Blank family

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

Some researchers suggest that Lenin's maternal grandfather was a Jewish convert to Christianity (Alexander Blank).^{[citation needed]} Whether or not Lenin, whose matrilineal "Blank" surname also traces to non-Jewish German roots, was actually partly descended from a Jewish Blank family remains contested. Some researchers argue the family was of German origin, and invited to Russia by Catherine the Great.^[1] It is possible that such debated concern that Alexander Blank may have had Jewish origin were spread for partly political reasons. ^[2] 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.^[3][4]