Olga Ulyanova

Olga Ilyinichna Ulyanova (Russian: Ольга Ильинична Ульянова; 1871 1891) was a Russian noblewoman, polyglot, and the sister of Vladimir Lenin. She was born into a wealthy family of middle-class status but, in 1882, the family were elevated into the hereditary nobility. Ulyanova excelled in academics and planned to become a teacher, but was denied the position due to her brother Aleksandr Ulyanov's criminal offenses as a revolutionary. She was later given a certificate of reliability that allowed her to enroll in the Bestuzhev Courses in St. Petersburg. She studied French, German, English, Swedish, Italian, and Latin at Bestuzhev, as well as mathematics, physics, and drawing. Ulyanova had hoped to practice medicine once completing her studies, but died after contracting typhoid fever just six months after arriving in St. Petersburg.

Early life and family

Ulyanova was born in Simbrisk on 4 November 1871 as the fifth child of Ilya Ulyanov and Maria Alexandrovna Blank. Her mother was a member of the wealthy Blank family of Jewish, German, and Swedish descent. Her father was the son of Nikolai Vasilievich Ulyanov, a former serf who received his freedom from the landowner Stepan Mikhailovich Brekhov.

Ulyanova was the sister of Vladimir Ulyanov (Lenin), Maria Ilyinichna Ulyanova, Anna Ulyanova, Aleksandr Ulyanov, and Dmitry Ilyich Ulyanov. She was the closest to Lenin out of all of her siblings.

Ulyanova was baptized in the Russian Orthodox faith on 9 November 1871 at the Tikhvin Monastery of the Dormition of the Mother of God. She was buried in Volkovo Cemetery.