Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

Vladimir Lenin was an intelligent, bold and courageous man, who not only led
a revolution, but also laid the foundation of a new political and economic
theory which would be the mean ideology of a new country.
Lenin was born in a wealthy middle-class family, in Ulyanovsk, Russia, in 1870. His
mother, Maria Alexandrova, came from a Jewish family and spoke 4
languages; his father, Ilya Nikolayevich, was a teacher of maths and physics.
Several years after their wedding Nikolayevich became a hereditary
nobleman for his overseeing on the foundation of 450 schools, as the Director
of Public Schools in Ulyanovsk.
Vladimir had 5 brothers and sisters (in birth order): Anna, Alexander, Olga,
Dimitry and Maria. Their father died in 1886 when Lenin was just 16. While
Alexander, his older brother, studied at St. Petersburg University, he joined a
revolutionary conspiracy to assassinate the Tsar, but it was discovered and he
sentenced to death in 1887. Despite the emotional suffering this might have
brought on Lenin, he persisted in being an exceptional student and left school
with a gold medal absolutely decided to study law.
In 1887 he entered Kazan University where he joined a socialist revolutionary
cell and discovered Karl Marxs work, hence starting to translate it into Russian.
In spite of he was expelled from Kazan, finished his studies at St. Petersburg with
a first-class degree with honours, but another tragedy arrived then: his sister
Olga died of typhoid.
In Saint Petersburg he met Nadezha Nadya Krupskaya, a schoolteacher
which further would be his wife.* After some political agitation, in 1897, he was
sentenced without trial to a 3 years exile in Siberia. With the exile over, he
began to collaborate in Iskra (The Spark), a newspaper for the Russian Social
Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP), then travelling to Switzerland, Germany and
France; it was by that time when he adopted his nickname Lenin, which
might have been taken from River Lena. He briefly lived in London in 1905,
where he visited the British Museum Library to write and study and, soon after,
entered in polemics with some members of the RSDLP.*

Lenin was in Galicia when the First World War broke out and in 1916 he wrote
Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism, an essay which synthesizes his
developments in Karl Marxs economic theories. There he argued that the
conflict between imperialist powers would continue until a socialist revolution
succeeded.* In July, Lenins mother died and although he was unable to
attend the funeral, it affected him and became deeply depressed.
In February 1917, while Lenin was exiled in Switzerland, a bunch of unrests
forced Tsar Nicholas II to abdicate and was replaced by a Provisional
Government. Vladimir was determined to return to Russia at once but it was
difficult in the hard conditions of the war, so finally he obtained help from
Germany to travel by train across the country. During the trip he wrote the
April Theses, there he stated that the Social Revolution couldnt leave power
in the hands of the bourgeoisie but in those of the proletariat and the peasants.
In Petrograd the dissatisfaction against the Provisional Government drove to a
series of riots which, after been supressed, were blamed on Lenin, thus fleeing
again exiled to Finland. But the Provisional Government became more and
more discredited in the public eyes and in October Lenin returned to lead the
Governments deposition at the Winter Palace and the establishment of a
Socialist Government in Russia.
To initiate the Russian economic recovery, on February 21 1920, he launched
the State Commission for Electrification of Russia since he believed in the
central importance of electrification to develop the new country, and also
established free universal health care, free education systems, promulgated
the politico-civil rights of women and so legalised homosexuality, being the first
country in the modern age to do this.
Lenin suffered two assassination attempts in 1918, in the first was ambushed
after a speech by some men, and in the second a woman failed in trying to kill
him by shooting him 3 times. Lenin retained a bullet in his neck until a surge in
Germany removed it in 1920.
In May 1922 Lenin had the first of 3 strokes, which left him unable to speak for
weeks and severely hampered motion in his right side. December 1922, he
suffered the second stroke that partly paralysed his right side, he then withdrew
from active politics. March 1923, he suffered the third stroke that rendered
him mute and bed-ridden until his death on 21 January 1924.
Lenin was the spark that changed the course of the history, either from Russia
and the world-wide. He showed and exceptional intelligence, not only by
writing brilliant books and constructing theory, but also by political acting
efficiently: he had the smooth treat to negotiate and convince big masses with
his speeches. Without his presence, maybe the Revolution wouldnt have
carried out.