Molotov was born Vyacheslav Skryabin in the small village of Kukara near Kirov In 1890. He was educated at a school in Kazan and in 1908 joined the Russian communist party. In 1909 he was forced to leave Russia because of his politics and joined many other communists in Sweden. He remained there until 1914 when, thanks to the outbreak of war, he returned to Russia to help the communist cause there. In 1915 he arrived in St. Petersburg and helped organise the communist underground forces there. In 1916 the St. Petersburg revolt forced the Tsar to leave and run the government from Moscow. However within 3 weeks the revolt was put down and Skryabin (now using his pseudonym Molotov) escaped to Finland. Finland became the main center for communist resistance and Molotov remained there with Leni