Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Lenin) was born on April 10 (22), 1870 in Simbirsk, a small town on the Volga. His father, Ilya Nikolaevich Ulyanov, was an inspector, and later a trustee of public schools in the province. He adhered to liberal-conservative views. For his services he received the rank of real state councilor (1874) and the title of hereditary nobleman.
In 1863, as a teacher of mathematics and physics at the Penza gymnasium,
In the handwritten memoirs of his older sister Anna, it is said that Volodya was short in childhood, he had weak legs and a huge head, as a result of which he often fell. Volodya learned to walk only at the age of three. Falling down again, he hit his head on the floor in frustration. Parents feared that the child might be mentally retarded. Fortunately, they were wrong.
At the same time, he could be frisky, a little mischievous. Volodya was distinguished by his desire to destroy, which upset his intelligent relatives. At the age of three, he trampled on his brother's theater poster collection. Later, the older brother Alexander will become an example for Volodya. Alexander entered St. Petersburg University, where he became interested in revolutionary ideas. Ulyanov joined the group preparing an assassination attempt on Tsar Alexander III. But the plot was exposed. The mother's efforts to save her son - his father died a year earlier - were in vain: Alexander took the blame on himself and on May 8, 1887, along with four of his comrades, was hanged.
The death of his father, the death of his brother... Volodya experienced a strong psychological shock. He lost faith not only in the state, but also in God. In addition, many of those who were previously considered friends turned their backs on the Ulyanov family. Understanding was shown only by the director of the gymnasium, Vladimir Kerensky, who was also Volodya's guardian. He recommended that the young man, who graduated from the gymnasium with a gold medal, enter the law faculty not in St. Petersburg, but in Kazan.
Ulyanov followed this advice. But already in December he was expelled from the university for participating in the democratic movement of students. The official legend claims that when asked: why are you rebelling, young man, because in front of you stone wall, - he answered: yes, the wall, but rotten, push with your foot, and it will fall.
Vladimir with his mother, brothers and sisters left for Kukushkino, the estate of his grandfather, located 45 kilometers from Kazan. Vladimir Ulyanov spent the period from December 1887 to November 1888 here. He read a lot. He was fond of the revolutionary radicalism of Chernyshevsky. Later he turned to the works of K. Marx, whose "Capital", along with the works of Plekhanov, thoroughly worked. Beginning in January 1889, he, by his own testimony, became a supporter of Marxism.
Beginning of revolutionary activity.
In 1890, Vladimir Ulyanov received permission to take external examinations for the full course of the Faculty of Law at St. Petersburg University, where his older brother Alexander had studied. AT next year he passed the exam for the title of candidate and was admitted to work as a lawyer in the Samara court.
In 1892-1893 Ulyanov worked as an assistant to a barrister in Samara. At the end of 1893 he decided to go to St. Petersburg. Fascinated by the ideas of Marxism, extremely popular among the intelligentsia, Ulyanov conducts educational work among the people - he leads workers' circles.
In 1894-1895, he wrote the first major works - "What are" friends of the people "and how they fight against the Social Democrats", " Economic content populism and criticism of it in the book of Mr. Struve", in which he applies Marxism to the analysis of contemporary Russian reality.
Here, for the first time, the basic principle of Lenin's political polemics manifested itself. Throughout his life, he was never satisfied with a statement on the subject of discussion, and in the course of criticism he quickly turned to personal insults, achieving the complete moral destruction of his opponent.
In 1894, at a carnival party, "where the Marxists ate pancakes, talking about the future of Russia," Ulyanov met a student Nadezhda Krupskaya, who fully shared his views and beliefs. Four years later, after short and not too romantic encounters, she became his wife.
In April 1895, Ulyanov went abroad to establish ties with the Emancipation of Labor group, created in Geneva by Russian Social Democrats headed by G.V. Plekhanov.
After Ulyanov returned to Russia, delivering illegal literature in a suitcase with a double bottom, the tsarist police kept a vigilant eye on him. Despite this, he managed to establish contacts in Vilna, St. Petersburg and Moscow with the Geneva group "Emancipation of Labor" and to establish a regular flow of correspondence to Switzerland.
In September 1895, a talented lawyer became one of the organizers of the "Union of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class" - the prototype of the future Communist Party. In December, the publication of the long-planned newspaper "Delo Rabochy" was prepared; the Narodniks' secret printing house was ready to start typesetting. Ulyanov was already correcting proof prints of the first issue when the police swooped down on the night of December 20th. Almost all members of the St. Petersburg Union of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class were arrested. Among them are Ulyanov and Nadezhda Krupskaya. For anti-government activities, Lenin was exiled to Siberia. Three years of stay in Shushenskoye turned out to be very fruitful. V. Ulyanov managed to write more than 30 works devoted to the analysis of the socio-economic and political situation in Russia, developed a plan for further revolutionary struggle.
In 1898 Lenin, Plekhanov and other Marxists organized the Russian Social Democratic Party (RSDLP) to coordinate revolutionary activity. In 1901-1902, the populists created a rival party of socialist revolutionaries (SRs). Both parties became part of the International Federation, known as the Socialist, or Second International. Lenin intended to launch a polemic against the Socialist-Revolutionaries, but soon he had serious disagreements with members of the RSDLP. In the pages of the newspaper Iskra, Lenin, Plekhanov and Yuli Martov criticized the so-called economists, who argued that only the economic demands of the workers were worthy of attention, while the political struggle was not their business. Lenin and other "Iskra" advocated the creation of a centralized party, which was supposed to mobilize the proletariat for a more active economic and political struggle against all forms of oppression and the overthrow of tsarism. Lenin popularized this kind of ideas in What Is To Be Done? (1902).
When the term of exile ended, Ulyanov, despite the fact that he was forbidden to stay in St. Petersburg, went there with Martov. The arrest followed immediately. However, he was released after a few weeks. At the very least, the history of Russian social democracy would have taken a different path if Lenin had been exiled again at that moment. On July 29, 1900, he crossed the Austrian border and headed for Switzerland.
Life and work of Lenin in exile until 1905.
In Geneva, Ulyanov began publishing the first all-Russian Marxist newspaper Iskra, which was smuggled into Russia. The first issue of Iskra was published in Leipzig on December 21, 1900. The words of Pushkin became the motto of the newspaper; dedicated to the Decembrists: "A spark will ignite a flame." Copies, printed on thin paper, were prepared for shipment in the vaults of Vorwerts in Berlin and smuggled across the border. In Russia, the newspaper was "scattered" by propagandists everywhere: in the streets and at enterprises, in barracks and theaters, at post offices, etc.
In January 1901, Ulyanov first signed one of his letters to Plekhanov with the pseudonym Lenin. The initial "H" used for disguise later gave way to the letters "V. I." corresponding to reality.
Feeling the organizational weakness of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (RSDLP), founded in 1898, Lenin proposed a plan for its reorganization on the basis of rigid centralism and the subordination of the minority to the majority. I! The congress of the RSDLP (1903) in London adopted a new party charter and program. At the congress there was a significant split into Bolsheviks, supporters of radical changes in society, and Mensheviks, who occupied moderate-liberal positions. The reasons for this split and the further tasks of the Bolsheviks were analyzed by Lenin in his work "One Step Forward - Two Steps Back" (1904). The Bolsheviks, under the leadership of Lenin, insisted on the strictest party discipline, the Mensheviks, supported by Martov and Plekhanov, advocated a broader coalition. In addition, the Mensheviks advocated an alliance between the workers and the big bourgeoisie with the aim of overthrowing tsarism, while Lenin (for example, in 1905 in the polemical work Two Tactics of Social Democracy in a Democratic Revolution) argued that for the success of a truly democratic revolution in Russia needs an alliance of workers and peasants and the creation in the future of a "democratic dictatorship of the proletariat and peasantry."
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In his work One Step Forward, Two Steps Back, Lenin finally dwells on the centralist principle of constructing the party hierarchy. "Democracy leads to anarchy," declares Lenin, "and thereby denies the working masses the right to take part in the solution of political questions. A Social Democrat must be a Jacobin; without purge and violence there can be no revolution and no proletarian dictatorship."
When word reached Geneva of the massacre of workers in " Bloody Sunday", which took place in January 1905 in St. Petersburg, the Russian emigrants were very excited.
The III Congress of the Bolshevik Party in London, held in the spring of 1905 - the Mensheviks simultaneously held a congress in Geneva - decided that the uprising was "one of the most urgent tasks of the party", and instructed the local party organizations to immediately begin agitation for the uprising, arm the workers and form combat groups. Lenin independently worked out the tactics of these combat groups, built to a certain extent on partisan methods with the use of merciless violence. Reading the works of Engels, who was considered the military expert of Marxism, bore fruit. His principle: insurrection, like war, is an art and is subject to certain rules, became decisive for Lenin.
When should the uprising start? Lenin was of the opinion that we should wait for the return of troops from the theater Russo-Japanese War, as well as the growth of peasant unrest and strike in the spring of 1906. However, according to Krupskaya, he was forced to admit that the movement was largely spontaneous and "there is no need for us anyway." Nevertheless, the rise of a wave of strikes in September 1905 convinced Lenin of the need to return to Russia.
Lenin directed the Bolsheviks towards an armed uprising against tsarism, towards the establishment of a democratic republic. He theoretically substantiated the possibility of the bourgeois-democratic revolution growing into a socialist one: "... We will immediately begin to move from the democratic revolution ... to the socialist revolution. We stand for continuous revolution. We will not stop halfway."
Lenin during the revolution of 1905-1907. in Russia.
In November 1905, Lenin illegally returned to Russia and led the revolutionary struggle. Lenin at first opposed the participation of the Bolsheviks in the work of the Duma, but in 1906 he changed his position. He also supported the work in the Soviets of Workers' Deputies, who led the revolutionary activities. Lenin actively supported the open (legal) activities of the RSDLP, especially its Bolshevik wing, during the massive influx of workers into the party. During this period, the gap between the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks narrowed, and the number of members of the RSDLP increased. The left Menshevik Leon Trotsky headed the Petersburg Soviet, advocating (in the articles of 1904-1906) the idea of "permanent revolution" - the concept according to which the democratic revolution should "grow" into a socialist one, and the Russian revolution should awaken the revolutionary activity of the proletariat in the developed industrial countries. In the spring of 1906, due to the increased danger of a new arrest, he was forced to move to Finland, and in December 1907 he moved to Stockholm. When the government arrested the executive committee of the St. Petersburg Soviet, including Trotsky, the revolutionary situation in Moscow, where the Bolsheviks had strong positions in the working environment, escalated. The call for a new general strike found a warm response among the working people. Without any clear plan, barricades were erected. On December 9, street fighting began. After a week of fierce battles, the Moscow uprising was defeated. Contrary to Lenin's assumption, the troops, especially those recently brought up from Petersburg, showed loyalty to the government.
Lenin regarded the revolution of 1905-1907 as a dress rehearsal for the imminent inevitable victory of the revolution. In one of his works, he described the "lessons of the Moscow uprising", which boiled down to the need to manage the uprising even more skillfully and in the future to strike even more decisively.
In 1906-1907, the recession of the revolution was marked. The revolutionaries were forced to go underground or emigrate, and many left-wing intellectuals found themselves demoralized. Relations between the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks also escalated. Lenin came into conflict even with a group of Bolsheviks headed by A.A. Bogdanov, who avoided work in trade unions and other "accommodative" activities, and also questioned the expediency of Bolshevik participation in elections and representation in the Duma. Lenin insisted that the work in the Duma would give the revolutionaries a powerful means of legal agitation and political education, and that the struggle for reforms would increase the experience and political consciousness of the working class. In Materialism and Empirio-Criticism (1909), he argued for the existence of a serious revision of Marxism undertaken by Bogdanov and other theorists of the Social Democratic Party. At the same time, Lenin launched a struggle against the "liquidators" - the Menshevik trend, which sought to replace all forms of revolutionary underground work with legal reformist activity. Lenin sharply criticized "conciliators" like Trotsky, who tried to preserve the unity of the RSDLP and prevent a split in the party.
Lenin in the years of a new revolutionary upsurge.
Lenin did not stay in Sweden. He again settled in Geneva and for two years published the journal Proletary here.
After the defeat of the revolution, Lenin tried to save the party and the emerging internal crisis. In January 1912, at a conference of the RSDLP held in Prague, he was elected a member of the Central Committee. Relations with the Mensheviks became increasingly tense. At the Prague conference there was a final break between the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks, the latter were expelled from the party. From that moment on, two separate parties opposed each other; only in the Duma cooperation was still carried out within the framework of the united socialist faction. In 1912, Lenin and like-minded people organized a separate party - the Bolsheviks. Its members had not only an agreed strategy of action, but also a clear political program: 8-hour working day; land reform, democratic constituent assembly. These three demands reinforced calls for a stronger alliance between workers and peasants. The Bolsheviks had a powerful and disciplined organizational structure, which combined a policy of supporting reforms with underground revolutionary work.
Lenin moved closer to Russia, to Krakow, on the territory of Poland, which at that time belonged to Austria. He was followed by Zinoviev and Kamenev, for some time they lived in the same apartment. Party meetings often took place in Krakow, to which emissaries came from all over Russia. In December 1912, it was decided to form secret committees at the factories and organize street demonstrations in preparation for strikes. In that period, starting in the spring of 1912, there was a powerful increase in the strike movement, which was given impetus by a strike in the Lena gold mines, where 250 people were killed in a clash with troops. This bloodshed caused a violent reaction public opinion. Protest strikes took place in many cities of the European part of Russia, in which almost half a million workers took part.
The strike movement no longer weakened, and in August 1914, shortly before the outbreak of war, the number of its participants reached one and a half million. At a meeting of the Bolshevik Central Committee in Zakopane in August 1913, Lenin achieved a final break with the Mensheviks within the Duma faction, so that there were now seven Mensheviks opposed to six Bolsheviks.
World War I.
In 1912-1914, the Bolshevik-Leninists took a leading position in Russian revolutionary movement. However, soon their influence was seriously undermined. The authorities used the military upsurge in connection with the outbreak of the First World War as a pretext to persecute all dissidents. In addition, in the socialist movement not only in Russia, but also in all the countries involved in the conflict, there was a split into "patriotic" and "anti-war" factions.
At the beginning of World War I, Lenin
Lenin believed that war should be welcomed because it was a bridge to revolution and should turn into civil war. Revolutionary cells will be formed in the trenches. He already then declared that Russia should cede the non-Russian western provinces, since the Great Russians had oppressed other peoples for a long time.
His statement was published in the press, containing a radical formulation: we Marxist revolutionaries do not care who wins the war, but the defeat of the tsarist government would be desirable, because it is the most barbaric and backward of all imperialist governments. He demanded that the deputies of the Duma in Petrograd sign a statement stating that the workers of Russia expected the defeat of tsarism. Among the social revolutionaries and Mensheviks there was a split into patriots and internationalists.
During the war, two international socialist conferences were held in Switzerland. In September 1915, in Zimmerwald, Lenin put forward a proposal to create a new International and address all the workers and soldiers of the belligerent countries with a manifesto. The most serious opponent of Lenin was the German socialist K. Kautsky, who, however, was not personally present; he was an opponent of the war, and also denied its transition to a civil war. Kautsky's position met with the approval of the majority. In the end, on the basis of a compromise proposal, a joint resolution was adopted uniting the proletariat of Europe under the slogans of peace without annexations and indemnities and self-determination of peoples. As a result, the socialists, who were opposed to the war, united in the so-called Zimmerwald Union.
Over time, Lenin had financial difficulties. Publicistic income has never been significant; funds previously received from Russia, including donations from wealthy people, dried up. In 1921, on the pages of the Vperyod newspaper, Eduard Bernstein claimed that by the end of the war Lenin had received more than 50 million gold marks from the German state treasury for disorganizing agitation in Russia. The study of the documents of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs provides irrefutable evidence that, at the beginning of the war, the German government established contact with the Russian revolutionaries who were in Switzerland, got acquainted in general terms with Lenin's program, and transferred significant funds through intermediaries. Lenin accepted money for the fight against the hated tsarism or the Provisional Government from any source.
In February 1916, Lenin moved from Bern to Zurich, where he studied the philosophical works of Aristotle, Leibniz, Feuerbach, and Hegel.
At the second socialist conference in Kinzhal in April 1916, "Zimmerwalder Linke" achieved the adoption of a resolution condemning the Second International and its bureau. Lenin, in his characteristic manner, enthusiastically spoke out against pacifism: "Wars will be eliminated only after the victory of socialism throughout the world." Then he took on the next great job, which belongs to the most significant works that came out from under his pen: "Imperialism as the highest stage of capitalism." Lenin concludes that it is not necessary that the proletarian revolution first take place, as Marx and Engels believed, in the industrialized countries; it can also win in backward countries, such as Russia, if only the proletariat attains the necessary political maturity.
By that time, he had established contacts with those non-Bolshevik revolutionaries, especially with Rosa Luxemburg and Leon Trotsky, whose political views were close to his. Rejecting calls for an immediate peace and defending the idea of a "socialist United States of Europe", he advanced the extreme slogan: "Turn the imperialist war into a civil one." This slogan, although it was perceived only by the closest associates, in particular G.E. Zinoviev, was very important for Lenin: his nomination made it impossible for any compromise with the "centrist" Social Democrats, who by 1916 had refused to support the war, but did not could openly break with the militaristic majority of their parties.
February Revolution in Russia.
In Russia, exhausted and embittered by military failures, revolutionary radicalism was once again growing. In February 1917, in Petrograd (as St. Petersburg had been called since 1914), spontaneous unrest grew into a victorious revolution, during which the army opposed the tsarist government. A "dual power" arose: power belonged, on the one hand, to the Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, and on the other, to the Provisional Government, created by politicians who were members of the Duma. Many Social Revolutionaries, Mensheviks and even Bolsheviks supported the Provisional Government.
Having learned from Swiss newspapers about the victory of the February Revolution of 1917, Lenin immediately set about developing the strategy and tactics of the Bolsheviks. One question was put on the agenda - the development of the bourgeois-democratic revolution into a socialist revolution.
Immediately after the overthrow of the tsarist regime, Lenin actively sought ways to return to Russia. He did not receive permission to travel through the UK and France. At the same time, the German government allowed Lenin and other Russian emigrants to return to their homeland through Germany in the hope of neutralizing hostilities on the eastern front. March 27, 1917 Lenin left Switzerland for Russia.
And finally, the hour of arrival at the Finland Station, Petrograd, came, where a crowd numbering in the thousands was waiting for him. It was April 3 (16), 1917. Lenin spent 10 years away from Russia. The leader was carried on his shoulders to the station building, where the Menshevik Chkheidze, on behalf of the Petrograd Soviet, congratulated him on his arrival. On the night of April 3-4, at a meeting of the Bolsheviks in the luxurious mansion of the ballerina M.F. Kshesinskaya, he delivered the famous April theses, which determined the priority political tasks. Slogans were put forward: "No support for the Provisional Government!", "All power to the Soviets!". The theses approved by the All-Russian Conference of the RSDLP formed the basis of the party's current policy. Lenin, with stunning force and frankness, revealed his far-reaching plans. Trotsky later recalled: “Even the people closest to Lenin were seized by a feeling similar to fright. All the established formulas, which a month before had been incessantly repeated and already seemed indestructible, were shattered by him one after another before our eyes.” A few days later, Lenin published his April Theses. They represented his program of action and left no doubt either in the desire to break with bourgeois democracy and the Provisional Government, or in the commitment to the new non-parliamentary system of soviets. "If the majority in the council can be won over to the side of this system, then there will be no need for a decisive showdown with the use of violence. Otherwise, civil war is inevitable." This thesis of Lenin caused a sharp rejection not only of other parties, but also among his comrades.
In July 1917, after mass demonstrations under the slogans: "Down with the Provisional Government!", "All power to the Soviets!", Lenin was accused of organizing riots against the legitimate government and of spying for Germany. In order to save the leader, the Central Committee decided to transfer Lenin to an illegal position. On July 7, 1917, the leader of the proletariat left Petrograd, during the day he hid in a hut at Razliv station, and then was transferred to Finland.
While in hiding, Lenin wrote a number of major works, among which stands out the work "State and Revolution". If in April 1917 he was completely sincerely convinced that the transfer of power to the Soviets was possible by peaceful means, now, based on the current political situation in Russia, he called on the party to start preparing an open armed uprising.
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin - famous Russian revolutionary, Soviet politician and statesman, founder Soviet Union, organizer of the CPSU. He has been involved in many areas. He is considered the most legendary leader and politician in history. Moreover, Lenin organized the first socialist state. This communist figure was interested in the policies of Mark Engels, and soon continued his work. Vladimir Ilyich changed the fate not only of the Soviet state, but of the whole world. Lenin is the founder of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party. The main task of this statesman was to create a party of the working class. Such an innovation was supposed to positively affect the fate of the state in the future, according to Lenin.
Portrait of Vladimir Lenin
Biography of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin
This person is considered the most important organizer and leader of the October Revolution of 1917 in Russia. In addition, Vladimir Ilyich - First Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars.
Despite the huge period of time that has passed since the reign of the legendary personality, historians are paying more and more attention to the study of his policies, methods of activity and life of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. He actively developed his policy at the beginning of the twentieth century. However, his form of government was not to everyone's liking. Someone condemned the politician, someone - admired. Despite everything, he still remains one of the most significant personalities in the field of politics.
Lenin was an ardent Marxist and always clearly defended his opinion. He is considered the founder of Marxism-Leninism. Vladimir Ilyich - the ideologist and creator of the Third Communist International. The state representative was also involved in the field of political and journalistic work. His works belong to different nature. For example, materialistic philosophy, the theory of Marxism, the construction of socialism and communism, and many others.
Vladimir Lenin and his sister Maria
Millions consider Vladimir Ilyich Lenin one of the most famous representatives of politics in the whole world. world history. This is due to the methods of his government and the nature of his activities. The staff of the popular Time magazine added Lenin to the top 100 revolutionary figures of the twentieth century. This Russian leader was included in the category "Leaders and Revolutionaries". It is also known that the works of Vladimir Ilyich annually lead the lists of translated literature. Printed works rank third in the world after the Bible and Mao Zedong.
Childhood and youth of Vladimir Ulyanov
The real name of the great Russian leader is Ulyanov. Vladimir Ilyich was born in 1870 in Ulyanovsk (today's Simbirsk) in the family of an inspector of public schools in the Simbirsk province. Vladimir's father Ilya Nikolaevich Ulyanov was a state councillor. Previously, he taught at secondary schools in Penza and Nizhny Novgorod.
Vladimir Lenin in childhood
Mother of Vladimir Ulyanov Maria Alexandrovna, had a Swedish and German adventure through her mother and a European one through her father. Maria Ulyanova passed the external exams for the position of a teacher. However, she later ended her career and devoted everything free time raising their children and housekeeping. In addition to Vladimir, the family had older children - son Alexander and daughter Anna. A few more children appeared in the family - Maria and Dmitry.
As a child, young Ulyanov received Orthodox baptism and was a member of the Simbirsk religious Society of St. Sergius of Radonezh. During the school period, the boy received high marks according to the law of God.
Little Vladimir was very developed child. At the age of five, he already knew how to read and write perfectly. Soon he entered the Simbirsk gymnasium. There he was attentive, diligent and spent a lot of time learning process. For hard work and efforts, he constantly received commendable letters and other awards. Some teachers often referred to him as a "walking encyclopedia".
Vladimir Lenin in his youth
Vladimir Ulyanov was very different from other students in the level of his development. All classmates respected him and treated him like an authoritative friend. AT school years the future leader read a lot of advanced Russian literature, which soon influenced the boy's worldview. He preferred the works of V. G. Belinsky, A. I. Herzen, N. A. Dobrolyubov, D. I. Pisarev, and especially N. G. Chernyshevsky and others. In 1880, the schoolboy received a book with gold embossing on the cover: "For good manners and successes" and a commendation sheet.
In 1887 graduated from the Simbirsk gymnasium with a gold medal, in total his grades were high level. Then he entered the Faculty of Law of Kazan University. The leaders of the gymnasium, F. Kerensky, were extremely surprised and disappointed by the choice of Vladimir Ulyanov. He advised him to continue his studies at the Faculty of History and Literature. Kerensky argued this decision by the fact that his student was really successful in the field of Latin and literature.
In 1887, a terrible incident occurred in the Ulyanov family - Vladimir's older brother Alexander was executed for organizing an assassination attempt on the tsar Alexander III. From that moment Ulyanov's revolutionary activity began to develop. He started attending an illegal student circle "People's Will" headed by Lazar Bogoraz. In this regard, he was expelled from the university already in the first year. Ulyanov and several dozen other students were arrested and sent to the police station. The situation with his brother affected his outlook. Vladimir Ulyanov seriously protested against national oppression and tsarist policies. It was during that period that the guy began his revolutionary activities against capitalism.
Vladimir Lenin in his youth
After being expelled from Kazan University, he moved to a small village called Kukushkino, located in the Kazan province. There he lived for two years in the house of the Ardashevs. In connection with all the events, Vladimir Ulyanov was included in the list of suspicious individuals who must be carefully monitored. Moreover, the future leader was forbidden to restore education at the university.
Soon Vladimir Ilyich became a member of various Marxist organizations that Fedoseev created. Members of these groups studied the writings Karl Marx and Engels. In 1889, Vladimir's mother, Maria Ulyanova, acquired a huge plot of more than a hundred hectares in the Samara province. The whole family moved into this mansion. The mother persistently asked her son to manage such big house however, this process was not successful.
Local peasants robbed the Ulyanovs and stole a horse and two cows from them. Further, Ulyanova could not stand it and decided to sell both the land and the house. Today, the house-museum of Vladimir Lenin is located in this village.
Lenin Abroad
In 1889 the Lenin family changed their place of residence. They moved to Samara. There, Vladimir's connections with the revolutionaries resumed again. However, after a while, the authorities changed their mind and allowed the previously arrested Vladimir to start preparing for the exams to study jurisprudence. In the process of studying, he actively studied economic textbooks, as well as Zemstvo statistical reports.
Participation of Vladimir Lenin in revolutionary activities
In 1891 Vladimir Lenin externally entered St. Petersburg University at the Faculty of Law. There he worked as an assistant to a sworn advocate from Samara and defended prisoners. In 1893 he moved to St. Petersburg and devoted much of his time to writing works related to Marxist political economy. In the same period of time, he created the program of the Social Democratic Party. Among the popular and surviving works of Lenin are "New economic movements in peasant life."
Vladimir Lenin with newspaper
In 1895 Lenin went abroad and visited several countries at once. Among them are Switzerland, Germany and France. There Vladimir Ilyin met famous personalities like, Georgy Plekhanov, Wilhelm Liebknecht and Paul Lafargue. Later, the revolutionary leader returned to his homeland and began to develop various innovations. First of all, he united all Marxist circles in the "Union of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class". Lenin began to actively spread the idea of fighting the autocracy.
For such actions, Lenin and his allies were again arrested. They were in custody for a year. Further, the prisoners were sent to the Shushenskoye village of the Elisei province. During this period, the statesman actively established relations with social democrats from various parts of the country, namely from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Voronezh, Nizhny Novgorod.
In 1900 he was free and visited all the cities of Russia. Lenin spent a lot of time visiting various organizations. In the same year, Lenin created a newspaper called "Spark". It was then that Vladimir Ilyich first began to sign with the surname "Lenin". A few months later he organized a congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party. In connection with this event, there was a split into Bolsheviks and Mensheviks. Lenin became the head of the Bolshevik ideological and political party. He tried with all his might to fight the Mensheviks and took radical measures.
Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin
From 1905 Lenin lived in Switzerland for three years. There he carefully prepared for an armed uprising. Later, Vladimir Ilyich illegally returned to St. Petersburg. He tried to attract the peasants to him so that they would be one strong team to fight. Vladimir Lenin called on the peasants to actively fight and asked them to use everything that was at hand as a weapon. It was necessary to attack civil servants.
Role in the execution of the family of Emperor Nicholas II criticism and accusations
As it became known, on the night of July 16-17, 1918, the family of Nicholas II and all the servants were shot. This incident occurred by order of the Ural Regional Council in Yekaterinburg. The resolution was headed by the Bolsheviks. Lenin and Sverdlov had a certain number of sanctions that were used to execute Nicholas II. These data are officially confirmed. However, historical experts and other specialists are still actively discussing Lenin's sanctions for the execution of the family and servants of Nicholas II. Some historians acknowledge this fact, others categorically deny it.
Initially, the Soviet government decided that Nicholas II should be tried. This issue was discussed in 1918 at a meeting of the Council of People's Commissars, which took place at the end of January. The party board officially confirmed such actions and the need for a trial of Nicholas II. This idea, accordingly, was supported by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin and his allies.
Speech by Vladimir Lenin
As you know, at that time, Nicholas II, his family and servants were transported from Tobolsk to Yekaterinburg. Most likely, this move was associated with all the events that took place. M. Medvedev (Kudrin) provided confirmation that it was not possible to obtain sanctions for the execution of Nicholas II. Lenin also argued that the king must be transferred to a safer place to live. On July 13, a meeting was held at which issues related to the military review and careful protection of the king were discussed.
Wife of Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Krupskaya She told that on the night of the murder of the tsar and his family, the Russian leader was at work all night and returned only early in the morning.
Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky
Personal life of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. Krupskaya
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin tried to hide his personal life carefully, like other professional revolutionaries. His wife was Nadezhda Krupskaya. They met in 1894 during the active creation of an organization called "Union of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class". At that time, a Marxist gathering took place, where they met. Nadezhda Krupskaya was delighted leadership qualities Lenin and his serious character. She, in turn, interested Lenin in her analytical mindset and development in many areas. State activities brought the couple very close and after a few years they decided to tie the knot. The chosen one of Vladimir Ilyich was restrained and calm, extremely accommodating. She supported her lover in everything, no matter what. Moreover, the wife helped the Russian revolutionary in secret correspondence with various party members.
However, despite Nadezhda's excellent character and fidelity, she was a terrible hostess. It was almost never possible to notice Krupskaya in the process of cooking and cleaning. She did not do housework and rarely cooked. However, if such cases did occur, then Lenin did not complain and ate everything that was given to him. Note that once in 1916, on New Year's Eve, there was only curdled milk on their festive table.
Vladimir Lenin and Nadezhda Krupskaya
Before Krupskaya, Lenin admired Apollinaria Yakubova however, she rejected it. Yakubova was a socialist.
After they met, they fell in love at first sight. Krupskaya followed her lover everywhere and participated in all the actions of Vladimir Ilyich. Soon they got married. Local peasants became best men. The rings were built by their ally from copper nickels. The wedding of Krupskaya and Lenin took place on July 22, 1898 in the village of Shushenskoye. After that, Nadezhda truly loved her husband. Moreover, Lenin got married, despite the fact that at that time he was an ardent atheist.
In her free time, Nadezhda went about her business, namely, theoretical and pedagogical work. She had her own opinion about many situations and did not completely obey her cruel spouse.
Vladimir was always cruel and callous towards his wife, but Nadezhda always bowed before him, truly loved and helped him in all areas. In addition to Nadezhda, there were many other women in Lenin's life even after his marriage. Krupskaya knew about this, but proudly held back the pain and endured a humiliating attitude towards herself. She forgot about the feeling of pride and jealousy.
Vladimir Lenin and Inessa Armand
There is still no reliable information about the children of Vladimir Lenin. Someone claims to have been barren and had no children at all. And other historians say that the famous Russian leader had many illegitimate children. There is also information that Lenin has a child named Alexander Steffen from his beloved Inessa Armand. Their romance lasted for five years. Inessa Armand was Lenin's mistress for a long time and Krupskaya knew about everything that was happening.
They met Inessa Armand in 1909 while in Paris. As you know, Inessa Armand is the daughter of a famous French opera singer and comic actress. At that time, Inessa was 35 years old. She was completely different from Nadezhda Krupskaya neither externally nor internally. She was distinguished by beautiful features and an unusual appearance. The girl had deep eyes, beautiful long hair, excellent figure and beautiful voice. Krupskaya, according to Anna Ulyanova, Vladimir's sister, was completely ugly, had eyes like those of a fish, and did not have beautiful expressive features.
Inessa Armand She had an ardent character and always expressed her emotions vividly. She liked to communicate with people, had good manners. Krupskaya, unlike the French chosen one of Lenin, was cold and did not like to express her emotions. They say that Vladimir most likely had just a physical attraction to this lady, he did not feel any feelings for her. However, Inessa herself loved this man very much. Moreover, she was radical in her views and categorically did not understand free relationships. Armand also cooked well and always did housework, unlike Nadezhda Krupskaya, who was almost never involved in these processes.
Vladimir Lenin
Information was also known that Nadezhda Krupskaya suffered from infertility. It was this fact that argued the absence of children from a married couple for many years. Later, doctors stated the fact that a terrible disease was found in a woman - Graves' disease. It was this disease that was the reason for the absence of children.
In the Soviet Union, they did not disseminate information about Lenin's betrayals and about the absence of children from a married couple. These facts were considered shameful.
Nadezhda's parents were very fond of Vladimir Ilyich. They were happy that she connected her life with an intelligent young man, very educated and reserved. However, Lenin's family was not very happy about the appearance of this girl. For example, Vladimir's sister - Anna, hated Nadezhda and considered her strange, unattractive.
Nadezhda knew everything about her husband's betrayals, but she behaved with restraint and never said anything to him, and even more so to Inessa. About it love triangle everyone around knew it, since the famous revolutionary did not hide anything and did it in front of everyone. Inessa Armand has always been present in the couple's life. Moreover, Inessa and Nadezhda tried to maintain friendly relations and communicate.
Lenin Vladimir Ilyich
Lenin's French mistress helped him in everything, she went with him to party meetings throughout Europe. The woman also translated his books, articles and other works. Note that in her bedroom, Nadezhda kept a photograph of her husband's mistress and looked at her rival every day. Nearby were photographs of Vladimir and Nadezhda's mother.
Hope to the last endured the humiliation of her husband and betrayal, and, it would seem, had already come to terms with the presence of Vladimir's mistress. However, at some point she could not stand it and invited her husband to leave. He did not agree and left his mistress Inessa Armand. In 1920, Inessa died of a terrible disease - cholera. Nadezhda Krupskaya also came to the funeral of her rival. She held Vladimir's hand all the time.
The French chosen one of Lenin left two children from his first marriage, who became orphans. Their father also died earlier. Therefore, the couple decided to take care of these children and take care of them. Initially, the children lived in Gorki, later they were sent abroad.
Vladimir Lenin in last years life
Death of Vladimir Lenin
After the death of Inessa Armand, Lenin's life went downhill. He also began to get sick often, the state of health of the Russian leader deteriorated significantly in connection with all the events taking place. He soon passed away on January 21, 1924 at the estate Gorki of Moscow province. There were many versions of the man's death. Some historians suggest that he died due to syphilis, which a French mistress may have passed on to him. As you know, he took for a long time drugs for the treatment of such diseases.
However, according to official figures, Lenin died of atherosclerosis, which he suffered recently. The last request of Vladimir Ilyich was bring Inessa's children to him. At that time they were in France. Krupskaya complied with this request of her husband, but they were not allowed to see Lenin. In February 1924, Nadezhda offered to bury Vladimir next to the ashes of Inessa Armand, but Stalin categorically denied this proposal.
Funeral of Vladimir Lenin
A few days after the death of the world famous leader, his body was transported to Moscow. He was placed in the Hall of Columns in the House of the Unions. For five days, farewell to the Russian leader, political and statesman, the head of the Soviet people took place in this building.
January 27, 1924 Lenin's body was embalmed. For the body of this legendary personality, the Mausoleum was specially built, which to this day is located on Red Square. Every year, the issue of reburial of Vladimir Lenin is raised, but no one does this.
Lenin Mausoleum on Red Square in Moscow
Creativity, writings and works of Lenin
Lenin was a famous successor Karl Marx. He often wrote works on this subject. Thus, hundreds of works belong to his pen. AT Soviet time more than forty "Lenin collections" were published, as well as collected works. Among Lenin's most popular works are The Development of Capitalism in Russia (1899), What Is to Be Done? (1902), "Materialism and Empirio-Criticism" (1909). Moreover, in 1919-1921, he recorded sixteen speeches on records, which testifies to the oratorical abilities of the people's leader.
Cult of Lenin
Around the personality of Vladimir Lenin, a real cult began during his reign. Petrograd was renamed to Leningrad, many streets and villages were named after this Russian revolutionary. In every city of the state, a monument to Vladimir Lenin was erected. In many scientific and journalistic works, the legendary man was quoted.
Revolutionary Lenin Vladimir Ilyich
A special survey was conducted among the population of Russia. More than 52% of respondents claim that the personality of Vladimir Lenin has become one of the most important and necessary in the history of their people.
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin is a world-famous Russian revolutionary, the main leader of the Soviet people, a politician and statesman. He was involved in the field of journalism, hundreds of works belong to this legendary person. Over the past decades, many poems, ballads, poems have been released in his honor. In almost every city there is a monument to Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, whose reign will be talked about for decades all over the world.
Who is Lenin?
In the history of our state, there were several political figures whose contribution cannot be overestimated. One of them, without a doubt, is Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. In this article we will consider who Lenin is and who this person was in general.
Lenin: early years
First of all, it is worth noting that "Lenin" is not the real name of Vladimir Ilyich. His real name is Ulyanov. But we will not dwell on this biography fact in detail. If you are interested, then in the article on our site: different versions are set out why the Soviet leader changed his last name.
Let's return to the biography. Vladimir was born on April 22, 1870 in the city of Simbirsk in the family of an official. He studied at the gymnasium, graduated with a gold medal. He visited the Simbirsk religious society.
A significant imprint on the worldview of Vladimir was left by the execution of his brother in 1887. At the same time, the future leader enters Kazan University, from where he will subsequently be expelled for appearing in student riots. In 1889, the whole family moved to Samara, where Vladimir began to actively study Marxist philosophy.
In 1891, Lenin graduated from the law faculty of St. Petersburg State University, and in 1893 he moved to St. Petersburg and got a job there. Already by 1894, Lenin formulated for himself the idea that the proletariat should become an instrument of the communist revolution. And in 1895, the St. Petersburg Union of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class was created with the participation of Vladimir Lenin. For this, the future leader is sent into exile in Siberia. In Siberia, Lenin marries N. K. Krupskaya.
Lenin: mature years
In 1900, Lenin went abroad. There, together with G. V. Plekhanov, he began to publish the first illegal Marxist newspaper Iskra. In 1903, Vladimir Ilyich headed the Bolshevik Party. And in the period from 1905 to 1907. lives in St. Petersburg under a false name and leads the Central and St. Petersburg Committees of the Bolsheviks.
During the First World War, Lenin lives in Switzerland. He returned to Petrograd in April 1917. He immediately offers the slogan “All power to the Soviets!”, which causes a storm of indignation and misunderstanding even from close associates. But literally in a few weeks Vladimir Ilyich succeeded in convincing his party of the correctness of the April Theses. In July, Lenin had to go underground again. But already in October of the same year, Lenin became the main organizer of the October armed uprising. During the October uprising, the Provisional Government was arrested and a new government was formed - the Council of People's Commissars, headed by Lenin. In November, Lenin contributes to the establishment of Soviet power in Moscow, where the capital of the country was later transferred.
The meaning of Lenin's personality
The attitude of descendants to the personality of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin varies from sharply critical to boundlessly admiring. One way or another, no one will argue with the fact that Lenin became one of the key people in the history of Russia. First of all, this Soviet politician is the founder of the Russian Social Democratic Party. He is also one of the organizers of the October Revolution of 1917. Well, no less important: he is the creator of the first socialist state in world history.
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (revolutionary pseudonym - Lenin) was born in Simbirsk on April 22, 1870. There he was baptized according to the Christian rite. His father, Ilya Nikolayevich, who managed to get an excellent education, was successfully promoted and reached the rank of 4th class in the table of ranks, which gave him the right to receive a noble title. In the last years of his life, Ilya Nikolayevich served as an inspector of public schools.
Did Volodya believe in God as a child? Probably, he simply fulfilled the requirements of the elders. He always had excellent marks in the Law of God. But at the age of sixteen he consciously retreated from faith in God.
Father was buried in 1886, at the age of 54, when Volodya Ulyanov was only 16 years old. In the summer of 1887 the family left Simbirsk for Kazan.
M.M., a party comrade-in-arms, wrote about her acquaintance with the Ulyanov family. Essen.
“It was a real family, as it was drawn to us in the distant future. Vladimir Ilyich's love for his family, tender care for his mother ... runs through Lenin's whole life.
When Vladimir entered Kazan University at the Faculty of Law, he greatly upset his mentor Fyodor Mikhailovich Kerensky, who insisted on continuing his education in literature and linguistics.
In 1887, the Ulyanov family learned about the participation of their eldest son and brother Alexander in revolutionary terrorist activities. On May 8, he was executed as a terrorist who encroached on the life of Emperor Alexander 3.
In the same period, Vladimir was involved in the work of the student circle "Narodnaya Volya", which was led by Lazar Bogoraz. And already three months after enrolling in the university, Vladimir Ulyanov was expelled from it for his involvement in student demonstrations that turned into riots and was subject to expulsion from Kazan.
At the request of L. A. Ardasheva, his maternal aunt, the deported V. Ulyanov went to the village of Kokushkino, Laishevsky district, Kazan province. Here, having settled in the house of the Ardashevs, he studied the works of N.G. Chernyshevsky, reading Marxist and other literature.
In the autumn of 1888, with the permission of the authorities, he returned to Kazan, where he was introduced to one of the Marxist circles. At the meetings, the works of Marx, Engels, were comprehended and discussed.
In 1890, the authorities had mercy and allowed Vladimir Ulyanov to prepare externally for the exams for a lawyer. A year later, in November 1891, Vladimir Ilyich passed the exams for the entire course of the law faculty of the Imperial St. Petersburg University. He also studied literature on economics, and especially on agriculture.
Having received a diploma, Vladimir Ilyich worked as an assistant to the lawyer A.N. Hardin. The novice lawyer was entrusted mainly with "state protection" in criminal cases.
In May 1895, Vladimir Ilyich left for Europe, where he met:
- In Switzerland - with G. Plekhanov,
- In Germany - In Liebknecht,
- In France - P. Lafargue.
Returning to St. Petersburg, Lenin, together with Trotsky, Martov, and other future revolutionaries, set about uniting individual Marxist groups and circles into the "Union of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class." The first task that Lenin set before his comrades-in-arms was the overthrow of the autocracy.
For active participation in anti-government activities, Vladimir Ulyanov was taken into custody in December 1895. More than a year while the investigation was underway, he served time in a St. Petersburg prison, and in 1897 he was in the Minusinsk district of the Yenisei province. At the same time, Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaya also went into exile, who was assigned the Ufa province as her place of departure. In order for Krupskaya to be allowed to come to Shushenskoye, Vladimir Ilyich had to get married, as required by Orthodox custom and Russian law.
In Siberia, the study "The Development of Capitalism in Russia", directed against populist theories, and more than 30 other books were written. He corresponded regularly with the Social Democrats of Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod and other major Russian cities. Provided legal assistance to local farmers. In revolutionary circles, Vladimir Ilyich was known as K. Tulin.
On July 29, 1900, Lenin emigrated to Switzerland, where he began publishing a newspaper, and later a theoretical journal. The editorial board included Plekhanov, V. I. Zasulich, P. B. Axelrod, representing the emigrant group "Emancipation of Labor", and three representatives of the "Union of Struggle" - Lenin, Martov and Potresov.
The first issue of Iskra was printed on December 24, 1900. The revolutionary newspaper came out with a circulation of 8 to 10 thousand copies. In April 1901, Krupskaya also arrived in Munich.
In the autumn of 1905, Lenin illegally arrived in the capital to lead the preparations for an armed uprising. During this period, 2 books were created:
- "Two Tactics of Social Democracy in the Democratic Revolution",
- "To the rural poor".
In December 1905, the first conference of the RSDLP took place, at which Lenin met I. Stalin.
Lenin and Krupskaya returned to Geneva in 1908, where they lived until April 1917. After the defeat of the first revolution, he decided not to give up. "Broken armies learn well." They have been living in exile for 9 years. Just then, in 1909, it happens significant event in the biography of Lenin - acquaintance with Inessa Armand. They will be together for 11 years, until her death. However, he does not abandon Krupskaya. It is believed that Armand was his mistress all these years, although their relationship may have been platonic.
At the party conference of 1912 there was a final disengagement from the Mensheviks.
On May 5, 1912, the Bolshevik newspaper Pravda began to be published in St. Petersburg, which was first edited by Stalin, and later by Kamenev.
There is evidence that the Germans, the enemies of Russia in the First World War, were engaged in pre-revolutionary financing of the Bolsheviks. With their money, Lenin and his comrades launched active propaganda against the tsar and against (which was extremely important for Germany) the war.
After the February Revolution, the Germans send the leader and several of his comrades to Russia in a sealed wagon. There they were actively involved in political life, and in April 1917 Lenin put forward his famous ones.
In October 1917, Lenin led the revolution. In an address written on October 25 (old style), Lenin announced the overthrow of the provisional government. On the same day, the II All-Russian Congress of Soviets opened, which approved the decrees on land and peace. At the congress, a new government was formed, headed by V. I. Lenin - the Council of People's Commissars.
On March 3, 1918, Lenin signed Brest Peace contract. It was a humiliating treaty for Russia, but it provided a respite from the war. In protest against this treaty, the social revolutionaries left the government.
Fearing the capture of Petrograd by the Germans, the Council of People's Commissars and the Central Committee of the RCP (b) relocated to Moscow. Since then, Moscow has regained the status of the capital, becoming the main city of the new state.
On August 30 of the same year, Lenin was committed. He was badly wounded. The Bolsheviks responded to this assassination attempt by the Decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR of 09/05/1918 "On the Red Terror". A few months earlier, on July 26, Lenin wrote that it was necessary to encourage the energy and mass character of terror against counter-revolutionaries.
On January 20, 1918, the Decree on Freedom of Conscience, Church and Religious Societies was adopted. According to this decree, all the property of church societies was declared public property. It was declared that “every citizen can profess any religion or not profess any. Any right deprivation associated with the confession of any faith or non-profession of any faith is canceled.
However, in reality, believers were persecuted at the level of party and public organizations, in schools and universities. Lenin himself actively hated Russian Orthodox Church, stigmatized her as "a department of police Orthodoxy." The church has lost legal entity, members of the clergy were deprived of political rights and freedoms. Monasteries and churches were closed, property was nationalized. Since the beginning of 1922, a mass execution of clergy began. Even when he was ill, Lenin waged an uncompromising struggle with the church.
For the last 3 years, Lenin lived in Gorki. He couldn't work properly. Last time he spoke publicly on November 20, 1922 at the plenum of the Moscow City Council. His health was deteriorating, and presumably one of the reasons for this was the encroachment that took place in 1918, the other reason was his overwork. Doctors recognized that Lenin had atherosclerosis of blood vessels and their premature wear.
Now his body is in the Mausoleum on Red Square in Moscow.
Soviet statesman and politician, theorist of Marxism, founder of the Communist Party and the Soviet Socialist State in Russia Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Lenin) was born on April 22 (April 10 according to the old style), 1870 in Simbirsk (now Ulyanovsk) in the family of an inspector of public schools, who became hereditary nobleman.
His older brother Alexander, a Narodnaya Volya revolutionary, was executed in May 1887 for preparing an assassination attempt on the tsar.
In the same year, Vladimir Ulyanov graduated from the Simbirsk gymnasium with a gold medal, was admitted to Kazan University, but three months after admission was expelled for participating in student riots. In 1891, Ulyanov externally graduated from the law faculty of St. Petersburg University, after which he worked in Samara as an assistant to a barrister.
In August 1893 he moved to St. Petersburg, where he joined the Marxist circle of students at the Technological Institute. In April 1895, Vladimir Ulyanov went abroad and got acquainted with the Emancipation of Labor group, created in Geneva by Russian emigrants led by Georgy Plekhanov. In the autumn of the same year, on his initiative and under his leadership, the Marxist circles of St. Petersburg united into a single "Union of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class". In December 1895 Ulyanov was arrested by the police. Spent more than a year in prison, then exiled for three years to the village of Shushenskoye, Minusinsk district, Krasnoyarsk Territory, under open police supervision.
In 1898, the members of the "Union" held the first congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (RSDLP) in Minsk.
While in exile, Vladimir Ulyanov continued his theoretical and organizational revolutionary activities. In 1897 he published the work "The Development of Capitalism in Russia", where he tried to challenge the views of the populists on socio-economic relations in the country and prove that Russia was brewing bourgeois revolution. He got acquainted with the works of the leading theoretician of German social democracy, Karl Kautsky, from whom he borrowed the idea of organizing the Russian Marxist movement in the form of a centralized "new type" party.
After the end of his exile in January 1900, he went abroad (for the next five years he lived in Munich, London and Geneva). There, together with Georgy Plekhanov, his associates Vera Zasulich and Pavel Axelrod, as well as his friend Yuli Martov, Vladimir Ulyanov began publishing the social democratic newspaper Iskra. From 1901, he began to use the pseudonym "Lenin" and from then on was known in the party under this name.
In 1903, at the II Congress of Russian Social Democrats, as a result of a split into Mensheviks and Bolsheviks, Lenin headed the "majority", then creating the Bolshevik Party.
From 1905 to 1907, Lenin lived illegally in St. Petersburg, exercising leadership of the left forces. From 1907 to 1917 he was in exile, where he defended his political views in the Second International.
At the beginning of the First World War, while on the territory of Austria-Hungary, Lenin was arrested on suspicion of spying for the Russian government, but thanks to the participation of the Austrian Social Democrats, he was released. After his release, he left for Switzerland, where he put forward the slogan of turning the imperialist war into a civil war.
In the spring of 1917, Lenin returned to Russia. On April 17 (April 4, old style), 1917, the day after arriving in Petrograd, he delivered the so-called "April Theses", where he outlined the program for the transition from the bourgeois-democratic revolution to the socialist one, and also began preparations for an armed uprising and overthrow Provisional government.
From April 1917, Lenin became one of the main organizers and leaders of the October armed uprising and the establishment of the power of the Soviets.
In early October 1917, he illegally moved from Vyborg to Petrograd. On October 23 (October 10, old style), at a meeting of the Central Committee of the RSDLP (b), at its proposal, a resolution was adopted on an armed uprising. On November 6 (October 24, old style), in a letter to the Central Committee, Lenin demanded an immediate offensive, the arrest of the Provisional Government and the seizure of power. In the evening, he illegally arrived in Smolny to directly lead the armed uprising. The next day, November 7 (October 25, old style), 1917, an uprising took place in Petrograd and the capture of state power Bolsheviks. At the meeting of the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets that opened in the evening, the Soviet government was proclaimed - the Council of People's Commissars (SNK), whose chairman was Vladimir Lenin. The congress adopted the first decrees prepared by Lenin: on ending the war and on the transfer private land for the use of workers.
On the initiative of Lenin, in 1918 the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was concluded with Germany.
After the transfer of the capital from Petrograd to Moscow in March 1918, Lenin lived and worked in Moscow. His personal apartment and office were located in the Kremlin, on the third floor of the former Senate building. Lenin was elected to the Moscow Soviet.
In the spring of 1918, Lenin's government began the fight against the opposition by closing down anarchist and socialist workers' organizations; in July 1918, Lenin led the suppression of the armed uprising of the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries. The opposition intensified during civil war, socialist-revolutionaries, left-wing socialist-revolutionaries and anarchists, in turn, attacked the leaders of the Bolshevik regime; On August 30, 1918, an attempt was made on Lenin's life.
During the Civil War, Lenin became the initiator and ideologist of the policy of "war communism". He approved the creation of the All-Russian emergency commission to combat counter-revolution and sabotage (VChK), which widely and uncontrollably used methods of violence and repression.
With the end of the Civil War and the cessation of military intervention in 1922, the process of restoring the national economy of the country began. To this end, at the insistence of Lenin, "war communism" was abolished, the food appropriation was replaced by a food tax. Lenin introduced the so-called New Economic Policy (NEP), which allowed private free trade. At the same time, he insisted on the development of state-type enterprises, on electrification, and on the development of cooperation.
In May and December 1922, Lenin suffered two strokes, but continued to dictate notes and articles on party and state affairs. The third stroke, which followed in March 1923, left him practically incapacitated.
On January 21, 1924, Vladimir Lenin died in the village of Gorki near Moscow. On January 23, the coffin with his body was transported to Moscow and installed in the Hall of Columns. The official farewell took place over five days.
On January 27, 1924, the coffin with the embalmed body of Lenin was designed by the architect Alexei Shchusev.
During the years of Soviet power, memorial plaques were erected on various buildings associated with Lenin's activities, and monuments to the leader were erected in the cities. The following were established: the Order of Lenin (1930), the Lenin Prize (1925), the Lenin Prizes for achievements in science, technology, literature, art, architecture (1957). In 1924-1991, the Central Lenin Museum worked in Moscow. A number of enterprises, institutions and educational institutions were named after Lenin.
In 1923, the Central Committee of the RCP(b) created the V. I. Lenin Institute, and in 1932, as a result of its merger with the Institute of Marx and Engels, a single Marx-Engels-Lenin Institute was formed under the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks (later it became known as the Institute of Marxism -Leninism under the Central Committee of the CPSU). The Central Party Archive of this institute (now the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History) stores more than 30,000 documents authored by Vladimir Lenin.
Lenin, whom he knew from the St. Petersburg revolutionary underground. They got married on July 22, 1898 during the exile of Vladimir Ulyanov to the village of Shushenskoye.
The material was prepared on the basis of information from RIA Novosti and open sources