Alexander Ulyanov - People's Revolutionary, Lenin's brother. Biography, revolutionary activity. "Unknown Ulyanov" - how Lenin's older brother became a terrorist For what Alexander Ulyanov was imprisoned

Alexander Ulyanov. The terrorist was the emperor's son? A surprise in Lenin's genealogy: why was this a surprise even for researchers of his biography? Why, after the collapse of the USSR, rumors discrediting the honor of the main revolutionary so quickly took root? What would have happened if Alexander Ulyanov had not been executed? Read about it in the documentary investigation "Moscow Trust".

Student, excellent student, terrorist

Family portrait of the Ulyanovs, one of the few that ever existed. On the right is the future leader of the proletarian revolution, Vladimir Lenin. In the very center stands his elder brother Alexander. He will be hanged in the Shlisselburg fortress for an attempt on the life of the tsar, whom popular rumor will later write down as his father.

Portrait of the Ulyanov family

Early 1990s. Facilities mass media almost daily they bring down on the citizens of the former Soviet republics sensational flow. Polished to a shine, the biographies of communist leaders suddenly seem not so smooth at all.

“These are precisely attempts to delegitimize all Soviet myths as much as possible. There is a cliché: Lenin loved children. Everyone has read a book by Bonch-Bruevich since childhood. Therefore, Volkogonov wrote an article stating that Lenin hated children. There was a thing that they were smart people, we we prove that Lenin did not receive any education. If there was a book that Lenin was a good lawyer, we are trying to prove that he was a bad lawyer. It was just a reverse system, "says historian Yaroslav Listov.

Lenin gets the most. On October 27, 1995, an interview with journalist Alexander Kutenev appeared in the New Petersburg newspaper. It's about about the emperor's illegitimate children Alexander III. And one of them the journalist calls the older brother Ilyich Sasha. Like, his mother gave birth to him when she served as a maid of honor at court.

Moscow. The State Archive of Socio-Political History was created on the basis of the Central Party Archive of the Institute of Marxism and Leninism. Hundreds of documents from the Ulyanov family are stored here. These are the texts of petitions for pardon. They were written by Maria Ulyanova in 1887 to Emperor Alexander III. She asks for mercy from the one whom her eldest son Sasha had recently planned to kill. With the highest permission, Ulyanova could do a lot, even meet with a potential regicide.

"Terrorist faction" People's Will"- under this loud name there was a student circle, ten-something people, young students, Alexander Ilyich himself was only 21 years old. And they decide to start a terrorist struggle immediately with the assassination of the tsar. Three bombs were prepared, two of them were made by Alexander Ilyich. He was well versed in chemistry, worked out the design, he made two out of three bombs, and around the dynamite, which he also made himself, there were bullets. Alexander Ilyich made the bullets himself, and the bullets were poisoned with strychnine, this is one of the most terrible poisons In addition, they had two pistols, - says historian Vladimir Lavrov.

Exactly six years have passed since the assassination of the previous Russian Emperor Alexander II. Almost all the Narodnaya Volya members who organized that terrible terrorist attack against the tsar were arrested. Sasha Ulyanov, an excellent student in St. Petersburg, studies at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of the University, and then suddenly becomes one of the founders of the new radical wing of the Narodnaya Volya party.

“He was a very capable, talented child, but in his own way an unhappy person, because as a child he received a very serious spinal injury. Alexander Ulyanov was small in stature, and it always seemed to him that his family did not like him. He graduated from school with a gold medal, arrived study in St. Petersburg. Already in the third year, not yet graduating from the university, he received a gold medal for research in the field of biology, "says journalist Andrey Binev.

The Lenin Museum is a forge of Soviet legends about the heroic life of Ilyich. Behind these walls, the biography of the leader of the proletariat was embellished in every possible way. The politically correct remained, the doubtful was hushed up.
Galina Borodulina has been working at the Lenin Museum for many years, she is engaged in the genealogy of the Ulyanov family.

"There was a special approach to studying the life and work of Lenin and to creating his biography. Actually, this approach was defined. Back in the late 1920s, party historians were interested not so much in Lenin's personality, not so much in his personal life how much Lenin's life in the party. Moreover, they didn’t see any contradictions between the fact that Lenin was the leader of the proletarian revolution and his noble origin, because there were quite a lot of people of noble origin among the leaders of the Communist Party, ”says historian Galina Borodulina.

Skeleton in the closet of the Ulyanov family

Journalist and writer Andrei Binev explored the story of the illegitimate origin of Alexander Ulyanov. In the late 90s, he worked on his own documentary.

"Maria Alexandrovna was born and raised in Kazan, she was a very educated and free woman, with an eye for free love, free relationships. Therefore, many who study her biography and family life assume that she gave birth to children from different husbands, because she followed And it turned out that Maria Alexandrovna and Ilya Nikolayevich slept in different rooms. There was a corridor between them. And the bedroom of the other children went into this corridor. They could not, remaining unnoticed, meet, say, in the same bedroom, it was difficult By the way, this was one of the reasons why such legends were born," says Binev.

Alexander Ulyanov

Writer Larisa Vasilyeva, author of the book "Kremlin Wives", is also involved in replicating the story of the too free behavior of Maria Ulyanova, nee Maria Blank. What was told in the kitchens as a spicy anecdote, Vasilyeva captured on paper. It was she who in 1993 announced that Alexander Ulyanov was the illegitimate son, however, not of the tsar, but of the terrorist Dmitry Karakozov.

"And it is quite possible that Maria Alexandrovna and Dmitry Karakozov did not just meet on the stairs, and her son Alexander Ilyich Ulyanov was born from Karakozov. And since Karakozov attempted on the emperor, somewhere before this attempt he disappeared somewhere from home, quite perhaps he was near where she gave birth, and it is quite possible that he saw this child, but he disappeared, and then suddenly, like a thunder in the middle clear sky- Dmitry Karakozov encroaches on the emperor. And the persecution of all democratically began thinking people, and I think that Maria Alexandrovna lived in fear. I wouldn’t say all this now if one day I didn’t write in The Kremlin Wives that Inessa Armand told Ivan Fedorovich Popov: “The Lenin family had its own secret,” Vasilyeva believes.

Dmitry Karakozov

And that is why, according to Vasilyeva, Sasha Ulyanov suddenly became a terrorist. He learned the truth and wanted to avenge his father, who was executed for an unsuccessful attempt on Alexander II. Dmitry Karakozov accepted execution by hanging in St. Petersburg in 1866.

Although professional researchers are sure that the paternity of the terrorist Karakozov is just a fiction of a writer. The work of Galina Borodulina in the archives showed that Maria Blank and Dmitry Karakozov hardly knew each other.

"Karakozov was familiar with Ilya Nikolaevich Ulyanov, but he left Penza even before Maria Alexandrovna appeared there. He went to study in another city, so they simply could not meet anywhere with Maria Alexandrovna. In 1863, Maria Alexandrovna had already left married Ilya Nikolayevich, the eldest daughter Anna was born in 1864, Alexander was already born in 1866. By the way, those who write about the illegitimate origin of the Ulyanov children are very often confused, claiming that Alexander was the eldest, Anna was the youngest, this is already an indicator of how knowledgeable are the people who compose this kind of version," says Borodulina.

Emperor's illegitimate son

However, whether Blanc and the emperor had a relationship, that's the main mystery. Petersburg, 1887. After Sasha's arrest, Maria urgently travels to the capital from Simbirsk and easily gets an appointment with Alexander III. She is allowed a meeting with a terrorist without delay. Perhaps, indeed, it is not only formalities that bind her and the king?

“Allegedly, Maria Blank, the mother of Vladimir Ilyich, was a maid of honor at the imperial court. I think one example, one fact will suffice here, and there are, in general, a lot of them to prove that there was no such thing. that the imperial court was a kind of institution, and being a maid of honor of the imperial court meant performing certain official duties. Therefore, documents have been preserved that confirm that there was never a maid of honor Maria Blank at the imperial court. And documents on the composition of the maid of honor have been preserved, starting from 1712. Another fact: Alexander III was ten years younger than Maria Alexandrovna, Lenin's mother, she was born in 1835, he - in 1845, Maria Alexandrovna lived in St. Petersburg with her family until 1841. Then the family left Petersburg, and Maria Alexandrovna did not return there until the arrest of her eldest son Alexander," says Galina Borodulina.

Maria Ulyanova, 1931 Photo: ITAR-TASS

And here is archival documents. An entry from the church book about the marriage between Ilya Ulyanov and Maria Blank - 1863. This is data on the birth of children, first Anna, then Alexander. The version of the journalist Kutenev, published in the newspaper "New Petersburg" in 1995 about illegitimate son emperor is nothing more than a fiction.

Historian Vladimir Lavrov gives another proof of the implausibility of the version of the journalist Kutenev. The origin of Maria Blanc would never have allowed her to become a lady-in-waiting of the imperial court. Such were the realities of tsarist Russia.

"As for Maria Alexandrovna, the mother of Alexander Ilyich and Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. Her father was a doctor, quite wealthy, absolutely unremarkable, and only a noble noblewoman could become a maid of honor. I can say that the hereditary nobility was formalized by Maria Alexandrovna only after the death of her husband, so that receive a good pension. She received it from the tsarist government. During the time of Peter I, there were isolated cases when people of no nobility rose to the heights, but in the second half of the 19th century, it was already a different era, this was not the case, "says Lavrov.

Victim of freethinking

After the death of Alexander II, Alexander III takes the throne. Historians call 13 years of his reign controversial. As they will later write in textbooks, the economic well-being of the country is growing at a high pace. But corruption and humiliation of the working class flourishes. The situation in society also affected the Ulyanovs. Schools for the unprivileged classes, which had once been opened by the father of the family, Ilya Nikolaevich, began to close all over Russia.

Russian Emperor Alexander III with his family. Photo: ITAR-TASS

"The fate of his father, Ilya Nikolaevich, who devoted his whole life to the cause of public education. He was an inspector of public schools in the Simbirsk province, thanks to him new schools were opened and teaching in them was brought to the proper level. And the example of his father, the facts that spoke of the onset of a new period in the history of Russia (at least the brutal dispersal of the student demonstration in 1886), I think, led Sasha to reflection. We know that Sasha was familiar with the works of Marx. I think, ultimately, this was the reason that he took an active part in revolutionary activities," says Galina Borodulina.

It is these facts, and not at all the desire to take revenge on the tsar for his supposedly illegitimate origin, that historians call decisive in the fate of Alexander Ulyanov. It took him only a few months to create a circle and start organizing the assassination.

"In principle, a provincial guy from the city of Simbirsk, from an educated family, who lived, I would not say that it was completely in greenhouse conditions, but a little distant from the reality of what is happening, suddenly finds himself in the capital. In the capital, this provincial information vacuum disappears, global information from all over the country falls upon him, newspaper correspondence, discussions, conversations flock here. The institute where he studies is one of the most popular, people from all over the country come to him. impressionable person. And like any young man, he wanted to solve all the problems at once. And in this one and only way that can be solved, it seemed to kill the figure that stood at the head and personified the entire system of the regime. This is how this terrorist attack against Alexander III matured," historian Yaroslav Listov believes.

Another way of Vladimir Ulyanov

There is another secret that was hidden by Soviet propaganda. Before the opening of the archives, it was believed that Alexander Ulyanov did not ask for himself, but it turned out that there was a document. Here is a copy of it: "I ask Your Majesty to replace me death penalty any other punishment." There is not a drop of remorse in the text, he simply asks not to hurt the mother.

“There are several memories. There is a memory of the lawyer Knyazev, who was present at the same time. There is a memory of Anna Ilyinichna, sister. Naturally, she was aware. Alexander Ilyich asked for forgiveness from his mother for the grief caused to her, the family. he refused, according to Knyazev, citing the fact that he told his mother: "Just imagine a duel: I shot, my opponent has not shot yet, and I tell him:" Do not shoot, please. However, there was still a petition, but there was no repentance in this petition. He did not repent. mother, my family," says historian Lavrov.

Researchers of the biography of Vladimir Lenin often write that the relationship between the brothers was difficult. But the execution of Alexander decided the fate of Ilyich and the Ulyanov family as a whole: they simply became outcasts in provincial Simbirsk, they were afraid to communicate with them.

“This made a decisive impression on my brother, let’s say. 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 one’s own family, because it is a tragedy twice. The first tragedy is this is the fact that your family member committed or tried to commit some kind of atrocity that attracts the attention of the whole society, and, in fact, all family members become handshakes.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, and then he uttered his famous phrase: "We will go the other way" - about the creation of a revolutionary party and the overthrow of the system. Not individuals, but a change in the system. That is, Lenin came to the conclusion that individual terror is useless and meaningless, and we see that it is indeed from this historical period that all individual terror Russian Empire comes to naught. That is, the period when it seemed that let's kill the emperor, and everything will be fine, disappears," says Yaroslav Listov.

Royal family, 1907. Photo: ITAR-TASS

However, the historian Listov believes that the myth of kinship with the imperial crown was created by mass popular consciousness for a reason. The reason for the popularity of essentially gossip about an illegitimate son is simple. This is an attempt to bring the person of Lenin closer to the very anointed of God.

“There is a certain family to which it is given from God to be ruling. And this was especially important for the society of the period of transition from the Russian Empire to Soviet Union. After all, many myths about the ruling dynasties were born there. Imagine, after all, for almost 500 years people have been told: the ruling dynasties are the anointed of God. These are people who not only ascended the throne, because the political situation developed this way, but because God brought them here, they are, as it were, the conductors of the divine will. And then suddenly - once - one emperor was killed, the second emperor was killed, then in general all the emperors were overthrown. And for them it is somehow incomprehensible, but where did the anointed of God go. And therefore, we will show: God turned away from these, and here we see that Alexander Ulyanov is the family of the emperor, ”says Listov.

The execution by hanging of the terrorists of the "Narodnaya Volya" faction took place on May 20, 1887 in the Shlisselburg fortress. In the verdict, the word "hang" is written by hand in front of five names, among them Alexander Ilyich Ulyanov. His mother, nee Maria Blanc, after these events became completely gray-haired.

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 servants were killed in the Ipatiev house in Yekaterinburg. On whether Vladimir Lenin personally made the decision to execute him royal family, is still unknown.

Ulyanov Alexander Ilyich (1866-1887) - the elder brother of Ulyanov Vladimir Ilyich (Lenin), one of the leaders of the terrorist faction Narodnaya Volya. He was hanged on May 8 (all dates are given according to the old style) 1887 in the Shlisselburg fortress, along with 4 more revolutionary terrorists. The reason for the execution was an assassination attempt on Emperor Alexander III. The Narodnaya Volya were detained, arrested and put on trial by law enforcement agencies. A total of 15 people were tried, of which 5 were sentenced to death by hanging.

The information is not very pleasant, but how did a young 20-year-old man get into such trouble and be sentenced to the most severe punishment? Alexander Ulyanov was born in a quite decent and respected family. His father Ilya Nikolaevich (1831-1886) had the civil rank of a real state councilor. He matched military rank major general and gave the right to hereditary nobility. A person who had such a rank was called "Your Excellency."

Since 1869, Ilya Nikolayevich served as an inspector of public schools in the Simbirsk province. In 1874 he became the director of public schools in the Simbirsk province. This man was highly educated and advocated equal education for all, regardless of class and nationality. He was born into a family of philistines (city dwellers), but, thanks to work and diligence, he achieved a lot in life.

At the age of 32, he married 28-year-old Maria Alexandrovna Blank (1835-1916). She was born in the family of a physiotherapist and received an excellent home education. She confirmed it by passing exams for the right to teach as a home teacher. In marriage, Maria Alexandrovna gave birth to 8 children - 4 sons and 4 daughters. One boy and one girl died in childhood.

Alexander was the second child. He was born after his older sister Olga (1864-1935). In 1883 he graduated from the Simbirsk classical gymnasium. At that time, its director was Fyodor Mikhailovich Kerensky, the father of the future chairman of the Provisional Government, Alexander Kerensky. He was characterized as an intelligent person and an extremely capable teacher.

While studying at the gymnasium, Alexander became interested in chemistry. He even made a small home laboratory, where he set up chemical experiments. He graduated from an educational institution with a gold medal and in the same 1883 he entered St. Petersburg University at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics.

in higher educational institution he studied extremely well. In 1886 he made scientific work in invertebrate zoology. I collected all the material myself and received a gold medal for this work. I was engaged in a biological circle, which was created by the students themselves. He became a member of the economic circle and took an active part in the scientific and literary society, which was led by Orest Fedorovich Miller, a well-known professor of the history of Russian literature throughout the country.

That is, we see a very smart and inquisitive young man, drawn to fundamental knowledge. A bright future awaited him interesting work and bright prospects, but, as they say, the devil beguiled.

The end of the 19th century is a time of fermentation of minds. During this period, the Russian Empire had already fully formed revolutionary movement, which adopted the works of Marx, Engels, Plekhanov. In 1879, the revolutionary populist organization Narodnaya Volya arose. One of the main methods of combating the existing regime, she put terror. The members of the organization believed that if the king was killed, it would stir up the society and lead to cardinal political changes.

In 1884, after a series of terrorist attacks and the assassination of Emperor Alexander II, the party was completely exhausted, as it lost most of its members as a result of arrests. And in December 1886, on the ruins of a terrorist organization, a new People's Will group arose. It was created by Alexander Ulyanov and Pyotr Shevyryov. Her main goal was the assassination of Emperor Alexander III.

Emperor Alexander III meets with the people. It was on him that Alexander Ulyanov and his associates were preparing an assassination attempt.

The members of the terrorist group were mostly university students. But there were no old participants in Narodnaya Volya. That is, the faction arose on the initiative of Ulyanov and Shevyryov without any outside interference. The program was written by Ulyanov, the members of the organization accepted it and began to prepare for an assassination attempt on the emperor.

To fill the bombs with explosives, money was needed. Alexander Ulyanov sold his gold medal, and with the proceeds, the terrorists bought explosives. Having made bombs, they planned an attempt at the end of February. But the members of the terrorist faction had no clear plan. In addition, they behaved extremely carelessly and even told their acquaintances, who were not members of the faction, about the impending assassination attempt.

A few days before the action, Pyotr Shevyryov got scared. He told his comrades that his tuberculosis had become aggravated, and hastily left for the Crimea. After that, Ulyanov took over the entire leadership. He planned to carry out the assassination right on Nevsky Prospekt, along which the emperor regularly traveled.

And on February 26, 1887, a group of young people, hung with bombs, appeared near the Admiralty. They began to walk back and forth, waiting for the appearance of the sovereign. But he did not appear on that ill-fated day. He did not appear on 27 and 28 February. However, all these misunderstood festivities aroused close interest among the police. It must be said here that some members of the faction were registered as unreliable. The authorities knew them by sight, and their regular appearance near the Admiralty led to certain conclusions.

And when on March 1 the same young people again appeared on Nevsky Prospekt, they were immediately detained. They brought me to the department, searched and found bombs. After that, the entire group of 15 people was arrested. Alexander Ulyanov and other members of the faction were imprisoned in Peter and Paul Fortress and an endless series of interrogations began. One of those arrested named Shevyrev, and he was arrested in Yalta on March 7.

The trial went quickly. It began on April 15, and on April 19 the verdict was read out. According to him, 5 conspirators were sentenced to death by hanging. Another 8 people were sentenced to hard labor. Among the suicide bombers were Alexander Ulyanov (21 years old), Pyotr Shevyryov (23 years old), Pakhomiy Andreyushkin (21 years old), Vasily Generalov (20 years old) and Vasily Osipanov (26 years old).

After the sentence was pronounced, the suicide bombers were placed in the Shlisselburg Fortress, where the execution was to take place. Alexander's mother came to visit. She was allowed to meet with her son after she wrote a petition addressed to the emperor. And the father did not live to see the shame that fell on his family. He died on January 12, 1886 from a cerebral hemorrhage.

Maria Alexandrovna, at meetings with her son, begged him to file a petition for pardon. However, the young man at first categorically refused to do so. Then, however, he succumbed to the persuasion of his mother, agreed and asked the emperor to replace the death penalty with another punishment. But the request was rejected.

Terrorists were executed on May 8, 1887 on the territory of the Shlisselburg Fortress. There were only 3 gallows, so at first they hanged Andreyushkin, Generalov and Osipanov, and after them it was the turn of Ulyanov and Shevyryov. The conspirators were buried in one grave near the fortress wall. So Alexander Ulyanov ended his life. He died stupidly, exchanging his talent and interesting life on some mythical and absolutely unviable idea. But for the sake of objectivity, it must be said that at that time there were many like him.

Alexander and Vladimir Ulyanov. Reproduction of "The Ulyanov Brothers" painting by Oleg Vishnyakov

Maria Alexandrovna, mother of the Ulyanovs, served as a maid of honor at the imperial court. When the future Alexander III was just a Grand Duke, they had an affair, and then their son Alexander was born. This sensational story is exaggerated by modern historians, referring to the writer Marieta Shahinyan. She, preparing to write a book about Lenin in the 1970s, accidentally discovered these facts of the biography of the Ulyanov family in the archives. They say that Brezhnev summoned Shaginyan to his office and, in exchange for silence, offered her a prize for the "correct" work on the leader of the world proletariat.
Was the elder brother of Vladimir Ilyich an illegitimate son of the emperor? See about it in Unrevealed mysteries”and in a documentary investigation of the Moscow Trust TV channel.

Unrevealed mysteries. Was Lenin's brother an illegitimate son of the emperor

Student, excellent student, terrorist

Portrait of the Ulyanov family

Early 1990s. The mass media unleash a stream of sensationalism on the citizens of the former Soviet republics almost daily. Polished to a shine, the biographies of communist leaders suddenly seem not so smooth at all.

Lenin gets the most. On October 27, 1995, an interview with journalist Alexander Kutenev appeared in the New Petersburg newspaper. We are talking about the illegitimate children of Emperor Alexander III. And one of them the journalist calls the older brother Ilyich Sasha. Like, his mother gave birth to him when she served as a maid of honor at court.

"The terrorist faction" People's Will "- under this loud name was hiding a student circle, ten-something people, young students, Alexander Ilyich himself is only 21 years old. And they decide to start a terrorist struggle immediately with the assassination of the tsar. Three bombs were prepared , two of them were made by Alexander Ilyich. He was well versed in chemistry, worked out the design, he made two out of three bombs, and around the dynamite, which he also made himself, there were bullets. Alexander Ilyich made the bullets himself, and the bullets were poisoned with strychnine, it is one of the most terrible poisons.In addition, they had two pistols, - says historian Vladimir Lavrov.

The Lenin Museum is a forge of Soviet legends about the heroic life of Ilyich. Behind these walls, the biography of the leader of the proletariat was embellished in every possible way. The politically correct remained, the doubtful was hushed up. Galina Borodulina has been working at the Lenin Museum for many years, she is engaged in the genealogy of the Ulyanov family.

“There was a special approach to studying the life and work of Lenin and to creating his biography. Actually, this approach was defined. Back in the late 1920s, party historians were interested not so much in Lenin’s personality, not so much in his personal life, but in Lenin’s life in the party. Moreover, they didn’t see any contradictions between the fact that Lenin was the leader of the proletarian revolution and his noble origin, because there were quite a lot of people of noble origin among the leaders of the Communist Party, ”says historian Galina Borodulina.

Skeleton in the closet of the Ulyanov family

Journalist and writer Andrei Binev explored the story of the illegitimate origin of Alexander Ulyanov. In the late 90s, he worked on his own documentary.

Alexander Ulyanov

"And it is quite possible that Maria Alexandrovna and Dmitry Karakozov did not just meet on the stairs, and her son Alexander Ilyich Ulyanov was born from Karakozov. And since Karakozov attempted on the emperor, somewhere before this attempt he disappeared somewhere from home, quite "perhaps he was near where she gave birth, and quite possibly he saw this child. But he disappeared, and then suddenly, like a bolt from the blue - Dmitry Karakozov encroaches on the emperor. And the persecution of all democratically minded people began, and I think that Maria Alexandrovna lived in fear. I wouldn’t say all this now if one day I didn’t write in The Kremlin Wives that Inessa Armand told Ivan Fedorovich Popov: “The Lenin family had its own secret,” Vasilyeva believes .

Dmitry Karakozov

Emperor's illegitimate son

Maria Ulyanova, 1931

And here are the archival documents. An entry from the church book about the marriage between Ilya Ulyanov and Maria Blank - 1863. This is data on the birth of children, first Anna, then Alexander. The version of the journalist Kutenev, published in the newspaper "New Petersburg" in 1995, about the illegitimate son of the emperor is nothing more than a fiction.

Victim of freethinking

Russian Emperor Alexander III with his family

“The fate of his father, Ilya Nikolaevich, who devoted his whole life to the cause of public education, is very indicative. He was an inspector of public schools in the Simbirsk province, thanks to him new schools were opened and teaching in them was put on the proper level. And the father’s example, the facts that spoke about the beginning of a new period in the history of Russia (even if the brutal crackdown on the student demonstration in 1886), I think, led Sasha to think. We know that Sasha was familiar with the works of Marx. I think, ultimately, this was the reason that he took an active part in revolutionary activities," says Galina Borodulina.

"In principle, a provincial guy from the city of Simbirsk, from an educated family, who lived, I would not say that it was completely in greenhouse conditions, but a little distant from the reality of what is happening, suddenly finds himself in the capital. In the capital, this provincial information vacuum disappears, global information from all over the country falls upon him, newspaper correspondence, discussions, conversations flock here. The institute where he studies is one of the most popular, people from all over the country come to him. All this fell upon the young Alexander, he was a rather impressionable person "And like any young man, he wanted to solve all the problems at once. And with this one and only way that can be solved, it seemed to kill the figure that stood at the head and personified the entire system of the regime. This is how this terrorist attack against Alexander III ripened ", - says the historian Yaroslav Listov.

Another way of Vladimir Ulyanov

There is another secret that was hidden by Soviet propaganda. Before the opening of the archives, it was believed that Alexander Ulyanov did not ask for himself, but it turned out that there was a document. Here is a copy of it: "I ask Your Majesty to replace my death penalty with some other punishment." There is not a drop of remorse in the text, he simply asks not to hurt the mother.

“This made a decisive impression on my brother, let’s say. 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 one’s own family, because it is a tragedy twice. The first tragedy is this is the fact that your family member committed or tried to commit some kind of atrocity that attracts the attention of the whole society, and, in fact, all family members become handshakes.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, and then he uttered his famous phrase: "We will go the other way" - about the creation of a revolutionary party and the overthrow of the system. Not individuals, but a change in the system. That is, Lenin came to the conclusion that individual terror is useless and meaningless. And we see that it is indeed from this historical period that all individual terror of the Russian Empire comes to naught. That is, the period when it seemed that let's kill the emperor , and everything will be fine, disappears," says Yaroslav Listov.

Royal family, 1907

“There is a certain family that was given by God to be ruling. And this was especially important for the society of the period of transition from the Russian Empire to the Soviet Union. After all, many myths about ruling dynasties were born there. Imagine, after all, for almost 500 years people were told: the ruling dynasties are God's anointed ones.These are people who not only ascended the throne, because the political situation developed this way, but because God brought them here, they are, as it were, conductors of the divine will. , the second emperor was killed, then all the emperors were overthrown. And for them it is somehow incomprehensible, but where did the anointed of God go. And therefore we will show: God turned away from these, and here we see that Alexander Ulyanov is the family of the emperor, "- Listov argues.

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 servants were killed in the Ipatiev house in Yekaterinburg. It is still not known for certain whether Vladimir Lenin personally made the decision to execute the royal family.

Alexander Ulyanov - Lenin's brother - was almost always in the shadow of his more famous relative. But it is interesting how the course of history would have turned if it were not for the oath of young Volodya to avenge Sasha, who was executed by the tsar. It was then that the future leader of the world proletariat said his most famous phrase: "We will go the other way."

Childhood and youth

Alexander Ilyich Ulyanov was born in Nizhny Novgorod March 31, 1866 When he was 3 years old, the family moved to Simbirsk. Alexander's father, Ilya Nikolaevich, initially held the position of inspector of public schools, and 5 years later he was promoted and took the place of the manager of the directorate. Mother, Maria Alexandrovna, was from an intelligent family and knew several foreign languages. It was she who taught her children to read and write. In total, Maria Alexandrovna had 8 children, two of them died in infancy.

Sasha learned to read quite early, namely at the age of 4. When he was eight, he home schooling was completed, and he entered the Simbirsk gymnasium. Starting from lower grades, according to his classmates, he was very popular at school. This is also evidenced by the fact that the gymnasium graduation, which took place in 1883, was called "Ulyanov's class."

I must say that Alexander Ulyanov was brought up on classical Russian literature. He liked to read the works of Pushkin, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Nekrasov. In addition, while still at the gymnasium, he became seriously interested in natural science, in particular, zoology. But Sasha's real passion was chemistry. When he was 16 years old, he independently equipped for himself a semblance of a chemical laboratory, where he spent his free time often staying overnight.

As you can see, the young Alexander Ulyanov was an extremely developed boy beyond his years, very serious and immersed in his studies. Based on this, many predicted a great future for him, certainly associated with science.

Student years

Alexander, having graduated from the classical gymnasium and received a gold medal, in 1883 easily enters St. Petersburg University. He becomes a student of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics. By the way, this university was already at that time not only one of best universities, but also the largest scientific center in the Russian Empire.

The first two years of study in the capital, Alexander Ulyanov spent all his time attending lectures and doing scientific research. He was one of the most beloved students of D. I. Mendeleev, therefore he was a regular in the chemical laboratory, where he could often be seen sitting at a microscope. At that time, he did not think about politics.

At the end of the second year, he finally decided on the choice of specialization - he was most interested in. He conducted coursework, for which he was awarded a gold medal, which opened wide the doors for him to the real scientific activity. Then no one doubted that the most talented student Ulyanov would remain at the university and eventually received a professorship.

It was Alexander's scientific successes that largely contributed to the increase in his popularity among students. Soon he joined the Scientific and Literary Society at St. Petersburg University. At the initiative of Prince Golitsyn, Count Heiden and other reactionary students, this organization acquired the opposite impulse. A group of students with pronounced revolutionary views began to exert a tremendous influence on him.

Gradually, Alexander began to participate in all illegal student meetings and demonstrations, as well as to conduct revolutionary propaganda in the workers' circle. At the end of 1886, together with his comrade Shevyrev, he organized the so-called terrorist faction in the People's Will party.

assassination attempt

On March 1, 1887, the assassination of Emperor Alexander III was planned. It was organized by the same terrorist faction. The original plan was to shoot the king, but it was later resolutely rejected. Then the idea arose to throw bombs, and Andreyushkin and Gerasimov expressed their desire to do so.

After numerous assassination attempts on the emperor, the authorities began to pay especially close attention to those students who constantly participated in illegal demonstrations, and the police often opened their correspondence. One of these letters spoke of a merciless terror that was to be committed in the near future. This message was addressed to a certain Nikitin. The police gradually began to unravel the thread of a conspiracy against the emperor. Thus, the attempt and his comrades was discovered and prevented.

Trial

It is known that from 15 to 19 April court sessions were held behind closed doors. They were allowed to be present only to ministers, their associates, senators, members State Council and persons belonging to the higher bureaucracy. Even relatives and friends of the defendants were not only not allowed into the courtroom, but were not even allowed to meet with them.

Several dozen people were arrested for the attempt on the emperor, but only 15 of them were brought to trial. Among them was Alexander Ulyanov - Lenin's brother. Initially, for all the convicts, but a little later, for eight defendants, this such a harsh sentence was replaced by other punishments. The emperor signed the verdict with only five defendants, in the list of which, in addition to Shevyrev, Osipanov, Generalov and Andreyushkin, Alexander Ulyanov was also listed. The rest were assigned different terms of imprisonment, as well as exile to Siberia.

Execution of revolutionaries

As you know, Alexander's mother wrote a letter Russian emperor, where she asked for his permission to visit her son. Historians tend to think that, most likely, the convict had the opportunity to apply for pardon, but for some reason this was not done. Therefore, on May 8 (20), the execution of Alexander Ulyanov and his associates took place. They were hung in the territory

ABOUT Lenin- mountains of books, testimonies, memories. His older brother Alexander is in the historical shadow. FROM young years we learned that Volodya, having learned about the end of his brother's life, said: "We will go the other way." Many books reproduced a reproduction of the artist's painting Petra Belousova, which depicts a young man with a fiery gaze and his tearful mother. This canvas is also called the words of Lenin.

About the elder Ulyanov - mentioned Mayakovsky in the poem "Vladimir Ilyich Lenin":

« …And then

said

Ilyich seventeen years old -

this word

stronger than oaths

a soldier with a raised hand:

- Brother,

we are here

ready to change you

we will win

but we will go the other way! .. "

For the first time, Lenin's reaction to the death of Alexander was reported by Maria Ulyanova at the mourning meeting of the Moscow Soviet on February 7, 1924. According to her, Vladimir Ilyich uttered the following phrase: “No, we will not go that way. This is not the way to go."

Many historians believe that it was the fate of Alexander that influenced the choice life path Vladimir. But who influenced the views of Lenin's elder brother? After all, he was brought up in a noble family, where it is unlikely that they constantly talked about the dominance of autocracy. And even more so that the monarch who ruled the empire deserves terrible punishment for his unrighteous deeds ...

However, the fermentation of the minds of the Ulyanov children took place. In the Simbirsk house, books of various content were read. Including - Pushkin,Lermontov,Ryleeva,Herzen,Chernyshevsky,Dobrolyubova. The head of the family, Ilya Nikolaevich, even, they say, sang a song to the words of the forbidden Petrashevsky poet Pleshcheeva: « With love for the truth, holy / In you, I know, your heart beats / And, I believe, it will immediately respond / To my incorruptible voice. / We are brothers in spirit. / We both believe in deliverance, / And we will feed to the grave / Enmity to the scourges of our native country.

Anna Ulyanova she recalled that the eight-year-old Sasha recited Ryleev's poem "Ivan Susanin". And at the age of eleven, he recited by heart "Reflections at the front door" and "The Song of Eremushka" Nekrasov. The boy said that these poems were given to him by his father.

Here are other touches to it short biography.

Once Ulyanov was asked: "What are the worst vices?", And he answered: "Lies and cowardice." From the heroes of "War and Peace" Lev Tolstoy Alexander singled out Dolokhov. But not for military prowess, but for a tender attitude towards the mother. In one gymnasium essay, Alexander wrote: “For useful activity, a person needs: 1) honesty, 2) love of work, 3) firmness of character, 4) mind, 5) knowledge.”

How did the Ulyanov brothers treat each other? Vladimir respected the elder, but there was no special closeness between them. Sister Anna recalled that one day, after talking with Alexander, she asked: “How do you like our Volodya?” Alexander replied that his brother is a very capable person, but "we do not get along with him." Anna decided to find out the reason, but did not hear a clear answer ...

In the certificate of maturity of Simbirsk classical gymnasium, issued in 1883, it was said: “... Given to Alexander Ulyanov, firstly, that, based on observations for the entire time of his education at the Simbirsk Gymnasium, his behavior was generally excellent, serviceability in attending and preparing lessons, as well as in execution written works excellent, diligent diligence and curiosity in all subjects, especially Latin and math... Pedagogical Council decided to award him, Ulyanov, with a gold medal ... "

Alexander entered the natural department of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of St. Petersburg University and quickly became the best student.

« last summer when he came home, he was preparing for a dissertation on annelid worms and worked with a microscope all the time, she recalled Nadezhda Krupskaya. - To use the maximum light, he got up at dawn and immediately set to work. “No, he won’t come out of a revolutionary brother,” I thought at the time,” said Vladimir Ilyich. “A revolutionary cannot devote so much time to the study of annelids.” He soon saw how wrong he was.

A shift in Alexander's mind occurred after the dispersal of a student demonstration in 1886. He, along with some fellow students, joined the People's Will party. Participated in illegal meetings, demonstrations, conducted propaganda in the workers' circle. But the matter could not be limited to theory, for the nature of the Narodnaya Volya was thirsty for blood.

The metamorphosis with the student happened inexplicably. Matvey Peskovsky, a distant relative of Alexander, wrote in a statement sent to the police department: “Knowing Ulyanov’s past, it’s hard not to suspect the normality of his mental abilities - so sharp is the inconsistency in what Ulyanov was and what he turned out to be in the March 1 case. A person can be secretive, pretend, but to be completely not himself - this is too incomprehensible.

Ulyanov drew up the program of the "Terrorist Faction", which was characterized by extreme radicalism and contained daring demands on the ruling regime. Although it was clear that negotiations with the authorities could not be expected, as well as concessions from it. This will happen almost twenty years later, in October 1905, when the son of the king - soft and pliable Nicholas II will issue a manifesto on the granting of various freedoms. His father was cool, and at the mention of free-thinking, he turned deep purple with rage ...

The Narodnaya Volya decided to kill Alexander III. The organizer of the attack was not Ulyanov, but his associate Petr Shevyrev. But he suddenly “changed his mind” and left for the Crimea, allegedly to be treated for tuberculosis. However, young people did not deviate from their plan. Ulyanov sold the gold medal he received at the gymnasium and bought dynamite with the proceeds. They took out mercury, nitric acid and began to make bombs ...

For several days, starting on February 26, 1887, young people began to be on duty near St. Isaac's Cathedral. They were waiting for the emperor's motorcade in order to take his life in a martyr's way.

But how such things are done, they did not know, they did not observe conspiracies. Stood - Ulyanov,Vasily Generalov,Pakhomiy Andreyushkin,Vasily Osipanov near the frozen Neva, hung with bombs, and waited, talking, trampling in the cold, occasionally going to a tavern to warm up with tea. They so pricked the eyes of the police that those failed terrorists were detained. It happened on the first of March 1887 - exactly, on the sixth anniversary of the murder of the former king, Alexander II, the unfortunate father of Alexander III ...

Anna Ulyanova, who studied at the Bestuzhev Higher Women's Courses in St. Petersburg, was also involved in the case. She was arrested, tried and sentenced to five years in exile. A trifle compared to the misfortune that happened to his brother.

A relative of the Ulyanovs wrote to Simbirsk about the arrest of Alexander and Anna. But, fearing for the health of Maria Alexandrovna, she sent a letter not to her, but to a good friend of the Ulyanova family - a teacher Vera Kashkadamova. She met with Volodya and conveyed the message. From him the sad news came to his mother ...

The accusation of attempting to assassinate the king was grave, inevitable. But there was still hope that the lives of the rebels could be saved - they are young, the wind is walking in their heads. But the situation was aggravated by the aforementioned program of the "Terrorist Faction", which fell into the hands of the gendarmes. They read it and were horrified - the papers contained a direct call for the destruction of the autocratic foundations!

The Narodnaya Volya were going to wage an uncompromising struggle with the authorities not only in St. Petersburg and Moscow, but also in other cities of the empire. They extolled terror, believing that “it raises the revolutionary spirit of the people; gives continuous proof of the possibility of struggle, undermining the charm of government power; he acts in a highly propagandistic way on the masses ... "

However, the Narodnaya Volya allowed the rejection of terror, if the government - that's dreaming! - will make concessions, allowing freedom of conscience, speech, press, gatherings, associations and movements, will allow the convocation of representatives of the people, "chosen freely by direct and universal voting, to review all public and state forms of life." From the sovereign in the person of Alexander the Third, it was required to declare a complete amnesty "for all state crimes of the past, since these were not crimes, but the fulfillment of civic duty."

Alexander the Third, having familiarized himself with the program of the "Terrorist Faction", became furious. And he wrote in the margins: "This note is not even a madman, but a pure idiot." But it is unlikely that the monarch thought so. He simply drove away heavy thoughts from himself - not everyone will follow these obsessed ...

The investigation into the case of the Ulyanov group was short-lived. Alexander not only confessed everything, but also directly pointed out his leading role: “... I, one of the first, had the idea to form a terrorist group, and I took an active part in its organization, in the sense of delivering money, finding people, apartments, and so on. As for my moral and intellectual participation in this matter, it was complete, that is, everything that my abilities and the strength of my knowledge and convictions brought me.

After that, he had no hope. As well as his comrades.

Heartbroken, Maria Alexandrovna hurried to the capital, where she was received by the emperor. He promised to spare Alexander if he petitioned for pardon...

Soviet historians they claimed that Alexander Ulyanov, having shown unusual fortitude and courage, refused to write a humiliated paper. But he nevertheless submitted a petition to the king:

“Your Imperial Majesty!

I am fully aware that the nature and properties of the act I have committed and my attitude towards it do not give me either the right or the moral basis to apply to Your Majesty with a request for indulgence in the form of alleviating my lot. But I have a mother whose health has deteriorated greatly in last days and the execution of my death sentence will put her life in grave danger. In the name of my mother and young brothers and sisters, who, having no father, find their only support in her, I decide to ask Your Majesty to replace my death penalty with some other punishment ... "

Did this letter reach the emperor? God knows. But perhaps he gave - to understand - with words, hints that he would not object to the most severe verdict ...

A closed court, similar to a military tribunal, lasted only five days and sentenced Ulyanov, Generalov, Andreyushkin, Osipanov to death by hanging. The same fate befell Shevyrev, who was arrested in the Crimea. The rest of the conspirators were imprisoned.

On the eve of the execution, Maria Alexandrovna last time saw my son. Half an hour after the meeting, she left the Shlisselburg fortress, in which Alexander was imprisoned, silently, without tears. Over the next few days, she all turned gray ...

“All the acquaintances recoiled from the Ulyanov family, even the old teacher, who used to come to play chess in the evenings all the time, stopped visiting,” Krupskaya recalled from the words of her husband. - It wasn't there then. railway from Simbirsk, Vladimir Ilyich's mother had to ride horses to Syzran in order to get to St. Petersburg, where her son was sitting. Vladimir Ilyich was sent to look for a fellow traveler - no one wanted to go with the mother of the arrested person. This general cowardice made, according to Vladimir Ilyich, a very strong impression on him then.

In the summer of the same fateful 1887, Vladimir Ulyanov entered the law faculty of Kazan University. The day before, he graduated from the Simbirsk gymnasium and received from its director Fyodor Kerensky- the father of the future head of the Provisional Government - an excellent description ...

And a year had not passed since the death of Alexander, as the blood boiled in the veins of his brother. In December of the same 1887, Vladimir Ulyanov became a participant in student performances. For this, he was arrested for the first time, expelled from the university and expelled from Kazan. This was the beginning of it political activity.

Exactly thirty years after the execution of Alexander Ulyanov, in April 1917, another Ulyanov - Vladimir - will arrive in Petrograd, already abandoned by Nicholas II, the son of Alexander III.

Perhaps Lenin sadly recalled his brother, who was killed by a representative of the dynasty Romanovs. However, this is doubtful - at that time Ilyich was not in the mood for sentimentality. He was preparing for the last and decisive battle for power ...