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|succeeded=[[Alexei Rykov]]

|succeeded=[[Alexei Rykov]]

}}

}}

'''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.

'''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.<ref>https://fee.org/articles/the-unknown-lenin-from-the-secret-archive-edited-by-richard-pipes/</ref><ref>https://newcriterion.com/issues/2019/10/leninthink</ref>

==Early life==

==Early life==