Alexander Ulyanov has arrived home from Saint Petersburg for winter. This winter was not as harsh as before, the temperature was closer to zero degrees than ever before. Snow was coming down only hard enough to bring down a small child. There were even some people wearing only two layers under their coats as if it was spring already. He was greeted by his father, his mother, and young Vladimir outside their home in Simbirsk. Alexander has been studying biology and recently won a gold medal for his essay which also got him elected into a scientific society. Both of his parents were beaming with joy as their son is following in similar academic footsteps as them. His father, Ilya, was a math and physics teacher who never found a stable place to teach and his mother, Maria, was an elementary teacher up until she had children. Vladimir was following in similar footsteps in school by achieving high grades and test scores toward his career interests at the age of 15.

They all sit down for a heartwarming plate of pelmeni that the whole family can not live without. Alexander, Vladimir, and their younger sister Olga are the first ones to make work of their delightfully delicate dumplings due to the fact that they treat just about everything as a competition. Their parents beamed with joy seeing their whole family together enjoying a meal and eager to hear about Alexander’s studies.

“Sacha, what is your verdict?” asked Maria.

“This was some good pelmeni mother, it is way better than the slop they feed us in Saint Petersburg” exclaimed Alexander who is known as Sacha among his family.

“I know how much you love pelmeni and what better day to have it on than today” replied  Maria.

“I’ve been tempted to conduct experiments on my food and maybe register a new species one of these days” Alexander joked.

Everything for the Ulyanov family had been working like clockwork. The parents are successful scholars, their children are all on their way to being successful scholars; life was perfect for them. The family appeared to be a production line of the smartest, hardest working Russians ever seen. They were a very faithful family and blessed to have the opportunities presented to them thus far. With the family together to share stories, continue their competitive nature, and eat tasty dumplings time passed by very rapidly. Before they knew it, Alexander had to catch a train for the day trip back to Saint Petersburg.

Everyone was returning to their daily lives and all was normal in Russia. Alexander got to his classes which consisted of either biology or zoology studies which is what he was becoming an expert in. At one point he was getting more involved with a student organization in Saint Petersburg called The People’s Power. Aside from his interests in natural sciences, he kept up with Russian politics and supported more power to the bourgeois and workers of Russia. He lived in a society where anyone that was not a monarch or friends of a monarch had no influence on the country despite the fact that they were the heart and soul of Russia. Alexander and many students wanted to change that and they looked up to a movement called the People’s Will party that were successful in assassinating Tsar Alexander II. They wanted to keep the momentum that the People’s Will got from taking down Tsar Alexander II and improve Russia for the people that truly deserve to be its leaders throughout the century and beyond.

People’s Power wanted to be taken seriously and not just as some students who had an opinion on the Monarchy. Alexander believed that they have the ability to change and would do so by sharing his beliefs in Marxism. He looked up to the work of Karl Marx and went to the extremes by reading Das Kapital which was banned in the country. More needed to be done rather than only reading, documents and books from people who have an ideology he is interested in. Alexander started attending and hosting illegal debates with fellow anti-Tsarists around Saint Petersburg to gain support. He became the organization’s most prominent member over the course of the year, becoming the face of it and Marxism among his peers. Giving speeches and spreading influence was not sufficient enough for the People’s Will according to Alexander. He wanted to do something drastic to take down Tsar Alexander III and was going to take every measure that his death would be undeniable.

Alexander set up a meeting with his comrades: Petr Shevyrev, Pakhomiy Andreyushkin, Vasili Generalov, Vasili Osipanov, and brothers Bronisław and Józef Piłsudski to discuss the Tsar’s assassination. The first order of business was addressing the Tsar’s agenda for the upcoming year and they found the perfect opportunity. Tsar Alexander III would be visiting churches throughout Saint Petersburg on the anniversary of his father’s assassination. The group thought to get him as he passed through the main street of Saint Petersburg because it would cause pandemonium and make escaping very easy. Osipanov suggested shooting from the rooftops, but the idea did not sit well because the sound of gunfire would lead the police and guards straight to them. Bronisław suggested bombs as they could drop them from the shops and disappear among chaos on the ground. He added on that the bombs should be laced with poison to assure no survival of the Tsar if the blast is not enough. Alexander volunteered to create the bombs as chemistry was one of his numerous scientific specialties. Petr, Pakhomiy, Generalov and Osipanov volunteered to position themselves on the rooftops to drop the bombs. The Piłsudski brothers wanted to provide reconnaissance and relay messages to and from Alexander who will be on the ground. A plan was in full force for the People’s Power and one step closer to bringing down the monarchy.

Alexander could not sleep on the last night of February knowing that in a few hours he could be considered a hero along with his comrades. He left his room early in the morning and snuck into a church to pray as he still has not lost his connection to religion like most of his peers. After looking seeing a hint of sunlight permeating the glass, he was out and heading to the meeting point behind a hotel. It was not long before bells were ringing and the vibrations felt for miles out just as Alexander met with the group to go over their plan again. A revision was made and two of the bomb droppers were reassigned to be on the rooftop across the street in case the Tsar’s carriage was closer to one side of the street than the other. Everyone was getting into position, but Bronisław and Józef got very busy when the operation was slowed down. They pulled Alexander aside to let him know the police had detained everyone except for Petr. Alexander ordered them to get him down to the ground, they was a major change of plan. Petr hurried into the alley behind the sandwich shop where Alexander and the Piłsudski brothers were to get filled in. No one was safe anymore, but they still had to get the job done or else they would lose their window of opportunity. They could hear the carriage and numerous footsteps moving closer to their position, so Petr just ran for it and tossed the live bomb inside the royal carriage before running as fast as he could. It worked, the damage was done, bodies were strewn across the street and sidewalks. Time slowed down, it was quiet despite the people running and screaming after what they had witnessed. No one saw where Alexander or the Piłsudski brothers went or what became of them after the assassination. This was not what Alexander wanted, no one from the People’s Power was deemed heroic. If anything they were hanged for the crime they committed and someone equally as terrible as Tsar Alexander III took his place. Russia shrugged off the assassination after Tsar Nicholas II took place and life returned as if nothing

Many years had passed since that fateful day in Saint Petersburg and the Ulyanov family has seen better times. Ilya had passed away, Vladimir and a few of his siblings were exiled or imprisoned for participating with groups similar, but less violent than People’s Power. Tsar Nicholas II feared for his life as both his father and grandfather were killed by revolutionaries, so he did everything in his power to crack down on people. Vladimir under his alias, Lenin, worked carefully and secretly across Russia and Europe to start a movement in Russia. He knew that more needed to be done besides acts of terror or else Tsarism will continue living on in Russia.

Lenin was spearheading several movements against the monarchy, weakening it and strengthening his Bolshevik movement. While Lenin was the face of the Bolsheviks, the working class of Russia, it was a combined effort that he and his advisors worked on. The Bolsheviks were the creation of Vladimir Lenin, Alexander Bogdanov, and Yuri Petrenko; men who believed that they can do what others before them dreamt of. Lenin met Bogdanov in Geneva after he finished reading one of his own papers and from then on they traveled Europe and Russia for support. On their travels they met Yuri at the University of Tartu in Estonia who was a biomedical professor by day and Marxist advocate and supporter by night.  He had a personal collection of banned books by Marx and Engels as well as copies of Lenin’s speeches from Geneva, London, and Munich.

Several months had passed as the movement kept growing and gaining momentum as the fought the government more fiercely. In one attack, they were able to oust Tsar Nicholas II leaving the government very vulnerable because the provincial government could not defend itself even if it tried. Lenin, Bogdanov, and Yuri wanted the final push on to take Russia and they got it on October 25th. Russia belonged to the working class, just as the Bolsheviks wanted. Inside the Winter Palace after the takeover, Lenin was getting ready meet with the entire Bolshevik board when Yuri pulled him aside.

“This was one major step in giving the people the Russia they deserve” stated Yuri.

“We have more work ahead us, but yes. You are correct” replied Lenin.

“So many before us tried to achieve this. I just wish our mother and father were here to see this, brother” said Yuri as Lenin’s seriousness was replaced with joy.