Vladimir Lenin

Imbued with the theories of Marx and the burning determination to replace the autocracy with his Bolshevik ideal, Lenin ruthlessly drove forward with his goals. He was undeterred by the lack of popular support and merciless in his dealings with any opposition. Early Bolshevik failures in agriculture were met with the harshest measures. Lenin’s regime was just getting underway when his health failed and he died, leaving his legacy to a worse fate.

In 1917, Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks drew on the power of the common people to seize political control from the ruling upper class. They stormed the Winter Palace, symbolizing the change coming to Russia.