I whanau ia ki te whanau o te karaehe o waenga o Simbirsk, i uru a Lenin ki nga kaupapa torangapu i muri i te whakamatenga o tona tuakana i te 1887. I peia mai i te Whare Wananga o Kazan Imperial mo te whakauru ki nga whakahee ki te kawanatanga Tsarist o te Russian Empire, i whakapau kaha ia i nga tau e whai ake nei ki te tohu ture. I neke ia ki Saint Petersburg i te 1893 ka noho hei kaitohutohu Marxist matua. I te tau 1897, i mauheretia ia mo te tutu me te whakaraua ki Shushenskoye mo nga tau e toru, i reira ka marenatia ia ki a Nadezhda Krupskaya. I muri i tana rerenga, ka neke ia ki Uropi ki te Hauauru, i reira ka noho ia hei tohunga nui i roto i te Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (PDLP). I te tau 1903, i whai waahi nui ia ki te wehewehe whakaaro o te RSDLP, te roopu Bolshevik ki te whakaeke a Martov Mensheviks.
Ko te tau 1903