Editing Vladimir Lenin

{{Infobox revolutionary
| name = Vladimir Ilyich Lenin
| native_name = Владимир Ильич Ленин
| image = File:Lenin arms up.png
| image_size = 250px
| image_upright =
| image_alt =
| caption = Photo of comrade Lenin
| nationality = [[Russian Empire (1721–1917)|Russian]]</br>[[Soviet Union|Soviet]]
| birth_date          = {{birth date|1870|4|22|df=yes}}
| birth_name           = Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov
| birth_place         = Simbirsk, [[Russian Empire (1721–1917)|Russian Empire]]
| death_date          = {{death date and age|1924|1|21|1870|4|22|df=yes}}
| death_place         = Gorki, [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|Russian SFSR]], [[Soviet Union]]
| political_line = [[Marxism]] <small>(developed what is now known as [[Marxism-Leninism]])
}}
'''Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov'''<ref group="lower-alpha">Russian: Владимир Ильич Ульянов</ref> (22 April 1870 — 21 January 1924), also known as '''Vladimir Lenin''', was a [[Russian Empire (1721–1917)|Russian]] revolutionary leader, [[Political economy|political and economic]] theorist, and philosopher. He is considered one of the most important figures of the 20th century especially as it relates to the [[socialism|socialist]] movement. Author of several books contributing to [[Marxism|Marxist theory]], Lenin was responsible for the development of the understanding of the [[Imperialism|imperialist]] phenomenon in capitalist mode of production and was a key figure in the [[October Revolution|1917 revolution]] that led to the establishment of the [[Soviet Union]].

Lenin's political and theoretical activity, his writings of the 1890s and the beginning of the 20th century, his resolute struggle against [[opportunism]] and [[Revisionism|revisionist]] attempts to distort Marxist theory, his struggle for the creation of a revolutionary [[political party]] is considered the Leninist contribution to Marxism, now commonly referred to as [[Marxism–Leninism|Marxism-Leninism]].

==Life and work==

===Early life (1870–1888)===
[[File:Lenin family (1879).png|left|thumb|193x193px|Photograph of Lenin's family in 1879. The 9 year old Lenin is positioned in the bottom-right corner of the photo.]]
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov was born in Simbirsk<ref group="lower-alpha">Russian: Симбирск<br>The city of Simbirsk was the administrative center of Simbirsk Governorate, which was one of the administrative divisions of the [[Russian Empire]]. The city is now known as Ulyanovsk, of the Ulyanovsk Region in the [[Russian Federation]], in honor of Lenin.</ref> on 22 April 1870<ref group="lower-alpha">Current calendar (Gregorian)</ref>, the fourth of eight children of Ilya Ulyanov, a respected figure in public education and son of former serf, and Maria Alexandrovna, a woman who came from a family of nobility background.<ref>{{Citation|author=Tamás Krausz|year=2015|title=Reconstructing Lenin: an intellectual biography|chapter=Family|page=|quote=|pdf=|city=|publisher=|isbn=9781583674499|doi=|lg=http://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=5946304838C5CEC14E6E116873F3641A|mia=|title-url=|chapter-url=|trans-title=|trans-lang=}}</ref> Although Lenin's father was not a revolutionary himself, he shared progressive views and opposed autocracies, and both his father and mother contributed greatly with his intellectual upbringing. Besides his mother and father, a big intellectual influence on Lenin was his brother Alexander, who first introduced him to [[Marxism|Marxist]] literature.<ref name="cpsubio1-2">{{Citation|author=Pyotr Pospelov & Institute of Marxism-Leninism|year=1965|title=Lenin: a biography|chapter=Childhood and youth. The beginning of revolutionary activity|section=The shaping of revolutionary views|page=|quote=|pdf=|city=Moscow|publisher=Progress Publishers, CC CPSU|isbn=|doi=|lg=http://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=EB243CBDFE643F26EEB1360F866F261F|mia=|title-url=|chapter-url=|trans-title=|trans-lang=}}</ref>

Lenin's youth and childhood coincided with a [[reactionary]] period in [[Russian Empire (1721–1917)|Russia]], when civilians were commonly arrested for expressing criticism of the czarist regime.<ref name="cpsubio1-2" /> In May 1887, when Lenin was 17 years old, his brother Alexander Ulyanov was publicly executed for an attempt to assassinate the tzar Alexander III, and event which had an impact in Lenin's radicalization towards revolutionary action.<ref>{{Citation|author=Robert Service|year=2000|title=A biography of Lenin|chapter=Deaths in the family|page=|quote=|pdf=|city=|publisher=|isbn=9780333726259|doi=|lg=http://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=670A17751E9109CB908CBDE39731FE1F|mia=|title-url=|chapter-url=|trans-title=|trans-lang=}}</ref>

Lenin was admitted to the Faculty of Law at Kazan University in 13 August 1886, and a month later he joined the Samara-Simbirsk Fraternity, a student society, at the time prohibited by the University Statutes and punishable by expulsion.<ref name="cpsubio1-2" /><ref name=":1">{{Citation|author=Tamás Krausz|year=2015|title=Reconstructing Lenin: an intellectual biography|chapter=Education|page=|quote=|pdf=|city=|publisher=|isbn=9781583674499|doi=|lg=http://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=5946304838C5CEC14E6E116873F3641A|mia=|title-url=|chapter-url=|trans-title=|trans-lang=}}</ref> A year after he began his studies, he joined student campaigns and demonstrations demanding that student societies be permitted, that students who had been expelled be reinstated and those responsible for their expulsion be called to account.<ref name="cpsubio1-2" /> As a result of participation in the student demonstrations, on December 1887, Lenin was arrested, expelled from University and exiled to a nearby village for one year, becoming under strict police surveillance since then.<ref name="cpsubio1-2" />

Throughout his exile in the village of Kokushkino, Lenin studied extensively [[political economy]] works and other literature. Later in his life, he wrote about this period: “I don't think I ever afterwards read so much in my life, not even during my imprisonment in St. Petersburg or exile in Siberia, as I did in the year when I was banished to the village from Kazan; I read voraciously from early morning till late at night.”<ref name="cpsubio1-2" /> 

In the autumn of 1888, Lenin was permitted to return to Kazan and shortly after returning, but unable to readmit to the university. He was also prohibited from attending universities abroad. Back in Kazan, he joined a Marxist study-circle organized by Nikolai Fedoseyev, beginning his political and revolutionary activities. It was during this period of 1888–89 that Lenin studied for the first time [[Karl Marx]]'s [[Capital, vol. I]].<ref name="cpsubio1-2" />

===Early revolutionary activities (1889–1895)===
[[File:Vladimir Lenin (1891).png|thumb|227x227px|Lenin in 1891]]
In May 1889, the Ulyanov family moved to a village next to the city of Samara, with Lenin narrowly escaping another arrest by the secret police, which arrested and imprisoned members of Fedoseyev [[Marxism|Marxist]] study-circles of Kazan a month later. In Samara, Lenin earned a living by giving lessons. Considering he was prohibited from attending university, Lenin sent several applications requesting permission to pass his university examinations without attending lectures, until 1890, when he received the permission to do so, along with the task of studying for 18 months independently. After hard work and intense study schedule, he took his examinations in 1891, achieving the highest marks in all subjects, receiving a first-class diploma.<ref name="cpsubio1-3">{{Citation|author=Pyotr Pospelov & Institute of Marxism-Leninism|year=1965|title=Lenin: a biography|chapter=Childhood and youth. The beginning of revolutionary activity|section=The Samara period|page=|quote=|pdf=|city=Moscow|publisher=Progress Publishers, CC CPSU|isbn=|doi=|lg=http://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=EB243CBDFE643F26EEB1360F866F261F|mia=|title-url=|chapter-url=|trans-title=|trans-lang=}}</ref>

Lenin began to practice law in the Samara Regional Court, and he appeared for defense in court about twenty times during the period of 1892–93. His legal practice, however, was secondary only to diligently studying Marxism to prepare himself for revolutionary work. In 1892, Lenin organized the first Marxist circle in Samara. The study group focused on the works of [[Karl Marx|Marx]] and [[Friedrich Engels|Engels]], the works of [[Plekhanov]] and others.<ref name="cpsubio1-3" /> Lenin's legal practice enriched his knowledge of the real world, as this enabled him to see concrete examples of class struggle from the perspective of the economically disenfranchised and the limits of the bourgeois law apparatus.<ref name=":1" />

In 1893, Lenin wrote his earliest theoretical work titled ''New economic developments in peasant life'',<ref group="lower-alpha">The article is available on [https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1893/ned/index.htm Marxists Internet Archive].</ref> an analysis of [[Russian Empire (1721–1917)|Russia]]'s economy based on data and statistics on peasant farming.<ref name="cpsubio1-3" /> During that time, Lenin corresponded with Nikolai Fedoseyev and exchanged views on Marxist theory and the economic and political developments of Russia.<ref name="cpsubio1-3" /> He had a deep affection for their friendship, and years later he wrote: "Fedoseyev played a very important role in the Volga area and in certain parts of Central Russia during that period; and the turn towards Marxism at that time was, undoubtedly, very largely due to the influence of this exceptionally talented and exceptionally devoted revolutionary."<ref>{{Citation|author=Vladimir Lenin|year=1922|title=A few words about N. Y. Fedoseyev|chapter=|section=|page=|quote=|pdf=|city=|publisher=|isbn=|doi=|lg=|mia=https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1922/dec/06.htm|title-url=|chapter-url=|trans-title=|trans-lang=}}</ref>

In August 1893, Lenin went to St. Petersburg, where he attended to several Marxist circle meetings, where the sharply criticized the [[Liberalism|liberal]] Narodniks, serving as a basis for Lenin's 1894 book [[What the “friends of the people” are and how they fight the social-democrats? (1894)|''What the “friends of the people” are and how they fight the social-democrats?'']], which was illegally distributed in 3 parts throughout cities of Russia, laying down the theoretical foundation for the program and tactics of the Russian revolutionary social-democrats.<ref name="cpsubio2-2">{{Citation|author=Pyotr Pospelov & Institute of Marxism-Leninism|year=1965|title=Lenin: a biography|chapter=Leader of the revolutionary proletariat of Russia|section=The ideological defeat of Narodism|page=|quote=|pdf=|city=Moscow|publisher=Progress Publishers, CC CPSU|isbn=|doi=|lg=http://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=EB243CBDFE643F26EEB1360F866F261F|mia=|title-url=|chapter-url=|trans-title=|trans-lang=}}</ref><ref name=":1" /> It was during this period that Lenin first met [[Nadezhda Krupskaya]], which was working as a teacher free of charge for workers.<ref name="cpsubio2-1">{{Citation|author=Pyotr Pospelov & Institute of Marxism-Leninism|year=1965|title=Lenin: a biography|chapter=Leader of the revolutionary proletariat of Russia|section=Among the St. Petersburg Proletariat|page=|quote=|pdf=|city=Moscow|publisher=Progress Publishers, CC CPSU|isbn=|doi=|lg=http://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=EB243CBDFE643F26EEB1360F866F261F|mia=|title-url=|chapter-url=|trans-title=|trans-lang=}}</ref>

===Establishment of a united Marxist organization (1895–1897)===
In March 1895,<ref>{{Citation|author=Gerda Weber & Hermann Weber|year=1974|title=Lenin: life and works|chapter=1895|section=|page=7|quote='''2 or 3 March''': Lenin takes part in a meeting of members of social democratic groups from St Petersburg, Moscow, Kiev and Vilno. Passing from propaganda work in Marxist circles to mass agitation work is debated.|pdf=|city=|publisher=|isbn=|doi=|lg=http://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=A1E1DBFD69501D980DB42067D38129E3|mia=|title-url=|chapter-url=|trans-title=|trans-lang=}}</ref> Lenin attended a conference in St. Petersburg of members of the social-democratic groups of St. Petersburg, Moscow, Kiev and Vilno. The conference discussed the question of changing over from the propaganda of Marxism in narrow circles to mass political agitation, and of publishing popular literature for the workers and establishing close contact with them. It was decided to send two representatives abroad, and Lenin was one of them.<ref name="cpsubio2-4">{{Citation|author=Pyotr Pospelov & Institute of Marxism-Leninism|year=1965|title=Lenin: a biography|chapter=Leader of the revolutionary proletariat of Russia|section=The League of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class|page=|quote=|pdf=|city=Moscow|publisher=Progress Publishers, CC CPSU|isbn=|doi=|lg=http://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=EB243CBDFE643F26EEB1360F866F261F|mia=|title-url=|chapter-url=|trans-title=|trans-lang=}}</ref> 

From May to September, Lenin traveled abroad to meet the social-democrats in exile, mainly [[Plekhanov]], in Berlin, Lenin first met [[Wilhelm Liebknecht]] a [[German Empire (1871–1918)|German]] social-democrat and in Paris, Lenin met [[Paul Lafargue]], [[Karl Marx|Marx]]'s son-in-law and socialist militant.<ref>{{Citation|author=Gerda Weber & Hermann Weber|year=1974|title=Lenin: life and works|chapter=1895|section=|page=7-9|quote='''15 May-8 June''': Lenin travels to Switzerland; he meets Potresov in Geneva and travels with him to see Plekhanov who is on holiday in the mountain village of Les Ormonts, near Les Diablerets.  [...]<br><br>'''Before 8 June''': Lenin travels to Paris and gets to know Paul Lafargue, Karl Marx's son-in-law, there. [...]<br><br>'''14 September''': In a letter to Wilhelm Liebknecht, Plekhanov recommends Lenin as 'one of our best Russian friends' and requests that Lenin be received because of an 'important matter' as he is returning to Russia. Lenin visits Wilhelm Liebknecht in Charlottenburg between 14-19 September.|pdf=|city=|publisher=|isbn=|doi=|lg=http://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=A1E1DBFD69501D980DB42067D38129E3|mia=|title-url=|chapter-url=|trans-title=|trans-lang=}}</ref><ref>{{Citation|author=Tariq Ali|year=2017|title=The dilemmas of Lenin|chapter=Terrorism and utopia|section=The younger brother|page=44-45|quote=In Europe in 1895, he met the elders of Russian Marxism: Plekhanov and Axelrod in Switzerland, Paul Lafargue (Marx’s son-in-law) in Paris and Wilhelm Liebknecht in Berlin.|pdf=|city=|publisher=|isbn=|doi=|lg=https://www.libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=312CBA29B2B3D75677E927E2D61A0CF2|mia=|title-url=|chapter-url=|trans-title=|trans-lang=}}</ref><ref name=":1" /> In the occasion of [[Friedrich Engels]]' death, in August 5, 1895, Lenin wrote a small pamphlet highlighting Engels' contribution to the proletarian cause.<ref>{{Citation|author=Vladimir Lenin|year=1895|title=Friedrich Engels|chapter=|section=|page=|quote=|pdf=|city=|publisher=|isbn=|doi=|lg=|mia=https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1895/misc/engels-bio.htm|title-url=|chapter-url=|trans-title=|trans-lang=}}</ref> In the same year, the Marxist circles of St. Petersburg united into a single political organization under Lenin's leadership. In December this organization adopted the name of League of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class.<ref group="lower-alpha">Russian: Союз борьбы за освобождение рабочего класса, ''lit.'' Union of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class</ref><ref name="cpsubio2-4" /> The organization had been active months earlier in agitating workers through pamphlets and participated in strikes, which led to the arrest of Lenin and other leaders of the League in 20 December, 1895. Lenin was accused of "crimes against the state" and was given fourteen months of solitary confinement followed by three years of Siberian exile.<ref name="cpsubio2-4" /><ref name=":1" />

During his time in prison, Lenin continued to carry on his revolutionary work. He quickly found ways and means of establishing contacts with comrades who were not arrested and through them directing the activities of the League. Inside his cell, he managed to write the draft program for the first congress of the League and began to write and research for his book ''[[The development of capitalism in Russia (1899)|The development of capitalism in Russia]]'' evading censorship by using milk or lemon juice as invisible ink, which would reveal the writing once warmed or dipped in hot water.<ref name="cpsubio2-4" />

===Siberian exile (1897–1900)===
After more than fourteen months of imprisonment Lenin was sentenced to three years in exile in Eastern Siberia under open police surveillance. The sentence was announced to him on February 13, 1897.<ref name="cpsubio3">{{Citation|author=Pyotr Pospelov & Institute of Marxism-Leninism|year=1965|title=Lenin: a biography|chapter=Siberian exile|section=|page=51|quote=|pdf=|city=Moscow|publisher=Progress Publishers, CC CPSU|isbn=|doi=|lg=http://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=EB243CBDFE643F26EEB1360F866F261F|mia=|title-url=|chapter-url=|trans-title=|trans-lang=}}</ref> 

===Revolutions in Russia (1905–1917)===

===Soviet government (1918–1923)===

===Declining health and death (1923–1924)===

==Library works==

*(1902) [[Library:What is to be done?|What is to be done?]]
*(1905) [[Library:Two tactics of social-democracy in the democratic revolution|Two tactics of social-democracy in the democratic revolution]]
*(1908) [[Library:Materialism and empiriocriticism|Materialism and empiriocriticism]]
*(1913) [[Library:The three sources and three component parts of Marxism|The three sources and three component parts of Marxism]]
*(1916) [[Library:Imperialism, the highest stage of capitalism|Imperialism, the highest stage of capitalism]]
*(1917) [[Library:The state and revolution|The state and revolution]]
*(1918) [[Library:The proletarian revolution and the renegade Kautsky|The proletarian revolution and the renegade Kautsky]]
*(1920) [[Library:"Left-wing" communism, an infantile disorder|“Left-wing” communism, an infantile disorder]]

==References==
<references />

===Notes===
<references group="lower-alpha" />
[[Category:Communists]]
[[Category:People]]
[[Category:Russians]]
[[Category:Marxists]]
[[Category:Marxist theorists]]
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