children fell on the shoulders of his eldest son, Vasily Nikolaevich. Working at that time as a clerk at the famous Astrakhan company "Brothers Sapozhnikov" and not having own family, he managed to provide wealth in the house and even gave his younger brother Ilya an education.

ILYA NIKOLAEVICH ULYANOV GRADUATED PHYSICS AND MATHEMATICS FACULTY OF KAZAN UNIVERSITY.
HE WAS SUGGESTED TO STAY AT THE DEPARTMENT TO “IMPROVE IN SCIENTIFIC WORK” – THIS WAS INSISTED BY THE FAMOUS MATHEMATICIST NIKOLAY IVANOVICH LOBACHEVSKY

In 1850, Ilya Nikolaevich graduated from the Astrakhan gymnasium with a silver medal and entered the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Kazan University, where he completed his studies in 1854, receiving the title of Candidate of Physical and Mathematical Sciences and the right to teach in secondary schools. educational institutions. And although he was invited to remain at the department for “improvement in scientific work” (the famous mathematician Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky insisted on this, by the way), Ilya Nikolaevich chose a career as a teacher.

Monument to Lobachevsky in Kazan. Beginning of the 20th century. Courtesy of M. Zolotarev

His first place of work - from May 7, 1855 - was the Noble Institute in Penza. In July 1860, Ivan Dmitrievich Veretennikov came here to the position of inspector of the institute. Ilya Nikolaevich became friends with him and his wife, and in the same year Anna Aleksandrovna Veretennikova (née Blank) introduced him to her sister Maria Alexandrovna Blank, who came to visit her for the winter. Ilya Nikolaevich began to help Maria prepare for the exam for the title of teacher, and she helped him with conversational English. The young people fell in love with each other, and in the spring of 1863 an engagement took place.

July 15 of the same year, after successful completion external exams at the Samara Men's Gymnasium, "the daughter of the court councilor, maiden Maria Blank" received the title of teacher primary classes“with the right to teach the Law of God, the Russian language, arithmetic, German and French" And in August they already had a wedding, and the “maiden Maria Blank” became the wife of the court councilor Ilya Nikolaevich Ulyanov - this rank was also granted to him in July 1863.

Panorama of Simbirsk from the Moscow highway. 1866–1867. Courtesy of M. Zolotarev

The genealogy of the Blank family began to be studied by Lenin’s sisters, Anna and Maria. Anna Ilyinichna said: “The elders could not find out this for us. The surname seemed to us to be of French origin, but there was no information about such an origin. I personally began to think about the possibility of Jewish origin quite a long time ago, which was prompted mainly by my mother’s message that my grandfather was born in Zhitomir, a famous Jewish center. Grandmother - mother's mother - was born in St. Petersburg and was of German origin from Riga. But while my mother and her sisters maintained contact with their maternal relatives for quite a long time, about her father’s relatives, A.D. Blank, no one heard. He looked like a cut piece, which also made me think about his Jewish origin. His daughters did not remember any of the grandfather’s stories about his childhood or youth.”

Anna Ilyinichna Ulyanova reported the results of the search, which confirmed her assumption, to Joseph Stalin in 1932 and 1934. “The fact of our origin, which I had assumed before,” she wrote, “was not known during his [Lenin’s] lifetime... I don’t know what motives we communists might have for silencing this fact.”

“To remain absolutely silent about him” was Stalin’s categorical answer. And Lenin’s second sister, Maria Ilyinichna, also believed that this fact “let it be known someday in a hundred years.”

Lenin's great-grandfather, Moshe Itskovich Blank, was apparently born in 1763. The first mention of him is contained in the revision of 1795, where among the townspeople of the city of Starokonstantinov, Volyn province, Moishka Blank is recorded under number 394. Where he came from in these places is unclear. However…
Some time ago, the famous bibliographer Maya Dvorkina introduced an interesting fact into scientific circulation. Somewhere in the mid-1920s, archivist Yulian Grigorievich Oksman, who was working on instructions from the director Lenin Library Vladimir Ivanovich Nevsky, while studying the genealogy of the leader of the world proletariat, discovered a petition from one of the Jewish communities of the Minsk province, allegedly relating to early XIX century, about the exemption from taxes of a certain boy, because he is “the illegitimate son of a major Minsk official,” and therefore, they say, the community should not pay for him. The boy's last name was Blank.

According to Oksman, Nevsky took him to Lev Kamenev, and then the three of them went to Nikolai Bukharin. Showing the document, Kamenev muttered: “I always thought so.” To which Bukharin replied: “What do you think – it doesn’t matter, but what are we going to do?” Oksman was made to promise that he would not tell anyone about the find. And since then no one has seen this document.

One way or another, Moshe Blank appeared in Starokonstantinov, already an adult, and in 1793 he married a local 29-year-old girl, Maryam (Marem) Froimovich. From subsequent audits it follows that he read both Hebrew and Russian, had his own house, was engaged in trade, and in addition, near the town of Rogachevo, he rented 5 morgues (about 3 hectares) of land, which were sown with chicory.

In 1794, his son Aba (Abel) was born, and in 1799, his son Srul (Israel). Moshe Itzkovich probably did not have a good relationship with the local Jewish community from the very beginning. He was “a man who did not want, or perhaps did not know how, to find a common language with his fellow tribesmen.” In other words, the community simply hated him. And after Blank’s house burned down in 1808 due to fire, and possibly arson, the family moved to Zhitomir.

LETTER TO THE EMPEROR

Many years later, in September 1846, Moshe Blank wrote a letter to Emperor Nicholas I, from which it is clear that already “40 years ago” he “renounced the Jews,” but because of his “overly pious wife,” who died in 1834 , converted to Christianity and received the name Dmitry only on January 1, 1835.

But the reason for the letter was something else: while maintaining hostility towards his fellow tribesmen, Dmitry (Moshe) Blank proposed - in order to assimilate the Jews - to prohibit them from wearing national clothes, and most importantly, oblige them to pray in synagogues for the Russian emperor and the imperial family.

It is curious that in October of that year the letter was reported to Nicholas I and he fully agreed with the proposals of the “baptized Jew Blanc”, as a result of which in 1850 Jews were banned from wearing national clothing, and in 1854 the corresponding text of the prayer was introduced. Researcher Mikhail Stein, who collected and carefully analyzed the most complete data on Blank’s genealogy, rightly noted that in terms of hostility towards his people, Moshe Itskovich “can be compared, perhaps, only with another baptized Jew - one of the founders and leaders of the Moscow Union of Russian People V.A. . Greenmouth"...

Alexander Dmitrievich Blank (1799–1870). Courtesy of M. Zolotarev

The fact that Blank decided to break with the Jewish community long before his baptism was also evidenced by other things. Both of his sons, Abel and Israel, like their father, also knew how to read Russian, and when a district (povet) school opened in Zhitomir in 1816, they were enrolled there and successfully graduated. From the point of view of Jewish believers, this was blasphemy. And yet, belonging to the Jewish religion doomed them to vegetate within the boundaries of the Pale of Settlement. And only an event that happened in the spring of 1820 radically changed the fate of young people...

In April, a “high rank” – the head of affairs of the so-called Jewish Committee, senator and poet Dmitry Osipovich Baranov – arrived in Zhitomir on a business trip. Somehow, Blank managed to meet him, and he asked the senator to assist his sons in entering the Medical-Surgical Academy in St. Petersburg. Baranov did not at all sympathize with Jews, but the rather rare conversion of two “lost souls” to Christianity at that time, in his opinion, was a good thing, and he agreed.

The brothers immediately went to the capital and submitted a petition addressed to Metropolitan Michael of Novgorod, St. Petersburg, Estonia and Finland. “Having now settled in St. Petersburg,” they wrote, “and having always been treated with Christians professing the Greek-Russian religion, we now wish to accept it.”

The petition was granted, and already on May 25, 1820, the priest of the Church of St. Sampson the Stranger in St. Petersburg, Fyodor Barsov, “enlightened both brothers with baptism.” Abel became Dmitry Dmitrievich, and Israel became Alexander Dmitrievich. Youngest son Moshe Blanka received a new name in honor of his successor (godfather), Count Alexander Ivanovich Apraksin, and a patronymic in honor of Abel’s successor, Senator Dmitry Osipovich Baranov. And on July 31 of the same year, at the direction of the Minister of Education, Prince Alexander Nikolaevich Golitsyn, the brothers were identified as “pupils of the Medical-Surgical Academy,” which they graduated in 1824, receiving the academic title of doctors of the 2nd department and a gift in the form of a pocket set of surgical tools.

MARRIAGE OF THE STAFF DOCTOR

Dmitry Blank remained in the capital as a police doctor, and Alexander in August 1824 began serving in the city of Porechye, Smolensk province, as a district doctor. True, already in October 1825 he returned to St. Petersburg and, like his brother, was enrolled as a doctor in the city police staff. In 1828 he was promoted to staff physician. It was time to think about marriage...

His godfather, Count Alexander Apraksin, was at that time an official of special assignments at the Ministry of Finance. So Alexander Dmitrievich, despite his origin, could well count on a decent match. Apparently, at another of his benefactors, Senator Dmitry Baranov, who was fond of poetry and chess, with whom Alexander Pushkin visited and almost the entire “enlightened Petersburg” gathered, the younger Blank met the Groshopf brothers and was received in their house.

Ilya Nikolaevich Ulyanov (1831–1886) and Maria Alexandrovna Ulyanova (1835–1916)

The head of this very respectable family, Ivan Fedorovich (Johann Gottlieb) Groshopf, was from the Baltic Germans, was a consul of the State College of Justice for Livonian, Estonian and Finnish affairs and rose to the rank of provincial secretary. His wife Anna Karlovna, née Östedt, was Swedish and Lutheran. There were eight children in the family: three sons - Johann, who served in the Russian army, Karl, vice-director in the department foreign trade Ministry of Finance, and Gustav, who was in charge of the Riga customs, and five daughters - Alexandra, Anna, Ekaterina (married von Essen), Caroline (married Bouberg) and the youngest Amalia. Having met this family, the staff doctor proposed to Anna Ivanovna.

MASHENKA FORM

Things went well for Alexander Dmitrievich at first. As a police doctor, he received 1 thousand rubles a year. He has received thanks more than once for his “quickness and diligence.”

But in June 1831, during the cholera riots in the capital, his brother Dmitry, who was on duty at the central cholera hospital, was brutally killed by a rioting crowd. This death shocked Alexander Blank so much that he resigned from the police and did not work for more than a year. Only in April 1833 did he re-enter service - as a resident at the City Hospital of St. Mary Magdalene for the poor from the districts beyond the river in St. Petersburg. By the way, it was here that Taras Shevchenko was treated by him in 1838. At the same time (from May 1833 to April 1837) Blank worked in the Maritime Department. In 1837, after passing the exams, he was recognized as an inspector of the medical board, and in 1838 - a medical surgeon.

IN 1874, ILYA NIKOLAEVICH ULYANOV RECEIVED THE POST OF DIRECTOR OF PEOPLE'S SCHOOL OF THE SIMBIRSK PROVINCE.
AND IN 1877, HE WAS AWARDED THE RANK OF ACTIVE STATE COUNSELOR, EQUALIZED IN THE TABLE OF RANKS TO THE RANK OF GENERAL AND GIVING THE RIGHT TO A HEREDITARY NOBILITY

Alexander Dmitrievich’s private practice also expanded. Among his patients were representatives high nobility. This allowed him to move to a decent apartment in the outbuilding of one of the luxury mansions on the Promenade des Anglais, which belonged to the Emperor’s life physician and the President of the Medical-Surgical Academy, Baronet Yakov Vasilyevich Willie. Here in 1835 Maria Blank was born. Mashenka’s godfather was their neighbor, formerly the adjutant of Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich, and since 1833, the horsemaster of the Imperial Court, Ivan Dmitrievich Chertkov.

In 1840, Anna Ivanovna became seriously ill, died and was buried in St. Petersburg at the Smolensk Evangelical Cemetery. Then her sister Catherine von Essen, who was widowed that same year, took full care of the children. Alexander Dmitrievich, apparently, had sympathized with her before. It is no coincidence that he named his daughter, born in 1833, Ekaterina. After the death of Anna Ivanovna, they become even closer, and in April 1841, Blank decides to enter into a legal marriage with Ekaterina Ivanovna. However, the law did not allow such marriages - with the daughters' godmother and the deceased wife's own sister. And Catherine von Essen becomes his common-law wife.

In the same April, they all left the capital and moved to Perm, where Alexander Dmitrievich received the position of inspector of the Perm Medical Council and doctor of the Perm Gymnasium. Thanks to the latter circumstance, Blank met the Latin teacher Ivan Dmitrievich Veretennikov, who became the husband of his eldest daughter Anna in 1850, and the mathematics teacher Andrei Aleksandrovich Zalezhsky, who married another daughter, Ekaterina.

Alexander Blank entered the history of Russian medicine as one of the pioneers of balneology - treatment with mineral waters. Having retired at the end of 1847 from the post of doctor at the Zlatoust arms factory, he left for the Kazan province, where in 1848 the Kokushkino estate with 462 acres (503.6 hectares) of land, a water mill and 39 serfs was purchased in Laishevsky district. On August 4, 1859, the Senate confirmed Alexander Dmitrievich Blank and his children in the hereditary nobility, and they were entered in the book of the Kazan Noble Deputy Assembly.

THE ULYANOV FAMILY

This is how Maria Alexandrovna Blank ended up in Kazan, and then in Penza, where she met Ilya Nikolaevich Ulyanov...

Their wedding on August 25, 1863, like the weddings of the other Blank sisters before that, took place in Kokushkino. On September 22, the newlyweds left for Nizhny Novgorod, where Ilya Nikolaevich was appointed to the position of senior teacher of mathematics and physics at a men's gymnasium. On August 14, 1864, daughter Anna was born. A year and a half later - on March 31, 1866 - son Alexander... But soon there was a sad loss: daughter Olga, who was born in 1868, did not live even a year, fell ill and died on July 18 in the same Kokushkino...

On September 6, 1869, Ilya Nikolaevich was appointed inspector of public schools in the Simbirsk province. The family moved to Simbirsk (now Ulyanovsk), which at that time was a quiet provincial town with just over 40 thousand inhabitants, of whom 57.5% were listed as bourgeois, 17% as military, 11% as peasants, 8.8% as nobles, 3.2% - merchants and honorary citizens, and 1.8% - people of clergy, persons of other classes and foreigners. Accordingly, the city was divided into three parts: noble, commercial and bourgeois. In the nobility's house there were kerosene lanterns and plank sidewalks, and in the bourgeois' house all sorts of livestock were kept in the courtyards, and these animals, contrary to prohibitions, walked the streets.
Here the Ulyanovs had a son, Vladimir, born on April 10 (22), 1870. On April 16, priest Vasily Umov and sexton Vladimir Znamensky baptized the newborn. The godfather was the manager of the specific office in Simbirsk, the actual state councilor Arseny Fedorovich Belokrysenko, and the godfather was the mother of Ilya Nikolaevich’s colleague, collegiate assessor Natalia Ivanovna Aunovskaya.

Ilya Nikolaevich Ulyanov (sitting third from the right) among the teachers of the Simbirsk men's classical gymnasium. 1874 Courtesy of M. Zolotarev

The family continued to grow. On November 4, 1871, the fourth child was born - daughter Olga. Son Nikolai died without living even a month, and on August 4, 1874, son Dmitry was born, and daughter Maria was born on February 6, 1878. Six children.
On July 11, 1874, Ilya Nikolaevich received the position of director of public schools in the Simbirsk province. And in December 1877, he was awarded the rank of actual state councilor, equal in the table of ranks to the rank of general and giving the right to hereditary nobility.

The salary increase made it possible to realize a long-time dream. Having changed six rented apartments since 1870 and having saved the necessary funds, on August 2, 1878, the Ulyanovs finally bought their own house on Moskovskaya Street for 4 thousand silver - from the widow of the titular councilor Ekaterina Petrovna Molchanova. It was made of wood, one storey on the façade and with mezzanines under the roof on the courtyard side. And behind the yard, overgrown with grass and chamomile, lies a beautiful garden with silver poplars, thick elms, yellow acacia and lilacs along the fence...
Ilya Nikolaevich died in Simbirsk in January 1886, Maria Alexandrovna died in Petrograd in July 1916, outliving her husband by 30 years.

WHERE DID “LENIN” COME FROM?

The question of how and where Vladimir Ulyanov got the pseudonym Nikolai Lenin in the spring of 1901 has always aroused the interest of researchers; there have been many versions. Among them are toponymic: both the Lena River (analogy: Plekhanov - Volgin) and the village of Lenin near Berlin appear. During the formation of “Leninoism” as a profession, they were looking for “amorous” sources. This is how the statement was born that the Kazan beauty Elena Lenina was allegedly to blame for everything, in another version - a chorus girl Mariinsky Theater Elena Zaretskaya, etc. But none of these versions stood up to any serious scrutiny.

However, back in the 1950s and 1960s, the Central Party Archive received letters from relatives of a certain Nikolai Yegorovich Lenin, which outlined a fairly convincing everyday story. Deputy head of the archive Rostislav Aleksandrovich Lavrov forwarded these letters to the CPSU Central Committee, and, naturally, they did not become available to a wide range of researchers.

Meanwhile, the Lenin family dates back to the Cossack Posnik, who in the 17th century, for his services associated with the conquest of Siberia and the creation of winter quarters on the Lena River, was granted nobility, the surname Lenin and an estate in the Vologda province. His numerous descendants distinguished themselves more than once in both military and official service. One of them - Nikolai Yegorovich Lenin - fell ill and retired, having risen to the rank of state councilor, in the 80s XIX century and settled in the Yaroslavl province.

Volodya Ulyanov with his sister Olga. Simbirsk 1874 Courtesy of M. Zolotarev

His daughter Olga Nikolaevna, having graduated from the Faculty of History and Philology of the Bestuzhev Courses in 1883, went to work at the Smolensk Evening School working school in St. Petersburg, where she met Nadezhda Krupskaya. And when there was a fear that the authorities might refuse to issue Vladimir Ulyanov a foreign passport, and friends began to look for smuggling options for crossing the border, Krupskaya turned to Lenina for help. Olga Nikolaevna then conveyed this request to her brother, a prominent official of the Ministry of Agriculture, agronomist Sergei Nikolaevich Lenin. In addition, a similar request apparently came to him from his friend, statistician Alexander Dmitrievich Tsyurupa, who in 1900 met the future leader of the proletariat.

Sergei Nikolaevich himself knew Vladimir Ilyich - from meetings in the Free Economic Society in 1895, as well as from his works. In turn, Ulyanov knew Lenin: for example, he refers three times to his articles in the monograph “The Development of Capitalism in Russia.” After consulting, the brother and sister decided to give Ulyanov the passport of their father, Nikolai Yegorovich, who by that time was already very ill (he died on April 6, 1902).

According to family legend, in 1900 Sergei Nikolaevich went to Pskov on official business. There, on behalf of the Ministry of Agriculture, he received Sack plows and other agricultural machines arriving in Russia from Germany. In one of the Pskov hotels, Lenin handed over his father’s passport with the altered date of birth to Vladimir Ilyich, who was then living in Pskov. This is probably how the origin of Ulyanov’s main pseudonym, N. Lenin, is explained.