The one who, in the words of Ivan Bunin, “ravaged the greatest country in the world and killed several million people,” also had a childhood. Through the efforts of many writers, artists and poets, it appeared before the Soviet people in an extremely refined form. But is this gloss really so different from the truth?
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov was born on April 10 (22), 1870, on Good Friday, in Simbirsk (now Ulyanovsk). Just a year earlier, his family, who had moved from Nizhny Novgorod, settled in this city. Over time, they acquired a good house, in which the older children each had a separate room. A nanny and a cook helped the mother, and workers were hired for chores. The family did not know material needs.
Classical intellectuals
Lenin's father, Ilya Nikolaevich Ulyanov, came from the Astrakhan bourgeoisie. Russian blood in him mixed with Kalmyk and Chuvash. Left without a father early, he made an unthinkable career takeoff: he received an education and got out of the provincial teachers into actual state councilors (in the "Table of Ranks" he corresponded to the rank of major general in the army), enjoyed the favor of the tsar, had orders, up to St. Stanislav II degree. The most highly awarded nobility and civil rank of the IV class automatically made the children of Ulyanov noblemen. Accordingly, Vladimir too. Of course, Soviet chroniclers diligently edited the truth, focusing on the leader's farmhand origin. It was emphasized that the paternal grandfather "was previously a serf" peasant.
In Simbirsk, Ilya Nikolayevich was an inspector of public schools, that is, the main person in the provincial education system. An advanced man of his time, he did a lot to educate the common people. He was absent from home for months, driving around on business.
Mother - Maria Alexandrovna Blank, on the maternal side had Swedish-German roots, on the paternal side - Jewish. The daughter of a well-known and well-earning doctor, she received only a home education, but had a diploma as a home teacher. She adhered to leftist views, was an emancipated woman, at the same time a good housewife and a caring mother. At home, she studied foreign languages and music with younger children.
It is clear that it was the father and mother who at first became the closest people to Vladimir, having a decisive influence on the formation of his personality.
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In total, Maria Alexandrovna gave birth to eight children, two of whom died in infancy. “Absorbed in taking care of the house and children, their feeding, and their illnesses, the mother had almost no acquaintances in the local society, which was not very interesting,” Anna Ilyinichna Ulyanova later recalled.
The spouses did not arrange evenings and special receptions. But on Christmas - a must-have tree for children, fancy dress parties for adults. There were almost no toys from the store on the tree. “The Christmas tree was not alien to us, bought by ornaments by a torn tree, but our collective creation …” Ilya Nikolayevich's colleagues came to visit - inspectors of public schools and teachers with families.
He looks like his father, but …
According to the recollections of relatives, as a child, Vladimir was a cheerful, charming, but mischievous, and sometimes even aggressive child. Most of the toys were broken. He loved to play toy soldiers and command other children. Sister Olga especially got it.
I started walking late. Vladimir was big-headed, like Napoleon, and his head greatly outweighed his body. Therefore, when falling, he usually hit it hard, so the mother was seriously afraid that this would affect his mental abilities. The midwife who delivered the baby shook her head: "Either very smart or very stupid will come out." But, according to the recollections of Anna's older sister, frequent falls did not make my brother more careful: he rushed forward all the same swiftly. He retained this disposition in politics.
The boy looked like his father not only outwardly. “Volodya was quick-tempered, which he inherited from his father, whom he was very much like, and, like a father, he learned over the years to shake off this quick temper. But, having inherited from his father the addition, facial features and character: great diligence, steadfastness in striving for the set goal, personally great modesty and undemandingness, conservatism of habits, etc., to the smallest detail - he was completely original in his greater courage and self-confidence from childhood … Volodya alone carried this daring courage throughout his life,”writes Anna Ulyanova.
However, he did not succeed in internal, spiritual closeness with his father. Subsequently, Lenin never once mentioned his father, either in articles or in letters to relatives. After the 1917 revolution, returning to Russia, he traveled every year from Moscow to Petrograd to visit his mother's grave and wept at her gravestone. But I never went to Simbirsk to bow to my father's grave …
Vladimir did not inherit his faith in God from his father. The boy was baptized according to the Orthodox rite, but his mother, according to the recollections of Anna Ilyinichna, “was not pious and equally little attended both the Russian and German churches”.
The Ulyanovs' house was often visited by the priest Bogolyubov from the Tikhvin church nearby. Until the age of 16, young Vladimir belonged to the Simbirsk religious Society of St. Sergius of Radonezh. In the gymnasium he had excellent marks according to the law of God. But a spiritual emptiness gaped inside, which later resulted in the decree "On the separation of church from state and school from church", adopted by the Council of People's Commissars on January 20 (February 2) 1918.
Four for logic
It was through the efforts of a conservative father, a talented teacher and workaholic, that an atmosphere was created in the family that allowed children to make their own life choices. Alexander and Vladimir's thoughts took on too radical a character …
Of course, Lenin's mother also contributed to the creation of the family idyll. From her came an order of magnitude, a clear organization of her time.
We got up at 7 am. In addition to compulsory schooling, during the day children were involved in cleaning and other household chores. The girls knitted, embroidered, looked after the boys' clothes: they repaired, darned, sewn on buttons. The boys had to pour water into barrels in the garden, help carry the weight of the sisters, nanny and mother.
But children are children. Once Maria Alexandrovna was peeling apples for a pie in the kitchen. Vladimir spun around and asked for a peel. Having received a refusal, he did not retreat, but seized the moment and took off the peel, and then ate it with appetite. When his mother shamed him, he burst into tears. He did not deny the fact of theft and repented. It is indicative that the elder brother Alexander categorically declared that he most of all hated such vices as "lies and cowardice."
In general, for all the excessive ideological correctness, the stories about the broken decanter, the eaten plum and other things, on which the Soviet youth were brought up, are true. It is only strange that many years later, during the 1905 revolution, while he was in Switzerland himself, this "most humane man" urged members of the revolutionary detachments in St. Petersburg and Moscow to pour acid on police officers, pour boiling water on the soldiers from the upper floors, use any weapon: " a gun, a revolver, a bomb, a knife, brass knuckles, a stick, a rag with kerosene for arson, a rope or rope ladder, a shovel for building barricades, a pyroxylin checker, barbed wire, nails (against cavalry), etc., etc."
In 1879, Vladimir Ulyanov entered the Simbirsk classical gymnasium. Alexander Naumov, the future minister of the tsarist government, recalled: “He had absolutely exceptional abilities, had a huge memory, was distinguished by insatiable scientific curiosity and extraordinary capacity for work … Truly, it was a walking encyclopedia …” Year after year Vladimir received gold medals at the end of each class. In his certificate of maturity, there was only one four, which is characteristic, logically.
The boy was praised at school and at home. They set them as an example, were proud. Perhaps this instilled in his soul the belief that he is taller and smarter than everyone else. As a result: in the excellent characteristics of Vladimir Ulyanov's academic success, the director of the gymnasium Fyodor Kerensky (the father of the future head of the Provisional Government) nevertheless emphasized: "He is not friends with anyone." Even with brothers and sisters, he is “inattentive and rude,” according to their own testimony.
And here - tragedy after tragedy. His father died a year before graduation. And on March 1, 1887, for the preparation of an attempt on the life of Alexander III, the elder brother Alexander was arrested and already on May 8 (20) executed. Many of those who were previously considered friends turned away from the Ulyanov family. Vladimir experienced a tremendous psychological shock.
At that moment, as Lenin himself said, his complete "plowing" took place.
Olga PATRENKINA