Ulyanov Alexander Ilyich (1866-1887) - 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) in 1887 in the Shlisselburg fortress, along with 4 more revolutionary terrorists. The reason for the execution was an attempt to assassinate Emperor Alexander III. Law enforcement bodies of the People's Will were detained, arrested and brought to trial. 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 a mess and was sentenced to the most severe punishment? Alexander Ulyanov was born in a completely decent and respected family. His father Ilya Nikolayevich (1831-1886) had the civil rank of a full state councilor. He corresponded to the military rank of major general and gave the right to hereditary nobility. A person with 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 the public schools of the Simbirsk province. This man was highly educated and advocated an 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 into the family of a physiotherapist and received an excellent education at home. Confirmed him 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 as children.
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. They characterized him as an intelligent person and an extremely capable teacher.
While studying at the gymnasium, Alexander became interested in chemistry. I even made a small home laboratory where I set up chemical experiments. He graduated from an educational institution with a gold medal and in the same 1883 entered the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics at St. Petersburg University.
He studied extremely well in higher education. In 1886 he did scientific work on the zoology of invertebrates. I collected all the material myself and received a gold medal for this work. He 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 a well-known throughout the country professor of the history of Russian literature Orest Fedorovich Miller.
That is, we see a very intelligent and inquisitive young man who is drawn to fundamental knowledge. A brilliant future awaited him with interesting work and bright prospects, but, as they say, the devil beguiled him.
The end of the 19th century is a time of fermentation of minds. During this period in Russian Empire the revolutionary movement was already fully formed, which adopted the work of Marx, Engels, Plekhanov. In 1879, the revolutionary populist organization People's Will arose. She considered terror to be one of the main methods of fighting the existing regime. The members of the organization believed that if the king was killed, it would stir up society and lead to dramatic 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, a new Narodnaya Volya group emerged from the wreckage of a terrorist organization. It was created by Alexander Ulyanov and Pyotr Shevyrev. 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 attempt on his life
The members of the terrorist group were mainly university students. But there was not a single old participant in the People's Will. That is, the faction arose on the initiative of Ulyanov and Shevyrev without any outside interference. The program was written by Ulyanov, the members of the organization accepted it and began to prepare for an attempt on the emperor's life.
It took money to fill the bombs with explosives. Alexander Ulyanov sold his gold medal, and with the proceeds the terrorists purchased explosives. Having made the bombs, the assassination attempt was scheduled for 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 worsened, and hastily left for Crimea. After that, Ulyanov took over the entire leadership. He planned to carry out the assassination attempt 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 that unfortunate day did not appear. He did not appear on February 27 and 28. However, all these misunderstood festivities aroused keen interest among the police. Here it must be said that some members of the faction were registered as unreliable. The authorities knew them very well 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 police station, searched and found bombs. After that, the entire group of 15 people was arrested. Alexander Ulyanov and other members of the faction were put in the 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 passed 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 Shevyrev (23 years old), Pakhomiy Andreyushkin (21 years old), Vasily Generalov (20 years old) and Vasily Osipanov (26 years old).
After sentencing, the death row was placed in the Shlisselburg fortress, where the execution was to take place. His mother came to visit Alexander. She was allowed to see her son after she wrote a petition to the emperor. And the father did not live to see the shame that fell on his family. He died on January 12, 1886 of a cerebral hemorrhage.
Maria Alexandrovna at meetings with her son begged him to submit a petition for clemency. However, the young man at first flatly refused to do this. Then, however, he succumbed to the persuasions of his mother, agreed and asked the emperor to replace the death penalty with another punishment. But the petition was rejected.
The 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 Ulyanov and Shevyrev's turn. The conspirators were buried in one grave near the fortress wall. This is how Alexander Ulyanov ended his life. He died stupidly, having traded his talent and interesting life for some mythical and absolutely unviable idea. But for the sake of objectivity, I must say that at that time there were many like him.
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 on which we walk every day, by which we pass. We are even less interested in their history. Such frivolity and negligence, lack of interest in history is characteristic of modern society.
There is one street in St. Petersburg - “st. Alexander Ulyanov ". Quite tiny. What can not be said about the history of its origin, the history of the life and death of the person after whom it is 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 story, a special story.
Officially, the street has existed since 1828. Initially, it was called Dudin Street, after the names of several Dudin families who owned land on this street. Since 1828, the street was called Trurnova, after the owner of the workshop, Trurnov, and on October 31, 1922, the street was named "Ulyanov street" in memory of Alexander Ilyich Ulyanov - revolutionary, the founder of the "Terrorist faction" of the party "People's Will", the elder brother of Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Lenin).
Inspection of public schools in Simbirsk province with director I. N. Ulyanov. 1881 year. 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, 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. curiousthat on November 25, 1917, Volodka Ulyanov, the son of a real state councilor, would personally abolish this rank "by decree on the destruction of estates and civilian ranks."
It is interesting what motivated the eldest son, Alexander Ulyanov, when, a year after the death of his father, he made an attempt to assassinate Emperor Alexander III. There were no material needs in his life. Smart, talented, with a gold medal for graduating from high school, fascinated by the natural sciences, with great scientific abilities, promising, one step away from a degree ... What happened to a person in just a year, which made him join a terrorist cell and actually become its leader ?
"Unknown Ulyanov" - how Lenin's older brother became a terrorist.
The Ulyanov family. From left to right: standing - Olga, Alexander, Anna; sitting - Maria Alexandrovna with her youngest daughter Maria, Dmitry, Ilya Nikolaevich, Vladimir. Simbirsk. 1879 year. Courtesy of M. Zolotarev Version one. Revenge.
Inessa Armand, the beloved of Vladimir Ilyich, passed on to her friends a secret told to her by one of the Ulyanovs. The version was not supported by any documents, it was perceived only as a literary work, and not as an actual history. As follows from the narrative, Maria Alexandrovna, Lenin's mother, was taken to the court in her youth, but she did not stay there for long, compromising herself with an affair with one of the great dukes, for which she was sent to her father in Kokushkino and quickly passed off as Ulyanov, providing him regular promotion.
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 at the imperial court of the maiden Maria Blank (his mother) - either a material award for a newborn, or a letter revealing a secret. Alexander shared his discovery with his sister Anna, and both vowed revenge. The version was developed.
According to other sources, Lenin's mother turned out to be the maid of honor of the Empress, the wife of Alexander III.
The writer Larisa Vasilyeva cited in her book "The Kremlin Wives" the legend she heard about Lenin's mother. “In the spring of 1991, in one company, I heard a legend: as if Lenin's mother, Maria Blank, was almost a lady-in-waiting at the royal court for some time before her marriage, she started an affair with one of the great dukes, 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 received regularly throughout his life. Maria gave birth to her first child, her son Alexander, then many more children, already from her husband, and years later Alexander Ulyanov learned the secret of his mother and vowed to take revenge on the king for her outraged honor. As a student, he contacted terrorists and was ready to encroach on the life of the king, his real father. The legend has raised doubts. "
In the 90s of the last century, an interview with journalist Alexander Pavlovich Kutenev about the illegitimate children of Tsar Alexander III was published in one of the St. Petersburg newspapers ("Novy Peterburg"):
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. There were also historical celebrities among the children. 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 just a grand duke, he had an affair with Maria Alexandrovna, from him she gave birth to a son, Alexander, in girlhood. History knows many such examples: in Russia, the bastards were treated humanely - they were given the princely title, they were assigned to the 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 illegitimate son Elizabeth. All of them, as you know, have made wonderful careers and have 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 had nothing to do with Alexander III. It was indecent to keep a lady-in-waiting with two children at court. To hush up the scandal, they decided to transfer the case to the secret police. The security service found an unfortunate man in St. Petersburg - a homosexual Ilya Ulyanov. As a person with a non-traditional sexual orientation, he was hooked by the secret police. He was given a dowry to Maria Alexandrovna a title of nobility, a bread place in the province, and the newlyweds went to Simbirsk.
And all this prehistory would have faltered if it were not for the passionate nature of Maria Alexandrovna. Even in Simbirsk, she did not differ in strict behavior, and although she could not have a sexual life with Ilya Nikolaevich, she gave birth to four more children, it is not known from what fathers.
You can imagine what it was like for the Ulyanovs' children in the gymnasium. In a small town, everything immediately becomes famous, and the boys teased their peers Ulyanovs: Mom, the Tsar, and Ilya Nikolaevich were recalled. Ultimately, all this negatively affected Alexander: he grew up very embittered with a desire to spank daddy at all costs. With these plans, he left for St. Petersburg to study. The rest was organized by the secret police. She helped Alexander Ulyanov enter the people's revolutionary organization and take part in the assassination attempt on the king.
As soon as Maria Alexandrovna learned that her son was arrested for an attempt on the life of the tsar, she immediately went to Petersburg and appeared to Alexander III. An amazing thing: not a single source is amazed that an unknown poor Simbirsk noblewoman without any delay gets an appointment with the tsar! 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, to enroll him in the guard. But Sasha turned out to be with character, he said everything he thinks about both of his parents. And he promised them that as soon as he was free, he would publicize their entire shameless story and would definitely throw a bomb at daddy! Therefore, Alexander Ulyanov was never released, but sent to a psychiatric hospital, where he died a natural death 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. Marietta Shahinyan stands at its origins. In the 70s, this writer wrote 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 sealed with 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 with pressure for three days and demanded to shoot Shaginyan for libel. 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. etc.
NP: And Shahinyan really received some kind of prize for a book about Lenin?
AK: Yes, she received the Lenin Prize for her book Four Lessons from Lenin. And she classified the note, and it was in the archives of the Central Committee of the party. When I read this note in the archives, I wanted to see the archival materials themselves. And I requested copies. Everything was exactly like that ...
* From the editorA: This version works well as a script for a Hollywood movie, but it has nothing to do with the story. We will not dwell on its exposure in detail. 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 rating. The press in the 90s did this very often ... At the end of the article we will give a link to the source, which contains all the details.the value of this disclosure.
Second version. The terrorist's mistress.
The above-mentioned writer Larisa Vasilyeva, who was not quite 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 Mary's son, which, in her opinion, was 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 as Emperor Alexander II.
The St. Petersburg newspaper "Severnaya Pochta" dated May 11, 1866, telling in detail about the personality of the person who encroached on the life of Alexander III, reported that Dmitry Karakozov graduated from the course at the Penza gymnasium (the Ulyanovs then lived in Penza, and Ilya Nikolaevich taught at the gymnasium), entered at Kazan University, then moved to Moscow.
"Karakozov's romance with Maria Alexandrovna was not a secret for everyone who knew the Ulyanov family at that time," says Natalia Nikolaevna Matveeva, a resident of St. Petersburg. She drew this information from the stories of her grandfather, the 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 assassination attempt failed.
Alexander Ulyanov became a student at St. Petersburg University. He studied annelids and had no intention of changing them for a revolution. His father died in January 1886. Alexander did not go to the funeral - according to the recollections of Anna's sister, his mother did not want to injure him (?) And did not advise him to come, but Anna Ilinichna herself came to her father's funeral. (Why could she be injured?)
The summer of the same year, Alexander Ulyanov spent with his mother in the Alakayevka estate (the mother's estate - Kokushkino, the Alakayevka farm was bought only in 1889 - from the author). That summer, after the death of Ilya Nikolayevich, abrupt and for many completely inexplicable changes took place with Alexander. Anna Ulyanova writes in her memoirs,
“That from a calm young man her brother suddenly turned into a real neurotic, running from corner to corner. Returning from vacation to St. Petersburg, he, an exemplary student, previously interested only in science, abandoned his studies and began to prepare an attempt on the Tsar.
The children of the Ulyanovs, as the writer Larisa Vasilyeva suggests, could have learned the secret of their birth immediately after the death of Ilya Nikolaevich. “Most likely,” she writes, “from my mother. There is also an assumption that Sasha came across some documents at home, sorting out papers on his father's desk. I 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 of Maria Alexandrovna with her son Alexander, wrote down Alexander's words:
“Imagine, Mom, two 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 turns to the enemy with a request not to use the weapon. No, I cannot do that. "
Alexander Ulyanov These words, in the context of new knowledge about the Ulyanov family, acquire a new meaning: Alexander undoubtedly considers his act not an attempt, but a duel, in which he has nothing to apologize to the enemy for. Both the son and the mother, apparently, both understand the implication of the whole situation: the son avenges his father, the son of the murdered man takes revenge on the son of the murderer.
L. Vasilieva even found from the photographs an external great similarity between Karakozov and Alexander Ulyanov. But the documents do not confirm this.
The literary processing of some of the facts was done by the writer attractively and sensationally, which is why this version gained such popularity. They started talking about her on the sidelines, some accepted her unconditionally. Yet this is literature, and there are no complaints about the writer. But this version has nothing to do with history.
In the version of Larisa Vasilyeva there are many "controversial issues." One of them is very curious: Alexander, the son of Maria, was born in 1866, which means, 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 Mary, the wife of the court counselor, awarded the Order of St. Anna of the third degree, the mother of a one-year-old daughter and another Jewish woman by her father, brought up in the strict rules of the laws of Halach, which were sacredly observed.
Ilya Nikolaevich Ulyanov (1831-1886) and Maria Alexandrovna Ulyanova (1835-1916) The attempts of 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 to take revenge after the death of his father, cannot in any way be accepted by historians ... All these cases could manifest or occur for many other reasons. And the ambiguity of their origin for history is of decisive importance. But the 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 in the gymnasium, Alexander, showing an increased interest in natural science, received the nickname “the frog ripper” in the family. But his real passion was chemistry. At the age of 16, he independently equipped himself a chemical laboratory in the kitchen at the outhouse, where he often stayed overnight. In 1883, after graduating from the classical grammar school with a gold medal, Alexander and his sister Anna went to St. Petersburg, where he entered the natural sciences department of the Physics and Mathematics Faculty of the Imperial St. Petersburg University. Three years earlier, Petr Arkadievich Stolypin, the future Prime Minister of Russia, was admitted to this faculty. Anna wrote in her memoirs:
"My brother came to St. Petersburg already with serious scientific training, with a highly developed ability for independent work, and he was downright passionate about science."
Among the students of those years, there were three separate groups in terms of property status. The first were called "white podkladochniki"; they included the children of dignitaries, generals, and high society who studied here. They wore jackets with white silk lining in the latest fashion. This student body was distinguished by extreme right-wing, monarchist convictions. Each of them knew that a brilliant career awaited him in the highest government institutions, a general's rank in his youth, and in mature years - senatorialism.
"White lining" was opposed by "radicals" - irreconcilable opponents of the system. They put on Little Russian shirts, boots, put on a modest plaid and always wore blue glasses. From them came the populist revolutionaries, terrorists, Marxists.
The third group was represented by "cultured people", located between the above two, were most of all inclined towards science. From this cohort came many people who glorified Russian science.
By the end of the second year, Alexander, in determining his specialization, focused on invertebrate zoology. He sent several abstracts for the competition to the university council. The jury of the competition decided on February 3, 1886: "The composition of the VI semester student Alexander Ulyanov on the topic:" On the organs of segmental and genital freshwater Annulata "to award the award with a gold medal." No one doubted that a talented student would be left at the university for research and teaching.
But in January 1886, the news came to St. Petersburg about the sudden death of his father. Alexander had exams, he could not go to the funeral. Anna managed to go to Simbirsk.
On November 17, 1886, Alexander took part in a march through St. Petersburg on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the death of the writer of revolutionary views Dobrolyubov. The procession was attended by over one and a half thousand people. 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 an agitation political leaflet he had written, in which he expressed his indignation at the existing order ... His revolutionary views and moods were noticed by the Narodnaya Volya faction, to which he was invited. They also invited Alexander's sister, Anna, who in every possible way supported her beloved brother. Alexander, showing leadership qualities without difficulty, made up a further program of actions and requirements: "to ensure the political and economic independence of the people and its free development"
Such transformations in the country could begin only after the change of the regime, the stronghold of which was the imperial family. Fighting the government, as young revolutionaries believed, could only be done by terrorist methods, and first of all, all actions of the organization should be aimed at eliminating the autocrat.
At the end of the program, Alexander pointed out the path and methods of action that should lead to success:
“In the fight against revolutionaries, the government uses extreme measures of intimidation, and 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, which is deprived of the possibility of peaceful cultural influence on public life. Terror must act systematically and, 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 and throughout the province, where the system of intimidation is even more needed as a protest against administrative oppression. " ...
After debate, it was recognized that the bomb was the most effective means of dealing with the emperor.
From a letter from one of the faction members that they opened, the police managed to find out 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 information through intelligence that the circle of intruders intends to carry out a terrorist act in the near future and that for this purpose these persons have at their disposal the projectiles brought to St. Petersburg ready-made "newcomers" from Kharkov ".
On March 1, 1887, three performing students, Osipanov, Andreyushkin and Generalov, were seized with bombs on Nevsky Prospekt. The frank testimony of the arrested allowed the gendarmes to quickly identify the 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 his iron bond and cement. Without Shevyrev there would have been no organization, without Ulyanov there would have been no March 1 event, the organization would have collapsed, the matter would not have been brought to an end. "
In total, 25 people were arrested in the very first days of March, and later another 49 people. Fifteen people were brought to trial, and the rest of the cases were resolved in an administrative manner. 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 talk" Count DA Tolstoy asked the Emperor for permission to print a special notice. On the report, the tsar wrote his resolution: “I absolutely approve and in general it is desirable not to attach too much importance to these arrests. In my opinion, it would be better, having learned from them everything that is possible, not to bring them to court, but simply to send them to the Shlisselburg fortress without any noise - this is the strongest and most 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 with indignation: "This is not even a madman's note, but a pure idiot."
The Ulyanov family was shocked to learn of the misfortune that had befallen, but hoped for the mercy of the emperor. Maria Alexandrovna hastily left for the capital and on 27 March 1887 filed a petition for clemency in the name of the sovereign, Alexander III.
“The grief and despair of my mother give me the courage to resort to Your Majesty as the only protection and help.
Mercy, sir, please! Mercy and mercy for my children.
The eldest son, Alexander, who graduated from high school with a gold medal, received a gold medal at the university. My daughter, Anna, successfully studied at the Petersburg Higher Courses for Women. And so, when there were only two months left before they completed the full course of study, I suddenly lost my eldest son and daughter ...
No tears to cry grief. There are no words to describe the whole horror of my situation.
I saw my daughter, 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, and the director of the police department announced to me on March 16 that my daughter had not been compromised, so that at the same time she was supposed to be completely released.
But then they told me that for a more complete investigation, my daughter could not be released and given to me on bail, which I asked for because of her extremely poor health and the murderously harmful effect of imprisonment on her physically and morally.
I don't know anything about my son. They announced to me that he was being held in the fortress, refused to meet with him, and said that I should consider him completely lost to myself. 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 the 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 overwhelmed 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 fascinated by science to such an extent that he neglected all kinds of entertainment for the sake of office studies. At the university, he was on the best account. The gold medal opened the way for him to the professorial department, and this academic year he worked hard in the zoological office of the university, preparing his master's thesis in order to quickly go out on an independent path and be the support of the 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 so fierce and cruel as my grief! Have pity on my unhappy old age! Give me back my children!
If my son's reason and feeling have accidentally become obscured, if criminal designs have crept into his soul, sir, I will correct him: I will again revive 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 his filial devotion, and I do not doubt for a moment that I am able to turn my minor son into an honest member of the Russian family.
Mercy, sir, I beg you! ..
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 is convinced that this person is her dearest son, and to show her the testimony of her son, so that she can see what convictions he is."
On the same day, the Minister of Internal Affairs, Count D.A. Tolstoy sent an order to the director of the Durnovo police department: “We must try to take advantage of the meeting allowed by Tsar Ulyanova with his son, so that she persuaded him to give a frank testimony, especially about who, apart from the students, arranged the whole case. It seems to me that it could have been successful if it had worked more searchingly on the mother. "
Anna, in her memoirs, based on her mother’s story thirty years ago, presented her meeting with Alexander in prison as follows:
“When his mother came to him on the first date, he cried and hugged her knees, asking her to forgive him for the grief he caused. He told her that he had a duty not only to his family, and, drawing to her the powerless, oppressed position of his homeland, pointed out that it was the duty of every honest person to fight for her liberation.
"Yes, but these funds are so terrible."
"What to do if there are no others, mom," he replied. "We must be reconciled, mom."
Maria Alexandrovna begged her son to write a petition for clemency - she still hoped for the sovereign's mercy. And he wrote it, but in this petition there was not even a line about repentance. The whole point of it was as follows:
"I believe that I did the right thing, that I wanted to kill you, sir, but I ask you to leave my life for the sake of my mother, my family."
The trial in the "case of March 1, 1887" took place behind closed doors. The relatives and friends of the defendants were not allowed not only to the courtroom, but also to meet with 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 of the defendants were sentenced to death, but the special presence of the Senate petitioned for eight defendants to replace the death penalty with other sentences. Alexander III approved the death sentence for five convicts. Among them was Alexander Ulyanov. The rest of the members of the "underground" were imprisoned in the Shlisselburg fortress, exiled to the north, to Sakhalin. Some of the participants were sent to hard labor. Anna Ulyanova received the royal indulgence - she was exiled to Eastern Siberia for 5 years.
The execution by hanging of the terrorists of the Narodnaya Volya faction took place on May 8, 1887 in the Shlisselburg fortress. In the verdict the word "Hang" written by hand opposite five names, among them is Alexander Ilyich Ulyanov. His mother, nee Maria Blank, 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 Feodorovna, their children, a doctor and a servant were killed in the Ipatiev house in Yekaterinburg. On whether Vladimir Lenin personally made the decision to shoot royal family, is not known for certain until now.
Shlisselburg Fortress, Photo: gorodovoy.spb.ru To summarize, no drastic changes in Alexander's behavior, as follows from the documents, did not take place, he, like many students from the "cultural group", under the influence of events developing in Russia, deliberately moved into the group of radicals. In the case of March 1, 1887, 45 people were involved, who were united by the idea of \u200b\u200b"liberating Russia from the yoke of autocracy." They understood that if they failed, they would face a death sentence, but they did not abandon their goal, and were preparing an 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 in general: they simply became outcasts in provincial Simbirsk, they were afraid to communicate with them.
Krupskaya and Lenin, Photo: obozrevatel.com In her "Memoirs of Lenin" N. Krupskaya mentions this time with sympathy:
“When we got to know each other closely, Vladimir Ilyich once told me how the 'society' reacted to the arrest of his older brother. All the acquaintances recoiled from the Ulyanov family, even the old teacher, who used to come to constantly play chess in the evenings, stopped visiting. There was not yet railroad from Simbirsk, the mother of Vladimir Ilyich had to ride horses to Syzran in order to get to St. Petersburg, where his son was sitting. Vladimir Ilyich was sent to look for a fellow traveler - no one wanted to go with the arrested man's mother. This general "cowardice" made, according to Vladimir Ilyich, a very strong impression on him then. "
The strong impression, according to the historian Yaroslav Listov, grew into a decisive one:
“It 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 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 atrocity that attracts the attention of the whole society, and, in fact, all family members are not shaking hands. On the other hand, this is a personal tragedy - the loss of a person with whom he lived, with whom he communicated.
Lenin just 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 changing the system. That is, Lenin came to the conclusion that individual terror is useless and meaningless.
And we see that it is from this historical period that all the 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. "
In Soviet times, Lenin's posthumous gift to his executed brother was expressed in the renamed name of a modest street in his honor, which to this day bears his name and surname. And hardly 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, attempts ...
The article uses materials from the book: "Truth and untruth about the Ulyanov family." You can read the book
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 had not been 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 on March 31, 1866. When he was 3 years old, the family moved to Simbirsk. Alexander's father, Ilya Nikolayevich, first held the position of inspector of public schools, and 5 years later he was promoted to the position of managing director. 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, his home schooling was completed, and he entered the Simbirsk gymnasium. Starting from elementary grades, according to his fellow practitioners, he was very popular at school. This is evidenced by the fact that the school graduation, which took place in 1883, was named "Ulyanov's class".
I must say that Alexander Ulyanov was brought up on classical Russian literature. He loved to read the works of Pushkin, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Nekrasov. In addition, while still in 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 kind of chemical laboratory, where he spent his free time, often staying overnight.
As you can see, young Alexander Ulyanov was an extremely developed, very serious and immersed boy beyond his years. Proceeding from this, many predicted a great future for him, certainly associated with science.
Student years
Alexander, after graduating from a classical gymnasium and receiving a gold medal, in 1883 easily entered the St. Petersburg University. He becomes a student at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics. By the way, this university was already at that time not only one of the 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 even think about politics.
At the end of the second year, he finally decided on the choice of specialization - he was most interested in him. He conducted a course study, for which he was awarded a gold medal, which opened wide doors for him to 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. On the initiative of Prince Golitsyn, Count Heyden and other reactionary students, this organization acquired the opposite impetus. 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 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 Narodnaya Volya 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 strongly rejected. Then the idea arose to throw bombs, and Andreyushkin and Gerasimov expressed their desire to do so.
After numerous attempts on the emperor's life, the authorities began to pay special 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 the conspiracy against the emperor. Thus, the attempt on his life and his comrades was discovered and prevented.
Trial
It is known that from 15 to 19 April, court sessions were held, which were held behind closed doors. Only ministers, their entourage, senators, members of the State Council and persons belonging to the highest bureaucracy were allowed to attend. 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's life, but only 15 of them were brought to justice. Among them was Alexander Ulyanov, Lenin's brother. Initially, for all convicts, they demanded, but a little later, eight defendants, this harsh sentence was replaced by other punishments. The emperor signed the verdict only to five of the accused, 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 to the Russian emperor, where she asked for his permission to meet with her son. Historians are inclined to think that, most likely, the convict had the opportunity to petition for clemency, 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 hanged on site
But at the same time, Alexander took up social work: in the first year, he organized a fellowship of students to help the poor, then became a member of the economic circle at the student's Union of Countrymen, and, apparently, here fell under the influence of radicals. Together with other students, he took part in the procession dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the death of N. Dobrolyubov. The procession became so large that the St. Petersburg police got scared and dispersed the students. This made such a strong impression on Ulyanov that the next morning he burst out with a proclamation criticizing the authorities.
Writer Sergei Esin in his book “Lenin. Death of a Titan ”mentions that in the last summer of his life, Alexander became interested in reading Marx and other“ progressive ”economists.
The creation of a revolutionary terrorist cell took place in December 1886, when Alexander came to a meeting of a group formed by Pyotr Shevyrev.
Ulyanov quickly became its ideologist and wrote a Manifesto, in which he declared the main goals: nationalization of land and enterprises, freedom of speech, self-government, elimination of the army and the creation of an elected government. At the same time, the main method of achieving these goals, he proclaimed "merciless terror", "systematic" and "disorganizing". Ulyanov became cement.
The first target for the attack was immediately chosen - the emperor. To buy the components for the bomb, Alexander sold the university medal. From the parts that were delivered to him from Kharkov, he made three bombs; one of them was disguised as a book.
Amazingly, right before the assassination attempt, Pyotr Shevyrev fell ill and went abroad, leaving his associates to complete the case.
When Ulyanov was arrested, the failed terrorist took all the blame, however, the gendarmes did not believe it. During interrogations, they tried to find out the role of a certain person with the patronymic Sergeevich, that is, they were looking for adults and dangerous people standing behind the boys.
One of the most common myths about Alexander Ulyanov says that he was the illegitimate son of Alexander III!
Allegedly, in her youth, Maria Blank served as a maid of honor at the imperial court and attracted the attention of the Grand Duke. She gave the name to her eldest son in honor of his real father. When he grew up, Maria told who his own father was, and he was so offended by the parent for the outraged maternal honor that he decided to kill him!
Meanwhile, Maria Alexandrovna hardly ever met the emperor, who, moreover, was ten years younger than her. And the firstborn in the Ulyanov family was not Alexander, but daughter Anna, who was born in 1864.
According to another version, Alexander was the son of the terrorist Dmitry Karakozov, who made an unsuccessful attempt on Alexander II in 1866. But again, there is no evidence that Karakozov met Maria Ulyanova at least once. All that was in common between Karakozov and Ulyanov was an attempt at regicide and execution for her ...
Since the execution of Alexander, Vladimir Ulyanov saw only one way for himself - to complete his brother's work. However, as the legend says, he uttered the words: "We will go the other way." If the Narodnaya Volya believed that the murder of the emperor could change the situation in Russia for the better, Lenin understood perfectly well that one monarch would be replaced by another and that the existing system itself had to be changed.
Who knows - if Alexander Ulyanov had not been carried away by the ideas of the revolution and had not been executed for them, then perhaps the October Revolution in 1917 would not have happened. And the shooting of the royal family in July 1918 really sounds like revenge ...
