Q 01/05

What was Lenin's real surname?

A) Dzhugashvili

B) Bronstein

C) Ulyanov

D) Kerensky

Answer · why

C) Ulyanov

He first used the pen name Lenin in December 1901.

Q 02/05

In which Volga city, later renamed after his family, was Lenin born?

A) Samara

B) Kazan

C) Simbirsk

D) Nizhny Novgorod

Answer · why

C) Simbirsk

It became Ulyanovsk in 1924, the same year Petrograd became Leningrad.

Q 03/05

What was the profession of Lenin's father, Ilya?

A) Director of schools

B) Army officer

C) Railway engineer

D) Orthodox priest

Answer · why

A) Director of schools

He oversaw the founding of over 450 schools and his rank of State Councillor made the family hereditary nobles.

Q 04/05

What happened to Lenin's elder brother Aleksandr in May 1887?

A) He emigrated to Switzerland

B) He died of typhoid at university

C) He was executed for plotting to kill the tsar

D) He was exiled to Siberia for life

Answer · why

C) He was executed for plotting to kill the tsar

He had been chosen to build the bomb for a plot against Alexander III; the shock pushed the 17-year-old Vladimir towards revolution.

Q 05/05

From where was Lenin expelled in December 1887 for taking part in a student demonstration?

A) Kazan University

B) Kiev University

C) Saint Petersburg University

D) Moscow University

Answer · why

A) Kazan University

He had enrolled to study law only months earlier; his mother later got him permission to sit his exams externally in Saint Petersburg.