Na fanau Lenin i se aiga tamaoaiga i Simbirsk, na ia taliaina faiga faʻaupufai faʻaupufai ina ua maeʻa le faʻasalaga a lona uso i le 1887. Na faʻateʻaina mai le Kazan Imperial University mo le auai i le tetee faasaga i le malo o le malo o Rusia, na ia faʻaaluina tausaga na sosoo ai i se tikeri o tulafono. Na siitia atu i Saint Petersburg i le 1893 ma avea ai ma se tagata sinia Marxist. I le 1897, na pueina o ia mo le fouvale ma faʻataunuʻuina i Shushenskoye mo le tolu tausaga, lea na ia faaipoipo ai ia Nadezhda Krupskaya. Ina ua maeʻa lona faʻataunuʻuina, na ia siitia atu i Europa i Sisifo, lea na avea ai o ia ma taʻitaʻi iloga i le Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (PDLR). I le 1903, na ia faia ai se matafaioi taua i le RSDLP, o le Bolshevik faction faasaga i le Martov Mensheviks's faʻasalaga faasaga
Nadezhda Krupskaya