Vladimir Lenin

Vladimir Lenin was a revolutionary communist leader and was the architect of the takeover of power in Russia in 1917 and was the first leader of the USSR.

Biography
Vladimir Ilich Ulyanov was born in Simbirsk the 22 April 1870. He had a well educated, middle class family. After he finished school he proceeded to study law. In the university he was exposed to different radical ideas, also his ideologies seemed affected by the execution of his brother that was a revolutionary group integrant.

He was expelled from his university due to radical policies but he completed his studies in law as a external student in 1891. He moved to St Petersburg and became a professional revolutionary, and as most of their kind, he was arrested and exiled to Siberia. After his exile he adopted Lenin as his pseudonym in 1901, and he spend most of the next decade in Western Europe and became a great influence and leader in the international revolutionary group 'Bolshevik' faction of the Russian Social Democratic Worker's.

After an attempt of assassination in 1917 Lenin barely survived but was severely wounded what affected his health as he suffered a strike in 1922 from which he never recovered. Lenin died in 1924 and his corpse has embalmed and still remains in a mausoleum on Moscow's red square.

Influece in Russia and creation of USSR
The First World War considerably affected Russia in many ways,making an urgent change in their economy. In 1917 Lenin returned to Russia and worked against the provisional government that had overthrown the Tsarist regimen. Then he led the October revolution in which they pretended to take the power of the government and stablished socialist government which the political party of the Bolsheviks assumed. The October revolution was followed by three years of civil war but still the Bolsheviks were victorious and assumed control over the country. Afterwards the Soviet Union was created standing with socialist and communist ideas and having a great influence in Europe being seen as a danger for the eastern society.

In his last years of life Lenin was very worried about the power his predecessor Joseph Stalin was gaining, and even though he was ruthless he still believed in a progress in Russia's economy and just wanted the best for the country in the moment. Still terror was used as a political tool to fight against the enemies of state.