p Vladimir Ulyanov’s childhood and youth coincided with a period when reaction in Russia reigned supreme. People were persecuted for every manifestation of free thinking.

p Lenin’s outlook during that early period of his youth crystallised under the influence of his upbringing at home and of his parents’ example, under the influence of revolutionary-democratic literature and contact with the life of the people. He was also greatly influenced by his elder brother Alexander, who was an incontestable authority to him. Young Vladimir took after his brother, and whenever asked to take a decision he answered: “I’d do what Alexander would do.” This desire to model his conduct on his elder brother did not wear off but rather gained greater depth and meaning as time went on. It was from Alexander that Vladimir first learned about Marxist literature. And it was in Alexander’s hands that he first saw Marx’s Capital.

p Alexander Ulyanov was an extremely gifted youth. He was distinguished from childhood for his strong will and moral fibre. “Alexander,” Anna Ilyinichna recalls, “was an exceptionally serious and thoughtful boy, with a very strong sense of duty. Not only firm but just, sensitive and kind-hearted, he was the favourite of the younger children. Vladimir tried to imitate his brother....”   [15•* 

p Observing life with a keen eye, Vladimir saw the poverty the people were living in, and the oppression and exploitation the workers and peasants were undergoing. He listened attentively to his father’s stories about the ignorance that reigned in the countryside, about the tyranny of the authorities, and the squalor and misery of the peasantry. Coming into contact as he did with working people, he could not help noticing the humiliating condition of the Chuvashes, Mordvinians, Tatars, Udmurts and other disfranchised non-Russian nationalities. All this aroused in him burning hatred for the oppressors of the people.

p His sympathy for the peoples oppressed by tsarism is seen from the following fact. In his senior forms at the Gymnasium, he coached the teacher of a Chuvash school by the name of N. Okhotnikov, who wanted to take his examination for a school-leaving certificate. A Chuvash by nationality and a man endowed with considerable mathematical gifts, Okhotnikov longed to receive a higher education but was unable to prepare on his own for the 16 examination, which included the ancient languages, and he could not afford to hire a teacher. On hearing of the man’s predicament, Vladimir undertook to coach him free of charge, and did so regularly, three times a week, for eighteen months. Okhotnikov passed his examination and received his certificate, which enabled him to enter the university.

p In his quest of solutions to the problems besetting him, Vladimir did a great deal of reading. Among his favourite authors were Pushkin, Lermontov, Gogol, Turgenev, Nekrasov, Saltykov- Shchedrin and Tolstoy. He absorbed the revolutionary spirit of the writings of Belinsky, Herzen, Chernyshevsky, Dobrolyubov and Pisarev. The writings of these revolutionary democrats roused in him hatred for the social and political system of tsarist Russia, and helped to form his revolutionary convictions. Young Lenin was a great admirer of the poets who contributed to the satirical magazine Iskra (The Spark), one of the leading publications of the revolutionary- democratic trend, which came out against feudal-minded reactionaries and the liberalism of the nobility and the bourgeoisie.

p Life dealt Vladimir severe blows when he was still very young. His father died suddenly in January 1886 of a stroke at the age of 54. (The family was left without any means of subsistence.) Maria Alexandrovna applied for a pension and several months passed before it was granted.

p Scarcely had the family recovered from this blow when another struck them-Alexander was arrested in St. Petersburg on March 1, 1887, for his part in the attempt to assassinate Tsar Alexander III. Shortly afterwards Anna, who was studying in St. Petersburg, was arrested too.

p No one in the family had known about Alexander’s revolutionary activities. He graduated from the Simbirsk Gymnasium with a gold medal, and was a brilliant student at the St. Petersburg University, where his researches in zoology and chemistry had attracted the attention of eminent scientists, such as N. P. Wagner and A. M. Butlerov, each of whom wanted him to study in his faculty. One of his papers in zoology, written in his third year, was awarded a gold medal. He gave promise of becoming a professor. On his last summer holiday at home he spent all his time on his thesis and seemed to be completely absorbed in his studies. No one knew that he was a member of the study-circles of the revolutionary youth in St. Petersburg and conducted political propaganda among the workers. Ideologically, he stood midway between the Narodnaya Volya^^4^^ and Marxism. His comrades loved him for his fine 17 The Ulyanov family. Maria Alexandrovna, Ilya Nikolaycvich and (heir children: Oljra, Maria. Alexander, Dmitry, Anna, Vladimir 1’hntii. 187’) On Vacation Drawing by A. Zjm Nadc/.hda Konstantmovna Krupskaya Photo, i/i!>r> First Leaflet I’fom [tainting by 1’. ( Ivan Balmshkin I’hnlo Lenin with a group of prominent members of the St. Petersburg League of Struggle for the (”.mancipation of the Working Class I’hoto, 1897 Vasily Sholgunov Photo The house in Shushenskoye V’il where Lenin lived in exile Photo brain, moral purity, loyalty to the cause and extreme modesty.

p The news spread swiftly in Simbirsk. The town’s liberal “society”, all their acquaintances, were quick to shun the Ulyanov family. That was when young Lenin had his first real glimpse of the cowardly face of the liberal intellectual.

p Maria Alexandrovna at once went to St. Petersburg. She did her utmost to save her son from the threat of death, but all her efforts were in vain. Maria Alexandrovna attended the trial of Alexander and his comrades, and heard her son’s ardent speech in which he fearlessly denounced the autocracy and spoke about the historically inevitable victory of the new social order-socialism.

p “I was surprised how well Alexander spoke,” she told her daughter Anna. "He was so convincing and eloquent. I never thought he could speak like that. But it was more than I could bear, and I had to leave the courtroom before he finished.”

p On May 8, 1887, Alexander Ulyanov, at the age of 21, was executed by the tsarist hangmen in the Shlisselburg fortress.

p The execution of Alexander Ulyanov disturbed all honest people who were outraged at the arbitrary behaviour of the tsarist autocracy. The newspapers of many countries wrote about his bravery. Thus, the English Daily News and Der Sozialdemokrat published in Switzerland paid special attention to his speech in court; the French newspaper Cri du Peuple described his fortitude at the execution. The Polish newspaper Przedswit published a poem entitled Ulyanov about his heroism and courage. The death of Alexander Ulyanov was also a great loss to science. The great Mendeleyev lamented that the revolution had deprived him of two outstanding pupils-Kibalchich and Ulyanov.

p His brother’s execution was a great shock to Vladimir, but at the same time it confirmed him in his revolutionary views. Anna Yelizarova-Ulyanova wrote these stirring words about the two brothers: “Alexander Ulyanov died the death of a hero, and the halo of his revolutionary martyrdom lighted the path for his younger brother Vladimir.”   [17•* 

p While paying tribute to the noble memory of his brother and his intrepid spirit, Lenin rejected the path of terrorism which Alexander had chosen. “No, we won’t take that path,” he decided. "That isn’t the path to take.”

p In those tragic days Lenin’s self-command and fortitude were revealed at their best. He saw how stoically his mother was bearing 18 her inconsolable grief. Her example could not but influence him. Numbed by sorrow, he found the strength to go on with his studies and passed his school-leaving examination brilliantly. The youngest boy in his form, he was the only one among the graduates to receive a gold medal. The school authorities were in two minds about giving a medal to the brother of an executed “state criminal”. But Lenin’s outstanding abilities and profound knowledge were too obvious to be ignored. The character given by the headmaster stated: “Highly capable, hardworking and painstaking, Ulyanov was top scholar in all forms, and upon finishing school has been awarded a gold medal as the most deserving pupil in regard to progress, development and conduct.”   [18•* 

p The Ulyanov family left Simbirsk at the end of June 1887. They lived till August in the village of Kokushkino, and then moved to Kazan, where Lenin entered the university (faculty of law). Being resolved to dedicate himself to the revolutionary struggle, he wanted to make a study of the social sciences. “These days,” he said, “one must study law and political economy.”

p Lenin was not admitted into the university at once. The university authorities were afraid to take the responsibility of enrolling him. His application was marked as follows: “Defer pending receipt of a character.” And it was not until an excellent testimonial was received from the Simbirsk Gymnasium that he was enrolled in the university.

p In Kazan University Lenin became an active member of the illegal Samara-Simbirsk Fraternity. The tsarist authorities banned every kind of student organisation membership of which was punishable by expulsion under the University Statutes of 1884. It was a time when spying and snooping were rife in the universities of Russia. Lenin got in touch with the progressive-minded students and took an active part in the revolutionary students’ circle, which the police described as a coterie of “an extremely pernicious trend".

p Students took a resolute stand against police persecution in the universities. On December 4, 1887, the students held a meeting in the assembly hall of Kazan University. They demanded that the reactionary University Statutes be repealed, that student societies be permitted, that students who had been expelled be reinstated and those responsible for their expulsion be called to account. Lenin took an active part in the meeting. The Warden of the Kazan Educational Area afterwards reported to the 19 Department of Education that Ulyanov “dashed into the assembly hall with the first lot”, and the University Inspector described him as “one of the most active participants in the meeting, who was to be seen in the front rows, very excited, almost with clenched fists”. On leaving the meeting Lenin was one of the first to lay down his student’s card.

p The revolutionary action of the students greatly alarmed the Kazan authorities. They kept a battalion of soldiers alerted in the courtyard of the building adjoining the university.

p As a demonstration of protest, Lenin decided to quit the university. On December 5, he wrote the following application to the Rector: “As I do not find it possible to continue my education at the university under the present conditions of university life, I beg to ask Your Excellency to issue the necessary order for my name to be crossed out of the list of students of the Imperial Kazan University.”   [19•* 

p By. order of the Governor of Kazan, Lenin was arrested and imprisoned. In the prison cell the arrested students compared notes and discussed plans for the future. Asked by his comrades what he would do when released, Lenin answered that only one road lay before him, that of revolutionary struggle. On December 5, Lenin was expelled from the university along with other students who had played an active part in the meeting. He was forbidden to live in Kazan, and on December 7 he was banished to the village of Kokushkino under secret police surveillance. (His sister Anna, banished from St. Petersburg, also lived there.)

p That was how Lenin, at the age of seventeen, took the path of revolutionary struggle.

p The gendarmes did not rest content with banishing Lenin to the village. The Director of the Police Department sent an order to the Chief of the Kazan Gubernia Gendarmes Office stating: “See to it ... that a strict and secret watch be kept on Vladimir Ulyanov banished to the village of Kokushkino, near Kazan.”

p While in exile Lenin assiduously studied socio-political, economic and statistical literature. Through his relatives in Kazan he received books and periodicals from the libraries. In later recollections he wrote: I don’t think I ever afterwards read so much in my life, not even during my imprisonment in St. Petersburg or exile in Siberia, as I did in the year when I was banished to the village from Kazan; I read voraciously from early morning till late at 20 night. Lenin pursued his studies according to a strict system. He studied university courses, read various periodicals and fiction, especially the works of Nekrasov. Lenin read his favourite authors, Chernyshevsky and Dobrolyubov, over and over again, and made precis and notes of their works. He made a profound study of the great Russian revolutionary democrat Chernyshevsky, whose writings preached the class struggle, advocated a peasant revolution, a struggle to overthrow the autocracy and end serfdom, and set forth his materialist philosophical views and socialist ideas. Lenin later often stressed the tremendous importance of the writings of Chernyshevsky, who was able even by censored articles to educate real revolutionaries.

p Lenin spent nearly a year in exile. In the autumn of 1888 he was permitted to return to Kazan,^^5^^ but he was not readmitted to the university. The Warden of the Kazan Educational Area objected to Lenin’s returning to the university and wrote to the Department of Public Education: “...Although he possesses outstanding abilities and is extremely well informed, he cannot at present be considered a reliable person either morally or politically.” In the Department the following endorsement was made on this document: “Isn’t this the brother of that Ulyanov? He is from the Simbirsk Gymnasium, too, isn’t he? Not to be admitted under any circumstances.” Prevented from continuing his education in Russia, Lenin applied for permission to leave the country and continue his education abroad, but again he was refused. The Governor of Kazan received an order from the Police Department saying that “no foreign passport ... should be issued" to Vladimir Ulyanov.

p Shortly afterwards Lenin joined one of the Marxist study-circles organised by Nikolai Fedoseyev, one of the first revolutionaries who proclaimed themselves Marxists. For reasons of secrecy, the members of the study-circles which he had organised in Kazan did not associate with one another and did not mention names unless they had to. Everyone knew only the members of his own circle. That is why Lenin never met Fedoseyev, although he was a member of one of the circles. There were several illegal revolutionary circles in Kazan at the time, where the works of Marx and Engels, circulating in illegal editions and manuscript form, were studied and discussed, and where heated debates were held on the works of Plekhanov aimed against the Narodniks.

p It was a time when Narodism had a strong hold on the revolutionary-minded intellectuals. The idealist and anti-historical claim of the Narodniks that capitalism in Russia was an accidental 21 development, that the country would arrive at socialism only through the peasant commune, and their advocacy of the tactics of individual terrorism as a method of political struggle were very popular among the intellectuals. “Nearly all had in their early youth enthusiastically worshipped the terrorist heroes,” Lenin pointed out afterwards. “It required a struggle to abandon the captivating impressions of those heroic traditions, and the struggle was accompanied by the breaking off of personal relations with people who were determined to remain loyal to the Narodnaya Volya and for whom the young Social-Democrats had profound respect. The struggle compelled the youthful leaders to educate themselves, to read illegal literature of every trend....”  [21•*  Lenin himself never adhered to the ideas of Narodism.

p The views of the Narodniks obviously clashed with realities. After the abolition of serfdom in 1861 capitalism in Russia began to develop rapidly. Factories sprang up in St. Petersburg, in the central and southern regions, and in the Urals. Railway lines were built connecting the centre with the border regions of the country. A great revolutionary force was growing and gaining strength in Russia in the shape of the proletariat. The working class, which had not yet become conscious of its own power, had already started its struggle against the bourgeois and landowner system. Strikes broke out spontaneously and the first proletarian organisations came into being.

p In 1883 the first Russian Marxist organisation — the Emancipation of Labour group headed by Plekhanov—was set up abroad. This group played a prominent part in spreading the ideas of scientific socialism in Russia, in giving a Marxist analysis of the economic situation in the country, and combating Narodism. The writings of Plekhanov were of very great importance, especially his Socialism and the Political Struggle and Our Differences, which were avidly read and discussed in the Marxist study-circles of the time. Published abroad free from censorship, they for the first time systematically expounded the ideas of Marxism as applicable to Russia. The Emancipation of Labour group, however, in the words of Lenin, only laid the theoretical foundations for the Social-Democratic movement in Russia and took the first step towards the workingclass movement.

p Lenin devoted the months spent in Kazan to mastering the theory of Marxism and making personal contacts with the young 22 Marxists there. He made a serious study of Marx’s chief work, Capital, in which its great author revealed and scientifically substantiated the economic laws of development of capitalist society, gave a profound analysis of capitalism’s contradictions, and incontestably proved the inevitability of its downfall and of the victory of socialism. Marx scientifically justified the world-historic role of the proletariat as the grave-digger of capitalism and the builder of a new, socialist society.

p Lenin was completely carried away by the great ideas of Marx, by the irresistible logic and profundity of his scientific conclusions. He did not merely study Capital but gave it deep thought, specifically from the angle of its application to the socio-economic conditions and the tasks of the working-class movement in Russia.

p From the very beginning of his conscious life Lenin adhered to the revolutionary Marxist teaching on the remaking of the world and the great historic mission of the working class. At the age of eighteen Lenin understood that the proletariat was the most revolutionary class which was to play the part of leader in the struggle against the exploiters.

p Lenin was one of the first Russian Marxists who creatively mastered the revolutionary teaching, a convinced adherent and ardent propagandist of the great ideas of scientific socialism.

Having mastered the Marxist theory, Lenin saw as no one else the great force that would be aroused in the working class of Russia when a socialist consciousness was brought into the young workingclass movement. Already at that time he was certain that neither the tsarist autocracy nor the rule of the capitalists would be able to withstand that force.