Blank family

The Blank family in the Russian Empire was the family of the maternal the great-grandfather of Vladimir Lenin.

After Lenin's death, researchers found evidence that Lenin's maternal great-grandfather was a Jewish convert to Christianity (Alexander Blank). Some researchers have argued the family was of German origin, and invited to Russia by Catherine the Great. It is possible that such debated concern that Alexander Blank may have had Jewish origin were spread for partly political reasons. An important contribution into Lenin’s genealogical and political connections to East European Jews were done by Yohanan Petrovsky-Shtern who states that there is indisputable evidence that Lenin’s maternal grandfather was Jewish. Petrovsky-Shtern also researched the continuous efforts of the Soviet communists to suppress Lenin’s Jewishness and the no less persistent attempts of Russian nationalists to portray Lenin as a Jew.