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|succeeded=[[Alexei Rykov]]

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'''Vladimir Lenin''' (born either Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov <ref>"Vladimir Ilyich Lenin" (Russian: Владимир Ильич Улянов, Ленин) was the pseudonym he used after 1900 to disguise his identity.</ref> known as Volodya as a child<ref>http://www.historyisnowmagazine.com/blog/2017/6/11/the-truth-about-vladimir-lenin-the-father-of-post-truth-politics#.YL00l4WSmUk=</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 to be more due to Stalin's lower-class upbringing than any moral objections to Stalin, due to his dismissing Stalin as a "Georgian peasant" when someone suggested him to take Lenin's place. In addition, [[Vyacheslav Molotov]], one of the few members of Stalin's inner circle to serve both Lenin and Stalin, when asked about who was harsher, indicated that Lenin was more severe than Stalin.

'''Vladimir Lenin''' (born either Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov <ref>"Vladimir Ilyich Lenin" (Russian: Владимир Ильич Улянов, Ленин) was the pseudonym he used after 1900 to disguise his identity.</ref> known as Volodya as a child<ref name="The Truth about Vladimir Lenin">http://www.historyisnowmagazine.com/blog/2017/6/11/the-truth-about-vladimir-lenin-the-father-of-post-truth-politics#.YL00l4WSmUk=</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 to be more due to Stalin's lower-class upbringing than any moral objections to Stalin, due to his dismissing Stalin as a "Georgian peasant" when someone suggested him to take Lenin's place. In addition, [[Vyacheslav Molotov]], one of the few members of Stalin's inner circle to serve both Lenin and Stalin, when asked about who was harsher, indicated that Lenin was more severe than Stalin.

==Early life==

==Early life==

Lenin was born on April 22, 1870 (first [[Earth Day]] was established on what would have been his 100th birthday) to a middle-class Russian family; his parents Ilya Ulyanov and Maria Ulyanova were school teachers.  According to a note by his older sister Anna that was uncovered in 2000, he had a big head and weak legs, which resulted in him toppling over onto the carpet and even the floorboards of their house, and constantly banging his head in tantrums as a result, with the wooden structure of their house acting as an echo chamber and amplifying his tantrums. In addition, even as a child, he was unruly and disturbed, including deliberately trampling over his younger brother Dmitry's theater poster collection as well as terrorizing his younger sister Maria, and on his third birthday, when given a small, papier-mache horse as a gift, he secluded himself to his room and spent his time trying to twist off its legs, ultimately leaving the room satisfied after he had done so. His own parents also had no idea on how to control him, with his mother Maria even thinking he'll likely grow up mentally retarded. In 1889, he became a [[Marxist]] after his older brother Aleksandr was hanged for the attempted murder of Tsar Aleksandr III.  Lenin obtained a law degree shortly afterward, and hints at his more callous nature, including his intention of using starvations to foster his Marxist agenda, started showing itself by 1891 during the Volga famine. Acting as a high ranking member of the socialist intelligentsia at that time, he was the one voice who opposed supplying any relief aid to them, even going as far as to ruin the Samara charity committee in the process, citing that starving the peasantry would bring death to the old peasant economy and hasten their goal of Marxist revolution, or as he put it, "one shouldn’t improve [the peasants'] lives, but instead let them become bestial and unleash monstrous violence."<ref>https://canadafreepress.com/article/vladimir-lenin-russias-original-cold-blooded-communist-revolutionary</ref><ref>https://www.rferl.org/amp/lenin-at-150-even-without-covid-19-russia-was-set-to-snub-the-soviet-union-s-founder/30568383.html?fbclid=IwAR2s0upNQ-WaEeeXyJBcVF3mL1InW2ynJmOoqg7PkC7Y9OzPSL2X5bXaMDY</ref> By 1895, Lenin was a [[subversion (political)|subversive]] who was arrested and sent to a prison in [[Siberia]] as punishment.  He was in exile 1900-1917, during which time he married Nadezhda Krupskaya. He collaborated with Georgy Plekhanov and others to set up the clandestine newspaper ''Iskra'' (The Spark), designed to "ignite" radical consciousness.  In the pages of ''Iskra'', Lenin denounced any alliance with liberals or other elements of the bourgeoisie because they would keep power in the hands of the middle class. He emphasized social democracy—equality of condition, rather than political democracy, as the basis for individual freedom.  His major theoretical publication was the pamphlet "What Is to Be Done?"  (1902). In 1903 he organized and controlled the '''"Bolshevik"''' wing of the Russian Social Democratic Labor party, fighting the opposition "Mensheviks." Lenin, like his populist predecessors in the Russian radical movement, stressed the need for a small elite vanguard to lead the revolution

Lenin was born on April 22, 1870 (first [[Earth Day]] was established on what would have been his 100th birthday) to a middle-class Russian family; his parents Ilya Ulyanov and Maria Ulyanova were school teachers.  According to a note by his older sister Anna that was uncovered in 2000, he had a big head and weak legs, which resulted in him toppling over onto the carpet and even the floorboards of their house, and constantly banging his head in tantrums as a result, with the wooden structure of their house acting as an echo chamber and amplifying his tantrums. In addition, even as a child, he was unruly and disturbed, including deliberately trampling over his younger brother Dmitry's theater poster collection as well as terrorizing his younger sister Maria, and on his third birthday, when given a small, papier-mache horse as a gift, he secluded himself to his room and spent his time trying to twist off its legs, ultimately leaving the room satisfied after he had done so. His own parents also had no idea on how to control him, with his mother Maria even thinking he'll likely grow up mentally retarded.<ref name="The Truth about Vladimir Lenin" /> In 1889, he became a [[Marxist]] after his older brother Aleksandr was hanged for the attempted murder of Tsar Aleksandr III.  Lenin obtained a law degree shortly afterward, and hints at his more callous nature, including his intention of using starvations to foster his Marxist agenda, started showing itself by 1891 during the Volga famine. Acting as a high ranking member of the socialist intelligentsia at that time, he was the one voice who opposed supplying any relief aid to them, even going as far as to ruin the Samara charity committee in the process, citing that starving the peasantry would bring death to the old peasant economy and hasten their goal of Marxist revolution, or as he put it, "one shouldn’t improve [the peasants'] lives, but instead let them become bestial and unleash monstrous violence."<ref>https://canadafreepress.com/article/vladimir-lenin-russias-original-cold-blooded-communist-revolutionary</ref><ref>https://www.rferl.org/amp/lenin-at-150-even-without-covid-19-russia-was-set-to-snub-the-soviet-union-s-founder/30568383.html?fbclid=IwAR2s0upNQ-WaEeeXyJBcVF3mL1InW2ynJmOoqg7PkC7Y9OzPSL2X5bXaMDY</ref> By 1895, Lenin was a [[subversion (political)|subversive]] who was arrested and sent to a prison in [[Siberia]] as punishment.  He was in exile 1900-1917, during which time he married Nadezhda Krupskaya. He collaborated with Georgy Plekhanov and others to set up the clandestine newspaper ''Iskra'' (The Spark), designed to "ignite" radical consciousness.  In the pages of ''Iskra'', Lenin denounced any alliance with liberals or other elements of the bourgeoisie because they would keep power in the hands of the middle class. He emphasized social democracy—equality of condition, rather than political democracy, as the basis for individual freedom.  His major theoretical publication was the pamphlet "What Is to Be Done?"  (1902). In 1903 he organized and controlled the '''"Bolshevik"''' wing of the Russian Social Democratic Labor party, fighting the opposition "Mensheviks." Lenin, like his populist predecessors in the Russian radical movement, stressed the need for a small elite vanguard to lead the revolution

Despite the disapproval of the Mensheviks, Lenin's followers continued to raise money through a mixture of bank robberies, kidnapping, extortion, terrorism, and murder. Unlike the leaders of other Marxist organizations, Lenin did not spend the money on his own lifestyle and carefully strengthened his movement.  

Despite the disapproval of the Mensheviks, Lenin's followers continued to raise money through a mixture of bank robberies, kidnapping, extortion, terrorism, and murder. Unlike the leaders of other Marxist organizations, Lenin did not spend the money on his own lifestyle and carefully strengthened his movement.