Aleksandr Ilyich Ulyanov (1866–1887) was a revolutionary of the Narodnaya Volya movement, the elder brother of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, and one of the organizers of a failed plot to assassinate Emperor Alexander III. He was born in Nizhny Novgorod and executed in the Shlisselburg Fortress at the age of twenty-one.[1]

Origins and Education

Aleksandr Ulyanov was born on March 31, 1866, in Nizhny Novgorod, into the family of the educator Ilya Nikolayevich Ulyanov.[1] In 1883 he graduated from the Simbirsk Gymnasium with a gold medal and enrolled in the natural sciences department of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics at Saint Petersburg University. By his own account in letters to his parents, the university made a good impression on him: the professors lectured well, the laboratories were richly equipped, and there were two libraries.[1] He passed all of his first-year examinations with top marks.

In 1886, as a third-year student, he was awarded the university's gold medal for his essay "On the Segmental and Sexual Organs of Freshwater Annulata," a study of the structure of annelid worms.[1] Alongside his scientific work, he joined the student Scientific and Literary Society and became its secretary, and also attended a circle devoted to studying the works of economists.[1] Contemporaries noted that everything he undertook came easily to him: after joining the Scientific and Literary Society, he was unanimously elected its secretary.[3]

Terrorist Activity and Death

In 1886 Ulyanov organized the "Terrorist Faction" of the Narodnaya Volya party, bringing together a number of students from Saint Petersburg University.[1] The faction devised a plan to assassinate Alexander III, timed for March 1, 1887, the sixth anniversary of the death of Alexander II. Ulyanov sold his gold medal and used the proceeds to buy explosives for making a bomb.[3] The police uncovered the conspiracy before the attempt could be carried out; the participants were arrested and imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress.[1]

At the trial, Ulyanov delivered an extensive speech, but it did not change the verdict. His mother, Maria Alexandrovna, obtained permission to visit her son and relayed a request that he petition the tsar for clemency — according to available accounts, such a petition would have been granted. Ulyanov at first refused, comparing such a step to the behavior of a duelist who has already fired his shot and then asks his opponent to lower his weapon. Later, for his mother's sake, he did send a petition, but it was not taken into consideration.[3] On May 8, 1887, Alexander Ulyanov was executed by hanging in Shlisselburg Fortress and buried in a mass grave behind the wall of the Oreshek fortress.[1]

Nizhny Novgorod connection

Nizhny Novgorod is the birthplace of Alexander Ulyanov: it was here, in 1866, in the family of the educator I. N. Ulyanov, that the future revolutionary was born.[1] His younger brother Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov later entered history under the pseudonym Lenin; the biography of the Ulyanov family is inseparably tied to the Volga Region — Nizhny Novgorod and Simbirsk.

In Ulyanovsk (formerly Simbirsk), the house at 35 Radishchev Street has survived, where in 1885 the Narodnik Sergey Mikhaylovich Chugunov lived and which Alexander Ulyanov visited; the building is protected as a monument of regional significance.[2]

Sources

  1. bioslovhist.spbu.ru — Ulyanov Alexander Ilyich (1866—1887) — Biographika, St. Petersburg State University
  2. lifee.cz — Leninův bratr terorista: Alexandr Uljanov prodal zlatou medaili za studia, aby mohl koupit bombu pro cara
  3. familio.org — Ulyanov Alexander Ilyich 31.03.1866 O.S. — find relatives by surname on Familio