In Russian history, he is known as the elder brother of Lenin (the ideologist of the Russian revolution and an ardent opponent of autocracy). And if a colossal amount of literary works has been written about Vladimir Ilyich, then there is not so much detailed information about who Alexander Ulyanov is and what was remarkable in his biography. The mere fact that he took part in the assassination attempt on the Tsar speaks volumes.
However, Lenin’s brother did not immediately become a radicalist and an active champion of revolutionary ideas for the destruction of the autocracy. Alexander Ulyanov showed great promise in science, but a different fate was in store for him. It turned out to be just as tragic as that of many representatives of radical movements. What is known about the closest relative of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin? Let's consider this issue in more detail.
Years of childhood and youth
Alexander Ilyich Ulyanov is a native of Nizhny Novgorod. He was born on March 31, 1866. This was the second child in the Ulyanov family. Of course, almost everyone knows that Alexander’s father occupied a high position in the teaching community.
Being a candidate of mathematical sciences, he masterfully taught physics and mathematics in a men's gymnasium. However, Ilya Nikolaevich passed away quite early, so the burden of supporting the family after his death fell on his wife and eldest son. Maria Alexandrovna (Sasha’s mother) received a brilliant upbringing in her time and was a real homemaker.
At the age of nine, Alexander Ulyanov entered the Simbirsk gymnasium. He was distinguished by his special diligence in his studies and for this quality he was awarded a gold medal when he graduated from the gymnasium. Moreover, his certificate stated that he was a diligent, disciplined and overly inquisitive young man.
Was Alexander close to his younger brother Vladimir in his youth? Surprisingly, there was no special friendship between them. Alexander Ulyanov once stated: “Volodya is very capable, but we are different.” In turn, the younger brother, as he grew older, declared that Sasha was absolutely not created for “revolutionary work”, since he was scrupulously interested in science.
Student environment
In 1883, Alexander Ilyich Ulyanov became a student at the Faculty of Science at St. Petersburg University.
And within the walls of this university, he also demonstrates excellent diligence and diligence in his studies. Already in his third year, the young man was awarded the status of “Second Academic Secretary.” Soon he defends his work on the natural sciences very well. Then he was completely abstracted from political life, since his passion was research in exact disciplines. It seemed that Alexander Ulyanov was simply obliged to become a major scientist, but one day the People’s Will became interested in his abilities.
Changing priorities
The turning point in the life of Lenin’s brother was the dispersal of the Dobrolyubov demonstration, which occurred in 1886. Crowds of young people came to serve a memorial service at the Volkovo cemetery to honor the memory of the famous writer Nikolai Dobrolyubov, who during his lifetime often criticized the authorities. However, the action was interrupted by gendarmerie forces. This behavior of officials caused a strong protest in Alexander’s soul. He decided that he would fiercely fight the injustice and lawlessness that “those in power” were perpetrating.
"People's Will"
Alexander Ulyanov (brother of Vladimir Ilyich) chose the Narodnaya Volya members as a political platform.
The Narodnaya Volya party consisted entirely of populist revolutionaries who intended to revive the Russian community in an exclusively radical way, recognizing the harmful influence of the capitalist system on it. Moreover, to achieve their goals, they often practiced terrorist acts. The Narodnaya Volya were a close-knit group with their own governing bodies. The organization had a wide network of local groups and special circles. Seeing that the party enjoyed serious support from the masses, Alexander Ulyanov, without hesitation, joined its ranks.
The young man began to devote less time to science, focusing on underground work. He began speaking at party meetings, participating in pickets and marches, and conducting propaganda work among young people. However, after some time, Alexander Ulyanov (Lenin’s brother), whose biography contains many interesting and noteworthy facts, moved on to more active actions through which he hoped to realize his political ambitions.
Program
He is the author of the Terrorist Faction program. This document is openly radical in nature and makes strict demands on the autocratic system. Moreover, the program contained unequivocal calls for the assassination of the Tsar.
Naturally, Alexander III’s reaction to the above-mentioned Narodnaya Volya document was appropriate: the tsar did not even want to think about entering into a dialogue with representatives of the opposition party. Realizing that the autocrat did not intend to make concessions and weaken the political regime, Narodnaya Volya activists wanted reprisals against Alexander III. However, the idea to kill the Russian autocrat did not come to Ulyanov’s mind. It was initiated by Alexander’s associates - Sheverev and Govorukhin. However, after some time, the first of them temporarily abandoned the idea, leaving for treatment in Crimea. But then the revolutionaries returned to their intended goal. Alexander Ulyanov (Lenin's brother) sold the gold medal and purchased dynamite with the proceeds.
Explosive device
Initially, the Narodnaya Volya members planned to make a bomb in the apartment of the revolutionary Lukashevich.
However, they later abandoned this. The terrorists suddenly remembered the extraordinary abilities of Ulyanov, who showed great promise in science. Alexander was well versed in chemistry, so it was he who was tasked with making an explosive device. Naturally, it was not difficult for Vladimir Ilyich’s brother to make a bomb. In just two months, he learned all the intricacies of the process of making an explosive mechanism.
Soon after this, Alexander was supplied with the necessary raw materials: dynamite and explosive mixture. Moreover, the result was as many as three bombs. One of them was veiled in a thick bound book. The bomb maker did not hide evidence by leaving laboratory accessories directly on the table. It is possible that Alexander Ulyanov is acting too carelessly and recklessly. An attempt on the life of the Tsar is an action that ideally implies careful preparation and concealment of all material evidence related to it. And here is such an oversight. But the police will soon learn about the planned murder of the autocrat.
The gendarmes reveal the plan
One of the terrorists by the name of Andreyushkin addressed a written message to a certain student Nikitin in Kharkov, in which he reported in a camouflaged form that a “big deal” was planned. And this letter, by coincidence, falls into the hands of the gendarmerie, which immediately establishes surveillance of the revolutionaries. And in the last month of the winter of 1887 they showed extraordinary caution. Govorukhin disappears from the city, having previously left a note saying that he committed suicide. Shevelev also leaves the city on the Neva.
Lenin's brother, in order to lull the vigilance of the police, temporarily took a job as a teacher with the midwife Ananyeva, who lived in the Vyborg district of St. Petersburg, where he was delivered components for making a bomb. And yet, despite the conspiracy, the police managed to establish surveillance of members of the “Terrorist Faction”. The gendarmes saw revolutionaries hiding something under their clothes as they walked along Nevsky Prospekt. The Generalov terrorist was carrying the most valuable cargo - a thick bound book. Narodnaya Volya organized a vigil at St. Isaac's Cathedral in the last days of February. And a few days later they learned that the tsar intended to go to a memorial service in the Peter and Paul Fortress. And when he returns from the event, the “X-hour” will come...
It seemed that reprisal against the autocrat was inevitable, but vigilant police managed to prevent it. Soon all the organizers of the crime and participants in the promenade along the main avenue of St. Petersburg were arrested.
Detention
What about Alexander Ulyanov? The assassination attempt on the Tsar, as is known, was scheduled for March 1, 1887. Vladimir Ilyich’s brother was waiting for this date and preparing for it. On the first day of spring in the evening, he went to the apartment of Narodnaya Volya member Mikhail Kancher to ask how things were going with the implementation of the crime. But there were no explosions in the city then. And after some time, gendarmes came to Kancher and arrested the revolutionaries.
The hypothetical “regicide” Alexander Ulyanov stated during interrogations that the attempt on the life of Alexander III was entirely his idea. He was simply trying to shield his party comrades. During the search, a notebook was confiscated from Lenin's brother, the pages of which were filled from beginning to end with encrypted addresses. Soon the police learn from the “accommodating and manipulable” Narodnaya Volya members the names of the organizers of the terrorist attack. These are Pyotr Shevyrev, Pakhomiy Andreyushkin, Vasily Osipanov, Vasily Generalov and Alexander Ulyanov, whose photo immediately hit the front pages of St. Petersburg newspapers after the assassination attempt.
Moreover, Vladimir Ilyich’s brother asks that his comrades declare during interrogations that it was he who prepared, organized and intended to carry out the crime against the autocracy. At the trial, the prosecutor will draw attention to this fact, although ultimately Alexander and the above-mentioned Narodnaya Volya members will be given the most severe punishment - the death penalty. And before the execution of the sentence, the conspirators were sent to the Political Prison of the Peter and Paul Fortress.
It is noteworthy that Anna Ilyinichna Ulyanova (the revolutionary’s sister) was recognized as an accomplice in this case. In the winter of 1887, she studied at the Bestuzhev Higher Women's Courses. She was sentenced to five years' exile.
Petition for pardon
One of the Ulyanovs’ relatives reported the fate of Alexander and Anna. However, Maria Alexandrovna’s health was not good, so the sad news was conveyed through a family friend. It was she who informed Vladimir Ilyich about the execution of his brother and the arrest of his sister. But Vladimir considered it pointless to hide such news from his mother.
Of course, the gravity of the crime committed was undeniable, but there was still a tiny chance that Alexander Ulyanov could be acquitted. But the situation was complicated by the fact that Lenin’s brother was the author of a blatant and odious document - the program of the “Terrorist Faction,” the provisions of which accused the autocratic system of almost “all sins.” And yet, Maria Alexandrovna made an attempt to save her son. She herself went to St. Petersburg and began to seek an audience with the Tsar. Alexander III accepted and listened to her request.
The Emperor agreed to satisfy her, but on the condition that Alexander Ulyanov, whose life story ultimately turned out to be tragic, would personally ask for mercy. But initially the revolutionary did not want to do this and only at the request of his mother sent the autocrat a paper in which he asked to save his life. Did Alexander III get acquainted with it? It is not known for certain, but he clearly did not intend to show softness and loyalty towards those who wanted to kill him. On the contrary, he wanted the terrorists to get what they deserved for such a daring crime.
Verdict
The court hearing was closed. The trial lasted five days, after which the servant of Themis decided: “Osipanov, Andreyushkin, Generalov and Ulyanov should be executed.” Shevyrev, who was arrested in Crimea, was also deprived of his life. Shortly before her son was hanged, Maria Alexandrovna visited him. She tried not to show her emotions, having mentally prepared herself for the fact that her son Alexander Ulyanov was already doomed. The assassination attempt on the Tsar cost him very, very dearly. He paid the greatest price for this. But Lenin’s brother did not feel any regret or repentance for what he “did.” The execution of Alexander Ulyanov took place on May 8, 1887. He was hanged in the Shlisselburg fortress, and his body was buried in a mass grave behind the wall of the fortress, located on the shores of Lake Ladoga.
90's era versions
It is noteworthy that after the collapse of the USSR, society began to talk about new facts in the biography of Alexander Ulyanov. Moreover, they were “unearthed” back in the 70s by Marietta Shaginyan, who specifically studied the life of the family of the “ideologist of the Russian revolution.” But there are still heated debates among historians about whether they can be trusted or not.
According to one version, Alexander Ulyanov, whose biography has not yet been fully researched, is the illegitimate son of the emperor himself. There is an opinion that even in her youth, Maria Alexandrovna served as a maid of honor at the court of Alexander II. Some time later, she had an affair with his son Alexander III. It was from this connection that the eldest son of the Ulyanovs appeared. And then the maid of honor gave birth to a girl, but the Grand Duke was not her parent. Naturally, there could be no talk of any kind of career as a maid of honor with two children. Maria Alexandrovna was “quietly” married to the provincial teacher Ilya Nikolaevich Ulyanov. The future inspector of public schools received a title of nobility and a promotion up the career ladder.
One day, Alexander Ulyanov was sorting through his father’s papers and accidentally learned about his origin. After reading them, he vowed to take revenge on his biological father for his insulted honor, and to realize this goal, he joined the Narodnaya Volya. And, according to rumors, Alexander III, after the assassination attempt, was ready to forgive his illegitimate son and even intended to bestow on him the title of prince, as well as get him to serve in a guards regiment. But Lenin’s brother did not want to repent and continued to hate his biological parent.
According to the second version, Alexander Ulyanov was the son of the famous terrorist Dmitry Karakozov, who in 1866 attempted to assassinate Emperor Alexander II. Moreover, the revolutionary was a student of Ilya Nikolaevich Ulyanov. He was first a student at Kazan University, then at Moscow University. Karakozov was a member of the revolutionary society “Organization”. The romance between the regicide and Maria Alexandrovna did not surprise anyone from the environment with whom the Ulyanov family communicated. Lenin's brother planned the assassination of Alexander III on the day that Dmitry Karakozov attempted to take the life of Alexander II. However, it was not successful with either one or the other.
Conclusion
So, there is no doubt that Alexander Ilyich completely consciously and without any remorse went to kill the Tsar. Like other representatives of radical youth, he longed to overthrow the autocratic system in Russia and forever free the country from its oppression. In total, about 45 people were involved in the case of the assassination attempt on Alexander III, and they all understood that if the political plans did not come true, they would face the gallows or a long prison sentence.
The terrorists considered it their civic duty to destroy tsarism in Russia. However, this mission turned out to be beyond their power: it was brought to life by the closest relative of Alexander Ulyanov. Well, after the execution of Lenin’s brother, the entourage of the Ulyanov family turned away from all its members, preferring to distance themselves from communication with Maria Alexandrovna and the children. Everyone was frightened by Alexander’s flagrant and odious act. And after some time, Vladimir Ilyich will say his sacramental phrase: “We will go the other way!”
Life story
By 1887, in large cities of Russia there were separate circles, small organizations consisting mainly of students. Their members did not have thorough theoretical training, revolutionary experience and sufficient endurance. Political circles were isolated from each other and acted according to their own plan. A noticeable mark on the revolutionary movement of the second half of the 1880s was left by the circle of Ulyanov, Shevyrev, Lukashevich and others. Their program is an attempt to reconcile the theory and practice of democracy with social democracy and provide a “scientific explanation” of terror. The idea of drawing up a program arose in the circle, according to A. Ulyanov, approximately in the second half of December 1886.
Then, having gathered his friends and sister Anna at the apartment, young Sasha Ulyanov explained to them his thoughts, which boiled down to the following: “In the fight against revolutionaries, the government uses extreme measures of intimidation, therefore the intelligentsia was forced to resort to the form of struggle indicated by the government, then there is terror. Terror is, therefore, a clash between the government and the intelligentsia, from which the opportunity for peaceful cultural influence on public life is taken away. Terror must act systematically and, by disorganizing the government, will have a huge psychological impact: it will raise the revolutionary spirit of the people... The faction stands for the decentralization of the terrorist struggle: let the wave of red terror spread widely throughout the province, where a system of intimidation is even more needed as a protest against the administrative oppression."
Thus, Sasha Ulyanov’s proposals were more dashing than the attempts of the current Italian “Red Brigades” and the German “Rot Armee Faction”. In fact, it was a call for mass murder of everyone who did not like the Ulyanov brother and sister. The boys enthusiastically accepted the calls of their twenty-year-old leader and began preparing the first terrorist attack. To some extent, one can understand these provincial romantics who lived in an atmosphere of philistinism and despondency. But to go out into the streets and start killing people...
The first step was to kill the king (it was he who was the tasty morsel in the eyes of the young people). The original plan to shoot the Tsar was rejected and they decided to throw bombs. Their preparation required a special room, dynamite, mercury and nitric acid, which at first were prepared in a “home” way.
Gerasimov and Andreyushkin expressed a desire to throw bombs.
However, from the day of the first terrorist attacks by the Ishutinites, the authorities began to pay close attention to “pale young men with burning eyes,” especially those who distinguished themselves at demonstrations. And, in particular, they did not hesitate to illustrate their letters. So, one day, having opened a letter addressed to a certain Nikitin, a Kharkov police officer almost fell out of his chair after reading the following passage: “The most merciless terror is possible in our country, and I firmly believe that it will happen, and even in a short time.”
The name of the correspondent, a St. Petersburg friend of Andreyushkin, an active member of the faction, was shaken out of Nikitin. The police began a scrupulous operation to identify all the actors in the impending terrorist attack. They established round-the-clock surveillance of the apartment of the bloodthirsty Andreyushkin and all its visitors.
Meanwhile, the gendarmes received alarming information about the impending assassination attempt only on February 28, if you trust the most reliable report of their chief. On March 1, the Minister of Internal Affairs, Count D. Tolstoy, informed the Tsar: “Yesterday, the head of the St. Petersburg secret department received intelligence information that a circle of criminals intends to carry out a terrorist act in the near future and that for this purpose these persons have at their disposal projectiles brought to St. Petersburg ready to “come” from Kharkov.”
Meanwhile, the terrorists decided to go hunting for the Tsar on March 1, and if the assassination attempt on this day fails and the Tsar goes south, then follow him and kill him along the way. However, the police also remembered this date - March 1, - too memorable for both the government and the revolutionaries, so the head of the secret department, without waiting for the tsar’s resolution, ordered the immediate arrest of the persons tracked down by the agents, hardly suggesting that these were the terrorists about whom he had already been warned about.
On March 1, 1887, three students, Osipanov, Andreyushkin and Generalov, were captured with explosive shells on Nevsky Prospekt. The “frank testimony” of signalmen (Kancher and Gorkun) who were arrested at the same time allowed the gendarmes to quickly identify the participants in the terrorist organization and the leadership role of students Alexander Ulyanov and Shevyrev in it. In total, 25 people were arrested in the first days of March, and later another 49 people. Fifteen people were put on trial, and the remaining cases were resolved administratively.
The police department immediately drew up a report on the arrest of the terrorists and sent it to the Tsar, signed by Tolstoy, with a brief notice of the conspiracy and small biographical information about those arrested. “This time God saved us,” the king wrote in the report, “but for how long? “Thank you to all the police officers who do not sleep and act successfully - send everything you learn more.”
At first, the king did not attach much importance to the students’ prank. When, “to avoid exaggerated rumors,” Count Tolstoy asked the sovereign for permission to print a special notice on March 1, the tsar wrote a resolution on the report: “I completely approve and in general it is advisable not to attach too much importance to these arrests. In my opinion, it would be better, having learned everything possible from them, not to bring them to trial, but simply send them to the Shlisselburg fortress without any fuss - this is the most severe and unpleasant punishment. Alexander".
However, having become more familiar with the activities of the faction, the king changed his mind. Thus, he was presented with the “Program of the Terrorist Faction of the Narodnaya Volya Party,” personally written by Alexander Ulyanov. And the first resolution that the tsar put on it was: “This is a note not even from a madman, but from a pure idiot.”
The “final requirements” necessary “to ensure the political and economic independence of the people and their free development” were reduced by Ulyanov to 8 points:
1. A permanent government of the people, freely elected by direct and universal suffrage.
2. Broad local self-government.
3. Independence of the community as an economic and administrative unit.
4. Complete freedom of conscience, speech, press, gatherings and movements.
5. Nationalization of land.
6. Nationalization of factories, factories and instruments of production.
7. Replacement of the standing army with the zemstvo militia.
8. Free initial training.
The main task of the faction was the elimination of Alexander III.
(“The purest commune,” Alexander III attributed. He, apparently, still could not understand why, for the sake of all this nonsense, it was necessary to kill him.)
The next day, the chief of gendarmes presented a “draft government message.” “On March 1, on Nevsky Prospekt at about 11 o’clock in the morning, three students of St. Petersburg University were detained, and explosive shells were found during a search. The detainees stated that they belonged to a secret criminal community, and the selected shells, upon examination by their expert, turned out to be loaded with dynamite and lead bullets filled with strychnine.” Alexander III recognized this message as “completely sufficient.”
When collecting materials, the gendarmes did not stop at any difficulties and did not hesitate to use any means.
As a result of this, they received detailed testimony from signalmen Kancher and Gorkun. This service of theirs was appreciated by the court and the tsar himself, who, on the sentence presented to him to death for 15 people, with a petition to commute the punishment for some of the convicts, made the inscription: “Quite rightly, I believe that Kancher and Gorkun could have had their punishment reduced even further for their frank testimony and repentance.”
The secret archival file partially reveals to us how the gendarmes received evidence. For example, the director of the police department cynically reported on the interrogation of young Kolya, the brother of Ananina, who was involved in this case. This “witness” gave his testimony after the director of the department “harassed” him. This report does not indicate what or how the child was “feared” with. In any case, the goal was achieved.
A huge amount of “work” was going on in the police department itself in St. Petersburg. The detectives needed to reveal the surname of a member of a terrorist organization, who was known to have the patronymic “Sergeevich.” To facilitate such a search, the police department wrote down from its records the names and surnames of all persons who had this patronymic. The result was a huge list of 16 pages, indicating for what case each person on the list was involved. Another list, shorter, contained information about the “Sergeevichs” who were brought to justice in various political cases.
The trial on March 1, 1887 took place behind closed doors.
Only ministers, their comrades, members of the State Council, senators and specially listed persons from the highest bureaucracy were allowed to enter the courtroom. In this respect, the trial of March 1, 1887 was a far cry from the trial of March 1, 1881, at which representatives of the press were present and stenographic notes were taken during the trial.
The closest relatives of the defendants were not allowed not only to enter the courtroom, but also to visit them. So, for example, the following resolution was imposed on Ulyanov’s mother’s request to allow her to visit her son: “If Mrs. Ulyanov complies, declare that visits are not allowed.”
It is characteristic that instead of responding to Ulyanova’s petition, the director of the police department ordered to respond only in the event of a new appeal.
It should also be noted the fate of Ulyanova’s petition to mitigate the fate of her son Alexander Ilyich Ulyanov and daughter Anna Ilyinichna Ulyanova. The mother asked the Comrade Minister of the Interior to forward her request to the Tsar. However, Orzhevsky forwarded this request instead of the tsar to the special presence of the Senate, where the matter was received.
The Minister of Internal Affairs received a report from the police department about each court hearing. The Minister of Justice submitted written reports to the Tsar about each meeting. Police Department reports confirm that Senator Dreyer lived up to his expectations. For example, he did not give Ulyanov the opportunity to talk about his attitude to terrorism.
The report noted Ulyanov's attempts to defend the defendant Novorussky. He tried to prove that Novorussky could not have guessed about the manufacture of explosives in his apartment. With visible pleasure, the Minister of the Interior was informed that “the speeches of the defenders were brief and very decent.” This gendarmerie praise does not honor the defenders, but at the same time characterizes the conditions in which the defense was placed.
Of the several dozen brought to justice in the case on March 1, 1887, 15 people were put on trial: Ulyanov Alexander, Osipanov, Andreyushkin, Generalov, Shevyrev, Lukashevich, Novorussky, Ananyina, Pilsudsky Bronislav, Pashkovsky, Shmidova, Kancher, Gorkun, Volokhov and Serdyukova.
Of these accused, 12 were students. All defendants were sentenced to death, but the special presence of the Senate petitioned for eight defendants to commute the death penalty to other punishments. Alexander III approved the death sentence for five convicts, namely: Ulyanov, Shevyrev, Generalov, Osipanov and Andreyushkin. Lukashevich and Novorussky were imprisoned for life in the Shlisselburg fortress and stayed there for 18 years each, until the 1905 revolution freed them. Ananyina was exiled to the Kara for 20 years, Pilsudski, upon confirmation, was sent to Sakhalin for 15 years. The four convicts were sentenced to 10 years of hard labor instead of the death penalty. Shmidova was exiled to Siberia for a settlement, and Serdyukova, found guilty of non-reporting, was imprisoned for 2 years.
An interesting detail: due to the absence of an executioner in St. Petersburg, an encrypted telegram was sent to the Warsaw chief of police with a request to send an executioner upon request, and on April 30 the demand followed: “Send the executioner immediately.” Four days later, five sentenced to execution and two to life imprisonment were taken from the Trubetskoy bastion to Shlisselburg. The execution took place on May 8.
On the same day, Count Tolstoy reported to the emperor in writing: “Today in the Shlisselburg prison, according to the verdict of the special presence of the Governing Senate, which took place on April 15-19, state criminals were subjected to the death penalty: Shevyrev, Ulyanov, Osipanov, Andreyushkin and Generalov.
According to information provided by the prosecutor of the St. Petersburg district court, Shcheglovitov, who carried out the Senate sentence, the convicts, due to their transfer to the Shlisselburg prison, assumed that they had been granted pardon. However, when it was announced to them half an hour before the execution, namely at 3 1/2 o'clock in the morning, about the upcoming execution of the sentence, they all remained completely calm and refused to confess and receive the holy mysteries.
Due to the fact that the location of the Shlisselburg prison did not provide the opportunity to execute all five at the same time, the scaffold was built for three people. The first to be taken out for execution were Generalov, Andreyushkin and Osipanov. After hearing the verdict, they said goodbye to each other, venerated the cross and cheerfully entered the scaffold, after which Generalov and Andreyushkin said in a loud voice: “Long live the People's Will!” Osipanov intended to do the same, but did not have time, as a bag was thrown over him. After the corpses of the executed criminals were removed, Shevyrev and Ulyanov were brought out, who also cheerfully and calmly entered the scaffold, with Ulyanov kissing the cross, and Shevyrev pushing away the priest’s hand.”
There is no other mark on the report, except for the usual sign that the king has read it.
The execution of the death sentence and the imprisonment of the convicts in hard labor prisons was not the end of the extensive paperwork in the trial on March 1, 1887; the administrative reprisal against many of those arrested continued, and it began even before the judicial reprisal. Already on April 8, the “highest” order was issued to exile Anna Ulyanova to Eastern Siberia for 5 years.
Alexander and Vladimir Ulyanov. Reproduction of Oleg Vishnyakov’s painting “Brothers”. © / S. Kogan / RIA Novosti
We rarely attach importance to the names of the streets we walk and pass by every day. We are even less interested in their history. Such frivolity and carelessness, a lack of interest in history, is characteristic of modern society.
There is one street in St. Petersburg - “st. Alexandra Ulyanov." Quite tiny. The same cannot be said about the history of its origin, the history of the life and death of the person after whom it was named. It is located in the Krasnogvardeisky district. Its length is only 350 meters. Like all streets, even the smallest and shortest ones, this one has its own history, a special history.
Officially, the street has existed since 1828. Initially it was called Dudina Street, after the surnames of several Dudin families who owned land plots on this street. Since 1828, the street was called Trournova, named after the owner of the Trournov workshop, and on October 31, 1922, the street received the name “Ulyanova Street” in memory of Alexander Ilyich Ulyanov - revolutionary, creator of the “Terrorist Faction” of the “People’s Will” party, elder brother of Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Lenin).
Inspection of public schools of the Simbirsk province with director I. N. Ulyanov. 1881 The life story of this man is more than interesting. Alexander, like Volodya, were the sons of a “real state councilor” - a major government official Ilya Nikolaevich Ulyanov, who was in the service of Emperor Alexander III. (*Here he is in the photo, in the center). After his death, the children automatically received the prestigious status of hereditary nobility, which meant a comfortable existence. And when their father unexpectedly died of a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 55, the right to hereditary nobility was officially assigned to them - by decree of Emperor Alexander III. curious that on November 25, 1917, Volodka Ulyanov, the son of an actual state councilor, would personally abolish this rank “by a decree on the abolition of estates and civil ranks.”
It is interesting what motivated the eldest son Alexander Ulyanov when, a year after his father’s death, he attempted an assassination attempt on Emperor Alexander III. There were no material needs in his life. Smart, talented, with a gold medal for graduating from high school, passionate about natural sciences, with great scientific abilities, showing great promise, one step away from an academic degree... What happened to a man in just a year, what made him join a terrorist cell and actually become its leader ?
“Unknown Ulyanov” - how Lenin’s older brother became a terrorist.
Ulyanov family. From left to right: standing - Olga, Alexander, Anna; sitting - Maria Alexandrovna with her youngest daughter Maria, Dmitry, Ilya Nikolaevich, Vladimir. Simbirsk 1879 Courtesy of M. Zolotarev Version one. Revenge.
Inessa Armand, Vladimir Ilyich’s beloved, told her friends a secret told to her by one of the Ulyanovs. The version was not confirmed by any documents; it was perceived only as a literary work, and not as an actual story. As follows from the narrative, Maria Alexandrovna, Lenin’s mother, was taken to the court in her youth, but did not stay there long, having compromised herself with an affair with one of the grand dukes, for which she was sent to her father in Kokushkino and quickly married off to Ulyanov, providing him regular promotions.
After the death of his father, in 1886, the eldest son Alexander, sorting through the papers of the deceased, came across a document concerning the stay of the maiden Maria Blank (his mother) at the imperial court - either a grant of a material nature for the newborn, or a letter revealing a secret. Alexander shared the discovery with his sister Anna, and both vowed revenge. The version has been developed.
According to other sources, Lenin’s mother turned out to be a maid of honor to the Empress, wife of Alexander III.
The writer Larisa Vasilyeva cited in her book “The Kremlin Wives” a legend she heard about Lenin’s mother. “In the spring of 1991, in one company, I heard a legend: that Lenin’s mother, Maria Blank, before her marriage was almost a maid of honor at the royal court for some time, started an affair with one of the great princes, almost with the future Alexander II or III, became pregnant and was sent to her parents, where she was urgently married to a modest teacher Ilya Ulyanov, promising him a promotion, which he regularly received throughout his life. Maria gave birth to her first child, a son, Alexander, then many more children, already from her husband, and years later, Alexander Ulyanov learned his mother’s secret and vowed to take revenge on the king for her desecrated honor. Having become a student, he became involved with terrorists and was ready to make an attempt on the life of the Tsar, his true father. The legend has raised doubts."
In the 90s of the last century, one of the St. Petersburg newspapers (“New Petersburg”) published an interview with journalist Alexander Pavlovich Kutenev about the illegitimate children of Tsar Alexander III:
NP: Alexander Pavlovich, can you tell us more about the illegitimate children of Alexander III?
APK: Alexander III, indeed, had many illegitimate children, since he was an unrestrained and passionate man. Among the children there were also historical celebrities. In particular, Alexander Ulyanov, the elder brother of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. The fact is that Maria Alexandrovna, Lenin’s mother, was a maid of honor at the court of Alexander II. When Alexander III was simply a Grand Duke, he had an affair with Maria Alexandrovna, from whom she gave birth to a son, Alexander, as a girl. History knows many similar examples: in Russia, bastards were treated humanely - they were given a princely title and assigned to a guards regiment. It is known that Lomonosov was the son of Peter I, Prince Bobrinsky was the son of Potemkin and Catherine II, Razumovsky was the illegitimate son of Elizabeth. All of them, as you know, had wonderful careers and never felt like outcasts. The same fate was in store for Alexander, Lenin’s brother.
But Maria Alexandrovna ruined everything: after Alexander, she gave birth to another child - a girl, and this girl no longer had anything to do with Alexander III. It was indecent to keep a maid of honor with two children at court. To hush up the scandal, they decided to transfer the case to the secret police. The secret police found an unfortunate man in St. Petersburg - homosexual Ilya Ulyanov. As a person with a non-traditional sexual orientation, he was on the hook of the secret police. As a dowry to Maria Alexandrovna, he was given a noble title, a place of bread in the province, and the newlyweds went to Simbirsk.
And all this backstory would have been hushed up if not for the passionate disposition of Maria Alexandrovna. She was not distinguished by strict behavior even in Simbirsk, and although her sexual life with Ilya Nikolaevich could not work out, she gave birth to four more children, it is unknown from which fathers.
You can imagine what it was like for the Ulyanov children in the gymnasium. In a small town, everything immediately becomes known, and the boys teased their Ulyanov peers: they remembered mommy, the tsar, and Ilya Nikolaevich. Ultimately, all this had a negative impact on Alexander: he grew up very embittered with a desire to spank his daddy at all costs. With these plans, he went to St. Petersburg to study. The rest was organized by the secret police. She helped Alexander Ulyanov enter the Narodnaya Volya revolutionary organization and take part in the assassination attempt on the Tsar.
As soon as Maria Alexandrovna found out that her son had been arrested for the assassination attempt on the Tsar, she immediately went to St. Petersburg and appeared before Alexander III. It’s an amazing thing: not a single source is amazed that an unknown poor Simbirsk noblewoman gets an appointment with the Tsar without any delay! And Alexander III accepted his old passion immediately, and together they visited Sasha in the fortress. The tsar forgave the “regicide”, promising to give him a princely title and enlist him in the guard. But Sashenka turned out to have character; he said everything he thought about both of his parents. And he promised them that as soon as he was free, he would make their whole shameless story public and would definitely throw a bomb at daddy! Therefore, Alexander Ulyanov was never released, but was sent to a psychiatric hospital, where he died of natural causes in 1901. Historians do not agree on the methods of execution, but there was no execution.
NP: Where did you get such stunning information?
AK: This is also a special and interesting story. At its origins is Marietta Shaginyan. In the 70s, this writer was writing a book about Lenin and gained access to the archives. Apparently, the keepers of the archives themselves did not know what was hidden in the papers behind seven seals. When Marietta Shaginyan got acquainted with the papers, she was shocked and wrote a memo to Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev personally. Brezhnev introduced this information to his circle. Suslov lay under pressure for three days and demanded that Shaginyan be shot for slander. But Brezhnev acted differently: he summoned Shaginyan to his place and, in exchange for silence, offered her a prize for a book about Lenin, an apartment, etc. and so on.
NP: And Shaginyan really received some kind of prize for her book about Lenin?
AK: Yes, she received the Lenin Prize for her book “Four Lessons from Lenin.” But the note was classified, and it was in the archives of the Central Committee of the Party. When I read this note in the archive, I wanted to see the archival materials themselves. And I requested copies. That's exactly how it was...
*Editor's note: This version would work well as a script for a Hollywood movie, but it has nothing to do with history. We will not dwell in detail on its exposure. The author of the book successfully proved that Maria Alexandrovna Blank, Lenin’s mother, was never a maid of honor. This falsification was published for the sake of ratings. The press did this very often in the 90s... At the end of the article we will provide a link to the source, which contains all the details the importance of this revelation.
Version two. Terrorist's mistress.
The above-mentioned writer Larisa Vasilyeva, who was not entirely sure of the version given to her that Maria Blank’s son, Alexander, was illegitimate from Tsarevich Alexander III, gave another version of the birth of Maria’s son, which, in her opinion, is more reliable. She writes:
Dmitry Karakozov. Photo: kommersant.ru “Alexander Ulyanov was born in 1866 from the famous terrorist Dmitry Karakozov, a former student of Ilya Nikolaevich Ulyanov at the Penza gymnasium. Dmitry Karakozov was born in 1840 (he is 5 years younger than Maria Blank-Ulyanova) Karakozov in 1866 to Emperor Alexander II.
The St. Petersburg newspaper “Northern Post” dated May 11, 1866, telling in detail about the personality of the man who attempted the life of Alexander III, reported that Dmitry Karakozov completed a course at the Penza gymnasium (the Ulyanovs then lived in Penza, and Ilya Nikolaevich taught at the gymnasium), and entered to Kazan University, then moved to Moscow University.
“Karakozov’s romance with Maria Alexandrovna was not a secret for everyone familiar with the Ulyanov family at that time,” says Natalia Nikolaevna Matveeva, a resident of St. Petersburg. She gleaned this information from the stories of her grandfather, revolutionary Vasily Ivanovich Pavlinov, who knew the Ulyanovs well.
Alexander Ulyanov planned to kill Tsar Alexander III on the day of Dmitry Karakozov’s assassination attempt on Alexander II - April 4. In memory of my father. The attempt failed.
Alexander Ulyanov became a student at St. Petersburg University. He studied annelids and had no intention of trading them for a revolution. His father died in January 1886. Alexander did not go to the funeral - according to the recollections of his sister Anna, his mother did not want to injure him (?) and did not advise him to come, but Anna Ilyinichna herself came to her father’s funeral. (Why could she be injured?)
Alexander Ulyanov spent the summer of the same year with his mother on the Alakaevka estate (his mother’s estate was Kokushkino; the Alakaevka farmstead was bought only in 1889 - from the author). That summer, after the death of Ilya Nikolaevich, drastic and, for many, completely inexplicable changes happened to Alexander. Anna Ulyanova writes in her memoirs,
“that from a calm young man her brother suddenly turned into a real neurasthenic, running from corner to corner. Returning from vacation to St. Petersburg, he, an exemplary student, previously only interested in science, abandoned his studies and began preparing an assassination attempt on the Tsar.”
The Ulyanov children, as writer Larisa Vasilyeva suggests, could have learned the secret of their birth immediately after the death of Ilya Nikolaevich. “Most likely,” she writes, “from her mother. There is also an assumption that Sasha came across some documents at home while sorting out the papers on his father’s desk. Showed them to my sister Anna. From them it became clear to the children what was what. The young prosecutor Knyazev, who was present at the last meeting between Maria Alexandrovna and her son Alexander, recorded Alexander’s words:
“Imagine, mom, two people are facing each other in a duel. One has already shot at his opponent, the other has not yet, and the one who has already shot asks the enemy not to use the weapon. No, I can't do that."
Alexander Ulyanov These words, in the context of new knowledge about the Ulyanov family, take on a new meaning: Alexander undoubtedly considers his act not an assassination attempt, but a duel for which he has nothing to apologize to his opponent. Both son and mother apparently both understand the subtext of the whole situation: the son avenges his father, the son of the murdered man takes revenge on the son of the murderer.”
L. Vasilyeva even found from photographs a great external resemblance between Karakozov and Alexander Ulyanov. But the documents do not confirm this.
The literary treatment of some facts was done by the writer in an attractive and sensational way, which is why this version has gained such popularity. People started talking about her on the sidelines, and some accepted her unconditionally. Still, this is literature, and there are no complaints about the writer. But this version has nothing to do with history.
There are many “controversial issues” in Larisa Vasilyeva’s version. One of them is very curious: Alexander, Maria’s son, was born in 1866, which means that according to Vasilyeva’s version, Maria and Dmitry Karakozov should have met in 1865, when the Ulyanovs lived in Nizhny Novgorod, and at the same time Dmitry, who was younger than Maria for 5 years, just a student under police supervision, somehow had to attract Maria, the wife of a court councilor, awarded the Order of St. Anne of the third degree, the mother of a one-year-old daughter and also a Jew on her father’s side, brought up in the strict rules of the laws of Halacha, which were strictly observed.
Ilya Nikolaevich Ulyanov (1831–1886) and Maria Alexandrovna Ulyanova (1835–1916) Attempts by L. Vasilyeva to substantiate her version by reasoning that Maria named her fourth son Dmitry, in honor of her beloved Dmitry, the absence of Alexander at the funeral of Ilya Nikolaevich, an unexpected change in Alexander’s character and his purposeful preparation for revenge after the death of his father, cannot in any way be accepted by historians . All of these cases could have occurred or occurred for many other reasons. And the ambiguity of their origin is of decisive importance for history. But literature can accept such reasoning.
The reasons that influenced Alexander, who decided to take part in a terrorist organization, should be sought elsewhere.
From “frog ripper” to terrorists
While still at the gymnasium, Alexander, showing an increased interest in natural history, received the nickname “frog ripper” in his family. But his real passion was chemistry. At the age of 16, he independently equipped himself with a chemical laboratory in the kitchen of the outbuilding, where he often stayed overnight. In 1883, after graduating from classical gymnasium with a gold medal, Alexander and his sister Anna went to St. Petersburg, where he entered the natural sciences department of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of the Imperial St. Petersburg University. Three years earlier, Pyotr Arkadyevich Stolypin, the future Prime Minister of Russia, was admitted to this faculty. Anna wrote in her memoirs:
“My brother arrived in St. Petersburg with serious scientific training, with a highly developed ability for independent work, and he just passionately attacked science.”
Among the students of those years, three groups were formed, separated by financial status. The first ones were called “white linings”; they included the children of dignitaries, generals, and high society who studied here. They wore jackets lined with white silk in the latest fashion. This student body was distinguished by its extreme right-wing, monarchist beliefs. Each of them knew that a brilliant career awaited him in the highest government institutions, the rank of general in his youth, and senatorship in his mature years.
The “white linings” were opposed by “radicals” - irreconcilable opponents of the system. They put on Little Russian shirts, boots, a modest blanket and always wore blue glasses. Among them came populist revolutionaries, terrorists, and Marxists.
The third group was represented by “cultivators”, located between the above two, who were most inclined towards science. From this cohort came many people who glorified Russian science.
By the end of the second year, Alexander, when determining his specialization, settled on invertebrate zoology. They sent several essays for the competition to the university council. The competition jury decided on February 3, 1886: “The essay of VI semester student Alexander Ulyanov on the topic: “On the segmental and reproductive organs of freshwater Annulata” should be awarded a gold medal.” No one doubted that the talented student would be retained at the university for scientific and teaching activities.
But in January 1886, news came to St. Petersburg about the sudden death of his father. Alexander had exams and was unable to go to the funeral. Anna managed to go to Simbirsk.
On November 17, 1886, Alexander took part in a procession around St. Petersburg on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the death of the writer of revolutionary views Dobrolyubov. More than one and a half thousand people gathered for the procession. The city authorities took such a crowd of people as dangerous, and the procession was stopped. The mayor brought in troops to disperse the demonstrators. The next day, Alexander distributed a political propaganda leaflet he had composed, in which he expressed his indignation at the existing order... His revolutionary views and sentiments were noticed by the Narodnaya Volya faction, to whose meeting he was invited. They also invited Alexander’s sister, Anna, who supported her beloved brother in every possible way. Alexander, having demonstrated leadership qualities, easily drew up a further program of actions and demands: “to ensure the political and economic independence of the people and their free development”
Such transformations in the country could begin only after a change of regime, the stronghold of which was the imperial family. The young revolutionaries believed that the only way to fight the government was through terrorist methods, and first of all, all the organization’s actions should be aimed at eliminating the autocrat.
At the end of the program, Alexander indicated the path and methods of action that should lead to success:
“In the fight against revolutionaries, the government uses extreme measures of intimidation, therefore the intelligentsia was forced to resort to the form of struggle indicated by the government, that is, terror. Terror is, therefore, a clash between the government and the intelligentsia, from which the opportunity for peaceful cultural influence on public life is taken away. Terror must act systematically and, by disorganizing the government, will have a huge psychological impact: it will raise the revolutionary spirit of the people... The faction stands for the decentralization of the terrorist struggle: let the wave of red terror spread widely throughout the province, where the system of intimidation is even more needed as a protest against administrative oppression.” .
After the debate, it was recognized that the bomb was the most effective means of dealing with the emperor.
The police, from a letter they opened from one of the faction members, managed to learn about the impending conspiracy. On March 1, the Minister of Internal Affairs, Count D. Tolstoy, reported to the Tsar: “Yesterday, the head of the St. Petersburg secret department received intelligence information that a circle of criminals intends to carry out a terrorist act in the near future and that for this purpose these persons have at their disposal projectiles brought to St. Petersburg ready to “come” from Kharkov.”
On March 1, 1887, three student performers, Osipanov, Andreyushkin and Generalov, were captured with bombs on Nevsky Prospekt. The frank testimony of those arrested allowed the gendarmes to quickly identify members of the terrorist organization and their leaders.
From the testimony of a member of the circle, E.I. Yakovenko, during interrogation: “Shevyrev was the initiator, inspirer and collector of the circle. Ulyanov - with its iron bond and cement. Without Shevyrev there would have been no organization, without Ulyanov there would have been no event on March 1, the organization would have disintegrated, the matter would not have been completed.”
In total, 25 people were arrested in the first days of March, and later another 49 people. Fifteen people were put on trial, and the remaining cases were resolved administratively. The police department immediately drew up a report on the arrest of the terrorists and sent it to the Tsar, signed by Count D.A. Tolstoy.
Emperor and Autocrat of All Russia Alexander III Alexandrovich Romanov “To avoid exaggerated rumors,” Count D.A. Tolstoy asked the sovereign for permission to print a special notice. At the report, the tsar wrote his resolution: “I completely approve and in general it is advisable not to attach too much importance to these arrests. In my opinion, it would be better, having learned everything possible from them, not to bring them to trial, but simply send them to the Shlisselburg fortress without any fuss - this is the most severe and unpleasant punishment. Alexander".
But when the Tsar was presented with the “Program of the Terrorist Faction of the Narodnaya Volya Party,” written by Alexander Ulyanov, the Tsar reacted to it indignantly: “This is a note from not even a madman, but a pure idiot.”
The Ulyanov family was shocked to learn about the disaster that had befallen them, but hoped for the mercy of the emperor. Maria Alexandrovna hastily left for the capital and on March 27, 1887 submitted a petition for pardon addressed to the sovereign, Alexander III.
“My mother’s grief and despair give me the courage to resort to Your Majesty as my only protection and help.
You are welcome, sir, please! Mercy and mercy for my children.
The eldest son, Alexander, who graduated from the gymnasium with a gold medal, received a gold medal at the university. My daughter, Anna, successfully studied at the St. Petersburg Higher Women's Courses. And so, when there were only two months left before they completed their full course of study, I suddenly lost my eldest son and daughter...
There are no tears to cry out the grief. There are no words to describe the horror of my situation.
I saw my daughter and talked to her. I know my children too well and from personal meetings with my daughter I was convinced of her complete innocence. Yes, finally, the director of the police department announced to me on March 16 that my daughter had not been compromised, so it was then expected that she would be completely released.
But then they announced to me that for a more complete investigation, my daughter could not be released and given my bail, which I asked for in view of her extremely poor health and the deadly harmful effect of her imprisonment on her physically and morally.
I don't know anything about my son. They announced to me that he was being kept in a fortress, they refused to allow me to see him, and they told me that I should consider him completely lost to me. He was always deeply devoted to the interests of the family and wrote to me often. About a year ago, my husband, who was the director of public schools in the Simbirsk province, died. There are six children left in my arms, including four minors.
This misfortune, which completely unexpectedly fell on my gray head, could have completely defeated me if not for the moral support that I found in my eldest son, who promised me all kinds of help and understood the critical situation of the family without support from him.
He was passionate about science to such an extent that he neglected all kinds of entertainment for the sake of office studies. At the university he was in the best standing. The gold medal opened the way for him to become a professor, and this academic year he worked hard in the zoological office of the university, preparing his master's thesis in order to quickly set out on an independent path and be the support of his family.
Oh, sir! I beg you, have mercy on my children! There is no strength to endure this grief, and there is no grief in the world as fierce and cruel as my grief! Have pity on my unfortunate old age! Give me back my children!
If my son’s mind and feelings have accidentally become clouded, if criminal intentions have crept into his soul, sir, I will correct him: I will again resurrect in his soul those best human feelings and motives with which he so recently lived!
I firmly believe in the power of maternal love and filial devotion and do not doubt for a minute that I am able to make an honest member of the Russian family out of my still minor son.
You are welcome, sir, I beg your mercy!..
Maria Ulyanova.
Maria Ulyanova, 1931. Photo: ITAR-TASS On March 30, the sovereign imposed the following resolution on the petition: “It seems to me desirable to give her a meeting with her son, so that she can be convinced of what kind of person her dear son is, and to show her the testimony of her son, so that she can see what his beliefs are.”
On the same day, the Minister of Internal Affairs, Count D.A. Tolstoy sent an order to the director of the police department Durnovo: “We must try to take advantage of the meeting with my son permitted by Sovereign Ulyanova, so that she can persuade him to give a frank testimony, especially about who, besides the students, organized this whole affair. It seems to me that this could have succeeded if I could influence my mother more skillfully.”
Anna, in her memoirs, based on her mother’s story thirty years ago, presented her meeting with Alexander in prison in this way:
“When his mother came to see him for the first time, he cried and hugged her knees, asking her to forgive him for the grief he was causing. He told her that he had a duty not only to his family, and, depicting to her the powerless, oppressed situation of his homeland, he pointed out that it was the duty of every honest person to fight for its liberation.
“Yes, but these remedies are so terrible.”
“What to do if there are no others, mom,” he answered. “We need to reconcile, mom.”
Maria Alexandrovna begged her son to write a petition for pardon - she still hoped for the mercy of the sovereign. And he wrote it, but in this petition there was not a line about repentance. Its whole meaning was as follows:
“I believe that I did the right thing, that I wanted to kill you, sir, but I ask you to leave me life for the sake of my mother, my family.”
The trial in the “case of March 1, 1887” took place behind closed doors. Relatives and friends of the defendants were not allowed not only to enter the courtroom, but also to visit them during the trial and after.
Vadim Ganshin as Alexander Ulyanov in the film “Executed at Dawn” 15 people were brought to trial, including Alexander and Anna Ulyanov. Of the 15 accused, 12 were students. All defendants were sentenced to death, but the special presence of the Senate petitioned for eight defendants to commute the death penalty to other punishments. Alexander III approved the death sentence for five convicts. Among them was Alexander Ulyanov. The remaining members of the “underground” were imprisoned in the Shlisselburg fortress and exiled to the north, to Sakhalin. Some of the participants were sent to hard labor. Anna Ulyanova received royal leniency - she was exiled to Eastern Siberia for 5 years.
The execution by hanging of the terrorists of the “People's Will” faction took place on May 8, 1887 in the Shlisselburg fortress. The word in the sentence "hang" handwritten opposite five names, among them Alexander Ilyich Ulyanov. His mother, nee Maria Blanc, became completely gray after these events.
30 years after this execution, the Romanovs ceased to rule Russia. On the night of July 16-17, 1918, Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra Fedorovna, their children, a doctor and a servant were killed in Ipatiev’s house in Yekaterinburg. It is still not known for certain whether Vladimir Lenin personally made the decision to execute the royal family.
Shlisselburg Fortress, Photo: gorodovoy.spb.ru To summarize, no drastic changes in Alexander’s behavior, as follows from the documents, did not occur; he, like many students from the “cultural group”, under the influence of the events developing in Russia, consciously moved into the group of radicals. In the case of March 1, 1887, 45 people were involved, who were united by the idea of “liberating Russia from the oppression of the autocracy.” They understood that if they failed, they would face a death sentence, but they did not give up their goal and prepared an assassination attempt. This was, in their opinion, their civic duty.
The execution of Alexander decided the fate of his younger brother, Vladimir, and the Ulyanov family as a whole: they simply became outcasts in provincial Simbirsk, people were afraid to communicate with them.
Krupskaya and Lenin, Photo: obozrevatel.com In her “Memories of Lenin” N. Krupskaya mentions this time with sympathy:
“When we became intimately acquainted, Vladimir Ilyich once told me how “society” reacted to the arrest of his older brother. All our acquaintances retreated from the Ulyanov family; even the old teacher, who used to always come to play chess in the evenings, stopped coming. At that time there was no railway from Simbirsk; Vladimir Ilyich’s mother had to ride horses to Syzran to get to St. Petersburg, where her son was imprisoned. Vladimir Ilyich was sent to look for a travel companion - no one wanted to go with the mother of the arrested man. This general “cowardice” made, according to Vladimir Ilyich, a very strong impression on him then.”
The strong impression, according to historian Yaroslav Listov, grew into a decisive one:
“This made, let’s say, a decisive impression on Vladimir. The fact is that he was only 17 years old, a person is just entering life, and an example is when this tragedy occurs in his own family, because it is a tragedy twice. The first tragedy is that your family member has committed or attempted to commit some kind of atrocity that attracts the attention of the entire society, and, in fact, all family members become unshakable. On the other hand, this is a personal tragedy - the loss of a person with whom he lived, with whom he communicated.
Lenin drew a conclusion from this; he then uttered his famous phrase: “We will take a different path,” about the creation of a revolutionary party and the overthrow of the system. Not individuals, but changing the system. That is, Lenin came to the conclusion that individual terror is useless and meaningless.
And we see that, indeed, it was precisely from this historical period that all individual terror of the Russian Empire came to naught. That is, the period when it seemed that let’s kill the emperor and everything will be fine is disappearing.”
During Soviet times, Lenin's posthumous gift to his executed brother took the form of renaming a modest street in his honor, which bears his first and last name to this day. And it’s unlikely that any of the officials raised the question of the advisability of returning the street to its historical name, which has nothing to do with terrorism, revolution, assassination attempts...
The article uses materials from the book: “Truth and lies about the Ulyanov family.” You can read the book
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Alexander Ilyich Ulyanov(March 31 (April 12), 1866, Nizhny Novgorod - May 8 (20), 1887, Shlisselburg) - revolutionary People's Volunteer, one of the organizers and leaders of the terrorist faction "Narodnaya Volya", the elder brother of Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Lenin).
Arrested while preparing an assassination attempt on Russian Emperor Alexander III; By the verdict of the Special Presence of the Governing Senate, he was executed by hanging.
Biography
Born into the family of a famous teacher (actual state councilor) Ilya Nikolaevich Ulyanov in Nizhny Novgorod.
Education
In 1874-1883 he studied at the Simbirsk classical gymnasium. In high school he showed a penchant for natural sciences, especially chemistry, “which he studied according to Mendeleev, having acquired a small home laboratory.” He graduated from high school with a gold medal.
In 1883 he entered the natural sciences department of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of St. Petersburg University, where he showed great scientific abilities.
In 1886, in his third year, he received a gold medal for his scientific work on invertebrate zoology: “On the segmental and sexual organs of freshwater Annulata,” based on materials he collected independently in the summer of 1885.
Scientific societies
He participated in the activities of a biological circle organized by students of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics, its core was formed around him, the meetings of the circle took place in his apartment on the St. Petersburg side.
In 1886, he joined the student Scientific and Literary Society of Professor of Russian Literature O. F. Miller and was unanimously elected as its chief secretary. He was also a member of the economic circle that existed at the university under the leadership of A. V. Ghisetti.
Revolutionary activities
He participated in illegal student meetings and demonstrations, and conducted propaganda in a workers’ circle.
In December 1886, together with P. Ya. Shevyrev, he organized the “Terrorist Faction” of the “People’s Will” party, which united mainly students of St. Petersburg University and was organizationally independent from other Narodnaya Volya groups, maintaining contacts with them. Members of the “faction” were influenced both, on the one hand, by the works of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Georgy Plekhanov, and by the program documents of Narodnaya Volya itself, on the other.
In February 1887, Ulyanov drew up a program for the “Terrorist Faction.” The proceeds from the sale of his gold medal were used to purchase explosives for the bomb.
On March 1, 1887, the “Terrorist Faction” planned to carry out an assassination attempt on Alexander III, but the attempt was prevented, and the organizers and participants, numbering 15 people, were arrested.
Together with other organizers of the assassination attempt, Alexander Ulyanov was imprisoned in the Political Prison of the Peter and Paul Fortress, where he remained until his transfer to the Shlisselburg Fortress, where he was subsequently executed.
Trial and execution
On April 15-19, 1887, a trial took place at which Ulyanov, Shevyrev, Andreyushkin, Generalov and Osipanov were sentenced to death, and the rest, including Bronislaw Pilsudski (Józef Pilsudski’s older brother), who prepared explosives for Alexander Ulyanov in Vilna attempts on the tsar's life - to various terms of hard labor and further exile.
Alexander's mother, Maria Alexandrovna, wrote a petition to Alexander III for pardon and received permission to visit her son.
Alexander Ulyanov himself was asked to ask the emperor for mercy. According to prosecutor Knyazev, who was present at the last meeting between mother and son, Alexander rejected this proposal at this meeting, saying the following:
“Imagine, mom, two people are facing each other in a duel. One has already shot at his opponent, the other has not yet, and the one who has already shot asks the enemy not to use the weapon. No, I can't do that."
Inspection of public schools of the Simbirsk province with director I. N. Ulyanov. 1881
The life story of this man is more than interesting. Alexander, like Volodya, were the sons of a “real state councilor” - a major government official Ilya Nikolaevich Ulyanov, who was in the service of Emperor Alexander III. (*Here he is in the photo, in the center). After his death, the children automatically received the prestigious status of hereditary nobility, which meant a comfortable existence. And when their father unexpectedly died of a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 55, the right to hereditary nobility was officially assigned to them - by decree of Emperor Alexander III. It is curious that on November 25, 1917, Volodka Ulyanov, the son of an actual state councilor, personally abolished this rank with a “decree on the abolition of estates and civil ranks.”
It is interesting what motivated the eldest son Alexander Ulyanov when, a year after his father’s death, he attempted an assassination attempt on Emperor Alexander III. There were no material needs in his life. Smart, talented, with a gold medal for graduating from high school, passionate about natural sciences, with great scientific abilities, showing great promise, one step away from an academic degree... What happened to a man in just a year, what made him join a terrorist cell and actually become its leader ?
“Unknown Ulyanov” - how Lenin’s older brother became a terrorist
Ulyanov family. From left to right: standing - Olga, Alexander, Anna; sitting - Maria Alexandrovna with her youngest daughter Maria, Dmitry, Ilya Nikolaevich, Vladimir. Simbirsk 1879 Courtesy of M. Zolotarev
Version one. Revenge
Inessa Armand, Vladimir Ilyich’s beloved, told her friends a secret told to her by one of the Ulyanovs. The version was not confirmed by any documents; it was perceived only as a literary work, and not as an actual story. As follows from the narrative, Maria Alexandrovna, Lenin’s mother, was taken to the court in her youth, but did not stay there long, having compromised herself with an affair with one of the grand dukes, for which she was sent to her father in Kokushkino and quickly married off to Ulyanov, providing him regular promotions.
After the death of his father, in 1886, the eldest son Alexander, sorting through the papers of the deceased, came across a document concerning the stay of the maiden Maria Blank (his mother) at the imperial court - either a grant of a material nature for the newborn, or a letter revealing a secret. Alexander shared the discovery with his sister Anna, and both vowed revenge. The version has been developed.
According to other sources, Lenin’s mother turned out to be a maid of honor to the Empress, wife of Alexander III.
The writer Larisa Vasilyeva cited in her book “The Kremlin Wives” a legend she heard about Lenin’s mother.
“In the spring of 1991, in one company, I heard a legend: that Lenin’s mother, Maria Blank, before her marriage was almost a maid of honor at the royal court for some time, started an affair with one of the great princes, almost with the future Alexander II or III, became pregnant and was sent to her parents, where she was urgently married to a modest teacher Ilya Ulyanov, promising him a promotion, which he regularly received throughout his life. Maria gave birth to her first child, a son, Alexander, then many more children, already from her husband, and years later, Alexander Ulyanov learned his mother’s secret and vowed to take revenge on the king for her desecrated honor. Having become a student, he became involved with terrorists and was ready to make an attempt on the life of the Tsar, his true father. The legend has raised doubts."
In the 90s of the last century, one of the St. Petersburg newspapers (“New Petersburg”) published an interview with journalist Alexander Pavlovich Kutenev about the illegitimate children of Tsar Alexander III:
- Alexander Pavlovich, can you tell us more about the illegitimate children of Alexander III?
Alexander III, indeed, had many illegitimate children, since he was an unrestrained and passionate man. Among the children there were also historical celebrities. In particular, Alexander Ulyanov, the elder brother of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. The fact is that Maria Alexandrovna, Lenin’s mother, was a maid of honor at the court of Alexander II. When Alexander III was simply a Grand Duke, he had an affair with Maria Alexandrovna, from whom she gave birth to a son, Alexander, as a girl. History knows many similar examples: in Russia, bastards were treated humanely - they were given a princely title and assigned to a guards regiment. It is known that Lomonosov was the son of Peter I, Prince Bobrinsky was the son of Potemkin and Catherine II, Razumovsky was the illegitimate son of Elizabeth. All of them, as you know, had wonderful careers and never felt like outcasts. The same fate was in store for Alexander, Lenin’s brother.
But Maria Alexandrovna ruined everything: after Alexander, she gave birth to another child - a girl, and this girl no longer had anything to do with Alexander III. It was indecent to keep a maid of honor with two children at court. To hush up the scandal, they decided to transfer the case to the secret police. The secret police found an unfortunate man in St. Petersburg - homosexual Ilya Ulyanov. As a person with a non-traditional sexual orientation, he was on the hook of the secret police. As a dowry to Maria Alexandrovna, he was given a noble title, a place of bread in the province, and the newlyweds went to Simbirsk.
And all this backstory would have been hushed up if not for the passionate disposition of Maria Alexandrovna. She was not distinguished by strict behavior even in Simbirsk, and although her sexual life with Ilya Nikolaevich could not work out, she gave birth to four more children, it is unknown from which fathers.
You can imagine what it was like for the Ulyanov children in the gymnasium. In a small town, everything immediately becomes known, and the boys teased their Ulyanov peers: they remembered mommy, the tsar, and Ilya Nikolaevich. Ultimately, all this had a negative impact on Alexander: he grew up very embittered with a desire to spank his daddy at all costs. With these plans, he went to St. Petersburg to study. The rest was organized by the secret police. She helped Alexander Ulyanov enter the Narodnaya Volya revolutionary organization and take part in the assassination attempt on the Tsar.
As soon as Maria Alexandrovna found out that her son had been arrested for the assassination attempt on the Tsar, she immediately went to St. Petersburg and appeared before Alexander III. It’s an amazing thing: not a single source is amazed that an unknown poor Simbirsk noblewoman gets an appointment with the Tsar without any delay! And Alexander III accepted his old passion immediately, and together they visited Sasha in the fortress. The tsar forgave the “regicide”, promising to give him a princely title and enlist him in the guard. But Sashenka turned out to have character; he said everything he thought about both of his parents. And he promised them that as soon as he was free, he would make their whole shameless story public and would definitely throw a bomb at daddy! Therefore, Alexander Ulyanov was never released, but was sent to a psychiatric hospital, where he died of natural causes in 1901. Historians do not agree on the methods of execution, but there was no execution.
-Where did you get such stunning information?
This is also a special and interesting story. At its origins is Marietta Shaginyan. In the 70s, this writer was writing a book about Lenin and gained access to the archives. Apparently, the keepers of the archives themselves did not know what was hidden in the papers behind seven seals. When Marietta Shaginyan got acquainted with the papers, she was shocked and wrote a memo to Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev personally. Brezhnev introduced this information to his circle. Suslov lay under pressure for three days and demanded that Shaginyan be shot for slander. But Brezhnev acted differently: he summoned Shaginyan to his place and, in exchange for silence, offered her a prize for a book about Lenin, an apartment, etc. and so on.
- And Shaginyan really received some kind of prize for her book about Lenin?
Yes, she received the Lenin Prize for her book “Four Lessons from Lenin.” But the note was classified, and it was in the archives of the Central Committee of the Party. When I read this note in the archive, I wanted to see the archival materials themselves. And I requested copies. That's exactly how it was...
Version two. Terrorist's mistress
The above-mentioned writer Larisa Vasilyeva, who was not entirely sure of the version given to her that Maria Blank’s son, Alexander, was illegitimate from Tsarevich Alexander III, gave another version of the birth of Maria’s son, which, in her opinion, is more reliable. She writes:
“Alexander Ulyanov was born in 1866 from the famous terrorist Dmitry Karakozov, a former student of Ilya Nikolaevich Ulyanov at the Penza gymnasium. Dmitry Karakozov was born in 1840 (he is 5 years younger than Maria Blank-Ulyanova) Karakozov shot at Emperor Alexander II in 1866.
The St. Petersburg newspaper “Northern Post” dated May 11, 1866, telling in detail about the personality of the man who attempted the life of Alexander III, reported that Dmitry Karakozov completed a course at the Penza gymnasium (the Ulyanovs then lived in Penza, and Ilya Nikolaevich taught at the gymnasium), and entered to Kazan University, then moved to Moscow University.
“Karakozov’s romance with Maria Alexandrovna was not a secret for everyone familiar with the Ulyanov family at that time,” says Natalia Nikolaevna Matveeva, a resident of St. Petersburg. She gleaned this information from the stories of her grandfather, revolutionary Vasily Ivanovich Pavlinov, who knew the Ulyanovs well.
Alexander Ulyanov planned to kill Tsar Alexander III on the day of Dmitry Karakozov’s assassination attempt on Alexander II - April 4. In memory of my father. The attempt failed.
Alexander Ulyanov became a student at St. Petersburg University. He studied annelids and had no intention of trading them for a revolution. His father died in January 1886. Alexander did not go to the funeral - according to the recollections of his sister Anna, his mother did not want to injure him (?) and did not advise him to come, but Anna Ilyinichna herself came to her father’s funeral. (Why could she be injured?)
Alexander Ulyanov spent the summer of the same year with his mother on the Alakaevka estate (his mother’s estate was Kokushkino; the Alakaevka farmstead was bought only in 1889 - from the author). That summer, after the death of Ilya Nikolaevich, drastic and, for many, completely inexplicable changes happened to Alexander. Anna Ulyanova writes in her memoirs,
“that from a calm young man her brother suddenly turned into a real neurasthenic, running from corner to corner. Returning from vacation to St. Petersburg, he, an exemplary student, previously only interested in science, abandoned his studies and began preparing an assassination attempt on the Tsar.”
The Ulyanov children, as writer Larisa Vasilyeva suggests, could have learned the secret of their birth immediately after the death of Ilya Nikolaevich. “Most likely,” she writes, “from her mother. There is also an assumption that Sasha came across some documents at home while sorting out the papers on his father’s desk. Showed them to my sister Anna. From them it became clear to the children what was what. The young prosecutor Knyazev, who was present at the last meeting between Maria Alexandrovna and her son Alexander, recorded Alexander’s words:
“Imagine, mom, two people are facing each other in a duel. One has already shot at his opponent, the other has not yet, and the one who has already shot asks the enemy not to use the weapon. No, I can't do that."
These words, in the context of new knowledge about the Ulyanov family, take on a new meaning: Alexander undoubtedly considers his act not an assassination attempt, but a duel for which he has nothing to apologize to his opponent. Both the son and the mother, apparently, both understand the subtext of the whole situation: the son takes revenge for his father, the son of the murdered man takes revenge on the son of the murderer.”
L. Vasilyeva even found from photographs a great external resemblance between Karakozov and Alexander Ulyanov. But the documents do not confirm this.
The literary treatment of some facts was done by the writer in an attractive and sensational way, which is why this version has gained such popularity. People started talking about her on the sidelines, and some accepted her unconditionally. Still, this is literature, and there are no complaints about the writer. But this version has nothing to do with history.
There are many “controversial issues” in Larisa Vasilyeva’s version. One of them is very curious: Alexander, Maria’s son, was born in 1866, which means that according to Vasilyeva’s version, Maria and Dmitry Karakozov should have met in 1865, when the Ulyanovs lived in Nizhny Novgorod, and at the same time Dmitry, who was younger than Maria for 5 years, just a student under police supervision, somehow had to attract Maria, the wife of a court councilor, awarded the Order of St. Anne of the third degree, the mother of a one-year-old daughter and also a Jew on her father’s side, brought up in the strict rules of the laws of Halacha, which were strictly observed.
Attempts by L. Vasilyeva to substantiate her version by reasoning that Maria named her fourth son Dmitry, in honor of her beloved Dmitry, the absence of Alexander at the funeral of Ilya Nikolaevich, an unexpected change in Alexander’s character and his purposeful preparation for revenge after the death of his father, cannot in any way be accepted by historians . All of these cases could have occurred or occurred for many other reasons. And the ambiguity of their origin is of decisive importance for history. But literature can accept such reasoning.
The reasons that influenced Alexander, who decided to take part in a terrorist organization, should be sought elsewhere.
From “frog ripper” to terrorists
While still at the gymnasium, Alexander, showing an increased interest in natural history, received the nickname “frog ripper” in his family. But his real passion was chemistry. At the age of 16, he independently equipped himself with a chemical laboratory in the kitchen of the outbuilding, where he often stayed overnight. In 1883, after graduating from classical gymnasium with a gold medal, Alexander and his sister Anna went to St. Petersburg, where he entered the natural sciences department of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of the Imperial St. Petersburg University. Three years earlier, Pyotr Arkadyevich Stolypin, the future Prime Minister of Russia, was admitted to this faculty. Anna wrote in her memoirs:
“My brother arrived in St. Petersburg with serious scientific training, with a highly developed ability for independent work, and he just passionately attacked science.”
Among the students of those years, three groups were formed, separated by financial status. The first ones were called “white linings”; they included the children of dignitaries, generals, and high society who studied here. They wore jackets lined with white silk in the latest fashion. This student body was distinguished by its extreme right-wing, monarchist beliefs. Each of them knew that a brilliant career awaited him in the highest government institutions, the rank of general in his youth, and senatorship in his mature years.
The “white linings” were opposed by “radicals” - irreconcilable opponents of the system. They put on Little Russian shirts, boots, a modest blanket and always wore blue glasses. Among them came populist revolutionaries, terrorists, and Marxists.
The third group was represented by “cultivators”, located between the above two, who were most inclined towards science. From this cohort came many people who glorified Russian science.
By the end of the second year, Alexander, when determining his specialization, settled on invertebrate zoology. They sent several essays for the competition to the university council. The competition jury decided on February 3, 1886: “The essay of VI semester student Alexander Ulyanov on the topic: “On the segmental and reproductive organs of freshwater Annulata” should be awarded a gold medal.” No one doubted that the talented student would be retained at the university for scientific and teaching activities.
But in January 1886, news came to St. Petersburg about the sudden death of his father. Alexander had exams and was unable to go to the funeral. Anna managed to go to Simbirsk.
On November 17, 1886, Alexander took part in a procession around St. Petersburg on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the death of the writer of revolutionary views Dobrolyubov. More than one and a half thousand people gathered for the procession. The city authorities took such a crowd of people as dangerous, and the procession was stopped. The mayor brought in troops to disperse the demonstrators. The next day, Alexander distributed a political propaganda leaflet he had composed, in which he expressed his indignation at the existing order... His revolutionary views and sentiments were noticed by the Narodnaya Volya faction, to whose meeting he was invited. They also invited Alexander’s sister, Anna, who supported her beloved brother in every possible way. Alexander, having demonstrated leadership qualities, easily drew up a further program of actions and demands: “to ensure the political and economic independence of the people and their free development”
Such transformations in the country could begin only after a change of regime, the stronghold of which was the imperial family. The young revolutionaries believed that the only way to fight the government was through terrorist methods, and first of all, all the organization’s actions should be aimed at eliminating the autocrat.
At the end of the program, Alexander indicated the path and methods of action that should lead to success:
“In the fight against revolutionaries, the government uses extreme measures of intimidation, therefore the intelligentsia was forced to resort to the form of struggle indicated by the government, that is, terror. Terror is, therefore, a clash between the government and the intelligentsia, from which the opportunity for peaceful cultural influence on public life is taken away. Terror must act systematically and, by disorganizing the government, will have a huge psychological impact: it will raise the revolutionary spirit of the people... The faction stands for the decentralization of the terrorist struggle: let the wave of red terror spread widely throughout the province, where the system of intimidation is even more needed as a protest against administrative oppression.” .
After the debate, it was recognized that the bomb was the most effective means of dealing with the emperor.
The police, from a letter they opened from one of the faction members, managed to learn about the impending conspiracy. On March 1, the Minister of Internal Affairs, Count D. Tolstoy, reported to the Tsar: “Yesterday, the head of the St. Petersburg secret department received intelligence information that a circle of criminals intends to carry out a terrorist act in the near future and that for this purpose these persons have at their disposal projectiles brought to St. Petersburg ready to “come” from Kharkov.”
On March 1, 1887, three student performers, Osipanov, Andreyushkin and Generalov, were captured with bombs on Nevsky Prospekt. The frank testimony of those arrested allowed the gendarmes to quickly identify members of the terrorist organization and their leaders.
From the testimony of a member of the circle, E. I. Yakovenko, during interrogation: “Shevyrev was the initiator, inspirer and collector of the circle. Ulyanov - with its iron bond and cement. Without Shevyrev there would have been no organization, without Ulyanov there would have been no event on March 1, the organization would have disintegrated, the matter would not have been completed.”
In total, 25 people were arrested in the first days of March, and later another 49 people. Fifteen people were put on trial, and the remaining cases were resolved administratively. The police department immediately drew up a report on the arrest of the terrorists and sent it to the Tsar, signed by Count D.A. Tolstoy.
“To avoid exaggerated rumors,” Count D.A. Tolstoy asked the sovereign for permission to print a special notice. At the report, the tsar wrote his resolution: “I completely approve and in general it is advisable not to attach too much importance to these arrests. In my opinion, it would be better, having learned everything possible from them, not to bring them to trial, but simply send them to the Shlisselburg fortress without any fuss - this is the most severe and unpleasant punishment. Alexander".
But when the Tsar was presented with the “Program of the Terrorist Faction of the Narodnaya Volya Party,” written by Alexander Ulyanov, the Tsar reacted to it indignantly: “This is a note from not even a madman, but a pure idiot.”
The Ulyanov family was shocked to learn about the disaster that had befallen them, but hoped for the mercy of the emperor. Maria Alexandrovna hastily left for the capital and on March 27, 1887 submitted a petition for pardon addressed to the sovereign, Alexander III.