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 named her eldest son in honor of her real father. When he grew up, Maria told who his own father was, and he was so offended by the parent for the scolded maternal honor that he decided to kill!

Meanwhile, Maria Alexandrovna hardly ever met the emperor, who, moreover, was ten years younger than her. And the first-born in the Ulyanov family was not Alexander, but daughter Anna, born in 1864.

According to another version, Alexander was the son of the terrorist Dmitry Karakozov, who in 1866 committed unsuccessful attempt to Alexander II. But again, there is no evidence that Karakozov ever met Maria Ulyanova. All that was common between Karakozov and Ulyanov was an attempt at regicide and execution for it ...

Since the execution of Alexander, Vladimir Ulyanov saw only one way for himself - to complete the work of his brother. However, as legend has it, he uttered the words: "We will go the other way." If the Narodnaya Volya believed that the assassination of the emperor could change the situation in Russia for the better, then Lenin perfectly understood that one monarch would be replaced by another and that the existing system itself should 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. A shooting royal family in July 1918 really looks like revenge ...

ABOUT Lenin- mountains of books, testimonies, memories. His older brother Alexander is in the historical shadow. WITH young years we learned that Volodya, having learned about the end of his brother's life, said: "We will go the other way." Many books reproduced a reproduction of the artist's painting Petra Belousova, which depicts a young man with a fiery gaze and his tearful mother. This canvas is also called the words of Lenin.

About the elder Ulyanov - mentioned Mayakovsky in the poem "Vladimir Ilyich Lenin":

« …And then

said

Ilyich seventeen years old -

this word

stronger than oaths

a soldier with a raised hand:

- Brother,

we are here

ready to change you

we will win

but we will go the other way! .. "

For the first time, Lenin's reaction to the death of Alexander was reported by Maria Ulyanova at the mourning meeting of the Moscow Soviet on February 7, 1924. According to her, Vladimir Ilyich uttered the following phrase: “No, we will not go that way. This is not the way to go."

Many historians believe that it was the fate of Alexander that influenced the choice of Vladimir's life path. But who influenced the views of Lenin's elder brother? After all, he was brought up in a noble family, where it is unlikely that they constantly talked about the dominance of autocracy. And even more so that the monarch who ruled the empire deserves terrible punishment for his unrighteous deeds ...

However, the fermentation of the minds of the Ulyanov children took place. In the Simbirsk house, books of various content were read. Including - Pushkin,Lermontov,Ryleeva,Herzen,Chernyshevsky,Dobrolyubova. The head of the family, Ilya Nikolaevich, even, they say, sang a song to the words of the forbidden Petrashevsky poet Pleshcheeva: « With love for the truth, holy / In you, I know, your heart beats / And, I believe, it will immediately respond / To my incorruptible voice. / We are brothers in spirit. / We both believe in deliverance, / And we will feed to the grave / Enmity to the scourges of our native country.

Anna Ulyanova she recalled that the eight-year-old Sasha recited Ryleev's poem "Ivan Susanin". And at the age of eleven, he recited by heart "Reflections at the front door" and "The Song of Eremushka" Nekrasov. The boy said that these poems were given to him by his father.

Here are other touches to it short biography.

Once Ulyanov was asked: "What are the worst vices?", And he answered: "Lies and cowardice." From the heroes of "War and Peace" Lev Tolstoy Alexander singled out Dolokhov. But not for military prowess, but for a tender attitude towards the mother. In one gymnasium essay, Alexander wrote: “For useful activity, a person needs: 1) honesty, 2) love of work, 3) firmness of character, 4) mind, 5) knowledge.”

How did the Ulyanov brothers treat each other? Vladimir respected the elder, but there was no special closeness between them. Sister Anna recalled that one day, after talking with Alexander, she asked: “How do you like our Volodya?” Alexander replied that his brother is a very capable person, but "we do not get along with him." Anna decided to find out the reason, but did not hear a clear answer ...

The matriculation certificate of the Simbirsk classical gymnasium, issued in 1883, said: “... Given to Alexander Ulyanov, firstly, that, based on observations for the entire time of his studies at the Simbirsk Gymnasium, his behavior was generally excellent, serviceability in attendance and preparing lessons, as well as performing written works excellent, diligent diligence and curiosity in all subjects, especially Latin and math... Pedagogical Council decided to award him, Ulyanov, with a gold medal ... "

Alexander entered the natural department of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of St. Petersburg University and quickly became the best student.

“Last summer, when he came home, he was preparing for a dissertation on annelid worms and worked with a microscope all the time,” she recalled. Nadezhda Krupskaya. - To use the maximum light, he got up at dawn and immediately set to work. “No, he won’t come out of a revolutionary brother,” I thought at the time,” said Vladimir Ilyich. “A revolutionary cannot devote so much time to the study of annelids.” He soon saw how wrong he was.

A shift in Alexander's mind occurred after the dispersal of a student demonstration in 1886. He, along with some fellow students, joined the People's Will party. Participated in illegal meetings, demonstrations, conducted propaganda in the workers' circle. But the matter could not be limited to theory, for the nature of the Narodnaya Volya was thirsty for blood.

The metamorphosis with the student happened inexplicably. Matvey Peskovsky, a distant relative of Alexander, wrote in a statement sent to the police department: “Knowing Ulyanov’s past, it’s hard not to suspect the normality of his mental abilities - so sharp is the inconsistency in what Ulyanov was and what he turned out to be in the March 1 case. A person can be secretive, pretend, but to be completely not himself - this is too incomprehensible.

Ulyanov drew up the program of the "Terrorist Faction", which was characterized by extreme radicalism and contained daring demands on the ruling regime. Although it was clear that negotiations with the authorities could not be expected, as well as concessions from it. This will happen almost twenty years later, in October 1905, when the son of the king - soft and pliable Nicholas II will issue a manifesto on the granting of various freedoms. His father was cool, and at the mention of free-thinking, he turned deep purple with rage ...

The Narodnaya Volya decided to kill Alexander III. The organizer of the attack was not Ulyanov, but his associate Petr Shevyrev. But he suddenly “changed his mind” and left for the Crimea, allegedly to be treated for tuberculosis. However, young people did not deviate from their plan. Ulyanov sold the gold medal he received at the gymnasium and bought dynamite with the proceeds. They took out mercury, nitric acid and began to make bombs ...

For several days, starting on February 26, 1887, young people began to be on duty near St. Isaac's Cathedral. They were waiting for the emperor's motorcade in order to take his life in a martyr's way.

But how such things are done, they did not know, they did not observe conspiracies. Stood - Ulyanov,Vasily Generalov,Pakhomiy Andreyushkin,Vasily Osipanov near the frozen Neva, hung with bombs, and waited, talking, trampling in the cold, occasionally going to a tavern to warm up with tea. They so pricked the eyes of the police that those failed terrorists were detained. It happened on the first of March 1887 - exactly, on the sixth anniversary of the murder of the former king, Alexander II, the unfortunate father of Alexander III ...

Anna Ulyanova, who studied at the Bestuzhev Higher Women's Courses in St. Petersburg, was also involved in the case. She was arrested, tried and sentenced to five years in exile. A trifle compared to the misfortune that happened to his brother.

A relative of the Ulyanovs wrote to Simbirsk about the arrest of Alexander and Anna. But, fearing for the health of Maria Alexandrovna, she sent a letter not to her, but to a good friend of the Ulyanova family - a teacher Vera Kashkadamova. She met with Volodya and conveyed the message. From him the sad news came to his mother ...

The accusation of attempting to assassinate the king was grave, inevitable. But there was still hope that the lives of the rebels could be saved - they are young, the wind is walking in their heads. But the situation was aggravated by the aforementioned program of the "Terrorist Faction", which fell into the hands of the gendarmes. They read it and were horrified - the papers contained a direct call for the destruction of the autocratic foundations!

The Narodnaya Volya were going to wage an uncompromising struggle with the authorities not only in St. Petersburg and Moscow, but also in other cities of the empire. They extolled terror, believing that “it raises the revolutionary spirit of the people; gives continuous proof of the possibility of struggle, undermining the charm of government power; he acts in a highly propagandistic way on the masses ... "

However, the Narodnaya Volya allowed the rejection of terror, if the government - that's dreaming! - will make concessions, allowing freedom of conscience, speech, press, gatherings, associations and movements, will allow the convocation of representatives of the people, "chosen freely by direct and universal voting, to review all public and state forms of life." From the ruler in the person of Alexander III, it was required to declare a full amnesty "for all state crimes of the past, since these were not crimes, but the fulfillment of civic duty."

Alexander the Third, having familiarized himself with the program of the "Terrorist Faction", became furious. And he wrote in the margins: "This note is not even a madman, but a pure idiot." But it is unlikely that the monarch thought so. He simply drove away heavy thoughts from himself - not everyone will follow these obsessed ...

The investigation into the case of the Ulyanov group was short-lived. Alexander not only confessed everything, but also directly pointed out his leading role: “... I, one of the first, had the idea to form a terrorist group, and I took an active part in its organization, in the sense of delivering money, finding people, apartments, and so on. As for my moral and intellectual participation in this matter, it was complete, that is, everything that my abilities and the strength of my knowledge and convictions brought me.

After that, he had no hope. As well as his comrades.

Heartbroken, Maria Alexandrovna hurried to the capital, where she was received by the emperor. He promised to spare Alexander if he petitioned for pardon...

Soviet historians claimed that Alexander Ulyanov, having shown unusual fortitude and courage, refused to write a humiliated paper. But he nevertheless submitted a petition to the king:

“Your Imperial Majesty!

I am fully aware that the nature and properties of the act I have committed and my attitude towards it do not give me either the right or the moral basis to apply to Your Majesty with a request for indulgence in the form of alleviating my lot. But I have a mother whose health has deteriorated greatly in last days and the execution of my death sentence will put her life in grave danger. In the name of my mother and young brothers and sisters, who, having no father, find their only support in her, I decide to ask Your Majesty to replace my death penalty with some other punishment ... "

Did this letter reach the emperor? God knows. But perhaps he gave - to understand - with words, hints that he would not object to the most severe verdict ...

A closed court, similar to a military tribunal, lasted only five days and sentenced Ulyanov, Generalov, Andreyushkin, Osipanov to death by hanging. The same fate befell Shevyrev, who was arrested in the Crimea. The rest of the conspirators were imprisoned.

On the eve of the execution, Maria Alexandrovna saw her son for the last time. Half an hour after the meeting, she left the Shlisselburg fortress, in which Alexander was imprisoned, silently, without tears. Over the next few days, she all turned gray ...

“All acquaintances recoiled from the Ulyanov family, even the old teacher, who used to come to play chess in the evenings all the time, stopped visiting,” Krupskaya recalled from the words of her husband. - It wasn't there then. railway from Simbirsk, Vladimir Ilyich's mother had to ride horses to Syzran in order to get to St. Petersburg, where her son was sitting. Vladimir Ilyich was sent to look for a fellow traveler - no one wanted to go with the mother of the arrested person. This general cowardice made, according to Vladimir Ilyich, a very strong impression on him then.

In the summer of the same fateful 1887, Vladimir Ulyanov entered the Faculty of Law Kazan University. The day before, he graduated from the Simbirsk gymnasium and received from its director Fyodor Kerensky- the father of the future head of the Provisional Government - an excellent description ...

And a year had not passed since the death of Alexander, as the blood boiled in the veins of his brother. In December of the same 1887, Vladimir Ulyanov became a participant in student performances. For this, he was arrested for the first time, expelled from the university and expelled from Kazan. This was the beginning of it political activity.

Exactly thirty years after the execution of Alexander Ulyanov, in April 1917, another Ulyanov - Vladimir - will arrive in Petrograd, already abandoned by Nicholas II, the son of Alexander III.

Perhaps Lenin sadly recalled his brother, who was killed by a representative of the dynasty Romanovs. However, this is doubtful - at that time Ilyich was not in the mood for sentimentality. He was preparing for the last and decisive battle for power ...

Alexander Ulyanov. The terrorist was the emperor's son? A surprise in Lenin's genealogy: why was this a surprise even for researchers of his biography? Why, after the collapse of the USSR, rumors discrediting the honor of the main revolutionary so quickly took root? What would have happened if Alexander Ulyanov had not been executed? Read about it in the documentary investigation "Moscow Trust".

Student, excellent student, terrorist

Family portrait of the Ulyanovs, one of the few that ever existed. On the right is the future leader of the proletarian revolution, Vladimir Lenin. In the very center stands his older brother Alexander. He will be hanged in the Shlisselburg fortress for an attempt on the life of the tsar, whom popular rumor will later write down as his father.

Portrait of the Ulyanov family

Early 1990s. The mass media unleash a stream of sensationalism on the citizens of the former Soviet republics almost daily. Polished to a shine, the biographies of communist leaders suddenly seem not so smooth at all.

“These are precisely attempts to delegitimize all Soviet myths as much as possible. There is a cliché: Lenin loved children. Everyone has read a book by Bonch-Bruevich since childhood. Therefore, Volkogonov wrote an article stating that Lenin hated children. There was a thing that they were smart people, we prove that Lenin did not receive any education. If there was a book that Lenin was a good lawyer, we are trying to prove that he was a bad lawyer. It was just a reverse system,” says historian Yaroslav Listov.

Lenin gets the most. On October 27, 1995, an interview with journalist Alexander Kutenev appeared in the New Petersburg newspaper. We are talking about the illegitimate children of Emperor Alexander III. And one of them the journalist calls the older brother Ilyich Sasha. Like, his mother gave birth to him when she served as a maid of honor at court.

Moscow. State Archive socio-political history was created on the basis of the Central Party Archive of the Institute of Marxism and Leninism. Hundreds of documents from the Ulyanov family are stored here. These are the texts of petitions for pardon. They were written by Maria Ulyanova in 1887 to Emperor Alexander III. She asks for mercy from the one whom her eldest son Sasha had recently planned to kill. With the highest permission, Ulyanova could do a lot, even meet with a potential regicide.

"The terrorist faction" People's Will "- under this loud name was hiding a student circle, ten-something people, young students, Alexander Ilyich himself is only 21 years old. And they decide to start a terrorist struggle immediately with the assassination of the tsar. Three bombs were prepared , Alexander Ilyich made two of them. He was well versed in chemistry, worked out the design, he made two out of three bombs, and there were bullets around the dynamite, which he also made himself. Alexander Ilyich made the bullets himself, and the bullets were poisoned with strychnine, it is one of the most terrible poisons.In addition, they had two pistols, - says historian Vladimir Lavrov.

Exactly six years have passed since the assassination of the previous Russian Emperor Alexander II. Almost all the Narodnaya Volya members who organized that terrible terrorist attack against the tsar were arrested. Sasha Ulyanov, an excellent student in St. Petersburg, studies at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of the university, and then suddenly becomes one of the founders of the new radical wing of the Narodnaya Volya party.

"He was a very capable, talented child, but in his own way an unhappy person, because in childhood he received very serious injury spine. Alexander Ulyanov was small in stature, and it always seemed to him that his family did not like him. He graduated from school with a gold medal, came to study in St. Petersburg. Already in the third year, before graduating from the university, he received a gold medal for research in the field of biology," says journalist Andrey Binev.

The Lenin Museum is a forge of Soviet legends about the heroic life of Ilyich. Behind these walls, the biography of the leader of the proletariat was embellished in every possible way. The politically correct remained, the doubtful was hushed up.
Galina Borodulina has been working at the Lenin Museum for many years, she is engaged in the genealogy of the Ulyanov family.

“There was a special approach to the study of Lenin’s life and work and to the creation of his biography. Actually, this approach was defined. Back in the late 1920s, party historians were interested not so much in Lenin’s personality, not so much in his personal life, as in Lenin’s life in the party. Moreover, they did not see the contradiction between the fact that Lenin was the leader of the proletarian revolution and his noble origin, because among the leaders Communist Party there were quite a lot of people of noble origin," says historian Galina Borodulina.

Skeleton in the closet of the Ulyanov family

Journalist and writer Andrei Binev explored the story of the illegitimate origin of Alexander Ulyanov. In the late 90s, he worked on his own documentary.

"Maria Alexandrovna was born and raised in Kazan, she was a very educated and free woman, with an eye on free love, on open relationship. Therefore, many who study her biography and family life assume that she gave birth to children from different husbands, because she followed such orders. And it turned out that Maria Alexandrovna and Ilya Nikolaevich slept in different rooms. There was a corridor between them. And the bedroom of the rest of the children went into this corridor. They could not, remaining unnoticed, meet, say, in the same bedroom, it was difficult. By the way, this was one of the reasons why such legends were born," says Binev.

Alexander Ulyanov

Writer Larisa Vasilyeva, author of the book "Kremlin Wives", is also involved in replicating the story about the too free behavior of Maria Ulyanova, nee Maria Blank. What was told in the kitchens as a spicy anecdote, Vasilyeva captured on paper. It was she who in 1993 announced that Alexander Ulyanov was the illegitimate son, however, not of the tsar, but of the terrorist Dmitry Karakozov.

"And it is quite possible that Maria Alexandrovna and Dmitry Karakozov did not just meet on the stairs, and her son Alexander Ilyich Ulyanov was born from Karakozov. And since Karakozov attempted on the emperor, somewhere before this attempt he disappeared somewhere from home, quite "perhaps he was near where she gave birth, and quite possibly he saw this child. But he disappeared, and then suddenly, like a bolt from the blue - Dmitry Karakozov encroaches on the emperor. And the persecution of all democratically minded people began, and I think that Maria Alexandrovna lived in fear. I wouldn’t say all this now if one day I didn’t write in The Kremlin Wives that Inessa Armand told Ivan Fedorovich Popov: “The Lenin family had its own secret,” Vasilyeva believes .

Dmitry Karakozov

And that is why, according to Vasilyeva, Sasha Ulyanov suddenly became a terrorist. He learned the truth and wanted to avenge his father, who was executed for an unsuccessful attempt on Alexander II. Dmitry Karakozov accepted execution by hanging in St. Petersburg in 1866.

Although professional researchers are sure that the paternity of the terrorist Karakozov is just a fiction of a writer. The work of Galina Borodulina in the archives showed that Maria Blank and Dmitry Karakozov hardly knew each other.

"Karakozov was familiar with Ilya Nikolaevich Ulyanov, but he left Penza even before Maria Alexandrovna appeared there. He went to study in another city, so they simply could not meet anywhere with Maria Alexandrovna. In 1863, Maria Alexandrovna had already left married Ilya Nikolaevich, born in 1864 eldest daughter Anna, Alexander was born in 1866. By the way, those who write about the illegitimate origin of the Ulyanov children are very often confused, claiming that Alexander was the eldest, Anna was the youngest, this is already an indicator of how knowledgeable the people who compose this kind of version are, "says Borodulina.

Emperor's illegitimate son

However, did Blanc and the emperor have a relationship, here main riddle. Petersburg, 1887. After Sasha's arrest, Maria urgently travels to the capital from Simbirsk and easily gets an appointment with Alexander III. She is allowed a meeting with a terrorist without delay. Perhaps, indeed, it is not only formalities that bind her and the king?

“Allegedly, Maria Blank, the mother of Vladimir Ilyich, was a maid of honor at the imperial court. I think one example, one fact will suffice here, and there are, in general, a lot of them to prove that this did not happen at all. that the imperial court was a kind of institution, and being a lady-in-waiting of the imperial court meant performing certain official duties.Therefore, documents have been preserved that confirm that there was never a lady-in-waiting Maria Blanc at the imperial court. 1712. Another fact: Alexander III was ten years younger than Maria Alexandrovna, Lenin's mother, she was born in 1835, he - in 1845, Maria Alexandrovna lived in St. Petersburg with her family until 1841. Then the family left Petersburg, and Maria Alexandrovna did not return there until the arrest of her eldest son Alexander," says Galina Borodulina.

Maria Ulyanova, 1931 Photo: ITAR-TASS

And here are the archival documents. An entry from the church book about the marriage between Ilya Ulyanov and Maria Blank - 1863. This is data on the birth of children, first Anna, then Alexander. The version of the journalist Kutenev, published in the newspaper "New Petersburg" in 1995, about the illegitimate son of the emperor is nothing more than a fiction.

Historian Vladimir Lavrov gives another proof of the implausibility of the version of the journalist Kutenev. The origin of Maria Blanc would never have allowed her to become a lady-in-waiting of the imperial court. Such were the realities of tsarist Russia.

“As for Maria Alexandrovna, the mother of Alexander Ilyich and Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. Her father was a doctor, quite wealthy, absolutely unnoble, and only a noble noblewoman could become a maid of honor. I can say that the hereditary nobility was formalized by Maria Alexandrovna only after the death of her husband, so that receive a good pension. She received it from the tsarist government. During the time of Peter I, there were isolated cases when people of no nobility rose to the heights, but in the second half of the 19th century, it was already a different era, this was not the case, "says Lavrov.

Victim of freethinking

After the death of Alexander II, Alexander III takes the throne. Historians call 13 years of his reign controversial. As they will later write in textbooks, the economic well-being of the country is growing at a high pace. But corruption and humiliation of the working class flourishes. The situation in society also affected the Ulyanovs. Schools for the unprivileged classes, which had once been opened by the father of the family, Ilya Nikolaevich, began to close all over Russia.

Russian Emperor Alexander III with his family. Photo: ITAR-TASS

"The fate of his father, Ilya Nikolayevich, who devoted his whole life to the cause of public education, is very indicative. He was an inspector of public schools in the Simbirsk province, thanks to him new schools were opened and teaching in them was put on the proper level. And the father's example, the facts that spoke about the beginning of a new period in the history of Russia (even if the brutal crackdown on the student demonstration in 1886), I think, led Sasha to reflect. We know that Sasha was familiar with the works of Marx. I think, ultimately, this was the reason that he took an active part in revolutionary activities," says Galina Borodulina.

It is these facts, and not at all the desire to take revenge on the tsar for his supposedly illegitimate origin, that historians call decisive in the fate of Alexander Ulyanov. It took him only a few months to create a circle and start organizing the assassination.

“In principle, a provincial guy from the city of Simbirsk, from an educated family, who lived, I would not say that it was completely in greenhouse conditions, but a little distant from the reality of what is happening, suddenly finds himself in the capital. In the capital, this provincial information vacuum disappears, global information from all over the country falls upon him, newspaper correspondence, discussions, conversations flock here. The institute where he studies is one of the most popular, people from all over the country come to it. All this fell upon the young Alexander, he was a rather impressionable person ". And like any young man, he wanted to solve all problems at once. And with this one and only way that can be solved, it seemed to kill the figure who stood at the head and personified the entire system of the regime. This is how this terrorist attack against Alexander III ripened ", - says the historian Yaroslav Listov.

Another way of Vladimir Ulyanov

There is another secret that was hidden by Soviet propaganda. Before the opening of the archives, it was believed that Alexander Ulyanov did not ask for himself, but it turned out that there was a document. Here is a copy of it: "I ask Your Majesty to replace my death penalty with some other punishment." There is not a drop of remorse in the text, he simply asks not to hurt the mother.

"There are several memories. There is a memory of the lawyer Knyazev, who was present at the same time. There is a memory of Anna Ilyinichna, sister. Naturally, she was aware. Alexander Ilyich asked his mother for forgiveness for the grief caused to her, the family. She asked her son to write a petition Sovereign with a request for pardon. He refused, according to Knyazev, citing the fact that he told his mother: "Just imagine a duel: I shot, my opponent has not shot yet, and I tell him:" Do not shoot, please. However, there was still a petition, but there was no repentance in this petition. He did not repent. mother, my family," says historian Lavrov.

Researchers of the biography of Vladimir Lenin often write that the relationship between the brothers was difficult. But the execution of Alexander decided the fate of Ilyich and the Ulyanov family as a whole: they simply became outcasts in provincial Simbirsk, they were afraid to communicate with them.

“This made a decisive impression on my brother, let’s say. The fact is that he was only 17 years old, a person is just entering life, and an example is when this tragedy occurs in one’s own family, because it is a tragedy twice. The first tragedy is it 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 become handshakes.On the other hand, this is a personal tragedy - the loss of a person with whom he lived, with whom he communicated It was precisely from this that Lenin drew a conclusion, and then he uttered his famous phrase: "We will go the other way" - about the creation revolutionary party and the overthrow of the system. Not individuals, but a change in the system. That is, Lenin came to the conclusion that individual terror is useless and meaningless. And we see that it is indeed from this historical period that all individual terror Russian Empire comes to naught. That is, the period when it seemed that let's kill the emperor, and everything will be fine, disappears," says Yaroslav Listov.

Royal family, 1907. Photo: ITAR-TASS

However, the historian Listov believes that the myth of kinship with the imperial crown was created by mass popular consciousness for a reason. The reason for the popularity of essentially gossip about an illegitimate son is simple. This is an attempt to bring the person of Lenin closer to the very anointed of God.

“There is a certain family to which it is given from God to be ruling. And this was especially important for the society of the period of transition from the Russian Empire to Soviet Union. After all, many myths about the ruling dynasties were born there. Imagine, for almost 500 years people have been told: ruling dynasties are the anointed of God. These are people who not only ascended the throne, because the political situation developed this way, but because God brought them here, they are, as it were, the conductors of the divine will. And then suddenly - once - one emperor was killed, the second emperor was killed, then in general all the emperors were overthrown. And for them it is somehow incomprehensible, but where did the anointed of God go. And therefore, we will show: God turned away from these, and here we see that Alexander Ulyanov is the family of the emperor, ”says Listov.

The execution by hanging of the terrorists of the "Narodnaya Volya" faction took place on May 20, 1887 in the Shlisselburg fortress. In the verdict, the word "hang" is written by hand in front of five names, among them Alexander Ilyich Ulyanov. His mother, nee Maria Blanc, 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 Fedorovna, their children, a doctor and servants were killed in the Ipatiev house in Yekaterinburg. It is still not known for certain whether Vladimir Lenin personally made the decision to execute the royal family.

Shlisselburg, St. Petersburg province,

On April 15-19, 1887, a trial was held at which Ulyanov, Shevyryov, Andreyushkin, Generalov and Osipanov were sentenced to death, and the rest, including Bronisław Pilsudski (older brother of Jozef Pilsudski), who in Vilna prepared explosives for Alexander Ulyanov for attempts on the king - to various terms of hard labor and further exile. Alexander's mother, Maria Alexandrovna, wrote a petition to Alexander III for clemency and received permission to visit her son. Alexander Ulyanov himself was asked to ask the emperor for clemency. According to prosecutor Knyazev, who was present at the last meeting between mother and son, Alexander rejected this proposal at this meeting, saying the following: “Imagine, mother, 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 weapons. No, I can't do that." I am fully aware that the nature and properties of the act I have committed and my attitude towards it do not give me either the right or the moral basis to apply to Your Majesty with a request for indulgence in the form of alleviating my lot. But I have a mother whose health has deteriorated greatly in recent days, and the execution of my death sentence will put her life in the most serious danger. In the name of my mother and my younger brothers and sisters, who, having no father, find their only support in her, I decide to ask Your Majesty to replace my death penalty with some other punishment. This indulgence will restore the strength and health of my mother and return her to the family for whom her life is so precious, and save me from the painful consciousness that I will be the cause of the death of my mother and the misfortune of my entire family. Alexander Ulyanov. On May 8 (20), 1887, Alexander Ulyanov and his comrades were hanged in the Shlisselburg fortress. Alexander Ulyanov was buried in a mass grave behind the wall of the Oreshek fortress, on the shore of Lake Ladoga (Leningrad Region). April 22 is the birthday of Vladimir Lenin. Only 30 years separate two most important events in the life of this man: the execution in 1887 of his older brother Alexander Ulyanov, who was convicted in the process of the “second March First”, and October 1917. It is foolish to reduce the Russian revolution to the banal "he avenged his brother." But it is foolish to deny that without Alexander Ulyanov there would be no Vladimir Lenin. Is Alexander guilty from today's point of view? Still would! The group prepared three shells: for 2 kg of homemade dynamite, for almost 3 kg and for 1.2 kg. Two bombs were made by Ulyanov and the “chemist of the organization” Lukashevich, one by Ulyanov himself. Shrapnel was interspersed in explosives - pieces of lead smeared with a "strong solution of strychnine." Well, how much would they put along with the king of the people! Moreover! Before the assassination attempt, the leader of the organization, Shevyrev, unexpectedly left for Yalta (either he got scared, or consumption really worsened). Ulyanov led the whole business. After the arrest, he did not deny, he stated a tough and logical justification for his position. He took on someone else's fault and thereby brought many out from under the noose (the same Lukashevich). He refused to ask for pardon, and when in the end he asked, then, asking only to condescend to the grief of his mother (but it was too late). That is, he deserved the execution? But despite all that, the attempt did not take place. In fact, they were judged only for intent. Completely proven. subject to punishment. But what kind of punishment? Hang? For what? Not a drop of blood was shed! Today, the tsarist justice is often reproached for softness: they say, they would really punish the revolutionaries, so ... Well, sometimes softness took place. And sometimes - on the contrary. Six years ago, the tsar was already killed in Russia - a support and a symbol great power. Now the judges have decided not to be silly. And yet, knowing today the consequences, one thought involuntarily creeps into my head. When the "second March First" was seized, Alexander III rashly at first ordered: do not waste time, throw the conspirators into Shlisselburg without trial or investigation - and forget this story. Then they reasoned - how could it be without trial and investigation! Must by law. Only sometimes you think: maybe if they acted according to the first order of the king, then everyone would be better off? Well, Ulyanov would have been alone. In a couple of years he would have been allowed books. Then write. He would think that moral duty completed. Before going into politics, he was indeed a brilliant young biologist. There is nothing to do in the cell, I would do science again. In 1905 - amnesty. It would not be a fiery terrorist who would have been released, but a scientist deep in his thoughts (like the famous Narodnaya Volya N. Morozov). Maybe even - sincerely religious (after all, Ulyanov was the only one of all those sentenced to kiss the cross before execution). And the "ashes of Klaas" would not knock on the heart of brother Volodya. And - who knows! - perhaps many things in our history would have gone differently. "Second March Day" The informal name of the underground organization, officially called the "Terrorist faction of the party" People's Will ". They considered themselves the heirs of the "First March" - the People's Will, who killed on March 1, 1881 Tsar Alexander II. Six years later, the "second March Day" were preparing to throw bombs at his son, Alexander III, but the Okhrana managed to get on their trail earlier. On March 1, 1887, the militants were taken on Nevsky Prospekt during the next hunt for the tsar. The leaders of the organization are P. Shevyrev and A. Ulyanov. "Signals" (they were supposed to inform about the entrance of the royal carriage) - S. Volokhov, M. Kancher, P. Gorkun. "Metal workers" (those who were planned to throw bombs) - P. Andreyushkin, V. Generalov, V. Osipanov. In total, 15 people were involved in the case, five (P. Shevyrev, A. Ulyanov, P. Andreyushkin, V. Generalov, V. Osipanov) were hanged.

Alexander and Vladimir Ulyanov. Reproduction of "The Ulyanov Brothers" painting by Oleg Vishnyakov

Maria Alexandrovna, mother of the Ulyanovs, served as a maid of honor at the imperial court. When the future Alexander III was just a Grand Duke, they had an affair, and then their son Alexander was born. This sensational story is exaggerated by modern historians, referring to the writer Marieta Shahinyan. She, preparing to write a book about Lenin in the 1970s, accidentally discovered these facts of the biography of the Ulyanov family in the archives. They say that Brezhnev summoned Shaginyan to his office and, in exchange for silence, offered her a prize for the "correct" work on the leader of the world proletariat.
Was the elder brother of Vladimir Ilyich an illegitimate son of the emperor? See this in "Unsolved Secrets" and in the documentary investigation of the Moscow Trust TV channel.

Unrevealed mysteries. Was Lenin's brother an illegitimate son of the emperor

Student, excellent student, terrorist

Family portrait of the Ulyanovs, one of the few that ever existed. On the right is the future leader of the proletarian revolution, Vladimir Lenin. In the very center stands his older brother Alexander. He will be hanged in the Shlisselburg fortress for an attempt on the life of the tsar, whom popular rumor will later write down as his father.

Portrait of the Ulyanov family

Early 1990s. The mass media unleash a stream of sensationalism on the citizens of the former Soviet republics almost daily. Polished to a shine, the biographies of communist leaders suddenly seem not so smooth at all.

“These are precisely attempts to delegitimize all Soviet myths as much as possible. There is a cliché: Lenin loved children. Everyone has read a book by Bonch-Bruevich since childhood. Therefore, Volkogonov wrote an article stating that Lenin hated children. There was a thing that they were smart people, we we prove that Lenin did not receive any education. If there was a book that Lenin was a good lawyer, we are trying to prove that he was a bad lawyer. It was just a reverse system, "says historian Yaroslav Listov.

Lenin gets the most. On October 27, 1995, an interview with journalist Alexander Kutenev appeared in the New Petersburg newspaper. We are talking about the illegitimate children of Emperor Alexander III. And one of them the journalist calls the older brother Ilyich Sasha. Like, his mother gave birth to him when she served as a maid of honor at court.

Moscow. The State Archive of Socio-Political History was created on the basis of the Central Party Archive of the Institute of Marxism and Leninism. Hundreds of documents from the Ulyanov family are stored here. These are the texts of petitions for pardon. They were written by Maria Ulyanova in 1887 to Emperor Alexander III. She asks for mercy from the one whom her eldest son Sasha had recently planned to kill. With the highest permission, Ulyanova could do a lot, even meet with a potential regicide.

"The terrorist faction" People's Will "- under this loud name was hiding a student circle, ten-something people, young students, Alexander Ilyich himself is only 21 years old. And they decide to start a terrorist struggle immediately with the assassination of the tsar. Three bombs were prepared , Alexander Ilyich made two of them. He was well versed in chemistry, worked out the design, he made two out of three bombs, and there were bullets around the dynamite, which he also made himself. Alexander Ilyich made the bullets himself, and the bullets were poisoned with strychnine, it is one of the most terrible poisons.In addition, they had two pistols, - says historian Vladimir Lavrov.

Exactly six years have passed since the assassination of the previous Russian Emperor Alexander II. Almost all the Narodnaya Volya members who organized that terrible terrorist attack against the tsar were arrested. Sasha Ulyanov, an excellent student in St. Petersburg, studies at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of the university, and then suddenly becomes one of the founders of the new radical wing of the Narodnaya Volya party.

“He was a very capable, talented child, but in his own way an unhappy person, because as a child he received a very serious spinal injury. Alexander Ulyanov was small in stature, and it always seemed to him that his family did not like him. He graduated from school with a gold medal, arrived study in St. Petersburg. Already in the third year, not yet graduating from the university, he received a gold medal for research in the field of biology, "says journalist Andrey Binev.

The Lenin Museum is a forge of Soviet legends about the heroic life of Ilyich. Behind these walls, the biography of the leader of the proletariat was embellished in every possible way. The politically correct remained, the doubtful was hushed up. Galina Borodulina has been working at the Lenin Museum for many years, she is engaged in the genealogy of the Ulyanov family.

“There was a special approach to the study of Lenin’s life and work and to the creation of his biography. Actually, this approach was defined. Back in the late 1920s, party historians were interested not so much in Lenin’s personality, not so much in his personal life, as in Lenin’s life in the party. Moreover, they didn’t see any contradictions between the fact that Lenin was the leader of the proletarian revolution and his noble origin, because there were quite a lot of people of noble origin among the leaders of the Communist Party, ”says historian Galina Borodulina.

Skeleton in the closet of the Ulyanov family

Journalist and writer Andrei Binev explored the story of the illegitimate origin of Alexander Ulyanov. In the late 90s, he worked on his own documentary.

"Maria Alexandrovna was born and raised in Kazan, she was a very educated and free woman, with an eye for free love, free relationships. Therefore, many who study her biography and family life assume that she gave birth to children from different husbands, because she followed And it turned out that Maria Alexandrovna and Ilya Nikolaevich slept in different rooms. There was a corridor between them. And the bedroom of the rest of the children went into this corridor. They could not, remaining unnoticed, meet, say, in the same bedroom, it was difficult By the way, this was one of the reasons why such legends were born," says Binev.

Alexander Ulyanov

Writer Larisa Vasilyeva, author of the book "Kremlin Wives", is also involved in replicating the story about the too free behavior of Maria Ulyanova, nee Maria Blank. What was told in the kitchens as a spicy anecdote, Vasilyeva captured on paper. It was she who in 1993 announced that Alexander Ulyanov was the illegitimate son, however, not of the tsar, but of the terrorist Dmitry Karakozov.

"And it is quite possible that Maria Alexandrovna and Dmitry Karakozov did not just meet on the stairs, and her son Alexander Ilyich Ulyanov was born from Karakozov. And since Karakozov attempted on the emperor, somewhere before this attempt he disappeared somewhere from home, quite "perhaps he was near where she gave birth, and quite possibly he saw this child. But he disappeared, and then suddenly, like a bolt from the blue - Dmitry Karakozov encroaches on the emperor. And the persecution of all democratically minded people began, and I think that Maria Alexandrovna lived in fear. I wouldn’t say all this now if one day I didn’t write in The Kremlin Wives that Inessa Armand told Ivan Fedorovich Popov: “The Lenin family had its own secret,” Vasilyeva believes .

Dmitry Karakozov

And that is why, according to Vasilyeva, Sasha Ulyanov suddenly became a terrorist. He learned the truth and wanted to avenge his father, who was executed for an unsuccessful attempt on Alexander II. Dmitry Karakozov accepted execution by hanging in St. Petersburg in 1866.

Although professional researchers are sure that the paternity of the terrorist Karakozov is just a fiction of a writer. The work of Galina Borodulina in the archives showed that Maria Blank and Dmitry Karakozov hardly knew each other.

"Karakozov was familiar with Ilya Nikolaevich Ulyanov, but he left Penza even before Maria Alexandrovna appeared there. He went to study in another city, so they simply could not meet anywhere with Maria Alexandrovna. In 1863, Maria Alexandrovna had already left married Ilya Nikolaevich, the eldest daughter Anna was born in 1864, Alexander was already born in 1866. By the way, those who write about the illegitimate origin of the Ulyanov children are very often confused, claiming that Alexander was the eldest, Anna was the youngest, this is already an indicator of how knowledgeable are the people who compose this kind of version," says Borodulina.

Emperor's illegitimate son

However, whether Blanc and the emperor had a relationship, that's the main mystery. Petersburg, 1887. After Sasha's arrest, Maria urgently travels to the capital from Simbirsk and easily gets an appointment with Alexander III. She is allowed a meeting with a terrorist without delay. Perhaps, indeed, it is not only formalities that bind her and the king?

“Allegedly, Maria Blank, the mother of Vladimir Ilyich, was a maid of honor at the imperial court. I think one example, one fact will suffice here, and there are, in general, a lot of them to prove that this did not happen at all. that the imperial court was a kind of institution, and being a lady-in-waiting of the imperial court meant performing certain official duties.Therefore, documents have been preserved that confirm that there was never a lady-in-waiting Maria Blanc at the imperial court. 1712. Another fact: Alexander III was ten years younger than Maria Alexandrovna, Lenin's mother, she was born in 1835, he - in 1845, Maria Alexandrovna lived in St. Petersburg with her family until 1841. Then the family left Petersburg, and Maria Alexandrovna did not return there until the arrest of her eldest son Alexander," says Galina Borodulina.

Maria Ulyanova, 1931

And here are the archival documents. An entry from the church book about the marriage between Ilya Ulyanov and Maria Blank - 1863. This is data on the birth of children, first Anna, then Alexander. The version of the journalist Kutenev, published in the newspaper "New Petersburg" in 1995, about the illegitimate son of the emperor is nothing more than a fiction.

Historian Vladimir Lavrov gives another proof of the implausibility of the version of the journalist Kutenev. The origin of Maria Blanc would never have allowed her to become a lady-in-waiting of the imperial court. Such were the realities of tsarist Russia.

“As for Maria Alexandrovna, the mother of Alexander Ilyich and Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. Her father was a doctor, quite wealthy, absolutely unnoble, and only a noble noblewoman could become a maid of honor. I can say that the hereditary nobility was formalized by Maria Alexandrovna only after the death of her husband, so that receive a good pension. She received it from the tsarist government. During the time of Peter I, there were isolated cases when people of no nobility rose to the heights, but in the second half of the 19th century, it was already a different era, this was not the case, "says Lavrov.

Victim of freethinking

After the death of Alexander II, Alexander III takes the throne. Historians call 13 years of his reign controversial. As they will later write in textbooks, the economic well-being of the country is growing at a high pace. But corruption and humiliation of the working class flourishes. The situation in society also affected the Ulyanovs. Schools for the unprivileged classes, which had once been opened by the father of the family, Ilya Nikolaevich, began to close all over Russia.

Russian Emperor Alexander III with his family

"The fate of his father, Ilya Nikolayevich, who devoted his whole life to the cause of public education, is very indicative. He was an inspector of public schools in the Simbirsk province, thanks to him new schools were opened and teaching in them was put on the proper level. And the father's example, the facts that spoke about the beginning of a new period in the history of Russia (even if the brutal crackdown on the student demonstration in 1886), I think, led Sasha to reflect. We know that Sasha was familiar with the works of Marx. I think, ultimately, this was the reason that he took an active part in revolutionary activities," says Galina Borodulina.

It is these facts, and not at all the desire to take revenge on the tsar for his supposedly illegitimate origin, that historians call decisive in the fate of Alexander Ulyanov. It took him only a few months to create a circle and start organizing the assassination.

“In principle, a provincial guy from the city of Simbirsk, from an educated family, who lived, I would not say that it was completely in greenhouse conditions, but a little distant from the reality of what is happening, suddenly finds himself in the capital. In the capital, this provincial information vacuum disappears, global information from all over the country falls upon him, newspaper correspondence, discussions, conversations flock here. The institute where he studies is one of the most popular, people from all over the country come to it. All this fell upon the young Alexander, he was a rather impressionable person ". And like any young man, he wanted to solve all problems at once. And with this one and only way that can be solved, it seemed to kill the figure who stood at the head and personified the entire system of the regime. This is how this terrorist attack against Alexander III ripened ", - says the historian Yaroslav Listov.

Another way of Vladimir Ulyanov

There is another secret that was hidden by Soviet propaganda. Before the opening of the archives, it was believed that Alexander Ulyanov did not ask for himself, but it turned out that there was a document. Here is a copy of it: "I ask Your Majesty to replace my death penalty with some other punishment." There is not a drop of remorse in the text, he simply asks not to hurt the mother.

"There are several memories. There is a memory of the lawyer Knyazev, who was present at the same time. There is a memory of Anna Ilyinichna, sister. Naturally, she was aware. Alexander Ilyich asked his mother for forgiveness for the grief caused to her, the family. She asked her son to write a petition Sovereign with a request for pardon. He refused, according to Knyazev, citing the fact that he told his mother: "Just imagine a duel: I shot, my opponent has not shot yet, and I tell him:" Do not shoot, please. However, there was still a petition, but there was no repentance in this petition. He did not repent. mother, my family," says historian Lavrov.

Researchers of the biography of Vladimir Lenin often write that the relationship between the brothers was difficult. But the execution of Alexander decided the fate of Ilyich and the Ulyanov family as a whole: they simply became outcasts in provincial Simbirsk, they were afraid to communicate with them.

“This made a decisive impression on my brother, let’s say. The fact is that he was only 17 years old, a person is just entering life, and an example is when this tragedy occurs in one’s own family, because it is a tragedy twice. The first tragedy is it 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 become handshakes.On the other hand, this is a personal tragedy - the loss of a person with whom he lived, with whom he communicated Lenin 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 a change in the system. That is, Lenin came to the conclusion that individual terror is useless and meaningless. And we see that it is indeed from this historical period that all 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, "says Yaroslav Listov .

Royal family, 1907

However, the historian Listov believes that the myth of kinship with the imperial crown was created by mass popular consciousness for a reason. The reason for the popularity of essentially gossip about an illegitimate son is simple. This is an attempt to bring the person of Lenin closer to the very anointed of God.

“There is a certain family that was given by God to be ruling. And this was especially important for the society of the period of transition from the Russian Empire to the Soviet Union. After all, many myths about ruling dynasties were born there. Imagine, after all, for almost 500 years they said to people: the ruling dynasties are God's anointed ones. These are people who not only ascended the throne, because the political situation developed this way, but because God brought them here, they are, as it were, conductors of divine will. And then suddenly - once - one emperor was killed , the second emperor was killed, then all the emperors were overthrown. And for them it is somehow incomprehensible, but where did the anointed of God go. And therefore we will show: God turned away from these, and here we see that Alexander Ulyanov is the family of the emperor, "- Listov argues.

The execution by hanging of the terrorists of the "Narodnaya Volya" faction took place on May 20, 1887 in the Shlisselburg fortress. In the verdict, the word "hang" is written by hand in front of five names, among them Alexander Ilyich Ulyanov. His mother, nee Maria Blanc, 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 Fedorovna, their children, a doctor and servants were killed in the Ipatiev house in Yekaterinburg. It is still not known for certain whether Vladimir Lenin personally made the decision to execute the royal family.