Vladimir Ilich Ulyanov (Lenin) was born in Simbirsk on the Volga River on 22 April 1870 into a well-educated family. He performed very well in school and studied law at University. When he was there, he was exposed to radical thinking. His views were also influenced by the execution of his elder brother who was a member of a revolutionary group.
He was later expelled from the university due to his radical ideas so Lenin completed his law degree as an external student in 1891. He moved to St Petersburg and became a professional revolutionary. Like many of the other revolutionaries, he was arrested and exiled to Siberia, where he married Nadezhda Krupskaya. He adopted the name Lenin so less people recognised him. After his Siberian exile, Lenin spent most of the next decade and a half in Western Europe, where he emerged as a prominent figure in the international revolutionary movement and became the leader of the 'Bolshevik' part of the Russian Social Democratic Worker's Party.
In 1917, exhausted by World War One, Russia was ripe for change. Assisted by the Germans, who hoped that he would undermine the Russian war effort, Lenin returned home and started working against the provisional government that had overthrown the tsarist regime. He eventually led what was soon to be known as the October Revolution, but was effectively a coup d’état. Almost three years of civil war followed. The Bolsheviks were victorious and assumed total control of the country. During this period of revolution, war and famine, Lenin demonstrated a chilling