Editing Sergei Kirov (section)

== Early life ==
[[File:Kirov child.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Kirov as a child, 1893]]
Sergei Mironovich Kostrikov was born on {{OldStyleDate|27 March|1886|15 March}} in [[Urzhum, Urzhumsky District, Kirov Oblast|Urzhum]] in [[Vyatka Governorate]], [[Russian Empire]], as one of seven children born to Miron Ivanovich Kostrikov and Yekaterina Kuzminichna Kostrikova (''née'' Kazantseva). Their first four children had died young, while Anna (born 1883), Sergei (1886), and Yelizaveta (1889) survived.<ref>[[#Lenoe|Lenoe]], pp. 128–129</ref> 

Miron, an [[alcoholic]], abandoned the family around 1890, and Yekaterina died of [[tuberculosis]] in 1893. Sergei and his sisters were raised for a brief time by their paternal grandmother, Melania Avdeyevna Kostrikova, but she could not afford to take care of them all on her small pension of 3 [[rubles]] per month. Through her connections, Melania succeeded in having Sergey placed in an [[orphanage]] at the age of seven, but he saw his sisters and grandmother regularly.<ref>[[#Lenoe|Lenoe]], pp. 129–132</ref>

In 1901, a group of wealthy benefactors provided a [[scholarship]] for Kirov to attend an industrial school at [[Kazan]]. After gaining his degree in [[engineering]], Kirov moved to [[Tomsk]], a city in [[Siberia]], where he became a [[Marxist]] and joined the [[Russian Social Democratic Labor Party|Russian Social Democratic Labour Party]] (RSDLP) in 1904.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Georges Haupt |first1=and Jean-Jacques Marie |title=Makers of the Russian Revolution, Biographies of Bolshevik Leaders. (This volume includes a translation of an autobiographical entry written by Kirov for a Soviet encyclopedia in c1925) |date=1974 |publisher=George Allen & Unwin |location=London |isbn=0-04-947021-3 |page=142}}</ref>