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Born in 1870 in a prosperous family of educators, Lenin's formative years unfolded in a Russia marked by stark inequalities. His upper-middle-class background starkly contrasted with the majority of the nation, who were illiterate serfs emerging from centuries of oppression under the Romanov dynasty. The late 19th century saw Russia's tumultuous leap toward industrialization, inciting widespread suffering among newly minted industrial workers and fostering a revolutionary spirit that Lenin would come to embody.