Lenin. Sometimes referred to as Nikolai Lenin by Western anti-Communists after changing his name in December 1901 using a pseudonym for the first time becoming Vladimir Ilyich Lenin.

Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov
Originally Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, then later sometimes referred to as Nikolai Lenin by Western anti-Communists after changing his name in December 1901 using a pseudonym for the first time becoming Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. Vladimir was a Communist revolutionary of Russia, the leader of the Bolshevik party, the first Premier of the Soviet Union, and the main theorist of Leninism, which he described as an adaptation of Marxism to "the age of imperialism."

Early Tragedy
Born in 1870 to Ilya Nikolaevich Ulyanov, a Russian civil service official and Maria Alexandrovna Blank in Simbirsk, Russia.

The first of two tragedies occurred when Lenin only 15, in January 1986 he lost his father to a cerebral haemorrhage. The following year in May Vladimir's older brother Alexander was executed for conspiring to execute the Tsar Alexander III. His official Soviet biographies have this event as central to Lenin's revolutionary exploits. A famous painting by Belousov, We will follow a different path, reprinted in million Soviet textbooks depicted young Lenin and his mother grieving the loss of elder brother Alexander. The phrase "We will follow a different path" meant that Lenin chose the right way to succeed in the revolution, which was based on a Marxist approach.

Exiled
For been involved in revolutionary propaganda efforts and the study of Marxism. On December 7, 1895, Lenin was arrested and held by authorities for fourteen months, then in February 1897 exiled to the village of Shushenskoye in Siberia. His exile ends in January 1900 then in March Vladimir Ilyich settles in Pskov.

Russian Social Democratic Labour Party
In 1903 after becoming a active member in the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party he leads the Bolshevik faction after a split with the Mensheviks that was partly inspired by his pamphlet "What is to be Done?"

Lenin first meets Stalin in 1905, in Tammerfors, Finland.

In 1906 he's elected to the Presidium of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. For security reasons he moves to Finland in 1907.

1912 April the first issue of Pravda, published in Russia. Lenin makes Stalin a member of the editorial board of 'Pravda', the Bolshevik's newspaper, after appointing Stalin to the first Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party as one of the leaders of the Bolshevik underground.

World War I
Germany declares war on Russia. WWI begins in 1914, Lenin is forced to leave Russia, and emmigrates to Berne, Switzerland because the large Social Democratic parties of Europe comprising of Karl Kautsky, supported their various countries' war efforts, Lenin was shocked, at first refusing to believe that the German Social Democrats had voted for war credits. This led him to a final split with the Second International, which was composed of these parties. Lenin himself adopted an 'unpatriotic' position, stating the goal as the defeat of the Tsarist government in the war.

After the 1917 February Revolution in Russia and the overthrow of Tsar Nicholas II, Russia waited for Lenin. But he was trapped in the neutral Switzerland as the first World War was raging and it would not have been easy to travel through Europe. But the Swiss Communist Fritz Platten managed to negotiate with the German government so that Lenin and his company would be allowed to travel through Germany in a sealed train. Kaiser Wilhelm II himself is thought to have expected Lenin to cause political unrest back in Russia and end the war on the Eastern front. While on German territory, Lenin was not allowed outside the train. Once past Germany, he continued by ferry to Sweden and the rest of the trip was arranged through Scandinavia by the Swedish Communists Otto Grimlund and Ture Nerman.

After a failed workers' rising in July, Lenin fled to Finland for safety. He returned in October, inspiring an armed revolution with the slogan "All Power to the Soviets!", against the Provisional Government. On November 8, Lenin was elected as the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars by the Russian Soviet Congress. Faced with the threat of German invasion, he argued that Russia should immediately sign a peace treaty.

On March 3, 1918, Lenin removed Russia from World War I by agreeing to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. Under this treaty, Russia lost Ukraine, Finland, the Baltic states, and large areas to Poland.

Premature Death
In May 1922, Lenin had his first stroke. He was left partially paralyzed (on his right side) and his role in government declined. After the second stroke in December of the same year, he resigned from active politics. In March 1923 he suffered the third stroke and was left bedridden and no longer able to speak. On January 21, 1924 he dies from a fourth stroke, his body was embalmed and placed on permanent exhibition in the Lenin Mausoleum in Moscow on January 27, 1924.