9 Things You May Not Know About Vladimir Lenin

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• published: 08 Apr 2015
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"Things You May Not Know About Vladimir Lenin" 9. Lenin’s brother was hanged for plotting to kill the czar. Lenin’s older brother, Alexander, a university zoology student, was arrested in March 1887 for participating in a bombing plot to assassinate Czar Alexander III. Some of his co-conspirators begged for clemency and therefore had their sentences reduced. But Alexander initially refused to take that route, believing it would be “insincere.” Eventually, he sent an unrepentant letter to the czar in which he requested mercy for the sake of his mother. 8. Lenin was kicked out of collegeIn August 1887, just a few months after his brother’s death, 17-year-old Lenin entered Kazan University to study law. He was expelled that December, however, for taking part in a student protest. Though numerous attempts at readmission failed, he later enrolled as an external student at St. Petersburg University. Lenin completed his education there in 1891 and then briefly labored as a defense attorney. By that time, he had become enthralled by the work of famed communist thinker Karl Marx. 7. Lenin was exiled to Siberia for three years Lenin published his first Marxist essay in 1894, and the following year he traveled to France, Germany and Switzerland in order to meet with like-minded revolutionaries. Upon returning to Russia, he was arrested while working on the inaugural issue of a Marxist newspaper. He then spent over a year in jail prior to being sent off to Siberia, where he married a fellow exile and purportedly passed the time taking long walks, writing, hunting and swimming. Following the completion of his sentence in 1900, Lenin received government permission to leave the country. 6. Lenin was not his real name Born Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, Lenin tried out a number of seudonyms, including “K. Tulin” and “Petrov,” prior to settling on “Lenin” by 1902. Historians believe it may have been a reference to the Lena River in Siberia. Other Russian revolutionaries likewise used pseudonyms, in part to confuse the authorities. Joseph Stalin’s birth name, for example, was Iosif Dzhugashvili, and Leon Trotsky’s was Lev Bronshtein. 5. Lenin hoped Russia would lose World War I. When World War I broke out in 1914, every political faction in Russia supported the war effort except for Lenin’s Bolsheviks, who correctly predicted that defeat would bring about the czar’s downfall. Lenin even accepted financial assistance from Germany, one of Russia’s enemies in the conflict. In March 1917, with inflation rampant, food supplies low and the army in tatters, Czar Nicholas II was forced to abdicate. A sealed railroad car provided by Germany brought Lenin back to Russia the following month. 4. Lenin quickly did away with an experiment in democracy. Before taking power, Lenin spoke in favor of a popularly elected Constituent Assembly that would hash out a post-revolutionary form of government. But he quickly changed his tune after the Bolsheviks won only a quarter of the seats in November 1917 elections. 3. Lenin succeeded where his brother had failed. As civil war raged between Lenin’s supporters and opponents, Czar Nicholas II and his family were awakened on the night of July 16, 1918, and instructed to dress quickly. Their captors in Yekaterinburg, in the Ural Mountains, purportedly told them that the anti-Bolshevik White Army was closing in, and that they needed to move to a safer location. Instead, however, the czar, his wife, their five children and four servants were whisked into a basement, where a firing squad burst in and gunned them all down. 2. Lenin began to harbor serious doubts about Stalin. Stalin, a close member of Lenin’s inner circle, became general secretary of the Communist Party in April 1922. Soon after, Lenin began to regret that appointment. In a letter to Russia’s congress, penned in December 1922 and January 1923 but not read until after his death, he described Stalin as “too rude.” 1. Lenin was mummified following his death. Thousands upon thousands of mourners streamed past Lenin’s exposed coffin at his funeral, which took place a day after St. Petersburg was renamed Leningrad in his honor. A months-long embalming process then transpired, followed by the construction of a permanent mausoleum in Moscow’s Red Square. Lenin’s mummified body has been on display there ever since, except for a four-year period during World War II when it was moved to Siberia. Don't forget to click LIKE, SUBSCRIBE and COMMENT Below! SUBSCRIBE NOW: https://www.youtube.com/c/sxmscelik?sub_confirmation=1 Contact: sxcelik@gmail.com Follow Me On ✓Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sxmscelik ✓Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/sxmscelik ✓Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/sxmscelik ✓Google+: https://plus.google.com/+sxmscelik Music: incompetech.com Video Editing: Sony Vegas Pro 13