Descendant traces Lenin’s family to 13th century
08/05/2007 15:20 ULYANOVSK, May 8 (RIA Novosti) – A German researcher,
who is a distant relative of Russian Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin,
said Tuesday he had traced the common Western European branch of their
ancestral tree to the 13th century.
Gunter Kruse, from the southern German city of Bayreuth, told a press
conference in Ulyanovsk (formerly Simbirsk), Lenin’s birthplace in
eastern Russia, that he is a second cousin once removed to the
revolutionary. He said that since embarking on his genealogical
journey in 1970, he had discovered evidence about a further thousand
family members, including leaders of the Hanseatic League, which
brought together merchant guilds within the cities of northern Germany
and the Baltic in the 12th century.
The starting point for Gunter’s research was a German translation of
Soviet author Marietta Shaginian’s novel about Lenin’s family, which
was drawn from rare archives.
According to the book, Lenin’s maternal grandmother, Anna Grosschopf,
was the daughter of Johann Gottlieb Grosschopf, a German merchant from
Lubeck, who emigrated to St. Petersburg in 1790.
Kruse’s own mother’s maiden name was Grosschopf, and he decided to
find out whether she was a relative to Lenin’s German ancestors.
Kruse made his first visit to Lenin’s birthplace in 2002, hoping to
learn more about the Bolshevik leader’s roots at local museums. He is
now collaborating with Ulyanovsk museum researchers on an
international book project aiming to bring together all the
genealogical data collected by himself and other descendants of the
Russian revolutionary.
The leader of the 1917 Bolshevik revolution and the founder of the
Soviet state, Lenin is a controversial figure in modern-day Russia, as
the reality of his Communist utopia brought civil war, leading to
years of political repression and economic hardship.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
