I can't speak on Lenin's specific decisions, but it was quite common for the Bolsheviks to adopt new pen names: Joseph Stalin was born Jughashvili (or Dzhugashvili if you transliterate from Russian), Leon Trotsky was born Lev Bronstein, Vyacheslav Molotov was born Skryabin, and there were likely more that I'm forgetting. More @Wikipedia
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