| − | '''Vladimir Lenin''' (born Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov <ref>"Vladimir Ilyich Lenin" (Russian: Владимир Ильич Улянов, Ленин) was the pseudonym he used after 1900 to disguise his identity.</ref>) ([[April]] 22, [[1870]] – [[January]] 21, [[1924]]) was the leader of Russian [[Communism]] and an important theoretician of [[Marxism]]. Coming to power in 1917, he became dictator of the [[Soviet Union]]. All over the Soviet Union and even to some extent some Western countries, there were statues and paintings honoring his memory; some were removed when Communism collapsed in 1991. Lenin repudiated and tried to stop his successor [[Joseph Stalin]], who was an even worse tyrant. | + | '''Vladimir Lenin''' (born Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov <ref>"Vladimir Ilyich Lenin" (Russian: Владимир Ильич Улянов, Ленин) was the pseudonym he used after 1900 to disguise his identity.</ref>) ([[April]] 22, [[1870]] – [[January]] 21, [[1924]]) was the leader of Russian [[Communism]] and an important theoretician of [[Marxism]]. Coming to power in 1917, he became dictator of the [[Soviet Union]]. All over the Soviet Union and even to some extent some Western countries, there were statues and paintings honoring his memory; some were removed when Communism collapsed in 1991. Lenin repudiated and tried to stop his successor [[Joseph Stalin]], who was an even worse tyrant, although his reasons were implied in his testimony to be more due to Stalin's lower-class upbringing than any moral objections to Stalin. |