Story Highlights
- Historical event:
- 22 April 1870
- Lenin spent most of his childhood and youth in cities on the Volga River - Simbirsk (where he was born), Kazan (where he studied), Samara, and others. Interestingly, the Volga is the longest river in Europe, 800 km longer than Danube River.
Vladimir Ulyanov, the Russian revolutionary who later changed his name to Lenin, was born on this day in 1870.
He was born in the city of Simbirsk on the Volga River (today Ulyanovsk – the city was later renamed after him). Lenin spent most of his childhood and youth in cities on the Volga River – the mentioned Simbirsk, Kazan (where he studied), Samara, etc.
Interestingly, the Volga is the longest river in Europe, 800 km longer than the Danube River. The Volga is also the European largest river in terms of volume flow, and catchment area. The Volga River is very important to Russia because 11 of the 20 largest Russian cities are located within its catchment area.
Lenin was a peer of the famous Gandhi (he was about six months younger than Gandhi). The French writer Marcel Proust was only about a year younger than Lenin. The last Russian emperor Nicholas II was about two years older than Lenin.
It is interesting that Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov took the pseudonym Lenin when he was in his 30s. It is assumed that the Lena River in Siberia was the inspiration for his nickname (the Lena River is longer than the Volga River, i.e. the Lena River is longer than any other river in Europe). Further, Ulyanov spent about three years in exile in Siberia.
