Aleksandr Ulyanov

Infobox Person
name=Aleksandr Ulyanov


image_size = 120px
caption=
birth_date=1866
birth_place=Russia
death_date=death date|1887|5|8|mf=y (Age: 21)
death_place=Shlisselburg, Russia

Aleksandr Ilyich Ulyanov (Russian: Александр Ильич Ульянов; 1866 – May 8, 1887) was a Russian revolutionary and older brother of Vladimir Lenin.

Life

In 1883, he graduated from the College of Simbirsk with a gold medal and entered Petersburg University, where he majored in Natural Sciences and earned another gold medal for his work in zoology. Aleksandr participated in illegal meetings, demonstrations and ran propaganda activities among students and workers. In 1886, he became a member of the "terrorist faction" of the Narodnaya Volya ("People's Will") party. He was one of the authors of its program with Marxism being one of his obvious influences.

Acknowledging the working class as a "nucleus of the Socialist Party", the party program affirmed the revolutionary intelligentsia's initiative in fighting with autocracy; terror was seen as a means of struggle.

Assassination attempt and execution

Ulyanov and his comrades began preparing an assassination attempt on the life of Alexander III of Russia, but on March 1, 1887, they were arrested. In court, Ulyanov gave a political speech. On May 8, he and his comrades Pakhomiy Andreyushkin, Vasili Generalov, Vasili Osipanov and Petr Shevyrev were sentenced to death and hanged at Shlisselburg. As they had been arrested on March 1, they became known as the Pervomartovtsi.

The execution of his brother Aleksandr radicalized Lenin and he became more involved in student protests and revolutionary propaganda efforts.

Legacy

A minor planet 2112 Ulyanov discovered in 1972 by Soviet astronomer Tamara Mikhailovna Smirnova is named after him. [cite book | last = Schmadel | first = Lutz D. | coauthors = | title = Dictionary of Minor Planet Names | pages = p. 171 | edition = 5th | year = 2003 | publisher = Springer Verlag | location = New York | url = http://books.google.com/books?q=2112+Ulyanov+1972 | id = ISBN 3540002383]

References