Ilya Ulyanov
Ilya Nikolayevich Ulyanov (
Илья Николаевич Ульянов in
Russian) (—,
Simbirsk) was a Russian public figure in the field of
public education and a
teacher. He was the father of
Aleksandr Ulyanov and
Vladimir Lenin, the
Bolshevik revolutionary leader and founder of the
Soviet Union.
Born in
Astrakhan, Ulyanov graduated from
Kazan University's Department of
Physics and
Mathematics in
1854. In 1850s and 1860s, he was a mathematics and physics teacher at
Penza Institute for the
Dvoryane, and later at a
gymnasium and a school for women in
Nizhny Novgorod. Around that time, he married
Maria Alexandrovna Blank. While in Penza, Ulyanov conducted
meteorological observations, on the basis of which he would write a couple of
scientific works called
On the Benefits of Meteorological Observations and Some Conclusions on Their Use for Penza (
О пользе метеорологических наблюдений и некоторые выводы из них для Пензы) and
On Thunderstorm and Lightning rods (
О грозе и громоотводах).
In
1869, Ulyanov was appointed
inspector of
public schools in the
Simbirsk guberniya (in
1874-
1886 - their director). In
1882, Ulyanov was awarded the
Order of St.Vladimir, 3rd Class, which would give him the right to claim hereditary
dvoryanstvo.
Ilya Ulyanov was a well-educated man with excellent organizational and teaching skills. Some Soviet historians believed that his
pedagogical views had been formed under the influence of the revolutionary ideas of
Nikolai Chernyshevsky and
Nikolai Dobrolyubov. Ulyanov contributed immensely to elaboration of theory and practice of
elementary education. He was an advocate of equal rights for education regardless of
gender,
nationality and
social status. In
1871, Ulyanov opened the first
Chuvash school in Simbirsk, which would later be transformed into Chuvash teacher's
seminary. He also established national schools for
Mordva and
Tatars. Furthermore, Ulyanov organized and presided over many teacher's
congresses and other events of the similar kind.
Ilya Ulyanov's work is generally considered to have greatly influenced his children.
