Ulyanovsk on the River Volga was previously known as Simbirsk. It was renamed in 1924 following the death of Vladimir Lenin. Lenin was born in Simbirsk and back then, before adopting his famous pseudonym, his family name was Ulyanov. As the birthplace of Lenin, Ulyanovsk became a sort of mecca for communists and a giant museum was built over the house of his birth, while a whole street has been preserved as a time capsule around the house where he grew up. The museums still exist but are much less popular now, and today’s focus has shifted to the architectural and wider historical aspects rather than just about the leader of the world proletariat.