Ulyanov Lenin short biography. Miscellaneous facts about Lenin

Lenin. Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. Biography

Lenin, Vladimir Ilyich (real name - Ulyanov) (1870 - 1924)
Lenin. Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov.
Biography
Russian politician and statesman, "continuer of the cause of K. Marx and F. Engels", organizer of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), founder of the Soviet socialist state. Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov was born on April 22 (April 10, according to the old style), 1870, in Simbirsk, in the family of an inspector of public schools, who became a hereditary nobleman. Grandfather of Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov - N.V. Ulyanov; was a serf in the Nizhny Novgorod province, later - a tailor-craftsman in Astrakhan. Father - Ilya Nikolaevich Ulyanov; after graduating from Kazan University, he taught at secondary schools in Penza and Nizhny Novgorod, later he was appointed inspector and director of public schools in the Simbirsk province. Mother - Maria Alexandrovna Ulyanova (née Blank); the doctor's daughter, having received a home education, passed the external exams for the title of teacher; buried in St. Petersburg at the Volkovo cemetery. Elder brother - Alexander Ilyich Ulyanov; in 1887 he was executed for participating in the preparation of the assassination attempt on Tsar Alexander III. The younger brother is Dmitry Ilyich Ulyanov. Sisters - Anna Ilyinichna Ulyanova (Ulyanova-Elizarova) and Olga Ilyinichna Ulyanova. All the children of the Ulyanov family connected their lives with the revolutionary movement.
In 1879-1887 Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov studied at the Simbirsk Gymnasium, from which he graduated with a gold medal. He entered the Faculty of Law of Kazan University, but in December 1887 he was arrested for active participation in the revolutionary gathering of students, expelled from the university as a relative of the executed brother of the People's Will and exiled to the village of Kokushkino, Kazan province. In October 1888, Vladimir Ulyanov returned to Kazan, where he joined one of the Marxist circles. In the second half of August 1890 he visited Moscow for the first time. In 1891, at St. Petersburg University, he passed the exams as an external student in the program of the Faculty of Law, and on January 14, 1892, Vladimir Ulyanov received a diploma of the 1st degree. In 1889 the Ulyanov family moved to Samara, where Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov began working as an assistant barrister and organized a circle of Marxists. In August 1893 he moved to St. Petersburg, where he joined the Marxist circle of students of the Technological Institute. In 1895 he published under the pseudonym K. Tulin. In April 1895, Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov went abroad to establish contact with the Emancipation of Labor group. In Switzerland, he met G.V. Plekhanov, in Germany - with W. Liebknecht, in France - with P. Lafargue. In September 1895, returning from abroad, he visited Vilnius, Moscow and Orekhovo-Zuevo. In the autumn of 1895, on the initiative and under the leadership of V.I. Ulyanov, the Marxist circles of St. Petersburg united into a single organization - the St. Petersburg Union of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class. For participation in the organization of the Social Democratic Party in December 1895, Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov was arrested, and in February 1897 he was exiled for three years to Siberia - to the village of Shushenskoye, Minusinsk district, Yenisei province. Together with him, as a bride, Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaya was also sent, also sentenced to exile for active revolutionary work. In 1898, while in Shushenskoye, N.K. Krupskaya, with whom V.I. Ulyanov met in 1894, became his wife. In exile, Ulyanov wrote over 30 works. In 1898, the First Congress of the RSDLP took place in Minsk, proclaiming the formation of a Social Democratic Party in Russia and publishing the Manifesto of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party. In 1899 Ulyanov published under the pseudonym "V. Ilyin". Among his pseudonyms were V. Frei, Iv. Petrov, Karpov and others. On February 10 (January 29, according to the old style), 1900, after the exile, Ulyanov left Shushenskoye. In July 1900 he went abroad, where he set up the publication of the Iskra newspaper, becoming its editor. In 1900-1905 Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov lived in Munich, London, Geneva. In December 1901, one of his articles published in the Zarya magazine was first signed with the pseudonym "Lenin" (according to other sources, the pseudonym "Lenin" first appeared in January 1901 in a letter addressed to G.V. Plekhanov). In 1903, the 2nd Congress of the RSDLP was held, at which the Bolshevik Party was practically created, and Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, who wrote the Rules of the RSDLP and the Party Program demanding the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat for the socialist transformation of society, headed the left (“Bolshevik”) wing of the party. In 1904 Yu.O. Martov first used the term "Leninism" ("Struggle against the "state of siege" in the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party"). On November 21 (November 8, according to the old style), 1905, Lenin illegally arrived in St. Petersburg, where he took charge of the activities of the Central Committee and the St. Petersburg Committee of the Bolsheviks, the preparation of an armed uprising, and the activities of the Bolshevik newspapers Vpered, Proletary, and Novaya Zhizn. In two years, he changed 21 safe houses. Avoiding arrest, in August 1906 Lenin moved to the dacha "Vaza" in the village of Kuokkala (Finland). In 1907 he was unsuccessfully a candidate for the 2nd State Duma in St. Petersburg, from where he periodically traveled to St. Petersburg, Moscow, Vyborg, Stockholm, London, Stuttgart. In December 1907, he again emigrated to Switzerland, and at the end of 1908 - to France (Paris). In December 1910, the newspaper Zvezda began to be published in St. Petersburg, and on May 5 (April 22, old style) 1912, the first issue of the daily legal Bolshevik workers' newspaper Pravda was published. To train cadres of party workers in 1911, Lenin organized a party school in Longjumeau (near Paris), in which he gave 29 lectures. In January 1912, the 6th (Prague) All-Russian Conference of the RSDLP took place in Prague under his leadership. In June 1912, Lenin moved to Krakow, from where he directed the activities of the Bolshevik faction of the 4th State Duma and directed the work of the bureau of the Central Committee of the RSDLP in Russia. From October 1905 to 1912, Lenin was the representative of the RSDLP in the International Socialist Bureau of the 2nd International, leading a delegation of Bolsheviks, and took part in the work of the Stuttgart (1907) and Copenhagen (1910) international socialist congresses. August 8 (Old Style July 26), 1914 Lenin, who was in Poronin (the territory of Austria-Hungary), was arrested by the Austrian authorities on suspicion of spying for Russia and imprisoned in the city of Novy Targ, but on August 19 (Old Style 6 August), thanks to the assistance of the Polish and Austrian Social Democrats, was released. On September 5 (August 23, according to the old style), he left for Bern (Switzerland), and in February 1916 he moved to Zurich, where he lived until April (until March, according to the old style), 1917. Lenin learned about the victory of the February Revolution in Petrograd from Swiss newspapers from March 15 (Old Style March 2), 1917. April 16 (Old Style 3), 1917 Lenin returned from exile to Petrograd. A solemn meeting took place on the platform of the Finlyandsky railway station and he was presented with party card No. 600 of the Bolshevik organization of the Vyborg side. From April to July 1917 he wrote more than 170 articles, pamphlets, draft resolutions of the Bolshevik conferences and the Central Committee of the party, appeals. On July 20 (Old Style July 7) the Provisional Government ordered Lenin's arrest. In Petrograd, he had to change 17 safe houses, after which, until August 21 (August 8, according to the old style), 1917, he hid not far from Petrograd - in a hut across Lake Razliv, until early October - in Finland (Jalkala, Helsingfors, Vyborg). In early October 1917, Lenin illegally returned from Vyborg to Petrograd. On October 23 (October 10, according to the old style), at a meeting of the Central Committee of the RSDLP (b), at its proposal, the Central Committee adopted a resolution on an armed uprising. On November 6 (October 24, according to the old style), in a letter to the Central Committee, Lenin demanded to immediately go on the offensive, arrest the Provisional Government and take power. In the evening, he illegally arrived in Smolny to directly lead the armed uprising. On November 7 (October 25, according to the old style), 1917, at the opening of the 2nd All-Russian Congress of Soviets, Lenin's decrees on peace and land were adopted and a workers' and peasants' government was formed - the Council of People's Commissars, headed by Lenin. For 124 days of the "Smolnin period" he wrote over 110 articles, draft decrees and resolutions, delivered over 70 reports and speeches, wrote about 120 letters, telegrams and notes, participated in editing more than 40 state and party documents. The working day of the chairman of the Council of People's Commissars lasted 15-18 hours. During this period, Lenin presided over 77 meetings of the Council of People's Commissars, led 26 meetings and meetings of the Central Committee, participated in 17 meetings of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and its Presidium, in the preparation and holding of 6 various All-Russian Congresses of Workers. After the Central Committee of the Party and the Soviet government moved from Petrograd to Moscow, on March 11, 1918, Lenin lived and worked in Moscow. Lenin's personal apartment and office were located in the Kremlin, on the third floor of the former Senate building. In July 1918, he led the suppression of the Armed Action of the Left SRs. On August 30, 1918, after the end of the rally at the Michelson plant, Lenin was seriously wounded by the Social Revolutionary F.E. Kaplan. In 1919, on the initiative of Lenin, the 3rd, Communist International was created. In 1921, at the 10th Congress of the RCP(b), Lenin put forward the task of transitioning from the policy of "war communism" to the New Economic Policy (NEP). In March 1922, Lenin directed the work of the 11th Congress of the RCP(b), the last party congress at which he spoke. In May 1922 he fell seriously ill, but returned to work in early October. Lenin's last public speech was on November 20, 1922, at the plenum of the Moscow Soviet. On December 16, 1922, Lenin's health deteriorated sharply again, and in May 1923, due to illness, he moved to the Gorki estate near Moscow. The last time in Moscow was on October 18-19, 1923. In January 1924, his health suddenly deteriorated sharply, and on January 21, 1924 at 6 o'clock. 50 min. In the evening Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Lenin) died.
On January 23, the coffin with the body of Lenin was transported to Moscow and installed in the Hall of Columns. The official farewell took place over five days and nights. On January 27, the coffin with the embalmed body of Lenin was placed in the Mausoleum specially built on Red Square (architect A.V. Shchusev). On January 26, 1924, after the death of Lenin, the 2nd All-Union Congress of Soviets granted the request of the Petrograd Soviet to rename Petrograd to Leningrad. The delegation of the city (about 1 thousand people) participated in Lenin's funeral in Moscow. In 1923 the Central Committee of the RCP(b) created the V.I. Lenin, and in 1932, as a result of its merger with the Institute of K. Marx and F. Engels, a single Institute of Marx - Engels - Lenin was formed under the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks (later the Institute of Marxism-Leninism under the Central Committee of the CPSU). More than 30 thousand documents are stored in the Central Party Archive of this institute, the author of which is V.I. Ulyanov (Lenin).
Winston Churchill wrote about Lenin: "Not a single Asian conqueror, neither Tamerlane nor Genghis Khan, enjoyed such fame as he did. An implacable avenger, growing out of the peace of cold compassion, sanity, understanding of reality. His weapon is logic, his disposition of the soul - Opportunism His sympathies are cold and wide like the Arctic Ocean His hatred is tight like a hangman's noose His destiny is to save the world His method is to blow up this world Absolute adherence to principles, at the same time readiness to change principles... He subverted everything. He overthrew God, king, country, morality, court, debts, rents, interests, laws and customs of centuries, he overthrew the whole historical structure, such as human society.In the end, he overthrew himself... Lenin's intellect was overthrown at that moment when his destructive power was exhausted and the independent, self-healing functions of his quest began to manifest, he alone could lead Russia out of the quagmire... The Russian people were left to wallow in the swamp. Their greatest misfortune was his birth, but their next misfortune was his death" (Churchill W.S., The Aftermath; The World Crisis. 1918-1928; New York, 1929).
Lenin was one of the main organizers of the "Red Terror", which took on the most brutal and mass forms in 1919-1920, the liquidation of opposition parties and their press organs, which led to the emergence of a one-party system, repressions against "socially alien elements" - the nobility, entrepreneurs, clergy, intelligentsia, the expulsion from the country of its prominent representatives who disagreed with the policy of the new government, was the initiator and ideologist of the policy of "war communism" and "new economic policy". Author of the State Plan for the Electrification of the Country (GOELRO), in accordance with which several power plants were built. On the initiative of Lenin, a plan for monumental propaganda was developed: in accordance with the decree "On the Monuments of the Republic" (April 12, 1918), with the personal participation of Lenin, the demolition of "old" monuments in the Kremlin and other places in Moscow began, as well as the destruction of churches; at the same time, monuments to revolutionary figures were erected.
"In 1919, law faculties were liquidated at universities, and in 1921 the People's Commissariat of Education (Narkompros) abolished the historical and philological sciences as obsolete and useless for the dictatorship of the proletariat. [...] By February 5, 1922, 143 private publishing houses were registered in Moscow. After reading about this in the newspaper Izvestia, Lenin demanded that the Chekists collect systematic information about all professors and writers. "All these obvious counter-revolutionaries are accomplices of the Entente, an organization of its servants and spies and molesters of student youth; almost all of them are the most legitimate candidates for deportation abroad. They must be caught constantly and systematically deported". [...] May 19 (1922) the leader sent to Moscow instructions "On the expulsion abroad of writers and professors who help the counter-revolution", inscribing on the envelope: "comrade Dzerzhinsky. Personally, secretly, sew up." Ten days later he suffered a stroke. By August 18, 1922, the seriously ill Ilyich was handed over the first list of those arrested, who were announced a decision on expulsion and a warning that unauthorized entry into the USSR was punishable by execution. Lenin then said to the attending physician: "Today is perhaps the first day that my head did not hurt at all." [...] The first group of exiles received in history the name "philosophical ship". [...] It was allowed to take with you per person: one winter and one summer coat, one suit, two shirts, one sheet. No jewelry, not even pectoral crosses, not a single book. Train Moscow - Petrograd. Then many hours of loading onto the German steamer "Oberburgomaster Haken": they call out a name from the ladder, enter one by one into the control booth, interrogation and search, by touch, through the dress ... " . "There were several ships and not one train. They left for several months [...] until the end of the year. [...] in addition to those expelled from Moscow and Petrograd, there was a group of people expelled from Kiev, from Odessa, from Novorossiysk University , and there were, according to Trotsky's later confession, about 60 people expelled from Georgia.
“From the famine of 1920-1922, according to official figures, more than five million people died. Unthinkable cannibalism flourished throughout the country. I came across absolutely amazing notes, though not in the Soviet press, that brutal starving people in the Volga region ate representatives of the ARA - an American relief organization headed by Hoover, the future president of the United States, it saved an unknown number of millions of people from starvation in the country.According to the assumptions of the same Bolsheviks, at least 20 million people should have died from starvation, only five died.The Bolsheviks believed that in In any case, the same Trotsky almost did not hide this, that the fewer eaters, the easier it will be for the country. (V. Topolyansky, "Leaders in Law. Essays on the Physiology of Russian Power")“Having created famine in the country by mass seizure of grain from the peasantry, the leader of the revolution wrote to Molotov: “It is now, and only now, when people are being eaten in hungry areas and hundreds, if not thousands of corpses are lying on the roads, that we can (and therefore must) carry out the seizure of church valuables with the most frenzied and merciless energy, not stopping at suppressing any kind of resistance. It is necessary now to teach this public a lesson in such a way that for several decades they will not even dare to think about any resistance. (E. Olshanskaya, broadcast "Lenin's List", July 21, 2002; Radio Liberty) “We must not forget that Lenin by that time was already just a delusional patient. In fact, he should have been considered in 1922 as an insane patient. In 1922, rumors spread throughout Moscow that Lenin was ill with syphilis, that he had progressive paralysis, that he delusional and, as even idle people said, he is persecuted by the Mother of God for all the troubles that he caused the country.In the same 1922, the foreign press actively discussed what Lenin was ill with, and came to the conclusion that those doctors who treated him, and those doctors who talked about the neurasthenic syndrome in the leader, in fact, concealed the fact that behind this neurasthenic syndrome lies one and only disease - progressive paralysis ... Progressive paralysis has one peculiarity, this is precisely the contingent of patients who, when - something overwhelmed the psychiatric departments of various clinics.As soon as the first signs of progressive paralysis appeared in the patient, this patient was immediately recognized as insane, even if he retained external signs of sanity and capacity. I cannot say from what time Vladimir Ilyich should be declared insane. In 1903, Krupskaya saw him have a rash, from which he suffered greatly, a lot indicates that this rash, most likely, was of syphilitic origin, but the appearance of a rash already means secondary syphilis. After 1903, he developed tertiary syphilis with gradual vascular damage. He did not undergo appropriate examination and treatment, including by psychiatrists. The psychiatrist Osipov was on duty with him continuously, that is, he simply lived in Gorki from 1923, and before that the Germans came to him, and one of the first to come was the famous Foerster, one of the largest specialists in neurosyphilis. It was Foerster who prescribed him anti-syphilitic therapy, which was described in detail in all medical diaries at that time. A long time ago, psychiatrists noticed one amazing thing, that progressive paralysis, before bringing a person to complete insanity, gives him the opportunity for incredible productivity and performance. Such excess energy can indeed be noted in Lenin in 1917-1918, even in 1919. But starting from 1920, headaches, some kind of dizziness, attacks of weakness and loss of consciousness, incomprehensible to doctors, were increasingly common. That is, in any case, 1922 is the time of Lenin's already very serious illness, with repeated strokes, impaired consciousness, with repeated episodes of hallucinations and simply delirium described by the same doctors. [...] French psychiatry once described a very curious syndrome, it was called "insanity together". If there was a madman in a family, then the spouse sooner or later became imbued with the ideas of this madman, and it was already difficult to distinguish which of them was more crazy. As a result, if the madman himself temporarily recovered, that is, if a remission occurred, then the person induced by this madman could still keep these ideas intact. I cannot rule out that this very curious syndrome can be extended to large masses of people. I do not rule out that Lenin simply induced his closest associates with his nonsense, and then with the help of Soviet propaganda, which, it must be said, worked perfectly, these ideas were introduced into the consciousness of the entire population. And thus, Soviet civilization took place." (V. Topolyansky, "Leaders in law. Essays on the physiology of Russian power"; broadcast "Lenin's List", July 21, 2002; Radio Liberty)
Among the works of Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Lenin) are letters, articles, brochures, books: "What are the "friends of the people" and how do they fight against the Social Democrats?" (1894), "The economic content of populism and criticism of it in the book of Mr. Struve (Reflection of Marxism in bourgeois literature)" (1894-1895), "Materials on the question of the economic development of Russia" (1895; article in the collection under the pseudonym "Tulin" ), "The Development of Capitalism in Russia" (1899; the book was published under the pseudonym "V. Ilyin"), "Economic studies and articles" (1899; the collection of articles was published under the pseudonym "V. Ilyin"), "Protest of Russian social Democrats" (1899), "What to do? Painful questions of our movement" (1902; pamphlet), "The Agrarian Program of Russian Social Democracy" (1902), "The National Question in Our Program" (1903), "One Step Forward, Two Steps back" (1904), "Two Tactics of Social Democracy in the Democratic Revolution" (August 1905), "Party Organization and Party Literature" (1905), "Materialism and Empirio-Criticism" (1909), "Critical Notes on the National Question" (1913 ), "On the Right of Nations to Self-Determination" (1914), "Imperialism, as the Highest Stage of Capitalism" (1916), "Philosophical Notebooks", "War and Russian Social Democracy" (Manifesto of the Central Committee of the RSDLP), "On the National Pride of the Great Russians" , "The Collapse of the Second International", "Socialism and War", "On the Slogan of the United States of Europe", "The Military Program of the Proletarian Revolution", "The Results of the Discussion on Self-Determination", "On the Caricature of Marxism and on "Imperialist Economism", "Letters from afar "(1917)," On the tasks of the proletariat in this revolution "(" April Theses "; 1917), The Political Situation (1917; theses), Towards Slogans (1917), State and Revolution (1917), The Threatening Catastrophe and How to Fight It (1917), Will the Bolsheviks Retain State Power? " (1917), "The Bolsheviks Must Take Power" (1917), "Marxism and Rebellion" (1917), "The Crisis Is Ripe" (1917), "Advice from an Outsider" (1917), "How to Organize a Competition?" (December 1917), "Declaration of the Rights of the Working and Exploited People" (January 1918; taken as the basis of the first Soviet Constitution of 1918), "Immediate Tasks of Soviet Power" (1918), "The Proletarian Revolution and the Renegade Kautsky" (autumn 1918), "Theses Central Committee of the RCP(b) in connection with the situation on the Eastern Front" (April 1919), "The Great Initiative" (June 1919), "Economics and Politics in the Era of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat" (autumn 1919), "From the Destruction of the Age-old Way of Life to the Creation of a New One" ( spring 1920), "The Childhood Disease of "Leftism" in Communism" (1920), "On Proletarian Culture" (1920), "On the Food Tax (The Meaning of the New Policy and Its Conditions)" (1921), "On the Fourth Anniversary of the October Revolution" (1921), "On the Significance of Militant Materialism" (1922), "On the Formation of the USSR" (1922), "Pages from a Diary" (December 1922), "On Cooperation" (December 1922), "On Our Revolution" (December 1922 ), "How do we reorganize the Rabkrin (Proposal to the XII Party Congress)" (December 1922), "Less is better" (December 1922)
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Information sources:
Encyclopedic resource www.rubricon.com (Great Soviet Encyclopedia, St. Petersburg Encyclopedia, Moscow Encyclopedia, Biographical Dictionary "Political Figures of Russia 1917", Encyclopedia of Russian-American Relations, Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary, Encyclopedic Dictionary "History of the Fatherland" )
Elena Olshanskaya, Irina Lagutina: program "Lenin's List"; July 21, 2002; Radio Liberty, magazine "Krugozor" Viktor Topolyansky. “Leaders in law. Essays on the physiology of Russian power, M. 1996 "Russian Biographical Dictionary"
Radio Liberty
Project "Russia congratulates!" - www.prazdniki.ru

Disputes about the personality of Lenin and his influence on history have not subsided to this day. Some praise him, others attribute to him all the existing sins. We will try to avoid extremes and briefly describe what Lenin is famous for and what mark he left in history.

Origin of Lenin

Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, whom the world knows today as Lenin, was born on April 22, 1870. His father was an inspector of public schools in the Simbirsk province, and his grandfather was a former serf. The subject of disputes and discussions is the nationality of Lenin. There is no reliable information about whether he himself attached any importance to this. In his family there were representatives of Russians, Jews, Kalmyks, Germans, Swedes and Chuvashs.

The brother of Vladimir Ilyich, Alexander, was in the ranks of the conspirators who were preparing an attempt on the life of the emperor. For this, the young man was executed, which was a heavy blow for the whole family. Perhaps it was this event that led Lenin to the path of revolution.

Beginning of revolutionary activity

In 1892-1893 Lenin became a supporter of social democratic ideas. He believed that the Russian workers should overthrow the tsarist government and lead their country, and then the whole world, to a communist revolution. Other Marxists were not so determined. They believed that Russia was not ready for such cardinal changes, that its proletariat was too weak, and that the material base for new production relations had not yet matured. Lenin, on the other hand, preferred to ignore the fears of his contemporaries and believed that the most important thing was to make a revolution.

Vladimir Ilyich contributed to the fact that the scattered revolutionary circles became a single "Union of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class." This organization was very active in propaganda activities. In 1895, Lenin, like many other members of the Union, was arrested. In 1897 he was sent into exile in the village of Shushenskoye. In 1898 he entered into an official marriage with his companion N. Krupskaya. At the request of the chief of police, they even got married, although they were atheists. One of the exiles made them wedding rings from a copper coin.

In exile, Lenin advised the peasants on legal issues, prepared documents for them, established contacts with the Social Democrats in large cities, and also wrote many of his fundamental works. Later he settles in Pskov, publishes the Iskra newspaper, the Zarya magazine, organizes the second congress of the RSDLP, draws up the party charter and work plan. During the revolution of 1905-1907. he was in Switzerland. Many party members were arrested, with the result that leadership passed to Lenin. A long period of emigration begins. In January 1917, in Switzerland, he says that he does not hope to live to see the coming great revolution, but he believes that the present younger generation will see it. Soon, the February Revolution took place in Russia, which Lenin considered a conspiracy of "Anglo-French imperialists."

Rise to power

April 3 (16) Lenin returns to his homeland. Speaking at the Finland Station, he called for a "social revolution". Such radicalism confused even his devoted supporters. In the famous "April Theses", he proclaims the course towards the transition of the bourgeois revolution to the proletarian one.

Lenin becomes the leader of the October armed uprising. The seizure of power was successful, as the country was going through an acute economic, political and military crisis. How old was Lenin when he made the revolution? He was 47, but for his ideas he fought with youthful uncompromisingness.

In 1917, contemporaries did not take the revolution seriously. They called it a coup and considered it a misunderstanding - accidental and temporary. But no matter how we evaluate Lenin's personality today, one thing cannot be taken away from him: he was able to feel the pain points of the people and subtly played on this. He understood that ordinary people were most concerned about two issues: the distribution of land and the conclusion of peace. The elite called Lenin's supporters German spies and accused them of betrayal. But for ordinary people, traitors were those who drove the soldiers to war and did not give the peasants land. Having come to power, the Bolsheviks began to eliminate the chaos in which the country was mired after the February revolution. They opposed order to anarchy and squabbles in the ranks of their opponents - and he naturally won.

In December 1922, Lenin's health was deteriorating. During this period, he dictated a number of notes, including the famous "Letter to the Congress." Some people tend to look at this document as Lenin's testament. They argue that if the country had continued to follow the true Leninist path, then many problems would not have arisen. If one adheres to this point of view, then Stalin deviated from the precepts of his predecessor, for which the whole people paid.

Lenin's key statements in the letter boil down to the following:

• difficulties in relations between Stalin and Trotsky threaten the unity of the party;
• perhaps Stalin will not be able to use his power carefully enough;
• Trotsky is a very capable man, but overconfident.

In recent years, some historians are beginning to doubt that the famous letter was really dictated by Lenin and attribute the authorship to N. Krupskaya. This question, obviously, will be the subject of discussion for a long time.

When Lenin died, the New Economic Policy was replaced by Stalin's radical industrialization. Because of this, Lenin and Stalin are sometimes contrasted on the principle of "good-bad". But Lenin himself viewed the NEP as a temporary measure. In addition, the Stalinist NKVD is the heir to the Leninist VKCh. History does not know the subjunctive mood, so we can evaluate Lenin only by his accomplishments.

For many people of the older generation, the leader of the revolution remains a great personality. They remember Lenin's birthday and believe that his path was in many ways the right one. Well, the younger generation has yet to give an objective assessment of his activities and do everything to prevent future leaders from repeating his mistakes.

It would seem that everything is known about his personal life. But the main secret has not yet been revealed: did the genius of the world revolution still have descendants? There were no children in the marriage with Nadezhda Konstantinovna. But Ilyich had a close relationship with the most beautiful of the underground workers, Inessa Armand. Professor of the Russian Academy of Theater Arts Faina Khachaturyan is sure that she was friends with Lenin's grandson as a child. We found that same boy - Vladimir Armand.

One of the most vivid memories of my childhood is visiting Inessa Armand's relatives, - says Faina Nikolaevna Khachaturyan, professor at the Russian Academy of Theater Arts, a famous Russian choreographer. - My mother was friends with Hiena Armand, the wife of Inessa's youngest son - Andrey. These were the post-war years. Their family lived in a house on Manezhnaya Square. Later I learned that they were given the apartment on Lenin's orders. It was a huge community. They lived very modestly. The apartment was furnished with old government furniture. But there was a special atmosphere in it, bright representatives of the Moscow intelligentsia gathered here. For us, children, wonderful holidays were arranged in this hospitable house. Hiena raised two sons. The youngest was called Volodya. We became friends with him. He impressed with his intelligence and erudition. It always seemed to me that he reminded me of someone very much. Later, the older sister opened my eyes by saying, "Look in a history book and you'll understand everything." And indeed. Volodya Armand in childhood was almost a copy of the photograph, which depicts Volodya Ulyanov in a gymnasium uniform. The same bulging forehead, the same piercing gaze. When I grew up, my mother told me that his father, Andrei Armand, was the son of Lenin. Such is the legend.

- In the mid-70s of the last century, the country's leadership decided to free the house on Manezhnaya from residents. The descendants of the fiery revolutionary were given new apartments. Hiena and her sons received housing on Smolensky Boulevard in a prestigious house at that time.

Intrigued by the story of Faina Khachaturian, I began to look for the sons of Hiena and Andrey Armand. It turned out that the eldest, Andrei Andreevich, had died two years ago. He was a military man and until the end of his days he worked in the "mail box". But that same Volodya, who looks like a textbook photograph of little Ilyich, lives and lives in Moscow. He is 69 years old. He runs a small business of his own. The first thing that comes to mind when meeting with him: indeed, he looks a lot like Lenin! Especially when he gestures and smiles.

– A few years ago, all the newspapers were covered by a sensation: the grave of Lenin's son, Andrey Armand, was found in Lithuania. Is this your father?

- They also wrote that he was a colonel. In fact, he was a captain. Yes, he was seriously wounded in 1944 in battles with the Nazis near Vilkavishkis. He died in the hospital. Here he was buried. The family knew where he rested. We went to his grave long before the press trumpeted it. Before the war, dad worked as a mechanical engineer at the Gorky Automobile Plant. He was sent here, not allowing him to finish the fourth year of the institute. He even went to Sergo Ordzhonikidze with a request to let him finish his studies at the university. But he answered him: "We are well acquainted with you, but this is not a reason not to fulfill the instructions of the party." My father had a reservation from the army. But he volunteered for the front.

- It is known that after the death of Inessa Armand in 1920, Krupskaya took care of her children.

- When Inessa died, my father was in his seventeenth year. His upbringing was handled by a home teacher. He lived with us as a member of the family even after the death of his father. Krupskaya treated children with attention. Vladimir Ilyich also communicated with them, from time to time he clarified their ideological moods. There was no guardianship: just a normal relationship. Our last name meant nothing. Therefore, no benefits, no special conditions. True, Iosif Vissarionovich clearly responded to his mother's requests when she wrote: "Fix the roof." The roof often leaked: it was broken during the bombing. A day after the letter, the commandant of the Kremlin came running. Although the Armands still had one privilege: not a single member of the family fell under repression. The adopted children of Dmitry Ulyanov, the leader's younger brother, received the same indulgence.

- They wrote that one of the Armands kept Inessa's personal correspondence with Vladimir Ilyich for a long time. And in the early 50s, he burned it, fearing that it could become a reason for arrest.

- All personal correspondence with Lenin was confiscated immediately after the death of Inessa. So all the secrets of their personal relationships, if they were, are still kept in the archives of the NKVD. We have lost only my grandmother's memories of Vladimir Armand. They were stolen during the evacuation along with my diapers. It was from Vladimir that she gave birth to the fifth child - my father. She went to him, leaving the father of her previous four children - Alexander Armand, my grandfather's older brother. This is a famous family story.

- And how does the family feel about the legend that Andrei Armand is the son of Ilyich?

- These are all journalists-fictioners, - answered Vladimir Andreevich. Where the legend came from, I don't know. For some reason, no one says that Inessa Armand created the Rabotnitsa magazine, that she is the first chairman of the executive committee of Moscow and the Moscow region. This is no longer interesting to anyone. My father was born in 1903, and Inessa met Lenin in 1909.

- But the leader and his girlfriend could correct the biography. Maybe they met earlier, because Inessa wrote that she got acquainted with the works of Lenin in 1903, in the year of the birth of her youngest son...

Vladimir Andreevich just waved it away.

- Once Volodya spoke at some meeting. Someone took a picture of him. In the picture, he really was an exact copy of the leader, - Olga, the wife of Vladimir Andreevich, laughs.

- Vladimir Ilyich and Inessa, figuratively speaking, were standing next to the machine. He is an outstanding theorist. She is a very literate person in terms of culture, economics, jurisprudence and a talented organizer. And nothing more, - Vladimir Andreevich finished the conversation.

He was one of the key ideological inspirers of the October Revolution of 1917 and the first head of a 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 worship and cult. He was glorified, exalted and idealized, called a visionary, a giant of thought and a visionary genius. Today, in different sectors of society, the attitude towards him is very contradictory: for some, he is the largest political theorist who influenced the course of world history, for others, he is the author of especially cruel concepts for the destruction of compatriots, who destroyed the foundations of the country's economy.

Childhood

Mom devoted herself to raising children, of whom there were five in their family: daughter Anna, sons Alexander, Vladimir, Dmitry and the youngest child - Maria or Manyasha, as her relatives called her. The mother of the family graduated from a pedagogical college as an external student, 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 with him throughout his life; shortly before his death, he began to learn Czech. In the gymnasium, he preferred philosophy, but he also had excellent marks in other disciplines.

He grew up as an inquisitive boy, he liked to arrange noisy games with his brothers and sisters: in a horse, in Indians, in soldiers. Reading Uncle Tom's Cabin, he imagined himself as Abraham Lincoln smashing the slave owners.

In the last year of study, in 1986, his father died. A year later, their family suffered another ordeal - the execution of brother Alexander by hanging. The young man was good in the 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 held as one of the organizers of the attempt to assassinate the tsar.

Formation of political consciousness

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. Then his political views began to take shape. He took up 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 abolish the division of society into classes, and consequently, all social and political inequality.

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

In 1891, the authorities allowed Ulyanov to pass the exams for the first year of the law faculty of St. Petersburg University. A little less than a year, Vladimir was an assistant attorney. This service was boring for him, and in 1893 he left for the Northern capital, where he took up the practice of law and the study of the ideology of Marxism. By this time, he had finally taken shape as a person, his views had evolved: if earlier he bowed to the ideas of the populists, now he has become a supporter of the social democrats.

Road to revolution

We must fight religion. This is the ABC of all materialism and, consequently, of Marxism. But Marxism is not materialism that stops at the ABC. Marxism goes further. He says: one must be able to fight against religion, and for this it is necessary to explain materialistically 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 release of the famous underground newspaper Iskra. Then he began to sign his writings and articles with the pseudonym Lenin. Vladimir Ilyich had high hopes for Iskra, believing that it would rally the divided 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 force of arms and supporters of the classical parliamentary path - the Mensheviks, and the party program developed together with Plekhanov was adopted. In 1905, at the 1st party conference in Finland, he met Stalin for the first time.

Any extreme is not good; everything good and useful, taken to an extreme, can become and even, beyond a certain limit, necessarily becomes evil and harm.

Victory in the February Revolution of 1917, which led to the overthrow of the monarchy, Lenin met abroad. Arriving at home, he called for an uprising against the Provisional Government. It was organized by Lev Trotsky, head of the Petrograd Soviet. On 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

No one is to blame if he was born a slave; but a slave who not only shies away from striving for his freedom, but justifies and embellishes his slavery, such a slave is one who 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 with his wife, five of their children and close servants were killed on the night of July 16-17 in Yekaterinburg. Note that the question of Lenin's involvement in the execution of the Romanovs is still debatable.

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

Lenin's speech to the Red Army soldiers (1919)

The Bolsheviks introduced a tough and inefficient concept of "war communism", involving people in free public works up to 16 hours a day, confiscated food, and liquidated the market.

These actions provoked massive famine and crisis, forcing the country's leader to develop a new economic policy (NEP). She gave positive results, but he could not correct all the mistakes made because of his failing health.

Personal life of Vladimir Lenin

The couple did not have offspring, although people who knew them claimed that they really wanted to have at least one child. The reason for this was the unfavorable living conditions for the birth of children of a married couple (exiles, prisons, emigration), as well as the consequences of Krupskaya’s illness, who had been seriously ill “in the female part” during imprisonment.

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

According to researchers, until his death, the couple was connected not by intimacy, but by 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 - burr, but had powerful charisma, piercing eyes, could almost hypnotically influence others.

Death

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 the vessels of the brain, 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 burial structure was erected, where Ilyich's body was placed. Now in its place stands a mausoleum made of red brick. The embalmed leader of the peoples rests there to this day.

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (Ulyanov) was born on April 22, 1870 in Simbirsk. Until the age of 16, he belonged to the Society of St. Sergius of Radonezh. In 1887 he graduated from the Simbirsk gymnasium, the director of which was F.M. Kerensky, father of A. Kerensky. In the same year, the elder brother V.I. was executed for participating in the assassination attempt on Alexander the 3rd. Ulyanova - Alexander.

After graduating from the gymnasium, Lenin entered Kazan University at the Faculty of Law. However, his studies at the university were short-lived. Soon Vladimir Ulyanov was expelled for active assistance to the student movement and participation in the People's Will circle. After that, having become interested in the ideas of K. Marx, he joined one of the Marxist circles. In the same period, Ulyanov began to study political economy, to be interested in journalism. As a result of student unrest, Vladimir was arrested for the first time and subsequently exiled to the Kazan province (village of Kokushkino), where he spent time until the winter of 1889. Thus began Lenin's revolutionary activity.

A brief biography of Lenin is impossible without mentioning his exile in the Yenisei province (village Shushenskoye). Vladimir Lenin became the founder of a party called the Union of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class. As a result of her activities, he was arrested in 1895 along with many other members of the party. A year Lenin was imprisoned, and during the next three years spent in exile in Shushenskoye, he wrote most of his works. Lenin's works relating to this period are quite numerous.

During his exile, Vladimir Ulyanov married Nadezhda Krupskaya. The marriage was registered in 1897, before that Krupskaya was his common-law wife. However, Lenin was not destined to have children, although some historians consider this fact controversial and mention in this connection the relationship of Vladimir Ilyich with Inessa Armand.

In 1898, the 1st congress, which was attended by nine delegates, established the RSDLP party. Almost immediately after that, all the participants were arrested. Lenin was sent into exile, after which he founded the Iskra newspaper and actively participated in its work. Later, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin became one of the organizers of the 2nd Congress of the RSDLP.

During the first Russian revolution (1905-1907) Ulyanov was in Switzerland. However, during the 3rd Congress of the RSDLP in London, he noted that the main goal of the revolution should be the destruction of the remnants of serfdom and the overthrow of the autocracy. In 1905, under a false name, he arrived in St. Petersburg, where he led the St. Petersburg Central Committee, prepared an uprising, wrote new works, and collaborated with the Pravda newspaper. But soon after that, he left for Finland, where in December Lenin and Stalin met personally.

Then there was a long period of frequent moving and emigration. Only at the beginning of the February Revolution of 1917 did Lenin return to Russia and become the head of the uprising. A few months later, he delivered a report known today as the "April Theses". After the authorities issued an order for his arrest, Ulyanov continued active underground work.

As a result of the October Revolution of 1917 and the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly, power completely passed to Lenin's party. He headed the new government of the country, founded the Red Army, made peace with Germany. In an effort to improve the welfare of the population, he replaced War Communism with the NEP (New Economic Policy).

Lenin's death occurred as a result of a sharp deterioration in his health on January 21, 1924 (according to some sources, due to an assassination attempt). The body of the leader was preserved and placed in the mausoleum. The first, wooden version of Lenin's mausoleum was ready by the day of his funeral.