All language subtitles for Lenin. Episode 1. Documentary Film. English Subtitles. Russian History. (inglés)

Lenin. A key image of the Soviet epoch.

For four years a creative group of historians, filmmakers, lawyers,

criminalists and researchers from other fields of knowledge

was studying the documents related to the life of Vladimir Ilyich

Ulyanov-Lenin. In total, they studied over 20,000 documents,

tens of millions of pages from the leading Russian and foreign archives

and libraries: the State Archives of the Russian Federation,

the Russian State Archives of the Social and Political History,

the Archives of the FSS, the State Public Historical Library and it’s branch.

The movie based on the largest-scale recent research

gives an exact answer

on what kind of person Vladimir Ulyanov-Lenin was in reality.

Many of the demonstrated documents and photos

are published for the first time.

On April 10, 1870 in a provincial town of Simbirsk

which is now named Ulyanovsk after the family name

of the former Counsellor to the State and a noble Ilya Nicolayevitch Ulyanov

a child was born - a boy. The boy got a name of Vladimir.

His full name was Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov

who became better known around the world as “Lenin”

which was the main one from his over 148 aliases.

The Soviet researchers of Lenin wanted to create a mystical atmosphere

around that event and tied Vladimir’s birth to the start of ice drifting

on the river Volga. The poets of the early period of the Revolution

after the October Coup of 1917 were comparing Lenin

to the Biblical Moses, a messiah.

The Hindu honoured him with the name “Mahatma”, or “the great soul”,

writing in their books: “Perceive the appearance of Lenin

as a sign of the sensitivity of the universe”. For over 70 years,

the people of the Soviet Union were convinced

that Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov possessed extraordinary capabilities,

and his genius and self-sacrifice were comparable

only to that of Jesus Christ’s. To glorify Lenin, the Soviet state machine

created an incredible amount of literature about Vladimir Ulyanov

that it is second in volume in the world only to the religious literature.

LENIN

Of course, drifting of ice on the Volga

wasn’t an event of universal importance.

At that time, Russia led its own unique life,

no worse than anywhere in the world.

"The women were giving birth to kids; "

"people were building homes and getting educated; "

"people loved and were loved in return; they were fighting and dying. "

The spirit of the nation relied heavily on the faith in God.

The concept of him was imbibed with the milk of mothers

of all religions and creeds.

Russia was transforming, as did the entire world.

It acquired steam engines, electricity, telegraph, new weapons,

new laws and rules of order.

The new ideas that grew out of the old ones,

including socialism in its highest form – the communism,

attracted people with their sincerity, like the fairy-tale myths

of the European genius. The mystical heroes of Goethe, Heine,

and Wagner that derived from the medieval European literature,

social and political essays of Karl Marx and his followers

in thousands of editions were exciting the Europeans

and the Russian aristocrats who were frequenting expensive resorts

talking about their lack of love to Russia. For example,

the ideas of socialists and utopists in the poetical form,

created by people like our Pushkin, might still make your blood curdle.

“We’ll entertain the Russian people and strangle the last Tsar

at the whipping post by the intestine of the last priest”.

These are the lines by Jean Millet.

Here are the words of Lenin’s favourite composer, Richard Wagner:

“Rebel, people of the Earth, rebel, unhappy and oppressed!

From now on, only two kinds of people remain – one is following me,

another one is against me. I’ll lead the first one to happiness,

and I’ll wipe the latter one in my triumphal procession.

For I am the Revolution. ” Wagner suggested getting rid

of one half of the world’s population for the sake of another half’s happiness.

That idea wasn’t new but it turned out to be quite attainable

in different branches of teachings about Socialism

one of which Vladimir Lenin chose to follow.

The teaching that grasped his mind was Marxism.

A German writer and author of social and political essays Karl Heinrich Marx

had been creating an ideology of hating human beings for long years.

It was based on developing of irreconcilable contradictions in nations

regarding the attitude towards ownership of property.

To drive the people to the fratricidal civil war through a perverted ideology,

they had to be divided into two classes – the robbers and the robbed.

That was the essence of Marx’s teaching.

According to Marx, without an ideology,

without an organized control over a chaotic protesting movement

among the common folk that had to be headed by the Marxists,

the seizing of power and declaration of the Socialism

was impossible in any country. The power of the Marxists

or the power of the separate individuals using Marxism was needed

for achieving their goals. What fate awaits baby Vladimir Ulyanov?

“Breed is important for the revolution!” –

exclaimed one of the most consistent researchers of Lenin’s origins

Mikhail Stein. The words of the researcher hardly meant anything

for Ilya Nicolayevitch Ulyanov and his wife Maria Alexandrovna,

born Blank, on April 10, 1870. They had recently lost their daughter Olga

who had lived for less than one year.

Their son Vladimir was born with a head that exceeded the size of that

of their elder kids – their firstborn Anna and their second child Alexander.

Vladimir, like Ulyanovs’ elder children, had a hereditary trait –

a squinting right eye. The father of Maria Alexandrovna,

Dr. Alexander Dmitriyevitch Blank relieved her worries and doubts

concerning the health of the baby. In the first days of June of 1870

the Ulyanovs brought 1.5-month Vladimir to the estate of Kokushkino

that belonged to Dr. Blank. On examining the baby,

the doctor advised his daughter to strengthen the kid

with physical procedures, including balneology and massages.

On June 17, a few days after his daughter had left,

Alexander Dmitriyevitch Blank unexpectedly died aged 71.

The genealogy of the chief of the proletarian revolution

from the mother’s side is known until Lenin’s great-grandfather,

Moysha Itzkovitch Blank and his wife Mariam Froimovitch.

Moysha Blank, or Moshka Blank, as he called himself,

is believed to have come into the world in 1756.

On September 28, 1808, a strong fire destroyed 23 residential houses

in the town of Starokonstantinov in the Volyn Province,

including the home of Moysha Blank.

Moysha, Mariam and their two sons, elder Abel (Abba)

and Israel (Srul) found shelter with Mariam’s brother Viktor Froimovitch.

Moysha Blank was blamed for the fire.

He was thrown into prison where he spent one year.

In 1809, he was acquitted for the arson as well as in the cases

instigated against him earlier regarding the theft of hay

and sales of plain vodka instead of the fruit one.

In 1809, Abel and Israel Blanks entered the Russian Provincial Institute

in Zhitomir. The Blanks’ brothers in faith considered education of the Jews

in an Orthodox educational establishment a blasphemy.

In April of 1820, Moysha turned to the Senator Dmitry Osipovitch Baranov

with a request to help his sons enrol

into the higher educational establishment.

Blank’s address to Senator Baranov was a forced measure

called forth by a contradiction between the edict of Ekaterina II

that ordered the Jews to reside within the borders

of certain administrative units – “the pale of settlement” –

and an order of December 19, 1804 signed by Alexander I

which permitted the education of the Jewish kids

without any differentiation between them and all the other children.

Moysha’s sons could enter any higher educational establishment

of Russia, including those in Petersburg.

However, they couldn’t live in the capital.

The only possibility for the Blank brothers to get the higher education,

a real pass into the civilization, was to convert to Christianity.

On July 10, 1820 in the Samsonyvskaya Church

Priest Fedor Borisov baptized the sons of Moysha Itzkovitch Blank –

Abel and Israel. Senator Dmitry Osipovitch Baranov and his sister

"became the godparents for Abel, who was called Dmitry after baptizing; "

the godparents of Israel who was given the name of Alexander

at the baptizing – Count Alexander Ivanovitch Apraksin and Baranov’s wife

Varvara Alexandrovna. The Blank brothers chose a father’s name

“Dmitryevitch” in honour of Senator Dmitry Baranov.

The dream of Moysha Blank came true.

With the patronage of Senator Baranov and Count Apraksin,

after the exam for knowledge of subjects,

Dmitry and Alexander Blank were accepted as students

of the Petersburg Medical and Surgical Academy

to study at the state expense.

In 1835, after his wife’s death Moysha Itzkovitch Blank got baptized

and took a name of Dmitry and the father’s name Dmitryevitch –

again, in honour of Senator Dmitry Baranov.

Lenin’s great-grandfather from mother’s side died aged 89, in 1854.

In 1824, the Blank brothers successfully graduated from the Academy

and got the specialization of the doctors.

Dmitry Blank found a job in Petersburg and was awarded with a rank

of a staff doctor. He married Alexandra Gavrilovna Ivanova,

a sister of his class comrade from the Academy.

In 1831, during the epidemics of cholera

he threw himself out of the window of the hospital on the third floor.

Thus, he started a row of suicides in the Blank family.

His wife Alexandra Blank died in 1851. They didn’t have any children.

Alexander Dmitryevitch Blank had much happier fate.

In 1829, Alexander Blank married Anna Joganovna Grosshopf.

The father of the doctor’s wife was a quite well-off man.

His daughter got brilliant education, knew a couple of foreign languages

and played piano well. Thanks to the wife’s dowry,

the family could rent an expensive house and live well.

In 1830, the couple had their firstborn,

son Dmitry named after doctor Blank’s godfather

Senator Dmitry Osipovitch Baranov.

In 1831, their daughter Anna was born,

followed by Lyubov in 1832,

and Ekaterina in 1833. On February 22, 1835

in a lovely five-bedroom house at the English Embankment, 40,

Maria was born, the most famous of all Dr. Blank’s daughters

who became the mother of Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov-Lenin.

In 1836, the sixth child was born to the Blank family – daughter Sophia.

Like his brother Dmitry, Dr. Alexander Blank started his career

in the Petersburg police.

Dmitry’s suicide was considered a serious sin in the Orthodox religion.

That was the most likely reason why he left the police.

He claimed weak health and left the service.

Great sorrow befell Alexander Blank and his family in 1840.

His wife Anna Joganovna died leaving him alone with six minors.

Katerina Joganovna von Essen, a childless sister of his deceased wife

who widowed a bit earlier, was of great help.

Blank and Katerina von Essen started to live together in a civil marriage.

In 1847, Dr. Blank retired. Not long before that,

he followed the advice of his civil wife and bought the estate of Kokushkino

encompassing 503,6 ha in 40 km from Kazan.

"The land that Alexander Blank owned came with 39 male peasants; "

the females weren’t counted. Five daughters of Alexander Blank

"were home-educated. Katerina von Essen was their teacher; "

she taught the girls literature, foreign languages and music.

In 1848, the Doctor’s firstborn, son Dmitry graduated

from the Second Kazan Gymnasium and entered the law faculty

of the Kazan University. For Alexander Blank,

the suicide of his son Dmitry Blank on January 19, 1850

became the greatest sorrow ever. The motives for the suicide

of the closest relative of Lenin,

his uncle Dmitry Alexandrovitch Blank are unknown.

In the last days of October of 1861,

Maria Alexandrovna Blank went to visit her elder sister Anna

who married the professor of the Penza Institute for Nobles

Ivan Dmitryevitch Veretennikov. At the end of the same year

Maria met Ilya Nicolayevitch Ulyanov,

a colleague of her elder sister’s husband, a son of a petty bourgeois

from Astrakhan. Ilya’s parents, former serfs Nicolay Vasilyevitch Ulyanov

and Anna Alexeyevna Smirnova had four children:

elder son Vasiliy, daughters Maria and Feodosia and the youngest son Ilya,

Lenin’s future father. Vasiliy and Anna Ulyanov

"were of the pure Russian descend; they were Russians, "

though this concept included the Russians, Ukrainians and Byelorussians.

Relatives of no other nationalities were found

in the genealogy of Ilya Nicolayevitch Ulyanov.

Stories told by the majority of Lenin’s biography

about the Mordovian or Kalmyk roots of his father

are nothing more than a creative fantasy.

The meeting of a 30-year old professor of the Penza Institute for the Nobles

Ilya Nicolayevitch Ulyanov and a 26-year old Maria Alexandrovna Blank

quickly transformed into love. Maria Alexandrovna Blank

and Ilya Nicolayevitch Ulyanov were married in August of 1863

in the village of Cheremyshevo situated in 3 versts

from the Kokushkino estate. After celebrating the wedding

in her father’s estate, the young family took the stream ship

to Nizhniy Novgorod where Ilya Nicolayevitch got a position

of a teacher of math at the Nizhniy Novgorod Male Gymnasium.

Soon after the wedding,

in autumn of 1863 Katerina Joganovna von Essen died.

Doctor Blank widowed for the second time.

On August 14, 1864, the Ulyanovs had their firstborn – daughter Anna.

<i>A copy of the birth and baptizing certificate of Anna Ulyanova</i>

On April 12, 1866, their son Alexander was born.

<i>A copy of the birth and baptizing certificate of Alexander Ulyanov</i>

In 1868, daughter Olga was born.

The death of this daughter who lived for less than a year

was the first big blow for the family.

In 1869, Ilya Nicolayevitch Ulyanov was appointed the inspector

of the people’s schools in Simbirsk. It was in Simbirsk

that on April 10, 1870 Ulyanovs’ son Vladimir was born.

<i>Simbirsk Metric Book</i>

The Real Counsellor to the State Arseniy Fedorovitch Belokrisin

and a widow of the collegial assessor Natalia Ivanovna Aunovskaya

became his godparents. In a year and four months, on November 4, 1871,

Ulyanovs had another daughter – Olga.

<i>A copy of the birth and baptizing certificate of Olga Ulyanova</i>

Year 1973 proved to be unlucky for the Ulyanovs family.

Maria Alexandrovna gave birth to their son Nicolay who soon died.

In April of 1874, their youngest son Dmitry Ilyitch Ulyanov was born.

<i>A copy of the birth and baptizing certificate of Dmitry Ulyanov</i>

In February of 1878, the youngest daughter of the Ulyanovs

Maria Ilinichna was born.

<i>A copy of the birth and baptizing certificate of Maria Ulyanova</i>

Excerpts from recollections of A. Elizarova about Vladimir Lenin:

“In thе early childhood, Vladimir Ilyich was much backwards

in comparison with his peers. He started to walk and talk

simultaneously with his sister Olga when he was over 2.5 years old.”

Simbirsk, 1875

During the pre-school period, Vladimir enjoyed constant attention

of his mother, nanny and his elder sister. He was the liveliest

and naughtiest of all Ulyanovs’ children, very loud, with lively eyes.

“He didn’t play with the toys much, he broke most of them.

We, the elder children, often tried to keep him from that,

so he used to hide from us sometimes”, said Anna Ulyanova,

the elder sister of Vladimir Ilyich.

Continuing her story,

Anna remembered a story about a troika of horses from papier-mache,

a present from their nanny.

“We started to look for him and found him behind one of the doors.

He was standing quietly, turning the legs of the horse back and forth

with a concentrated look until they fell off one by one”.

Vladimir started to read at the same time Olga did

"when he was 5 years 7 months old; they were taught by their mother. "

“The Song of a Bachelor” was Volodya’s favourite poem

when he was about 7-8 years old, and he loved reading it by heart.

“A rich fool can’t sleep even with his chest full.

A poor man is poor but he is singing and having fun.”

Being the centre of attention of the family, Vladimir didn’t like it

when attention shifted to his siblings. Anna Ulyanova shared

a detailed story about a case when Alexander put his collection

of theatrical posters on the floor to demonstrate to his family.

“Despite the prohibition, Volodya ran to the posters,

jumped over them, crumpled and tore a couple until mother took his away”.

At the beginning of August of 1878, the Ulyanovs bought their own house

in the Moskovskaya Street.

The life of the family was peaceful and patriarchal.

When free from her household chores,

Maria Alexandrovna loved playing piano, reading Heine and Goethe,

and copying the poems of Lermontov, little known at that time,

including the “Demon”. Ilya Nicolayevitch loved playing chess

in the evenings on working days, and cards on the weekends – win or whist.

Being an experienced teacher, Ilya Nicolayevitch gave an exact description

of his son Vladimir’s character as choleric. He differed from his siblings

not only in appearance. A skinny red-head boy was easily carried away

with the games striving to win at any cost.

Playing cardboard soldiers with his peers,

when they had to knock the soldiers down with paper balls,

Vladimir secretly glued pins to the soldiers’ bases

so that his soldiers didn’t fall when the enemy’s ball hit them.

Thanks to that, Vladimir was winning.

On August 16, 1879 after passing the entrance exams brilliantly

a 9-year old Vladimir Ulyanov was accepted into the first grade

of the Simbirsk Classical Gymnasium. The Simbirsk Classical Gymnasium

was called “classical” because it taught Latin and Ancient Greek

which was the way of introducing pupils to the classical literature

of the Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece.

There were 432 pupils in the Gymnasium:

218 children of nobles and officials (52%),

19 children of the clergy (4%), 147 children of city class (35%),

35 children of the villagers (9%), 4 children of the foreigners (1%).

The Gymnasium was in essence an educational establishment for nobility.

Fedor Mikhailovitch Kerenskiy was appointed its director in spring of 1879,

"in the first year Vladimir studied there; he was the father "

of the future Head of the Temporary Government of Russia

Alexander Fedorovitch Kerenskiy. Vladimir and Alexander Ulyanovs

were exempt from the payment for the education

that amounted to 30 roubles per annum

as their father served in the people’s education field.

Simbirsk, 1879

In the autumn of 1879, the Ulyanov family took a picture

in the Atelier of Bik. Volodya is in the first grade on this photo.

The government awarded Ilya Nicolayevitch for his achievements

in the educational field in the course of 10 years

he had worked in Simbirsk. He got a rank of a Real Counsellor to the State

which was an equivalent of the rank of the Staff General-Major.

Thanks to Ilya Nicolayevitch, the Ulyanovs family lived well.

The annual income of the bread-maker of the family

amounted to 3.500 roubles which was considered a high amount.

At those times, one could buy a small estate with that money.

He was paid separately for organizing lectures,

publications of methodological literature, his own books and articles.

A close acquaintance of the Ulyanovs’ family remembered:

“One feels warm and cosy in that friendly family.

The children are talking, telling about what was happening in their lives.

Volodya and his sister Olya are the most talkative.

The elder son Alexander hasn’t come to the dining room yet.

He isn’t in a hurry to distract from his studies, and one of the kids

has to go up and remind him that the samovar is already on the table”.

Graduation Diploma

After graduating from the Simbirsk Classical Gymnasium with distinction,

in April of 1883 Alexander Ulyanov, Vladimir’s elder brother,

entered the faculty of physics and mathematics

of the Imperial Petersburg University.

Soon Anna Ulyanova came to Petersburg too –

to enter the Higher Bestuzhev Courses.

That year, it seemed to the Ulyanovs elder children

that great future awaited them, that they would gain a position in the society

with their own hard work, like their father and mother

and would be able to support their aging parents and underage siblings.

Life in Simbirsk went on in its due course.

The middle son Vladimir was finishing a class after class of the Gymnasium

with notes of distinctions and started going to the theatre.

He loved the play “Notes of a Madman” by Gogol.

Vladimir tried to play a part of a madman in the theatre of his Gymnasium.

He was rehearsing the part but failed and acknowledged

that to be an actor one needed to have a talent.

One of the characteristic traits of a 14-year old Vladimir

was his love for pranks played both on his comrades and teachers.

Vladimir chose his teacher of French Alfred Por to be his laughing stock.

Por was a cook by profession and a born French

who married a daughter of a landowner from Simbirsk.

He considered himself to be a member of the society

of nobles and officials of Simbirsk.

Copying the contemptuous attitude of some teachers to Por

"as a former cook Vladimir was mocking the poor Frenchman openly; "

the teacher, in his turn, insisted on a “4” for behaviour for the cheeky pupil.

V.I. Ulyanov

"At 16, Vladimir Ulyanov was short, skinny, with a head of uneven shape; "

his unusual forehead attracted attention.

He was ugly in comparison to his elder brother, more handsome and tall.

“His speech and his manners were at times too abrupt,

often sprinkled with sarcastic remarks”.

This is how Ulyanov’s classmate from the Gymnasium described him.

An article entitled the “Modern Backwoods” in the “Vestnik Yevropy“

(“News from Europe”) of 1898 contains the description of Vladimir’s father.

“Ilya Nicolayevitch Ulyanov is a short small man with a sunken chest

who at first produced an unpleasant impression of a bureaucrat

from the Ministry of Education who was born into this world

in a worn blue jacket with white buttons. In a big group,

"he was silent and not interesting at all; however, he loved talking "

with the close people who were nice to him for he always had

a lot of information regarding his schools”.

The government of the Russian Empire valued energetic and smart officials

like Ilya Nicolayevitch Ulyanov. In 1886, he was awarded

with a medal of Stanislav Grade I, one of the highest awards of the Empire.

The colleagues congratulated Ulyanov with the high award.

In honour of him, a party was arranged at the house

of Inspector Strazhalkovskiy. People drank, danced and had a hearty dinner.

Ilya Nicolayevitch was happy at the party.

He was joking and receiving congratulations with gratitude.

On January 10, he fell sick.

On January 12, the state of Ilya Nicolayevitch deteriorated rapidly.

At five, Ilya Nicolayevitch Ulyanov died.

Dr. Legger named cerebral haemorrhage as a cause of death.

Ilya Nicolayevitch was buried on January 15.

Vice-Governor of Simbirsk, his colleagues, directors and students

of many gymnasiums came to bid farewell to the deceased.

The higher ranks of clergy including Priest-Rector of the Seminary

held a short liturgy by the deceased’s coffin.

Vladimir, son of Ilya Nicolayevitch, and his closest friends

carried the coffin with his remains. Ilya Nicolayevicth Ulyanov was buried

within the Pokrovsk Male Monastery by a stone wall.

In the Soviet times, a monument to him created by sculptor Manizer

was erected close to the grave.

Summer, 1886

In summer of 1886 Maria Alexandrovna and her children

came to the Kokushkino estate. She was proud of the achievements

of her elder son Alexander who got a golden medal

for the best students’ scientific work on research

of rudimentary organs of freshwater annelides,

and it helped her deal with the sorrow of her husband’s death.

Scientific successes of Alexander Ulyanov made him popular

among his fellow students. At a regular annual meeting

of the Students Scientific and Literature Society of the Petersburg University

he was elected a member of the chair. From the end of April of 1886,

student Petr Yakovlevitch Shevyryov had been a member of that society too.

In October, students Govorukhin, Nikonov, Andreyushkin and Generalov joined it.

In autumn of 1886, Alexander Ulyanov was elected a member

of a Union of Provincial Associations of Petersburg as a representative

of the Volga Provincial Association.

The students’ associations were illegal groups

established by young people missing their native towns, estates and villages.

The youth maximalistic views, typical for the Russian students,

often led the members of the associations to revolutionary ideas.

Minister of the Internal Affairs of Russia in a report

to the Emperor Alexander III qualified such associations

as “secret societies hostile to the existing regime”.

Under carefully-chosen pretexts,

Alexander Ulyanov was organizing parties

for the members of the associations,

every time with the permission of the police

and under supervision of its representative.

The youth encouraged the police officer to get drunk.

In that state, he didn’t interfere

with whatever male and female students were doing until the morning.

According to recollections of the participants of those meetings,

Alexander drank red wine and smoked a lot.

Interests and lifestyle of Alexander Ulyanov had changed radically

by the end of 1886. He wasn’t interested in sciences anymore.

He brought his biology books back to the library.

New literature that the student was reading was smuggled from abroad

and was considered illegal.

Illegal literature cost much more then legal books

with the same number of pages. Students who possessed such literature

were enjoying authority among their comrades. In some cases,

students copied “The Capital” by Karl Marx by hand.

A student canteen on the Vasilyev Isle organized by Petr Shevyryov

was one of the places where one could buy illegal literature.

In the end of December Petr Shevyryov came to visit Ulyanov

in his rented apartment. He talked about the student movement

and organization of the student canteen.

On Alexander’s offer to organize something larger-scale,

Shevyryov asked him mockingly: “Like what”? – “Like an attempt at life”.

“You would make a good terrorist”, - Ulyanov answered.

Shevyryov informed him at once and he was indeed a member

of a terroristic group consisting of a managing centre

and a so-called periphery. He offered Ulyanov and Govorukhin

to become members of the secret terroristic organization.

Ulyanov declined that offer but promised to render necessary help

to the conspirators.

In a week, Ulyanov and Govorukhin tried to find out

as much as possible about Shevyryov’s secret organization.

Shevyryov answered their questions with fantastic tales

about a large-scale powerful terroristic organization

capable of starting large-scale terror in Russia

and possessing great amounts of money at its disposal.

Soon Alexander found out that Shevyryov’s organization

consisted of only three people – Shevyryov himself,

Lukashevitch and Vasiliy Osipanov, a student who transferred from Kazan

to the Petersburg University with a sole goal

to personally murder Alexander III.

Alexander could severe tied with Shevyryov and his secret organization

and go on with his scientific career, become a pride of the Ulyanovs’ family.

He could but…

Instead of that, he wrote a program for Shevyryov’s terroristic organization –

the Declaration of the People’s Will Party.

The members of the People’s Will considered the murder

of the Tsar’s officials the primary means to fight the official policy.

The Russian Emperor was named their main enemy.

Since its establishment, Shevyryov’s group hadn’t been doing much.

The budding terrorists lacked organization

and materials for making bombs.

Assistance in murdering the Russian Emperor came from abroad.

Kancher, Shevyryov’s assistant at the canteen, went to Wilno.

There, the Polish revolutionaries shared some nitric acid

and the technology of bomb-making with him.

There, Kancher also met Isaac Dembo, a revolutionary,

one of the founders of the magazine

“Self-Governance is the Body of Socialists and Revolutionaries”

published in Zurich, Switzerland.

Isaac Dembo entrusted the new terroristic group

with the money for the development of its activities.

On February 10, 1887, in Pargolovo, Petersburg suburb,

Alexander Ulyanov made a portion of dynamite.

With scientific exactness, he and his assistants Andreyushkin,

Generalov and Kancher made bullets, filled them with poison

and smeared with a mix of strychnine and spirits.

Even a minor wound from such bullets was to result in Alexander’s III death.

According to the plan of the conspirators,

before the attempt at the Emperor’s life a member of the group Govorukhin

was to leave for Switzerland. There, he was to publish the program

of Shevyryov’s group and announce the start of terror in Russia

to the world community. Ulyanov was second in authority in the group,

and he was surprised on hearing

that Shevyryov left for Yalta to treat tuberculosis.

After that, he headed the organization of the young terrorists.

The participants of the attempt gathered together for the last time

on February 25, 1887. To raise the conspirators’ spirit,

Alexander Ulyanov read the program of the organization

and held a training on how to use the bombs.

Two bombs were metal cylinders.

The third was camouflaged in a book “Dictionary of the Medical Terms”.

The assassination was scheduled for March I,

the day of commemoration service in honour of Alexander II

who was murdered that very day six years ago. On that day,

the throwers of the bombs and the scouts and signallers

were walking along both sides of the Neva Avenue

waiting for the Emperor to ride to the Cathedral

in the Petr and Pavel Fortress where the commemoration service

in honour of Alexander II was to be held.

The police knew about the existence of Shevyryov’s group.

Per lustration of correspondence of citizens qualified as not reliable

was one of the most effective methods of the police work.

Because of a mistake of one member of Shevyryov’s group

who told about the preparation of the terror attack

in a private letter to his comrade,

the police began to tail the young terrorists.

On March 3, Alexander Ulyanov was summoned for the first interrogation.

Captain of gendarmes Lutov accused him of a murder attempt

of a sacred person, his Majesty Emperor Alexander III

and read evidence given by Kancher that disclosed all the activities

of the criminal group members. Alexander was in shock.

He refused to give evidence and asked to postpone the interrogation.

In a one-man cell where Ulyanov was left after the interrogation

he couldn’t sleep a wink. What could a 22-year old former student think of?

About his father who went to the commemoration service

in honour of Alexander II murdered by the terrorists six years ago

and who hated terror as a phenomenon? About his mother?

About his sisters and brothers? About his life so worthlessly ruined?

On March 4, Alexander Ulyanov confessed. He told the investigator

the details of his part in the organization, the fact that he made dynamite

and some parts of the bombs, bullets from lead filled with strychnine

and dynamite. Captain Lutov received detailed evidence

from Alexander against all the members of the terroristic organization.

March 1, 1887

Demonstrating his sincerity to the interrogator,

on March 21 Ulyanov wrote the program of the terroristic faction

of the People’s Will Party from memory. The next day,

Minister of the Internal Affairs Count Dmitry Tolstoy

showed it to Emperor Alexander III.

The Tsar wanted to read the program on his own.

After that, he satisfied the request of Maria Alexandrovna Ulyanova

to let me see her son.

Alexander’s meeting with his mother was dramatic and emotional.

He hugged her knees, cried, apologized for the sorrow

he brought upon her. To justify himself,

Alexander was talking about his duty before his motherland,

about some liberation, and that he agreed to that crime

in his sound mind. Maria Alexandrovna interrupted

her son’s justifications. “You chose a terrible means.

There is no crueller sorrow in the world than the one

you brought upon me”, she answered to Alexander.

Before the sentence of the special presence

of the governing Senate was announced,

Alexander Ulyanov said in his last word:

“Terror is not an organized instrument of struggle of the intelligentsia.

It’s just a chaotic form that arises

because dissatisfaction with separate persons comes to the limit”.

Terrorists who make attempts at the life of Tsar are first of all suiciders.

They know in advance that their actions are nothing more

than a means to end their lives. A 22-year old Ulyanov,

whose uncle committed a suicide in his early twenties, knew that too.

The last words of Alexander Ulyanov in the court

sounded like a threat to autocracy. “Among the Russian people,

there will always be a dozen of men who are so committed to their ideas,

who feel the unhappiness of their motherland so acutely

that they don’t see a sacrifice in dying for their cause.”

Maybe Alexander’s parents didn’t teach Alexander to restrain himself

in the name of order, which was compulsory for a moral person

for the reason of carelessness or good nature.

Or maybe he himself decided to stand above the law

and change the fate of a many-million strong state

relying on his alleged superiority.

As for his comrades, Alexander did a mean thing.

During the court hearing, Alexander offered them

to lay all the blame on him knowing that the court would rely

first of all on the available evidence

about the members of the terrorist organizations

collected on the basis of his sincere and detailed confessions.

In that case, any attempts to lay all the blame on him

would look like an attempt of one group of criminals

to incriminate another one. Moral dirtiness, ethical idiocy,

megalomania – these were the main traits

that Alexander Ilyitch Ulyanov demonstrated during the court hearing.

April 19, 1887

On April 19, 1887 judge Senator Teyer delivered the sentence.

All 15 accused were sentenced to death by hanging.

The last meeting of Maria Alexandrovna and her son

plunged in deep depression took place on the Petr and Pavel Fortress.

The demonstrative bravado which he and Shevyryov expressed

during the hearing was over. In a case of a pardon he,

being one of the organizers of the conspiracy,

could only hope for a lifelong term in Shlisselburg Fortress.

Alexander told his mother that a replacement of a death sentence

with a life sentence was worse than death itself,

that such prisoners were only allowed to read religious Orthodox literature.

“One may become a complete idiot”, he said.

Ulyanov wrote a rather restrained request for a pardon to the Emperor.

The failed murderer remembered about the moral,

the sufferings his mother and his siblings would experience

if he was executed. That line about the issues of moral

and the son’s duty was shared by almost all the revolutionaries

who begged the Emperor to forgive them.

When the threat of death was looming over them,

they would turn to their potential victims with a request

to be moral and human. The governing Senator

who studied Ulyanov’s request decided that it didn’t deserve satisfaction

and didn’t change the sentence. Although, the Senate changed

the punishment for 10 out of 15 accused

who submitted requests for a pardon.

They were sentenced to different prison terms.

Those who were to be executed were transferred

from the Petr and Pavel Fortress to the Shlisselburg Fortress.

On May 8, at 3:30 a.m., in 30 minutes before the execution,

the condemned were announced their fate.

Minister of the Internal Affairs Dmitry Tolstoy wrote:

“They all kept calm and refused to take communion.

They ascended the scaffold brisk and calm.”

It all happened quietly and quickly.

The bodies of Alexander and his comrades were wrapped in shrouds

and buried in a freshly dug grave by the walls of the Shlisselburg Fortress.

That how the life of the third suicider from the Blank-Ulyanov family,

elder brother of Vladimir Ulyanov-Lenin Alexander Ilyich Ulyanov ended.

After the execution of Alexander Ilyich,

Vladimir Ilyich changed radically. He stopped joking,

he rarely laughed and became adult at once.

The management of the Gymnasium kept telling a pupil of the 8th grade

Vladimir Ulyanov: “Look at your brother! We gave him a medal,

and what a thing he did!?”

Vladimir Ulyanov was stubbornly keeping silence in answer.

End of Episode One