VLADIMIR ILYICH LENIN
(1870-1924)

Pseudonym of the Russian Bolshevik Leader V.I.Ulyanov. He was born at
Simbirsk and practised law for a time before becoming embroiled in the
embryo Russian revolutionary movement. He was banished to Siberia from 1895
to 1900. After his release he lived abroad, mostly in Switzerland but also
in the UK. On the outbreak of the February revolution, he returned to
Russia, reorganised the Bolshevik Party with Trotsky and launched the
October Revolution in St.Petersburg, making Russia Communist and
precipitating a bloody civil war. He died of a stroke in 1924 to be
succeeded by Stalin.