of the Imperial Government and the military authorities of Germany. One of those objectives was to stir up such revolt among the soldiers in the Russian Army as would compel the Provisional Government to abandon the war. This was not due to any special liking for Germany or desire for its victory. Nothing indeed would have pleased him more than a revolution which would sweep through the armies of both countries. Throughout the war he had passionately proclaimed that the defeat of Russia was desirable from the point of view of progress and freedom in Russia and throughout Europe. That was under Czar Nicholas II, of course.

The fact that czarism had been swept away, that there had been a Revolution, that Russia was now a republic with a Provisional Government at its head, did not materially change his view. A Russian victory, he now held, would inevitably strengthen the military system and the military caste which had sustained the old regime, and might well mean its restoration. Further, from his point of view, a Russian government dominated by the most powerful elements of the bourgeoisie, even though republican in form, would not be any better or more desirable than the old monarchy. Therefore, he was determined to upset the Provisional Government, if possible. Confident in their power to protect themselves against

the

revolutionary uprisings among their own soldiers, German military authorities naturally decided to lend this Russian revolutionist every possible assistance.

The personality of such a man cannot fail to interest those who take an intelligent interest in great events. His antecedents, his character, his thoughts, his gifts, his motives, are all of interest to us. Such information is an invaluable aid to the interpretation of historical movements. As it would be impossible to understand the Protestant Reformation without knowing what manner of man Luther was, so it would be impossible to understand Bolshevism without knowing the manner of man its intellectual leader was. Vladimir Ulyanov was born at Simbirsk, in Central Russia, in 1870. It is sometimes stated that he is by birth a member of the hereditary nobility of Russia, but that is not correct. It is correct to say that his father, who was by birth a peasant, attained the rank of a certain petty "nobility." In the old days in Russia a man who rose to certain ranks in the public service attained, automatically, a petty dignity which is hardly consistent with our understanding of the word "nobility." Thus, if a man rose to the rank of senior captain in the navy he automatically became a member of this petty order, and so did every colonel in the army. In the Civil Service the not very important or exalted rank of State Councillor carried the same right.

Lenin's father was a schoolmaster and was appointed inspector of schools for his district. This made him. Councillor of State in the civil service, and automatically conferred upon him the only patent of nobility to which he was ever entitled. The honor was not hereditary. It will be seen, therefore, that it is not correct to say that the head of the Soviet Government belongs to the old hereditary nobility of Russia. The truth is that he belongs to the lower bourgeoisie recruited from peasant stock.

At seventeen or thereabouts Nicolai Lenin, as we shall continue to call him, entered the University of Kazan. He had graduated from the gymnasium or high school at Simbirsk, the master of which, it is worth noting, was Feodor Kerensky, father of that Alexander Kerensky who became the head of the Provisional Government and whom Lenin overthrew. It is a remarkable fact that from the same school should be sent forth two lads, friends, belonging to families that were on intimate terms, to meet years afterward in such important roles in the greatest struggle in Russian History. Shortly before Lenin entered the university there occurred a tragedy which we may well believe explains and accounts for much in Lenin's philosophy.

His older brother, Alexander, after a more than ordinarily brilliant career at the gymnasium under the

elder Kerensky, having been awarded the gold medal of the gymnasium, entered the University of St. Petersburg. Like many of the students of the period, he was drawn into the revolutionary movement of the time. This meant simply that he read and circulated Socialist books, attended meetings that were forbidden, and participated in Socialistic debates. He is said to have joined in a procession to the grave of the poet Dobroliubov for the purpose of paying homage to the latter's memory. The procession was broken up by the police. According to the story, the bitterness of his resentment of that act by the police drove him to join the secret, conspiratory society of the time, called "The People's Will." This terroristic society was just then plotting the assassination of the Czar. The plot was discovered and fifteen members, including Alexander Ulyanov, were arrested and placed on trial. According to the accounts of the trial that have become current since the sensational rise of his brother, the young man was not shown to have participated in the plotting by any positive evidence. He simply refused to deny anything that was charged against him or to seek acquittal. He declined to tell anything concerning his fellow members. In court he seems to have made the fatal mistake, probably in a mood of youthful exaltation, of declaring his belief that only by Terror could the struggle for better conditions in Russia be

waged. The trial resulted in five persons being condemned to death, young Ulyanov being one of the five. On May 20, 1886, this young man of fine character and splendid mind was hanged in the courtyard of the Schlusselburg Fortress. That event deeply impressed the younger brother, recently head of Soviet Russia, and that other remarkable man already mentioned, Alexander Kerensky. In this manner did

czarism make revolutionists.

Notwithstanding his brother's fate-perhaps because of it-Nicolai Lenin identified himself with the Socialist cause shortly after he entered the University of Kazan. He was soon expelled from the university for making Socialist speeches and taking part in some sort of student rebellion. He was admitted to practice as a lawyer and, it is said, conducted one case in court. That seems to have ended his legal career. In 1891, in his twenty-first year, he went to St. Petersburg, where he attended lectures on law and economics at the University of St. Petersburg, and engaged in journalism for a living. He took an active part in the Socialist movement, but, unlike his brother, he was careful to make it quite clear that he could not identify himself with the "Will of the People" or other terroristic movements. He was, he said, a disciple of Karl Marx, concerning whose theories he wrote and published a treatise at this time. He insisted then