Saint Boniface Church

Did you know that two lovers regularly met in this church? It wouldn't be a remarkable fact if they weren't later involved in a famous assassination plot against Lenin. This concerns Lenin's sister, Marija Ulyanova, who studied natural sciences here in Brussels at ULB (1899), and Ivan Denovian, a Belgian of Russian-Armenian descent. Ivan De Neuve is his Belgian name. It is also noteworthy that Marija, as a non-believing communist, met her beloved in the Saint Boniface Church.

When Marija returned to Russia, the relationship ended.

Some time later, on November 15, 1902, an Italian anarchist, Genaro Rubbino, shot at the carriage of King Leopold II, but missed. There was a theory from Belgian state security that a group of Russians was behind it, led by Lenin.

Meanwhile, Ivan Denovian had become an agent of Belgian state security.

In 1903, the communist party of Lenin held a second congress in Brussels because communists were banned in Russia. State security wanted to eliminate Lenin as retaliation for the attack in 1902. State security sent an agent who spoke good Russian: Ivan Denovian. And there, the lovers' paths crossed again since Lenin's sister, Marija Ulyanova, was also present. What happened in detail is not known. The fact is that the communist congress quickly packed up and left Brussels for London. So, there was no attack on Lenin. It is suspected that the two lovers may have had something to do with it.

Ivan Denovian died years later in 1936, one year before his beloved Marija. He was buried in the cemetery of Elsene, where his grave is easy to find because it has a Russian Orthodox cross.

Dromos