[Lenin] was the great-grandson of Moishe Itskovich Blank and the grandson of Srul Moishevich Blank. At his baptism, Blank changed his name and patro-nymic to Aleksandr Dmitrievich...
Lenin's Jewish origin on his maternal grandfather's side became, after his death, a matter of controversy between Lenin's sisters and Stalin. In a letter to Stalin, Anna, Lenin's elder sister, wrote: "It is probably no secret for you that the research on our grandfather shows that he came from a poor Jewish family, that he was, as his baptismal certificate says, the son of a 'Zhitomir burgher, Moishe Blank' and this fact could serve in combating anti-Semitism."
Furthermore, she claimed, that Lenin's Jewish origins were "further confirmation of the exceptional abilities of the Semitic tribe... Lenin always valued the Jews highly." Stalin replied: "Not one word about it."
http://www.adherents.com/people/pl/Vladimir_Lenin.html
Lenin's mother, Maria (Mariya) Blank Alexandrova, was the fourth daughter of Alexander Dmitrievich Blank, a doctor and a baptized Jew from Zhitomir. He had taken as his patronymic the name of his godfather at his baptism, Dmitri Baranov, dropped his original patronymic of Moishevich, and adopted the Christian name of Alexander in place of his original name, Srul, the Yiddish form of Israel. Alexander Blank married Anna Johannovna Groschopf, the daughter of a prosperous German father and Swedish mother. In 1847, Alexander attained the civil service rank of State Counsellor, he retired and registered himself as a member of the nobility in Kazan, a major city on the Volga and the centre of Tatar culture in the region. There he bought the estate of Kokushkino. Here, Anna raised five daughters: Anna, Lyubov, Sofia, Maria (Lenin's mother), and Yekaterina. Anna Groschopf died young, and after her death her sister, Yekaterina von Essen, raised the five daughters. She was an educated woman and it was from her that Lenin's mother acquired her ability to play piano, to sing and to speak German, English and French. The seriousness of which these studies were undertaken is indicated by the fact that in 1863, Maria was able to pass the examinations which qualified her as a teacher of Russian, French and German. The manner in which both Ilya and Maria met gives credence to the saying �everything happens for a reason.� The year after his wife died, Alexander Blank took up the post of inspector of a medical board in Perm and moved there with his family. For a short time he acted as the doctor for the Perm high school, where he befriended its Latin teacher Ivan Dmitrievich Veretennikov, who married his eldest daughter Anna. Veretennikov became inspector at Perm Nobles� Institue. It was on a visit to her married sister�s home in Perm that Maria Blank met the mathematics teacher at the Institute, Ilya Ulyanov, her future husband.
http://www.webspawner.com/users/pakli/page.html
Maurycyn