Editing Vladimir Lenin (section)

==== University and political radicalism: 1887–1893 ====
Entering the Judicial Faculty of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kazan_%28Volga_region%29_Federal_University Kazan University] in August 1887, Vladimir and his mother moved into a flat, renting out their Simbirsk family home. Becoming interested in his late brother's radical ideas, he began meeting with a revolutionary cell run by the militant [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agrarian_socialism agrarian socialist] Lazar Bogoraz, associating with leftists intent on reviving the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narodnaya_Volya People's Freedom Party] (''Narodnaya Volya''). Joining the university's illegal Samara-Simbirsk ''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zemlyachestvo zemlyachestvo]'', he was elected as its representative for the university's ''zemlyachestvo'' council. On 4 December he took part in a demonstration demanding the abolition of the 1884 statute and the re-legalisation of student societies, but along with 100 other protesters was arrested by police. Accused of being a ringleader, the university expelled him and the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ministry_of_Internal_Affairs_%28Russia%29 Ministry of Internal Affairs] placed him under police surveillance, exiling him to his Kokushkino estate. Here, he read voraciously, becoming enamoured with Chernyshevsky's novel ''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_Is_to_Be_Done%3F_%28novel%29 What is to be Done?]'' (1863). Disliking his radicalism, in September 1888 his mother persuading him to write to the Ministry of the Interior asking them to allow him to study at a foreign university; they refused his request, but allowed his return to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kazan Kazan], where he settled on the Pervaya Gora with his mother and brother Dmitry.

In Kazan, he contacted M.P. Chetvergova, joining her secret revolutionary circle, through which he discovered Karl Marx's ''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Das_Kapital Capital]'' (1867); exerting a strong influence on him, he became increasingly interested in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marxism Marxism]. Wary of his political views, his mother purchased an estate in the village of Alakaevka, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samara_Oblast Samara Oblast] – made famous in the work of poet [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gleb_Uspensky Gleb Uspensky], of whom Lenin was a great fan – in the hope that Vladimir would turn his attention to agriculture. Here, he studied peasant life and the poverty they faced, but remained unpopular as locals stole his farm equipment and livestock, causing his mother to sell the farm.

In September 1889, the Ulyanovs moved to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samara,_Russia Samara] for the winter. Here, Vladimir contacted a number of exiled dissidents and joined Alexei P. Sklyarenko's discussion circle. Both Vladimir and Sklyarenko adopted Marxism, with Vladimir translating Marx and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Engels Friedrich Engels]' political pamphlet, ''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Communist_Manifesto The Communist Manifesto]'' (1848), into Russian. He began to read the works of the Russian Marxist [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgi_Plekhanov Georgi Plekhanov], a founder of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Repartition Black Repartition] movement, concurring with Plekhanov's argument that Russia was moving from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feudalism feudalism] to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalism capitalism]. Becoming increasingly skeptical of the effectiveness of militant attacks and assassinations, he argued against such tactics in a December 1889 debate with M.V. Sabunaev, an advocate of the People's Freedom Party. Despite disagreeing on tactics, he made friends among the Party, in particular with Apollon Shukht, who asked Vladimir to be his daughter's [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_guardian godfather] in 1893.

In May 1890, Mariya convinced the authorities to allow Vladimir to undertake his exams externally at a university of his choice. He picked the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Petersburg_State_University University of Saint Petersburg], obtaining the equivalent of a first-class degree with honours; celebrations were marred when his sister Olga died of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoid typhoid]. Vladimir remained in Samara for several years, in January 1892 being employed as a legal assistant for a regional court, and soon gaining a job with local lawyer Andrei N. Khardin. Embroiled primarily in disputes between peasants and artisans, he devoted much of his time to radical politics, remaining active in Skylarenko's group and formulating ideas about Marxism's applicability to Russia. Inspired by Plekhanov's work, Vladimir collected data on Russian society, using it to support a Marxist interpretation of societal development. Hoping to be taken seriously as an intellectual, in 1893 he submitted a paper, "New Economic Developments in Peasant Life", to the liberal journal ''Russian Thought'', but it was rejected, only seeing publication in 1927.