Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Lenin was a Russian revolutionary who led the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 and became the founding head of government of the Soviet Union.
Lenin developed his revolutionary Marxist ideology while in political exile, and returned to Russia in 1917 amid the chaos following the fall of the Tsarist government during World War I.
He led the Bolshevik Party to seize power in the October Revolution of 1917, establishing the world's first communist state and withdrawing Russia from World War I through a costly peace treaty with Germany.
Lenin led the new Soviet government through a brutal civil war before his death in 1924. His political ideology, Leninism, combined with Marxism, shaped Soviet governance and inspired communist movements worldwide throughout the 20th century.