Vladimir Lenin was born April 22nd, 1870 in Simbirsk, Russian Empire as Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Владимир Ильич Ульянов). Some days later, he was baptized into the Russian Orthodox Church. He took on the alias Lenin in 1901 while doing underground party work. (http://www.biography.com/people/vladimir-lenin-9379007#early-years). He was born into a wealthy middle-class family, third of six children, along with his five other brothers and sisters; Aleksandr, Dmitry, Maria, Anna, and Olga. Lenin and his family were well educated (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Lenin). His father worked as a Russian public figure in the field of public education. His father, Ilya Nikolayevich Ulyanov, came from a family of serfs. Despite this, he was able to study physics and mathematics at Kazan Imperial University before teaching at the …show more content…
However there were two major events in Vladimir’s childhood that would shape the rest of his life. Vladimir’s father, Ilya, died from a brain hemorrhage in January of 1886, when Vladimir was only 16 years old. Because of this, his behavior became erratic and confrontational, and he soon renounced his belief in God (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Lenin, Early Life, Childhood: 1870-87). The next event that would shape Vladimir happened in 1887. When Vladimir was only 17 when his older brother, Aleksandr, was executed by hanging for plotting to assassinate Tsar Alexander III. With both his father and older brother dead, he had to assume the position of the man of the house. Yet, despite this he went on to study law at Kazan University (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Lenin, Early Life, Childhood: 1870-87). Two years later, in 1889, he would go on to declare himself a Marxist