evidence: Your book also suggests that for Lenin, the Russian Revolution was part of a vendetta. He wanted to avenge the death of his older brother, who was executed at the age of 21 for plotting to kill the czar. How much of this was personal to Lenin rather than ideological? [...] As you describe in the book, Lenin came to power by colluding with a hostile foreign power — namely, Germany during World War I — while at the same time making appeals to Russian patriotism and national pride. How did he reconcile these two?