Vladimir Lenin


Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (April 10 (O.S.) = April 22 (N.S.), 1870 - January
21, 1924) who used the alias Nikolai Lenin (?????) (most likely a reference
to the river Lena), was a Russian revolutionary, first leader of the Soviet
Union, and the namesake of Leninism. He was born in Simbirsk and died in
Nizhny Novgorod; after a series of strokes exacerbated by an attempted
assassination. His embalmed body is on permanent exhibition, in Moscow.

Lenin was the son of a civil service official, and distinguished himself in
the study of Latin and Greek. In May of 1887 his eldest brother Alexander
was hanged for participation in a plot on the life of Tsar Alexander III.
This radicalized Lenin and later that year he was arrested, and expelled
from Kazan University for participating in student protests. He continued to
study independently and by 1892 had earned a license to practice law.

However, rather than settle into a legal career he became more involved in
propaganda efforts, and the study of Marxism, much of it in St. Petersburg.
On December 7, 1895 he was arrested and held by authorities for an entire
year, then exiled to Siberia.

In July of 1898 he married N.K. Krupskaya and in April of 1899 he published
the book The Development of Capitalism in Russia. In 1900 his exile ended.
He travelled in Russia and elsewhere in Europe, and published the paper
Iskra as well as other tracts and books related to the movement.

He was active in the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (RSDLP), and in
1903 he led the Bolshevik faction after a split with the Mensheviks that was
partly inspired by his pamphlet What is to be Done?. In 1906 he was elected
to the Presidium of the RSDLP. In 1907 he moved to Finland for security
reasons. He continued to travel in Europe and partipated in many socialist
meetings and activities.

In April 1917 he returned to Petrograd following the overthrow of Tsar
Nicholas II, and took a leading role within the Bolshevik movement,
publishing the April Theses. After a failed Bolshevik insurrection in July,
Lenin fled to Finland for hiding. He returned in October to successfully
lead an armed coup against the Kerensky provisional government.

On November 8, Lenin was elected as Chairman of the Council of People's
Commissars by the Russian Soviet Congress. Faced with the threat of German
invasion, Lenin urged that Russia sign the proposed harsh peace treaty,
though the failure of the Russian delegation to do so resulted in the loss
of much of the country's westerrn territory in the eventual Treaty of
Brest-Litovsk (March 1918). In August 1918 he survived an assassination
attempt by Fanny Kaplan.

Lenin combined the existing factions into one communist party, presiding
over the defeat of anti-Bolshevik armies in the Russian Civil War (1918-20).
In March 1921, on Lenin's initiative, the New Economic Policy (NEP) was
adopted, allowing limited private enterprise, in an attempt to rebuild
industry and especially agriculture. But the same month saw the suppression
of an uprising among sailors at Kronstadt ("the Kronstadt rebellion").

In May 1922 Lenin had his first stroke. He was left partially paralyzed and
his role in government declined. After a second stroke in December the
Politburo ordered that he be kept in isolation. The assassination attempt
earlier in his life also added to his health problems. In March 1923 he
suffered a third stroke and was left bedridden and no longer able to speak.
Lenin died of a fourth stroke in January of 1924. The city of Petrograd was
renamed Leningrad in his honour: this remained the name of the city until
the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

After his first stroke he published a number of papers indicating future
directions for the government and criticising Stalin, Party general
secretary since April 1922; however, some of these were suppressed for
decades and after his death Stalin gained control of the Party.

Lenin was known for his great intellect (he was a friend of Albert Einstein
at one point) and modesty. While he was kind in personal matters, he was
hard-willed in political matters and was not above exiling, imprisoning, and
executing thinkers and artists who opposed his regime.