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 tau 1887. I peia mai i te Whare Wananga o Kazan Imperial mo te whai waahi ki nga whakahee ki te kawanatanga o te Russian Empire Tsarist, i whakapau kaha ia 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 ia i noho ai hei tohunga nui i roto i te Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (PDL). I te 1903, i whai waahi nui ia ki te wehewehe whakaaro o te RSDLP, te roopu Bolshevik ki te whakaekenga o Martov Mensheviks.
Hui-tanguru 1917