Upon his graduation from high school (gymnasium) Vladimir Ilyich entered the law school at the Kazan University. The universities of the capitals were closed to him because he was the brother of an executed revolutionist. A month after his entry he was expelled from the University for participation in a revolutionary movement of the students. It was not until four years had gone by that he was allowed to resume his studies. The legal career held no attractions for Lenin. His natural inclinations lay towards the field of revolutionary activity.... When he was expelled from the Kazan University he went to Petrograd. The first phase of his activities was confined to student circles. A year or two later he created in Petrograd the first ‘workmen’s circles’ and a little later crossed swords on the literary arena with the old leader of the Populists, N. K. Mikhailovsky. Under the nom de plume of Ilyin, Lenin published a series of brilliant articles on economics which at once won him a name.
In Petrograd he, with other workers, founded the ‘Union for the Emancipation of the Working Class,’ and conducted the first labor strikes, writing meanwhile leaflets and pamphlets remarkable for their simplicity of style and clarity. These were printed on a hectograph and distributed.... Very often now workers coming from far off Siberia or the Ural to the All-Russian Congress of Soviets recall to him their activities together in the early 90’s. They recognize that he was their teacher, the first to kindle the spark of communism in them.
In the 90’s Lenin was sentenced to a long prison term and then exiled. While in exile he devoted himself to scientific and literary activities, and wrote a number of books. One of these reached a circle of exiles in Switzerland, among whom were Plekhanoff, Axelrod, and Zasulich, who welcomed Lenin as the harbinger of a coming season, and who could not find words of praise sufficiently strong. Another book, a truly scientific one, won the praise of Professor Maxim Kovalevsky of the Paris School of Social Science. “What a good professor Lenin would have made!” he said.
Vladimir Ilyich languished in exile like a caged lion. The only thing that saved him was the fact that he was leading the life of a scientist. He used to spend fifteen hours daily in the library over books, and it is not without reason that he is now one of the most cultured men of our time.... In 1901 Lenin, together with a group of intimate friends, began the publication of a newspaper, Iskra, The Spark. This paper not only waged a political struggle, but it carried on vast organizing activities, and Lenin was the soul of the organizing committee.
Lenin’s wife, Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaya Ulyanova was the secretary of Iskra and the secretary of the organizing committee. Throughout Lenin’s activities as an organizer a considerable share of the credit is due to his wife. All the correspondence was in her charge. At one time she was in communication with entire Russia. Who did not know her? Martov in his bitter controversy with Lenin once called her "Secretary of Lenin, the Super-Center."...
In the summer of 1905 the first conference of the Bolsheviki was called. Officially it was known as the Third Conference of the Revolutionary Social Democratic Labor Party. This conference laid the corner-stone for the present Communist Party.... In the revolution of 1905 Lenin’s part was enormous, although he was residing in Petrograd illegally and was forbidden by the party to attend its meetings openly.
Vladimir Ilyich was exiled for the second time in 1907. In Geneva, and later in Paris, chiefly through the efforts of Lenin, the newspapers, The Proletarian and The Social Democrat were founded. Complete decadence was reigning all around. Obscene literature took the place of art literature. The spirit of nihilism permeated the sphere of politics. Stolypin was indulging in his orgies. And it seemed as if there was no end to all this.
At such times true leaders reveal themselves. Vladimir Ilyich suffered at that time, as he did right along in exile, the greatest personal privations. He lived like a pauper, he was sick and starved, especially when he lived in Paris. But he retained his courage as no one else did. He stood firmly and bravely at his post. He alone knew how to weld together a circle of gallant fighters to whom he used to say, “Do not lose your courage. The dark days will pass, a few years will elapse, and the proletarian revolution will be revived.”
For two years Lenin scarcely left the national library at Paris, and during this time he accomplished such a large amount of work that even those very professors who were attempting to ridicule his philosophic works admitted that they could not understand how a man could do so much.
The years 1910–11 brought a fresh breeze to stir the atmosphere. It became clear in 1911 that the workers’ movement was beginning to revive. We had in Petrograd a paper, the Star, (Zviezda), and in Moscow a magazine, Thought (Mysl), and there was a small labor representation in the Duma. And the principal worker both on these papers and for the Duma representation was Lenin. He taught the principles of revolutionary parliamentarism to the labor deputies in the Duma. “You just get up and tell the whole of Russia plainly about the life of the worker. Depict the horrors of the capitalist galleys, call upon the workers to revolt, fling into the face of the black Duma the name of ‘scoundrels and exploiters.’” At first they found this strange advice. The entire Duma atmosphere was depressing, its members and ministers met in the Tauride palace, clad in full dress suits. They learned their lessons however.