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Lenin's family
The Beginning of Revolutionary Activity (1870-1900)

For a Marxist Party of a New Type (1900-1904)

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Lenin's family, Simbirsk.
In this photo taken in 1879, are the parents, three sons (Alexander, Vladimir and Dmitry) and three daughters (Anna, Maria and Olga).

Vladimir llyich Ulyanov (Lenin) was born April 10 (22), 1870 in the city of Simbirsk (now called Ulyanovsk), located on the great Russian river, the Volga. He spent his childhood and youth here - he lived in Simbirsk for 17 years.

House where Lenin was born

The house where Lenin was born

House where Lenin's family lived in Simbirsk 1870-1875

The house where Lenin's family lived in Ulyanovsk 1870-1875.

A portrait of the four-year-old Volodya Ulyanov (by artist N. Parkhomenko) hangs on the wall. Next to this, is a photograph of his parents llya Nikolaevich and Maria Alexandrovna, and the entire large Ulyanov family.

llya Ulyanov, Lenin's father

llya Nikolayevich Ulyanov, Lenin's father

Maria  Ulyanova, Lenin's mother

Maria Alexandrovna Ulyanova, Lenin's mother

V.I.Lenin's father worked as an inspector, and later as the Director of the public schools in the Simbirsk Gubernia (Province). His mother was a house-wife. They were highly-educated people with democratic views and principles. They imparted to their children a hostility toward all violations of human rights, an active hatred for servile psychology and an active readiness to struggle for higher ideals, free society and equal rights. Subsequently all the Ulyanov children except for Olga (she died at age 19) set out on the path of revolutionary struggle.

In Lenin museum

Photographs with views of the cities Kazan and Samara (now Kuiby-shev) at the end of the last century are also exhibited in this hall. These cities are connected with the beginning of V. I. Lenin's revolutionary activities. Here is a photograph of the Kazan University. V.I.Lenin became a student here in the summer of 1887. The entrance card No. 197 in the name of V. I. Ulyanov as a student of the law faculty is on display. Nearby is a photo of the village Kokushkino in the Kazan Gubernia. Arrested for active participation in a student revolutionary meeting in December 1887, V.I. Lenin was exiled to Kokushkino where he spent almost a year under secret surveillance of the police.

A fragment of Vladimir lenin's room

A fragment of Vladimir's room in the Ulyanov house in Simbirsk

In this exhibit hall a fragment of Vladimir's room from the Ulyanov's house in Simbirsk, where they lived from 1878 to 1887 (today this house on 58 Lenin Street is a memorial museum), is displayed. The room was located in the attic. Its furniture is unpretentious.

There is a home-made bookcase and a desk by the window, and a geographic map of the world on the wall. Vladimir Ulyanov, while studying in the gymnasium, moved from class to class as an honour student, and graduated with a gold medal. His awards are displayed in one of the showcases in this first hall of the Museum. Books from the Ulyanov family library are also located here-the volumes include Pushkin, Lermontov, Gogol, Turgenev, Tolstoy, Saltykov-Shchedrin, Griboyedov, Shakespeare, Darwin and others.

See also: Maxim Gorky. Lenin
and other historical documents and photos at the Defend Lenin mausoleum! site.

Among the exhibit items are V.I.Lenin's application for permission to take the exams for the entire university course without attending lectures, and his diploma with highest honours, awarded him after he passed the examinations for the law faculty of St. Petersburg University in 1891.

Vladimir Lenin, 1887

Vladimir Lenin, 1887.
The Beginning of Revolutionary Activity (1870-1900)