Vladimir Lenin: the facts
Author: Leon Trotsky (Encyclopedia Britannica, 14th edition)
Lenin
LENIN, VLADIMIR ILYICH ULYANOV (1870-1924), founder and guiding spirit of the Soviet Republics and the Communist International, the disciple of Marx, the leader of the Bolshevik party and the organizer of the Oct. revolution in Russia, was born on April 9 (22), 1870, in the town of Simbirsk, now Ulyanovsk. His father, Ilya Nicolaevitch, was a schoolmaster. His mother, Maria Alexandrovna, was the daughter of a doctor named Berg. His eldest brother (b. 1866) joined the “Narodovoltze” (a revolutionary terrorist society), and taking part in the unsuccessful attempt on the life of Alexander III., was executed (1891); this was a determining factor in Lenin’s life.