vladimir ilyich ulyanov lenin was the architect of russia s 1917 bolshevik revolution and the first leader of what became the union of soviet socialist republics ussr 
through violent means he established a system of marxist socialism called communism in the former russian empire which attempted to impose collective control over the means of production redistribute wealth abolish the aristocracy and create a more equitable society for the masses investopedia bailey marinerlenin spent his adult life agitating for and leading revolutionary communist activities in russia this culminated in the 1917 october revolution which brought lenin s bolshevik faction to power in the wake of the revolution the reign of the bolshevik regime under lenin was marked by economic chaos and deprivation bloody civil war massive famines among the rural working class and brutal repression torture and murder of those suspected or accused of dissent insufficient loyalty to the revolution or of holding out food or other goods 12lenin is still revered among some communists communist sympathizers and citizens of former ussr republics a 2017 russian poll done by the levada center found that lenin s reputation as the father of his country is diminished but by no means undone fifty six percent of russians believe that he played an entirely or mostly positive role in russian history up from 40 in 2006 however many of those polled couldn t be specific about what he had done 3early life and educationlenin was born in 1870 in what was then simbirsk about 450 miles east of moscow his family with the last name ulyanov was middle class and prosperous two 1887 events shaped his revolutionary beliefs the execution of his older brother alexandr for an attempt to murder the russian tsar and his expulsion from kazan university for being the ringleader of a student uprising 21while becoming a marxist in 1889 he later was allowed to sit for his law examinations and earned a law degree from st petersburg university he became a public defender and part of a group of revolutionary marxists 21eventually his activities got him exiled to siberia for three years from 1897 to 1900 after that he adopted the pseudonym lenin and moved to europe to continue his revolutionary activities he returned to russia to agitate for the ultimately failed revolution of 1905 then returned abroad to europe in 1907 12deedslenin returned to russia in april 1917 after the czar had abdicated and the soviet revolution was underway the country was being run by a provisional government which lenin termed a dictatorship of the bourgeoisie he envisioned a dictatorship of the proletariat in which workers and peasants ruled 21russians were in despair over the toll that world war i was taking on the country and wanted change and that war weariness allowed lenin and his red guards a secretly organized army of peasants workers and disaffected russian military men to seize control of the government in a nearly bloodless coup d tat in november 1917 21once in power lenin withdrew russia from the war against germany but his red army ended up fighting a three year civil war with the white army a coalition of monarchists capitalists foreign invaders and democratic socialists to fund the war lenin instituted something called war communism which nationalized all manufacturing and industry and requisitioned grain from farmers to feed the troops and sell abroad to raise cash for the government 12socialism is considered to be the stepping stone from capitalism to communism communism involves complete control of economic resources by the state while under socialism citizens equally share economic resources that are distributed by a democratically elected government after an attempted assassination in 1918 in which he was seriously wounded lenin waged the red terror through the bolshevik secret police known as the cheka by some estimates more than 100 000 people thought to be against the aims of the revolution known as counterrevolutionaries or simply related to those who were in opposition were murdered 21the red army vanquished the final remnants of the white army in crimea in november 1920 between the red terror the russian civil war and the resulting famines due to war communism an estimated 1 5 million combatants and 8 million civilians died during this period 124lenin s war communism eventually ruined the economy after the russian famine of 1921 which killed at least five million people he introduced his new economic policy in an attempt to prevent a second revolution it permitted some private enterprise introduced a wage system and let peasants sell produce and other goods on the open market while having to pay tax on any earnings either in money or raw goods state owned enterprises such as steel operated on a for profit basis 125lenin suffered a series of strokes between 1922 and 1924 that made speaking and governing difficult he died on jan 21 1924 barely a year after the bolsheviks finally established the ussr on dec 30 1922 through a treaty among russia ukraine belarus and the transcaucasian federation later georgia armenia and azerbaijan his body was embalmed and put on display in a mausoleum in moscow s red square where it still is today 21legacythe legacy of lenin is a complicated one he sought to improve the lives of the peasants the working class and the poor of russia who were suffering under the aristocratic ways of the russian empire though he ushered in a revolution and a new form of government his tactics were brutal resulting in the deaths of millions in addition he created the ussr which under stalin became an even more brutal regime resulting in the deaths of millions more and complicating geopolitical affairs throughout the 20th century and even the 21st century after its collapse the initial goal of lenin s revolution was never quite achieved though the russian aristocracy was destroyed the lives of many did not improve lenin published many writings on his thoughts about marxism capitalism the russian empire and revolution some of his most important works covering these topics include the april theses the development of capitalism in russia imperialism the highest stage of capitalism what is to be done burning questions of our movement and the three sources and three component parts of marxism 