View source for Vladimir Lenin

{{family name hatnote|Ilyich|Ulyanov|lang=Eastern Slavic}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2024}}
{{Use British English|date=January 2014}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name                = Vladimir Lenin
| native_name         = {{nobold|Владимир Ленин}}
| native_name_lang    = ru
| image               = Lenin in 1920 (cropped).jpg
| alt                 = 
| caption             = Lenin in 1920
| order               = 1st
| office              = Leader of the Soviet Union
| president           = [[Mikhail Kalinin]]
| premier             = ''Himself'' (from 1923)
| term_start          = 30 December 1922
| term_end            = 21 January 1924
| predecessor         = ''Position established''
| successor           = [[Joseph Stalin]]
| order1              = 1st
| office1             = Premier of the Soviet Union
| president1          = Mikhail Kalinin
| term_start1         = 6 July 1923
| term_end1           = 21 January 1924
| predecessor1        = ''Office established''
| successor1          = [[Alexei Rykov]]
| office2             = Chairman of the [[Council of People's Commissars of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|Council of People's Commissars of the Russian&nbsp;SFSR]]
| term_start2         = 8 November 1917
| term_end2           = 21 January 1924
| predecessor2        = ''Office established''
| successor2          = Alexei Rykov
| birth_date          = 22 April 1870
| birth_name          = Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov
| birth_place         = [[Simbirsk]], [[Russian Empire]]
| death_date          = {{death date and age|1924|1|21|1870|4|22|df=yes}}
| death_place         = [[Gorki Leninskiye|Gorki]], [[Russian SFSR]], Soviet Union
| death_cause         = 
| resting_place       = [[Lenin's Mausoleum]], Moscow
| party               = [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|CPSU]] (from 1912)
| otherparty          = {{plainlist|
*[[RSDLP]] (1898{{nbnd}}1912; [[Bolshevik]] faction from 1903)
*[[League of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class|SBORK]] (1895{{nbnd}}1898)
}}
| spouse              = {{marriage|[[Nadezhda Krupskaya]]|1898}}
| parents             = {{unbulleted list|[[Ilya Ulyanov]]|[[Maria Alexandrovna Ulyanova|Maria Blank]]}}
{{collapsible list|title={{nobold|5 siblings}}|[[Anna Ulyanova]] (sister)|[[Aleksandr Ulyanov]] (brother)|[[Olga Ilyinichna Ulyanova|Olga Ulyanova]] (sister)|[[Dmitry Ilyich Ulyanov|Dmitry Ulyanov]] (brother)|[[Maria Ilyinichna Ulyanova|Maria Ulyanova]] (sister)}}
| alma_mater          = [[Saint Petersburg Imperial University]]
| signature           = Vladimir Lenin signature.svg
}}
'''Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov'''{{efn|{{lang-rus|Владимир Ильич Ульянов|Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov|vlɐˈdʲimʲɪr ɨˈlʲjitɕ ʊˈlʲjanəf}}.}} (22 April 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as '''Vladimir Lenin''',{{efn|{{IPAc-en|lang|ˈ|l|ɛ|n|ᵻ|n}};{{sfn|''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''}} {{lang-rus|Ленин||ˈlʲenʲɪn}}.}} was a [[Russian people|Russian]] [[Revolution|revolutionary]], [[politician]], and [[Political theory|political theorist]]. He was the first [[leader of the Soviet Union]], starting when the country was created in 1922. He was also the first [[premier of the Soviet Union]] until his death. 

Under Lenin's administration, Russia (and later the Soviet Union) became a [[One-party state|one-party]] [[Socialist country|socialist state]] governed by the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Communist Party]]. He was a [[Marxist]], and his developments to Marxism are called [[Leninism]].

== Early life ==
[[File:Dom ulyanovyh.jpg|thumb|left|Lenin's Birthplace]]
Vladimir Ulyanov was born on 22 April 1870 in the town of [[Simbirsk]], in the [[Russian Empire]]. His mother was a schoolteacher, and his father was an education official. Technically, his father's job made the family [[Nobility|noblemen]].

Lenin began studying [[politics]] in [[Gymnasium (school)|gymnasium]] (an elite [[high school]]). In 1886, the year that Lenin was doing his final exams, his father died; his brother Alexander was [[Hanging (death)|hanged]] for his part in a [[bomb]] plot [[Assassination|to kill]] [[Alexander III of Russia|Tsar Alexander III]], and their sister Anna was sent to [[Tatarstan]]. That made Lenin furious, and he promised to get [[revenge]] for his brother's death. Still, he completed his exams and got the second-highest grade in his class.

Lenin excelled in [[school]] and learned [[Latin language|Latin]] and [[Greek language|Greek]]. However, in 1887, he was thrown out of [[Kazan State University]] because he protested against the [[Tsar]]. Lenin continued to read books and study ideas by himself, and in 1891 he got a [[license]] to become a [[lawyer]].

== Early revolutionary activities ==
[[File:Lenin-1895-mugshot.jpg|left|thumb|150px|Picture taken when Lenin was arrested]]
[[File:Union-de-Lucha.jpg|thumb|left|Lenin (center) during a meeting of the [[Saint Petersburg]] chapter of the Union of Struggle for the [[Emancipation|Liberation]] of the [[Working class|Working Class]] in February 1897]]
While he studied law in [[Saint Petersburg|St. Petersburg]], Lenin learned about the writings of [[Karl Marx]] and [[Friedrich Engels]], who were [[Philosophy|philosophers]] from [[Germany]]. 

=== Prison ===
Marx's thoughts were called [[Marxism]]. It was [[Law|illegal]] in Russia to talk or write about Marxism positively. Lenin was arrested for doing so and was sent to [[prison]] in [[Siberia]]. That was a harsh punishment because Siberia is very cold and isolated and almost impossible to escape.

In July 1898, while still in Siberia, Lenin married [[Nadezhda Krupskaya]]. In 1899, Lenin wrote a book, ''[[:en:The_Development_of_Capitalism_in_Russia|The Development of Capitalism in Russia]]''. In 1900, Lenin was set free from prison and allowed to go back home. 

=== After prison ===
After he was set free, Lenin traveled around [[Europe]]. He started a Marxist [[newspaper]] called ''[[Iskra]] (''the [[Russian language|Russian]] word for "spark" or "[[lightning]]"). He also became an important member of the [[Russian Social Democratic Labour Party]], or RSDLP. In 1901, he began calling himself "Lenin."

In 1903, Lenin had a major argument with another leader of the party, [[Julius Martov]], which divided the [[Political party|party]] into two. Lenin wanted to establish [[socialism]] right away, rather than establishing [[capitalism]] first and then changing to socialism. Martov disagreed and believed the [[Classical Marxism|Classical Marxist]] idea that capitalism must come before socialism. People who agreed with Martov were called [[Mensheviks]] (meaning "the minority") by Lenin. The people who agreed with Lenin were called [[Bolsheviks]] ("the [[majority]]") even though they were smaller in number.

In 1907, Lenin traveled around Europe again and visited many socialist meetings and events. During [[World War I]], he lived in big European cities like [[London]], [[Paris]], and [[Geneva]]. 

At the beginning of the war, a big [[left-wing]] meeting, called the [[Second International]], included the Bolsheviks. The meeting shut down when many of its groups argued on whether or not to support the war. Lenin's Bolsheviks were one of only a few groups to be against the war because of their Marxist ideas.

== Russian Revolution ==
[[File:Lenin.gif|thumb|left|Lenin giving a speech to a crowd in 1917]]
After Tsar [[Nicholas II of Russia|Nicholas II]] [[Abdication|abdicated]] (gave up his throne) during the [[February Revolution]], Lenin went back to Russia, where he was still a very important Bolshevik leader. He wrote that he wanted a revolution in which ordinary workers would overthrow the new [[Republic|republican]] government.

In 1917, the Kadets (a [[Political moderate|moderate]] party) and parts of the Okhrana (the Russian [[secret police]]) started [[Rumor|rumors]] that Lenin had gotten money from the Germans, who had sent him through [[German Empire|Germany]] in a special [[train]] to reach Russia. That made him look bad because many Russians had died fighting Germany during the war. 

After the July Days, a popular uprising in [[Saint Petersburg|Petrograd]], the Russian capital, was crushed by the [[Russian Provisional Government]]. Lenin left Russia and went to [[Finland]], where he could hide and carry on with his work on [[communism]].


In November 1917, Lenin and [[Leon Trotsky|Leon Trotsky]] led the Bolsheviks, including soviets from all over Russia, in a revolution against the Russian government led by [[Alexander Kerensky]].  The Bolshevik [[October Revolution]] announced that Russia was a socialist country.  In November, Lenin was chosen as its leader.

== In power ==
[[File:Lenin and stalin crop.jpg|thumb|Vladimir Lenin (left) with [[Joseph Stalin]]]]Lenin wanted an end to the war Russia. In February 1918, he signed the [[Treaty of Brest-Litovsk]] with [[German Empire|Germany]], which ended the Germans' attack on Russia.but made Russia lose a large amount of land that it used for [[farming]].

The treaty also made Germany's other enemies angry. They attacked Russia, together with the [[Russians]] who supported Kerensky or the tsar. 

Lenin ruled that as much food as possible was to be given to Bolshevik [[Soldier|soldiers]] in Russia's new [[Red Army]]. That helped the Bolsheviks win the war, but many ordinary people [[Starvation|starved]] or died of [[disease]].

After the war, Lenin brought in the [[New Economic Policy]] (NEP) to try to make things better for the country and move from [[capitalism]] towards [[socialism]]. A small amount of private enterprise was still allowed. Businessmen, called "NEPmen," could own small industries but not [[Factory|factories]]. Large industry and factories became public property, to be owned by the workers.

== Later life ==
[[File:Lenin-last-photo.jpg|right|200px|thumb|One of the last photographs of Lenin: 1923]]

A woman, Fanny Kaplan, shot Lenin while he was making an official visit. She missed his head, and the [[bullet]] lodged in his [[Neck (body part)|neck]]. Lenin feared that he would be killed by political enemies, and he refused to have the bullet removed until a guaranteed communist doctor could be found. As a result, the bullet was never removed. 

Lenin had [[Stroke|strokes]] in May and December 1922, possibly because of the bullet in his neck. He recovered from both, but in March 1923, he had a third stroke, which [[paralyze]]d him and left him unable to speak. 

Lenin died on January 24, 1924, of another stroke. Just before he died, Lenin had wanted to get rid of [[Stalin]], who Lenin thought he was dangerous to the country and the government. Lenin thought that Trotsky was the most capable of being the Soviets' new leader.

== Legacy ==
[[File:Mauzoleumlenina.jpeg|thumb|left|Lenin's Mausoleum in [[Moscow]]'s [[Red Square]]]]
The city of Saint Petersburg had been renamed Petrograd by the tsar in 1914. In 1921, it was renamed Leningrad in Lenin's memory. When the Soviet Union ended in 1991, Leningrad was again named Saint Petersburg.

Lenin had said before his death that he wished to be [[Burial|buried]] beside his mother. However, when he died, Stalin let the people in Russia come look at his body, and people kept coming. The govermant decided not to bury him but [[Embalming|preserved his body]]. A building called the Lenin [[Mausoleum]] was built in [[Moscow]]'s [[Red Square]] over the body so that people could see it. Many Russian people and foreign [[Tourism|tourists]] still go there to see his body.

After Lenin died, Stalin used him to justify his own rule by making it look as if he had been Lenin's chosen successor, instead of Trotsky.

Some historians argue that Lenin laid the groundwork for totalitarian regimes that developed later, like [[Nazi Germany]] under [[Adolf Hitler]], [[Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946)|Fascist Italy]] under [[Benito Mussolini]], and [[North Korea]] under the [[Kim family|Kim]] family. Lenin accomplished that by his consolidation of power, [[One-party state|one-party rule]], and suppression of those who disagreed with him.

==Notes==
{{Notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{start box}}
{{succession box | before = [[Alexander Kerensky]]|title=Prime Minister of Russia and the [[Soviet Union]] | years = 1917–1924 | after = [[Alexei Rykov]]}}
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{{Social and political philosophy}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lenin, Vladimir}}
[[Category:Russian atheists]]
[[Category:Russian communists]]
[[Category:Deaths from stroke]]
[[Category:Disease-related deaths in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Marxists]]
[[Category:Russian lawyers]]
[[Category:1870 births]]
[[Category:1924 deaths]]
[[Category:Russian philosophers]]
[[Category:Heads of government of the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Former dictators]]
[[Category:Saint Petersburg State University alumni]]