In the autumn of 1887, Vladimir Ilich Ulianov, a young Russian of a middle-class family, enrolled to study law at the Imperial Kazan University. Ulianov was not destined, however, to do well at the university. His elder brother had just been executed for an attempt on the life of the tsar. Like his brother, Ulianov traveled in anti-tsarist circles. At the university, Ulianov associated with revolutionary-minded students, and in December of 1887 he was expelled.

Ulianov did not give up on law study, however. He applied for re-admission at Kazan. Refused there, he requested permission from the government to go abroad to a university. That, too, was refused. Knowing that he would not be admitted to any Russian university in the normal way, he applied to become an external student at the university in St. Petersburg. That route would let him qualify in law, but he would not attend classes. He would study on his own. Ulianov's mother wrote a letter in support of his application, and he was admitted.

Ulianov learned and re-learned the law of tsarist Russia. Tsarist law was distasteful to Ulianov. For him, it rationalized and reinforced unequal social relations. It ensured that the downtrodden would remain so.

Despite his disdain, the youthful Ulianov studied what he needed to learn of tsarist law. In 1891, he sat for the examination in St. Petersburg to qualify for the practice of law.