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Lenin's Brother: The Origins of the October Revolution
The gripping untold story of a terrorist leader whose death would catapult his brother—Lenin—to revolution.
In 1886, Alexander Ulyanov, a brilliant biology student, joined a small group of students at St. Petersburg University to plot the assassination of Russia’s tsar. Known as “Second First March” for the date of their action, this group failed disastrously in their mission, and its leaders, Alexander included, were executed. History has largely forgotten Alexander, but for the most important consequence of his his younger brother, Vladimir, went on to lead the October Revolution of 1917 and head the new Soviet government under his revolutionary pseudonym “Lenin.”Probing the Ulyanov family archives, historian Philip Pomper uncovers Alexander’s transformation from ascetic student to terrorist, and the impact his fate had on Lenin. Vividly portraying the psychological dynamics of a family that would change history, Lenin’s Brother is a perspective-changing glimpse into Lenin’s formative years—and his subsequent behavior as a revolutionary.
In 1886, Alexander Ulyanov, a brilliant biology student, joined a small group of students at St. Petersburg University to plot the assassination of Russia’s tsar. Known as “Second First March” for the date of their action, this group failed disastrously in their mission, and its leaders, Alexander included, were executed. History has largely forgotten Alexander, but for the most important consequence of his his younger brother, Vladimir, went on to lead the October Revolution of 1917 and head the new Soviet government under his revolutionary pseudonym “Lenin.”Probing the Ulyanov family archives, historian Philip Pomper uncovers Alexander’s transformation from ascetic student to terrorist, and the impact his fate had on Lenin. Vividly portraying the psychological dynamics of a family that would change history, Lenin’s Brother is a perspective-changing glimpse into Lenin’s formative years—and his subsequent behavior as a revolutionary.
322 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 25, 2009
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162 people want to read
About the author
Philip Pomper
12 books4 followersDr. Philip Pomper, Ph.D. (University of Chicago, 1965; M.A., 1961; B.A., 1959) is William F. Armstrong Professor Emeritus of History at Wesleyan University. His major fields are Russian History, Modern European History, and Psychohistory. He became an associate editor of the journal History and Theory in 1991.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
February 18, 2022
My review is on Booktube.
April 16, 2010
This book was very dry and kinda boring for what I thought it would be. I guess I shouldn't be too upset. I mean, it is a non-fiction book about the life of Lenin's brother and I knew that going into it. It's not like it tried to put itself off as something shocking and extraordinary. But I still kind of thought that it would be. I thought that it would have something special and would give some insight into Lenin.
ALSO, I think the sub title is misleading. It says "The Origins of the October Revolution". But it should really say "Lenin's brother's was probably clinically depressed and he made foolish mistakes based on misreading the Russian Classics. And then those foolish mistakes kind of influenced his younger brother. . .but just kind of". I mean, the October revolution wasn't DIRECTLY caused by Lenin's reaction to his brother's death. It's not like he shouted "FOR SASHA" as he gunned down the Romanov family.
Anyway, it was interesting to read about the family that Lenin grew up in. Especially to read that he was JEWISH, something that Stalin kept a secret at all costs while he mistreated thousands and millions of Jews. If that's no ironic, I don't know what is.
ALSO, I think the sub title is misleading. It says "The Origins of the October Revolution". But it should really say "Lenin's brother's was probably clinically depressed and he made foolish mistakes based on misreading the Russian Classics. And then those foolish mistakes kind of influenced his younger brother. . .but just kind of". I mean, the October revolution wasn't DIRECTLY caused by Lenin's reaction to his brother's death. It's not like he shouted "FOR SASHA" as he gunned down the Romanov family.
Anyway, it was interesting to read about the family that Lenin grew up in. Especially to read that he was JEWISH, something that Stalin kept a secret at all costs while he mistreated thousands and millions of Jews. If that's no ironic, I don't know what is.
October 30, 2017
This book provides and interesting history. However, at places it gets bogged down more with the theory and philosophy of socialism and loses the the actual history. This makes it challenging to follow and frustrating at parts.
September 6, 2016
Philip Pomper has brought forward an interesting piece of history. At first you think it is merely a footnote, but when you finish the book, you realize that it is more. You come away with a new understanding of Lenin, his methods and his motivation.
Lenin's older brother Alexander Ulyanov, Sasha to friends and family, earned honors as a scholar while participating in the Second March First plot to assassinate Tzar Alexander III on the anniversary of his father's assassination. The plot was clumsy and the would be terrorists were caught. The 21 year old Sasha nobly stood for his cause and was hung for it.
The initial chapters show the influences on Sasha at home and in his college life. It shows how he and his group "The People's Will" applied the scientific knowledge of their studies to describing an ideal society and to bomb making. Most of the text covers the plot, its participants, its unraveling and the trial and punishments of the plotters. The last chapter shows how the brothers' different experiences in the family and how the martyrdom of Sasha influenced Lenin. It also, through a visit to the family home, describes the changing views in Russia regarding Lenin's importance.
I appreciate a book that sticks with its themes, and this one does. There are plenty of avenues for tangents in this story and Pomper, thankfully, resists temptation.
I found a few things of particular interest. First was the judicial system. While the trial was stacked for the prosecution, there was room for pleas of leniency for family hardships and other circumstances. The description of it and its considerations was fascinating. The second point of interest was "the press". Alexander III wanted to manage the trial, the executions and the news so as to minimize harm to Russia's reputation (as the autocracy that it was) in Europe. Also, if we think the press has deteriorated, on p. 198, the Washington Post's news of this event was way off the mark. Third is the quirk of history that the prosecutor was a former student radical and he collapsed after the trial. Perhaps in the future there will be some psycho-history on him.
If there were to be a reprint of this book, I would suggest that the reference list of the 7 core terrorists be expanded to include all members and more description of each. A general reader like me plods over the Russian names. Without the memory of the last mention, it is difficult to build the character. I had to use the index and flip back to identify what had already been said about the person when names reappeared.
While I am not an historian, I would expect that this short volume is a valuable contribution to the study of the Russian Revolution.
Comment
Lenin's older brother Alexander Ulyanov, Sasha to friends and family, earned honors as a scholar while participating in the Second March First plot to assassinate Tzar Alexander III on the anniversary of his father's assassination. The plot was clumsy and the would be terrorists were caught. The 21 year old Sasha nobly stood for his cause and was hung for it.
The initial chapters show the influences on Sasha at home and in his college life. It shows how he and his group "The People's Will" applied the scientific knowledge of their studies to describing an ideal society and to bomb making. Most of the text covers the plot, its participants, its unraveling and the trial and punishments of the plotters. The last chapter shows how the brothers' different experiences in the family and how the martyrdom of Sasha influenced Lenin. It also, through a visit to the family home, describes the changing views in Russia regarding Lenin's importance.
I appreciate a book that sticks with its themes, and this one does. There are plenty of avenues for tangents in this story and Pomper, thankfully, resists temptation.
I found a few things of particular interest. First was the judicial system. While the trial was stacked for the prosecution, there was room for pleas of leniency for family hardships and other circumstances. The description of it and its considerations was fascinating. The second point of interest was "the press". Alexander III wanted to manage the trial, the executions and the news so as to minimize harm to Russia's reputation (as the autocracy that it was) in Europe. Also, if we think the press has deteriorated, on p. 198, the Washington Post's news of this event was way off the mark. Third is the quirk of history that the prosecutor was a former student radical and he collapsed after the trial. Perhaps in the future there will be some psycho-history on him.
If there were to be a reprint of this book, I would suggest that the reference list of the 7 core terrorists be expanded to include all members and more description of each. A general reader like me plods over the Russian names. Without the memory of the last mention, it is difficult to build the character. I had to use the index and flip back to identify what had already been said about the person when names reappeared.
While I am not an historian, I would expect that this short volume is a valuable contribution to the study of the Russian Revolution.
Comment
October 27, 2022
I thought the material on Russian radical thinking in the 1880s, the portrait of young Ulyanov, and the reconstruction of the failed plot to assassinate the Tsar were fascinating. The future Lenin barely appears and the discussion of the influence of his elder brother upon his development and career is fairly sketchy.
August 8, 2017
Pomper's book is an historical -psychological study of a family. It is an insight into Russia before the 1917 revolution. The book includes a guide to the various names which is helpful in distinguishing the various characters for someone not familiar with Russian names and terminology.
December 1, 2016
Pomper is a good, if uninspiring, writer whose style can make his content sound more thoughtful than it really is. He is lauded as a "psychological historian" on the book's jacket and, unfortunately, he is very much that.
The book actually does a pretty good job of describing the general intellectual and political milieu of a late 19th century Russia where nihilism (which, in this context, merely denotes a militant, violent and self-destructive if necessary, dedication to secular progressivism) and novosk-ism (the notion that the Russian peasantry, with its tradition of collective ownership of the land, would lead the country to an agrarian form of socialism) were fusing and mutating into a variant of Marxism under an autocratic and backwards regime that, thirty or so years before it would finally fall, was already living on borrowed time. No matter how good Pomper is at describing a collective mood, he insists on reducing history to the actions and characteristics of its most famous actors. There would have been no Russian revolution, Pomper tells us, without Lenin, and no Lenin without the assassination attempt against the Czar by his older brother Alexander. It is indeed indisputable that Lenin decidedly shaped the nature of the revolution, but to say that it would not have occurred, in some form, without him is speculation, not fact, as is the idea that Lenin would not have become a revolutionary without his older brother's example. Pomper, regrettably, proposes far too many such truisms.
Not only does Pomper insist that history revolves around the individuals he is writing about, he claims, with almost psychic certainty, to explain exactly what motivated his subjects and when. For instance, Pomper assures us that Alexander turned his mind to terrorism during a protest when a soldier roughed up his nihilist girlfriend. The author's evidence is little more than that it sounds good within his narrative.
If one approaches this book as a light, historical novel then it's a perfectly enjoyable read. But as serious history, it is simplified at best and simplistic at worst.
The book actually does a pretty good job of describing the general intellectual and political milieu of a late 19th century Russia where nihilism (which, in this context, merely denotes a militant, violent and self-destructive if necessary, dedication to secular progressivism) and novosk-ism (the notion that the Russian peasantry, with its tradition of collective ownership of the land, would lead the country to an agrarian form of socialism) were fusing and mutating into a variant of Marxism under an autocratic and backwards regime that, thirty or so years before it would finally fall, was already living on borrowed time. No matter how good Pomper is at describing a collective mood, he insists on reducing history to the actions and characteristics of its most famous actors. There would have been no Russian revolution, Pomper tells us, without Lenin, and no Lenin without the assassination attempt against the Czar by his older brother Alexander. It is indeed indisputable that Lenin decidedly shaped the nature of the revolution, but to say that it would not have occurred, in some form, without him is speculation, not fact, as is the idea that Lenin would not have become a revolutionary without his older brother's example. Pomper, regrettably, proposes far too many such truisms.
Not only does Pomper insist that history revolves around the individuals he is writing about, he claims, with almost psychic certainty, to explain exactly what motivated his subjects and when. For instance, Pomper assures us that Alexander turned his mind to terrorism during a protest when a soldier roughed up his nihilist girlfriend. The author's evidence is little more than that it sounds good within his narrative.
If one approaches this book as a light, historical novel then it's a perfectly enjoyable read. But as serious history, it is simplified at best and simplistic at worst.
February 25, 2012
after reading The Angel of Vengeance, i have to say i found this rather anti-climatic and a little dry.
and as another reviewer commented, the tag "The Origins of the October Revolution, is a little misleading. i would say The Angel of Vengeance is a better choice for someone wanting to truly understand the 1860's and 70's in Russia and how the nihilist and radicals and terrorists activist set the stage for Lenin and the revolution.
Lenin's Brother gives the reader a very good account of the Second March First plot that aimed to assassinate Alexander III on the anniversary of the assassination of his father, but if you are looking for something broader in scope i think you would be better off reading something else. maybe Consipirator by Helen Rappaport
i think the part i enjoyed the most was the last chapter. the author talks about his 2006 visit to Ulyanovsk to visit the family home, and how this site had been a mecca of sort years ago and is now mostly forgotten. he describes the 'demystification' of the revolution, and this quote in particular evoked a real sadness within me: "in Soviet times Sasha (Lenin's brother) was a revolutionary martyr; now he's just a fanatic and suicidal terrorist".
and as another reviewer commented, the tag "The Origins of the October Revolution, is a little misleading. i would say The Angel of Vengeance is a better choice for someone wanting to truly understand the 1860's and 70's in Russia and how the nihilist and radicals and terrorists activist set the stage for Lenin and the revolution. Lenin's Brother gives the reader a very good account of the Second March First plot that aimed to assassinate Alexander III on the anniversary of the assassination of his father, but if you are looking for something broader in scope i think you would be better off reading something else. maybe Consipirator by Helen Rappaport
i think the part i enjoyed the most was the last chapter. the author talks about his 2006 visit to Ulyanovsk to visit the family home, and how this site had been a mecca of sort years ago and is now mostly forgotten. he describes the 'demystification' of the revolution, and this quote in particular evoked a real sadness within me: "in Soviet times Sasha (Lenin's brother) was a revolutionary martyr; now he's just a fanatic and suicidal terrorist".
September 9, 2010
This is a great book. It took me a little while to read this as I kept getting side tracked on the geography and biographies of Russians I had little or no knowledge of. The story of two brothers, one who attempted to assassinate the czar and one who succeeded, is absolutely captivating and well told.
It is all too commonplace now to think that radicalism and terrorism exist elsewhere, places where there are more disenfranchised individuals than this. The story of these two brothers and the middle history of Anarchism that is somewhat disembowled in this book is not the story of anything other than a government that doesn't listen and doesn't act in favor of the people. That is the history of the revolutions of the 18th and 19th centuries in a populist voice. This book bridges more and gets a look at the family and friends that would indoctrinate, teach, moralize and finally let go of a man who would change his name and change the world, primarily because his brother failed.
It is all too commonplace now to think that radicalism and terrorism exist elsewhere, places where there are more disenfranchised individuals than this. The story of these two brothers and the middle history of Anarchism that is somewhat disembowled in this book is not the story of anything other than a government that doesn't listen and doesn't act in favor of the people. That is the history of the revolutions of the 18th and 19th centuries in a populist voice. This book bridges more and gets a look at the family and friends that would indoctrinate, teach, moralize and finally let go of a man who would change his name and change the world, primarily because his brother failed.
July 19, 2012
A bit hard to follow with all the Russian Monikers, but very interesting. These people were a dry and dispassionate band of nihilists and terrorists. If Alexander III had left on time he might have been killed, but providence intervened. Too bad Alexander III hadn't sent the Lenins to Siberia!
Read
March 22, 2010Watch Bethanne Patrick interview Philip Pomper about his new book “Lenin’s Brother” on The Book Studio.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews