Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov better known by the alias Lenin (April 22, 1870 – January 21, 1924), was a Russian revolutionary, a communist politician, the main leader of the October Revolution, the first head of the Soviet Union, and the primary theorist of Leninism, a variant of Marxism. Born in Simbirsk, Russian Empire (now Ulyanovsk), Lenin was the son of Ilya Nikolaevich Ulyanov and Maria Alexandrovna Ulyanova. His father was a Russian official in public education who worked for progressive democracy and free universal education in Russia. The family was of mixed ethnicity, his ancestry being "Russian, Kalmyk, Jewish , German and Swedish, and possibly others" according to biographer Dmitri Volkogonov. Lenin was baptized into the Russian Orthodox Church. ********************* In 1886, Lenin's father died of a cerebral hemorrhage and in May 1887, his eldest brother Alexander Ulyanov was hanged for participating in a terrorist bomb plot threatening the life of Tsar Alexander III. His sister Anna, who was with Alexander at the time of his arrest, was banished to his family estate in the village of Kokushkino, about 40 km (25 mi) from Kazan. This event radicalized Lenin, and his official Soviet biographies describe it as central to the revolutionary track of his life. ************Lenin worked for some years in Samara before moving to St Petersburg in 1893. Rather than pursuing a legal career, he became increasingly involved in revolutionary propaganda efforts. On December 7, 1895, he was arrested and held by authorities for 14 months, then exiled to the village of Shushenskoye in Siberia. ************** In July 1898, Lenin married socialist activist Nadezhda Krupskaya. In April 1899, he published the book The Development of Capitalism in Russia. In 1900 his exile ended and he traveled throughout Russia and the rest of Europe. He lived in Zurich, Geneva (where he lectured and studied at Geneva State University), Munich, Prague, Vienna, Manchester and London during which time he co-founded the newspaper Iskra with Julius Martov (who later became a leading opponent). He also wrote several articles and books related to the revolutionary movement. He began using various aliases, finally settling upon Lenin, in full N. Lenin.***********When the First World War began in 1914 and the large Social Democratic parties of Europe (at that time self-described as Marxist), including luminaries such as Karl Kautsky, supported their various countries' war efforts, Lenin was shocked, at first refusing to believe that the German Social Democrats had voted for war credits. This led him to a final split with the Second International, which was composed of these parties. Lenin adopted the position that what he described as an 'imperialist war' should be turned into a civil war between the classes.*************Lenin's stance on anti-Semitism on a gramophone recording in 1919, Lenin stated:“ The Tsarist police, in alliance with the landowners and the capitalists, organized programs against the Jews. The landowners and capitalists tried to divert the hatred of the workers and peasants who were tortured by want against the Jews. ... Only the most ignorant and downtrodden people can believe the lies and slander that are spread about the Jews. ... It is not the Jews who are the enemies of the working people. The enemies of the workers are the capitalists of all countries. Among the Jews there are working people, and they form the majority. They are our brothers, who, like us, are oppressed by capital; they are our comrades in the struggle for socialism. Among the Jews there are kulaks, exploiters and capitalists, just as there are among the Russians, and among people of all nations... Rich Jews, like rich Russians, and the rich in all countries, are in alliance to oppress, crush, rob and disunite the workers... Shame on accursed Tsarism which tortured and persecuted the Jews. Shame on those who foment hatred towards the Jews, who foment hatred towards other nations. ”