Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (22 April 1870 – 21 January 1924), also known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian politician and political theorist. He became a founding leader of the Soviet Union, leading the Bolshevik Revolution from 1917 until his death in 1924.
His Early Years
He was born into a middle-class family in Simbirsk (now Ulyanovsk, renamed in his honour in 1924). Although it is difficult to identify specific formative events in his life, his family was highly educated. The third of six children, Lenin was comfortably raised by his father, a school teacher who later became Director of Public Schools for Simbirsk province, and a devoted mother. Lenin was intellectually gifted, graduating from secondary school top of his class.
Lenin suffered two major events in his youth. First, his father faced threats before his untimely death in 1886. Second, his eldest brother, Alexandr, a university student at St. Petersburg, was executed in 1887 for his involvement with the revolutionary group People’s Will, which plotted to assassinate Emperor Alexander III. Lenin was just 17 at the time. The family remained financially stable due to his mother’s pension and inheritance.
In autumn 1887, Lenin enrolled to study law at Kazan University but was expelled within three months for participating in a student protest against restrictive policies. In 1888, he was allowed to return to Kazan but denied re-entry to the university. During this period, he met older revolutionaries, became a Marxist in January 1889, and worked as a lawyer while organising revolutionary groups.
Events Leading to Revolution
After facing numerous hurdles, Lenin earned a first-class law degree externally from St. Petersburg University in 1891 while living in Samara. He later moved to St. Petersburg, where he worked as a public defender and engaged with Marxist circles. Lenin was arrested in 1895 for his role in the St. Petersburg League of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class and exiled to Siberia in 1897 for three years.
During his exile, Lenin continued writing revolutionary works, including The Development of Capitalism in Russia (1899), and married fellow Marxist Nadezhda Krupskaya in 1898. Though isolated, he remained politically active through correspondence. His Siberian exile ended in 1900, after which he left Russia and spent most of the next 17 years in Europe.
Later Years
After leading the Bolsheviks to power in the October Revolution of 1917, Vladimir Lenin became the head of Soviet Russia, immediately facing immense challenges. His first major act was to withdraw Russia from World War I through the controversial Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (March 1918), which ceded significant territories to Germany but secured peace. This was followed by the brutal Russian Civil War (1917–1922), where Lenin’s Red Army triumphed over the anti-Bolshevik White forces and foreign interventionists, consolidating communist rule. By 1921, with the economy in ruins after years of “War Communism,” Lenin introduced the New Economic Policy (NEP), allowing limited private enterprise to stimulate recovery. His health, however, deteriorated due to injuries from an assassination attempt in 1918 and stress, leading to multiple strokes before his death on 21 January 1924. Lenin’s legacy was cemented as his body was embalmed and placed in Moscow’s Lenin Mausoleum, becoming a communist icon. He founded the USSR on 30 December 1922 and inspired revolutionary movements worldwide, though his authoritarian methods, including the Red Terror, also laid the groundwork for Stalin’s later dictatorship.
In 1922, Lenin fell seriously ill. An assassination attempt in 1918 had left lasting injuries, and his health deteriorated rapidly after several strokes, leaving him partially paralysed. He died on 21 January 1924 at the age of 53.
His influence remains deeply controversial, celebrated by some as a revolutionary hero and condemned by others as a dictator.
