Vladimir Lenin

Council of People's Commissars of the Soviet Union

Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov 22 AprilO.S. 10 April 1870 Simbirsk, Russian Empire

21 January 1924(1924-01-21) (53) Gorki, Moscow Governorate, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union

6 July 1923 – 21 January 1924

Russian politician, communist theorist and founder of the Soviet Union "Lenin" and "Vladimir Ilyich Lenin" redirect here. For other uses of "Lenin", see Lenin (disambiguation). For the poem by Mayakovsky, see Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (poem). In this Eastern Slavic naming convention, the patronymic is Ilyich and the family name is Ulyanov. Vladimir LeninВладимир Ленин Lenin in July 1920 by Pavel Zhukov  Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the Soviet UnionIn office 6 July 1923 – 21 January 1924Preceded by Office establishedSucceeded by Alexei RykovChairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the Russian SFSRIn office 8 November 1917 – 21 January 1924Preceded by Office establishedSucceeded by Alexei RykovMember of the Russian Constituent AssemblyIn office 25 November 1917 – 20 January 1918Serving with Pavel DybenkoPreceded by Constituency establishedSucceeded by Constituency abolishedConstituencyBaltic Fleet Personal detailsBornVladimir Ilyich Ulyanov 22 April  1870 Simbirsk, Russian EmpireDied21 January 1924(1924-01-21) (aged 53) Gorki, Moscow Governorate, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union BuriedLenin's Mausoleum, Moscow, Russian Federation NationalityRussian SovietPolitical partyRussian Social Democratic Labour Party (1898–1903) Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (Bolsheviks) (1903–12) Bolshevik Party (1912–1918) Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) (1918–1924) Other political affiliationsLeague of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class (1895–1898) Spouse(s)Nadezhda Krupskaya ​(m. 1898)​RelationsAleksandr Ulyanov (brother) Anna Ulyanova (sister) Dmitry Ilyich Ulyanov (brother) Maria Ilyinichna Ulyanova (sister) and three other siblingsParentsIlya Nikolayevich UlyanovMaria Alexandrovna BlankAlma materSaint Petersburg Imperial UniversitySignature Central institution membership 1917–1924: Full member, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th Politburo 1917–1924: Full member, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th Central Committee 1905–1907: Full member, 3rd Central Committee Military offices held 1918–1920: Chairman, Council of Labour and Defence Leader of the Soviet Union First holder Stalin → Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (22 April 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known by his alias Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1924 and of the Soviet Union from 1922 to 1924. Under his administration, Russia, and later the Soviet Union, became a one-party socialist state governed by the Soviet Communist Party. A Marxist, he developed a variant of this communist ideology known as Leninism. Born to a moderately prosperous middle-class family in Simbirsk, Lenin embraced revolutionary socialist politics following his brother's 1887 execution. Expelled from Kazan Imperial University for participating in protests against the Russian Empire's Tsarist government, he devoted the following years to a law degree. He moved to Saint Petersburg in 1893 and became a senior Marxist activist. In 1897, he was arrested for sedition and exiled to Shushenskoye for three years, where he married Nadezhda Krupskaya. After his exile, he moved to Western Europe, where he became a prominent theorist in the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP). In 1903, he took a key role in the RSDLP ideological split, leading the Bolshevik faction against Julius Martov's Mensheviks. Following Russia's failed Revolution of 1905, he campaigned for the First World War to be transformed into a Europe-wide proletarian revolution, which as a Marxist he believed would cause the overthrow of capitalism and its replacement with socialism. After the 1917 February Revolution ousted the Tsar and established a Provisional Government, he returned to Russia to play a leading role in the October Revolution in which the Bolsheviks overthrew the new regime. Lenin's Bolshevik government initially shared power with the Left Socialist Revolutionaries, elected soviets, and a multi-party Constituent Assembly, although by 1918 it had centralised power in the new Communist Party. Lenin's administration redistributed land among the peasantry and nationalised banks and large-scale industry. It withdrew from the First World War by signing a treaty conceding territory to the Central Powers, and promoted world revolution through the Communist International. Opponents were suppressed in the Red Terror, a violent campaign administered by the state security services; tens of thousands were killed or interned in concentration camps. His administration defeated right and left-wing anti-Bolshevik armies in the Russian Civil War from 1917 to 1922 and oversaw the Polish–Soviet War of 1919–1921. Responding to wartime devastation, famine, and popular uprisings, in 1921 Lenin encouraged economic growth through the market-oriented New Economic Policy. Several non-Russian nations had secured independence from the Russian Empire after 1917, but three were re-united into the new Soviet Union in 1922. His health failing, Lenin died in Gorki, with Joseph Stalin succeeding him as the pre-eminent figure in the Soviet government. Widely considered one of the most significant and influential figures of the 20th century, Lenin was the posthumous subject of a pervasive personality cult within the Soviet Union until its dissolution in 1991. He became an ideological figurehead behind Marxism–Leninism and a prominent influence over the international communist movement. A controversial and highly divisive historical figure, Lenin is viewed by supporters as a champion of socialism and the working class while critics have emphasised his role as founder and leader of an authoritarian regime responsible for political repression and mass killings.