Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (22 April [O.S. 10 April] 1870 – 21 January1924) was a Russian communist revolutionary, politician, andpolitical theorist. He served as head of government of the RussianSoviet Federative Socialist Republic from 1917 to 1924 and of theSoviet Union from 1922 to 1924. Under his administration, Russiabecame a one-party socialist state; all land, natural resources,and industry were socialized into public property. Ideologically aMarxist, his political theories are known as Leninism. Born to awealthy middle-class family in Simbirsk, Lenin gained an interestin revolutionary socialist politics following his brother'sexecution in 1887. Expelled from Kazan State University forparticipating in protests against the Russian Empire's Tsaristregime, he devoted the following years to a law degree. In 1893 hemoved to Saint Petersburg and became a senior figure in the MarxistRussian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP). Arrested forsedition and exiled to Shushenskoye for three years, there hemarried Nadezhda Krupskaya. After his exile he moved to WesternEurope, where he became a prominent party theorist through hispublications. In 1903, he took a key role in a RSDLP schism overideological differences, leading the Bolshevik faction againstJulius Martov's Mensheviks. Encouraging insurrection duringRussia's failed Revolution of 1905, he later campaigned for theFirst World War to be transformed into a Europe-wide proletarianrevolution, which as a Marxist he believed would result in theoverthrow of capitalism and its replacement with socialism. Afterthe 1917 February Revolution ousted the Tsar and established aProvisional Government, he returned to Russia to campaign for thenew regime's removal by a Bolshevik-led government of the soviets.