 Ilya Ulyanov died of a brain haemorrhage in January 1886, when Lenin was 16. Subsequently, Lenin's behaviour became erratic and confrontational, and he soon renounced his belief in God. At the time, Lenin's elder brother Aleksandr "Sasha" Ulyanov was studying at Saint Petersburg University. Involved in political agitation against the absolute monarchy of the reactionary Tsar Alexander III, he studied the writings of banned leftists and organised anti-government protests. He joined a revolutionary cell bent on assassinating the Tsar and was selected to construct a bomb. However, before the attack the conspirators were arrested and tried, and in May, Sasha was executed by hanging. Despite the emotional trauma of his father's and brother's deaths, Lenin continued studying, graduated with a gold medal for exceptional performance, and decided to study law at Kazan University.
