Every time I see mention of Russian revolutionary figure Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, better known as Lenin, in a newspaper or magazine, I get irked. Most refer to him as Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. I was always taught that “Lenin” was the entirety of the man’s pseudonym, and he did not use his given name or patronymic in conjunction with it.
So what’s the deal? Am I wrong, or are they? I accept that certain usages change over time, but this is a person’s name and nom de plume. It’s sort of like saying Samuel Clemens Twain. I’d love to see Cecil or one of the crew answer this, since my only other option is writing to William Safire – and even he screws it up.
I also find this irking, especially when people writing positive articles about him refer to him as “V.I. Lenin,” perpetuating the error.
The most correct approach that lets you be accurate and readable is to say “…Lenin (the alias used by Vladimir Ulyanov)…” the first time, and then just “Lenin” thereafter.
Actually, Lenin signed himself “N. Lenin,” leading to the misconception that his first name was Nicolai (the N. stood for “name,” indicating it was a pen name).
Lenin was referred to by his contemporaries are “Vladimir Ilich Lenin” (“Ilich” has various spellings), so it is not incorrect to call him that. The Encyclopedia Brittanica uses V.I. Lenin as his name, as do nearly all reference sources these days. Even www.marxists.org uses V.I. Lenin, as do his collected works.
So no error exists. Lenin took on his one-name pen name as his last name, so “V.I. Lenin” is correct.
Well, can anyone read cursive Cyrillic enough to tell us what the signature on this poster says?
(My Cyrillic transliteration skills are good enough that I can definitely confirm the name printed on this poster is “V.I. Lenin”.)
Here’s another example, with a blow-up of part of the signature.
Here are a couple more examples.
Here’s the page I got those from, in case I missed any.
It almost looks to me like he was signing it “V.I. Ulyanov (Lenin)”, but while I can handle Cyrillic pretty well, handwritten cursive is beyond me.
That’s what it looks like to me, too - “V.I. Ulyanov (Lenin)”. Well, actually more like “<squiggle>Ulyanov (Lenin)”, really. But the Ulyanov bit is fairly clear to my eyes.
