Born:25/08/1530 Died:18/03/1584 Birthplace:Moscow, Russia

Ivan the Terrible

Born: 25/08/1530 Died: 18/03/1584 Birthplace: Moscow, Russia

Crowned as the first tsar of Russia, he controlled the largest nation on Earth but in his

later years, executed thousands and, in rage, killed his own son.

In 1547, Ivan IV, grandson of Ivan the Great, was crowned the first czar of all Russia (the term czar was derived from caesar) in the Kremlin's Uspensky Cathedral. In addition, Moscow became the capital of the Holy Russian Empire.

In the same year, Ivan married Anastasia Romanov. He married several more times after her death in 1560, but this first marriage seems to have been the happiest. The Romanov dynasty ruled Russia from 1613 to 1917, and traces its claim to the throne through Anastasia's brother, Nikitu.

Ivan ruled with a deep-seated paranoia and ruthlessness; it's said that he gouged out the eyes of the architects who built St. Basil's so that a cathedral of such beauty could never again be created.

The czar's power became absolute when Ivan the Terrible succeeded in conquering the remaining independent principalities, such as Siberia. The state also assigned a master to the peasants who worked the lands around an estate, setting in stone the system of serfdom.

Ivan organised the Streltsy (members of the army elite) to govern his districts and the Oprichniki (the first police force) to suppress boyar (ruling- class nobles) rebellion.

He confiscated the property of the boyars and granted state property to those who served him. Since his soldiers were tenured to the state for life, their land grants became hereditary and they formed a new ruling elite.

In 1582, after the Livonian War with Poland and Sweden, Russia lost her far northern territories and her access to the Baltic. In the same year, the czar also killed his son, Ivan, in a fit of rage.

When Ivan the Terrible died in 1584, Russia was left in a state of almost total political and economic ruin.

Fast Facts:

The first Grand Prince to have himself officially crowned tsar.

As a child he was known to torture animals. Catherine The Great

Born: 21/04/1729 Died: 17/11/1796 Birthplace: Russia

Intelligent, ruthless, sexually insatiable: she was the most powerful woman in the world, dragging Russia 'out of her medieval stupor and into the modern world'.

Born Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst, the daughter of a German prince, she was related through her mother to the dukes of Holstein.

In 1744, she arrived in Russia, as the Grand Duchess Catherine Alekseyevna, and married Peter, grandson of Peter the Great and heir to the throne. Russia at the time was ruled by Peter's mother, the empress Elizabeth.

The marriage was an unhappy one and on her arrival in Russia, Catherine suffered from a form of pleurisy, which causes sharp pains in the chest. She had to have her blood let by a doctor four times in one day, which she claimed saved her life.

Catherine was intelligent and ambitious. During her husband's lifetime, she had at least three lovers and, if her hints are to be believed, none of her children were his. It is thought that she had affairs with Alexander Vasilchikov, Sergei Saltykov and Stanislaw August Poniatowski, among others.

Her husband had a mistress called Elizabeth Vorontsova. When Catherine fell pregnant with her second child, a girl called Anna who died aged four months, Peter did not believe it was his baby, causing an argument which led Catherine to spend a lot of time in her private boudoir.

When Empress Elizabeth died in January 1762, Russia was engaged in the Seven Years' War against Prussia. Peter, now emperor, pulled Russia out of the war and allied with Frederick II of Prussia. Foolishly betraying his actions, Peter prepared to be rid of his wife.

Catherine, however, had the support of the public and the army, and was proclaimed empress on 9 July 1762. Peter III abdicated and was assassinated eight days later. She was soon crowned in Moscow, beginning a 34-year reign.

During her reign, she reduced the powers of the clergy, continued to preserve friendly relations with Prussia, France and Austria and, in 1764, she specified Poland's borders and installed one of her old lovers as king of Poland.

A follower of the Enlightenment in 1767, she assembled a group of delegates in order to determine the people's wishes and compose a constitution. Unfortunately, it was considered too liberal and came to nothing.

In 1768, she went to war with Turkey, so as to concentrate on the importance of national grandeur. The war inspired patriotism in Catherine's subjects but, in 1773, a former officer of the Don Cossacks inspired the greatest uprising in Russia prior to 1917. The movement spread rapidly and, in June 1774, Cossack troops prepared to march on Moscow. At this point, Russia won the war with Turkey and Catherine crushed the rebellion.

Catherine now realised that she needed to exercise more control over the people and that serf liberation would be intolerable to the owners, on whom she depended, and who would throw the country into chaos once they lost their income. Catherine thus focused on strengthening a system that she had labelled as inhuman.

She also enjoyed a reputation for being a patron of the arts, education and culture, writing a guide for the education of young noble women in 1764, as well as establishing the Smolny Institute the same year.

Catherine also wrote fictions, comedies and memoirs while cultivating the talents of French intellectuals including Diderot, D'Alembart and Voltaire, with whom she corresponded for over 15 years.

She became the most-renowned and longest-serving female monarchs of Russia, with her reign seen by many as the Golden Age of Russia. Catherine died in 1796 from a stroke which caused her to fall into a coma, from which she never recovered. She was buried in a gold coffin at the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St Petersburg.

She was succeeded by her eldest son Paul, who was thought to be the son of Peter as he resembled the late emperor. Catherine had three other children with different lovers.

Josef Stalin Born: 21/12/1879 Died: 12/03/1953 Birthplace: Georgia

A look at the 20th century's most evil dictators, whose monstrous personalities and single party rule ran parallel and affected millions of lives in the first half of last century.

Born Josif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili, Stalin was a nickname.

Born to illiterate peasant parents, he became involved with Socialism, Lenin's ideas about the importance of centralism and a strong revolutionary party. His practical experience made him useful in Lenin's Bolshevik party before the 1917 Revolution.

Stalin spent the years after the revolution secretly increasing his power as general secretary. After Lenin's death in 1924, underhand machinations and alliances meant that, by 1928, his supremacy was complete.

Stalin replaced Lenin's market socialist New Economic Policy with a series of Five Year Plans of state guided crash industrialization, and forced the collectivisation of agriculture. The process was brutal but soon successful, resulting in increasing production and efficiency.

When faced with resistance, the regime assembled shock brigades to force peasants into collective farms; however, they often destroyed their farms.

Stalin blamed this drop in food production on Kulaks (rich peasants), ordering them to be transported to Gulag prison camps. Millions of people lost their lives during this campaign and the famines that followed.

Stalin consolidated his near-absolute power with the Great Purges against his suspected opponents in the Bolshevik Party. This period is often called the Great Terror, and thousands of people were killed or imprisoned. Show trials were also held as examples.

In 1939, Stalin agreed to a Pact with Nazi Germany, which divided Eastern Europe between the powers. However, Adolf Hitler broke the pact and invaded the Soviet Union. Approximately 21 million people were killed. However the feared German military machine was ultimately destroyed by fierce resistance and the harsh Russian winter.

Following World War II, Stalin's regime installed friendly Communist governments in the countries that the Soviet army had occupied. This, and mistrust in the West, led to the long, tense "Cold War".

In March 1953, Stalin died. His death was attributed to cerebral haemorrhage, but he may have been poisoned. Peter the Great

Peter the Great was born in 1672 and he died in 1725. Peter was tsar of Russia from 1682 to 1725. His self-given title was Peter the Great though he was officially Peter I.

Peter the Great is credited with dragging Russia out of the medieval times to such an extent that by his death in 1725, Russia was considered a leading eastern European state. He centralised government, modernised the army, created a navy and increased the subjugation and subjection of the peasants. His domestic policy allowed him to execute an aggressive foreign policy.

Without doubt, Peter the Great’s childhood toughened his outlook on life and people. His life was constantly under threat from factions surrounding the two widows of his father. When his father, Alexis, died in January 1676, Peter’s elder brother succeeded as Theodore III. His succession was legal and no-one could dispute it. Theodore died in 1682.

Problems over the succession came on the death of Theodore. The mother of Peter came from the Naryshkin family. They wanted Peter as sole tsar of Russia.

Alexis’s first wife came from the Miloslavkys family. They did not want Peter alone to succeed. The Miloslavkys were supported by the Moscow Musketeers (the Streltsy) and they both wanted a joint rule by Peter and Ivan, his mentally deficient half-brother. The Streltsy gave the Miloslavkys family the military backing to succeed in this case and Peter and Ivan were accepted as joint rulers.

However, in 1682 both were under age and a regent, their sister Sophia, was appointed to this position. In effect, Sophia did little as she was besotted by her lover Prince Golitsin who was appointed Chief Minister by Sophia and ruled as he wished. He embarked on a highly unpopular domestic policy. He persecuted the Old Believers for spiritually holding Russia back. Many Russian people looked up to the Old Believers as the true symbol of religious devotion and disapproved of what he did. Golitsin also pursued a lacklustre foreign policy. In 1687 and 1698, he launched two disastrous campaigns against the Crimean Tartars.

With such chaos at government level, Peter the Great felt strong enough to challenge Golitsin. This he did in August 1689 aged 17 when he removed both Sophia and Golitsin from power and ruled as Russia’s sole leader. In theory he shared the throne with Ivan until Ivan died in 1696, but in reality, Ivan played no part in the government of Russia.

Peter the Great’s sheer physical presence seemed to indicate the way his rule would go. He was nearly 7 feet tall and very broad. He was massively powerful, "loud-mouthed, violent, ruthless and impetuous". He always wanted to learn and was always active. He learned how to be carpenter, talked to mathematicians and learned how best to train soldiers- including how to torture people. While Sophia had been regent, he had lived in Germany and had spent time living with soldiers learning about fortifications and ballistics. When back in Russia he formed a small army out of his servants and used them in live ammunition firing war games. Alexander I

Alexander I, 1777–1825, czar of Russia (1801–25), son of Paul I (in whose murder he may have taken an indirect part). In the first years of his

reign the liberalism of his Swiss tutor, Frédéric César de La Harpe, seemed to influence Alexander. He suppressed the secret police, lifted the ban

on foreign travel and books, made attempts to improve the position of the serfs, and began to reform the backward educational system. In 1805,

Alexander joined the coalition against Napoleon I, but after the Russian defeats at Austerlitz and Friedland he formed an alliance with Napoleon by

the Treaty of Tilsit (1807) and joined Napoleon's Continental System. Alexander requested M. M. Speranski to draw up proposals for a

constitution, but adopted only one aspect of Speranski's scheme, an advisory state council, and dismissed him in 1812 to placate the nobility.

During this period Russia gained control of Georgia and parts of Transcaucasia as a result of prolonged war with Persia (1804–13) and annexed

(1812) Bessarabia after a war with Turkey (1806–12). Relations with France deteriorated, and Napoleon invaded Russia in 1812. Alexander's

defeat of the French made him one of the most powerful rulers in Europe. At first his foreign policy was liberal, but from 1812 on, Alexander was

preoccupied by a vague, mystical Christianity, which contributed to his increasing conservatism. Under the influence of the pietistic

Juliana Krüdener and others, he created the Holy Alliance to uphold Christian morality in Europe. Viewing revolutionary movements as challenging

to the authority of legitimate Christian monarchs, the czar now supported Metternich in suppressing all national and liberal movements.

Alexander's religious fervor was partly responsible for the establishment of military colonies, which were agricultural communities run by peasant

soldiers. Intended to better the lot of the common soldier, the colonies became notorious for the regimentation and near-serfdom imposed on the

soldiers. Alexander abrogated many of his earlier liberal efforts. His policies caused the formation of secret political societies, and when

Alexander's brother Nicholas I succeeded him the societies led an abortive revolt (see Decembrists). After Alexander's death, rumors persisted

that he escaped to Siberia and became a hermit. His tomb was opened (1926) by the Soviet government and was found empty; the mystery

remains unsolved. In Alexander's reign St. Petersburg became a social and artistic center of Europe. Ivan Krylov and

Aleksandr Pushkin dominated the literary scene. An excellent picture of Alexander's period is found in Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace. Alexander II

Born: April 17, 1818 Moscow, Russia Died: March 1, 1881 St. Petersburg, Russia Alexander II was emperor of Russia from 1855 to 1881. He is called the "czar liberator" because he freed the serfs (poor peasants who lived on land owned by nobles) in 1861. Alexander's reign is famous in Russian history and is called the "era of great reforms."

Alexander II, the oldest son of Emperor Nicholas I (1796–1855), was born in Moscow, Russia, on April 17, 1818. Because he would become emperor one day, Alexander was taught many different subjects. Vasili Zhukovski (1783–1852), a famous Russian poet, was his private teacher. Alexander learned to speak Russian, German, French, English, and Polish. He gained knowledge of military arts, finance, and diplomacy. From an early age he travelled widely in Russia and in other countries Unlike his father, Alexander had various military and government jobs throughout his younger days. In fact during Nicholas's absence Alexander was given the duties of the tsar, or Russian emperor.

Before he became tsar, Alexander did not believe that freeing the serfs was a good idea. He changed his mind because he believed that freeing the serfs was the only way to prevent them from revolting. However, freeing the more than forty million serfs was not an easy task. In 1861 Alexander created an emancipation law, which said that serfs could now marry, own property, and argue court cases. Each landowner had to determine the area of land owned by the serfs. Landowners also had to pay the serfs for the work they did. Each peasant family received their house and a certain amount of land. Land usually became the property of the village government, which had the power to distribute it among the families. Peasant families had to make payments for the land for more than forty– nine years. The original landowner kept only a small portion of the land.

The emancipation law of 1861 has been called the greatest single law in history. It gave the serfs a more dignified life. Yet there were many problems. In many cases the serfs did not receive enough land and they were over-charged for it. Since they had to pay for the land, they could not easily move. Still, overall it was a good law for the Russian people.

Because the serfs were now free citizens, it was necessary to reform the entire local system of government. A law in 1864 created local assemblies, which handled local finances, education, agriculture, medical care, and maintenance of the roads. A new voting system provided representation to the peasants in these assemblies. Peasants and their former landowners were brought together to work out problems in their villages.

During Alexander's reign other reforms were also started. Larger cities were given governmental assemblies similar to those of the villages. The Russian court system was reformed, and for the first time in Russian history, juries, or panels of citizens called together to decide court cases, were permitted. Court cases were debated publicly, and all social classes were made equal before the law. Censorship (or the silencing of certain opinions) was eased, which meant that people had more freedom of speech. Colleges were also freed from the rules imposed on them by Alexander's father Nicholas I.

Alexander also had success in foreign relations. In 1860 he signed a treaty with China that ended a land dispute between the two nations. Russia successfully ended an uprising in Poland in 1863. Then in 1877 Alexander led Russia to war against Turkey in support of a group of Christians in the areas of Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Bulgaria.

Despite the many reforms Alexander II made to improve the lives of the Russian people, in 1866 he became the target of revolutionaries, or people who fight for change. Terrorists, or people who use violence to achieve their goals, acted throughout the 1870s. They wanted constitutional changes, and they were also upset over several peasant uprisings that the government violently put down. A member of a terrorist group murdered Alexander II on March 1, 1881, in St. Petersburg, Russia. Nicholas I

Nicholas I, 1796–1855, czar of Russia (1825–55), third son of Paul I. His brother and predecessor, Alexander I, died childless

(1825). Constantine, Paul's second son, was next in succession but had secretly renounced (1822) the throne after marrying a Polish aristocrat.

This secrecy resulted in confusion at Alexander's death and touched off the Decembrist uprising, a rebellion against Nicholas, which he crushed

on the first day of his reign.

Nicholas strove to serve his country's best interests as he saw them, but his methods were dictatorial, paternalistic, and often inadequate. One important achievement, however, was the codification (1832–33) of existing Russian law. A few measures attempted to limit the landlords' powers over their serfs, and the condition of peasants belonging to the state was improved. Industry progressed somewhat; the first Russian railroad was completed in 1838. Efforts were made to stabilize the ruble and reduce the growing national debt.

The motto "autocracy, orthodoxy, and nationality," expressing the principles applied to a new system of education, was also used by Nicholas in suppressing liberal thought, controlling the universities, increasing censorship, persecuting religious and national minorities, and strengthening the secret police. Intellectual life was in ferment, the revolutionary movement took form, and the two schools of thought held by Slavophiles and

Westernizers emerged. With Pushkin, Lermontov, and Gogol a golden age in literature began.

Under Nicholas, Russia gained control of part of Armenia and the Caspian Sea after a war with Persia (1826–28). A war with the Ottoman Empire

(1828–29; see Russo-Turkish Wars) gave Russia the eastern coast of the Black Sea and the mouth of the Danube. Nicholas brutally suppressed the uprising (1830–31) in Poland and abrogated the Polish constitution and Polish autonomy. In 1849 he helped Austria crush the revolution in

Hungary. His attempts to dominate the Ottoman Empire led to the disastrous Crimean War (1853–56). He was succeeded by his son Alexander II. Nicholas II (1868-1918)

Nicholas II was the last tsar of Russia. He was deposed during the Russian Revolution and executed by the Bolsheviks.

Nikolai Aleksandrovich Romanov was born near St Petersburg on 18 May 1868, the eldest son of Tsar Alexander III. When he succeeded his father in 1894, he had very little experience of government. In the same year, Nicholas married Princess Alexandra of Hesse-Darmstadt (a duchy in Germany). They had four daughters and a son, Alexis, who suffered from the disease haemophilia.

Alexandra was the dominant personality in their relationship and encouraged the weaker Nicholas's autocratic tendencies. He mistrusted most of his ministers and yet was incapable of carrying out the task of ruling the vast Russian empire alone.

Determined that Russia should not be left out in the scramble for colonial possessions, Nicholas encouraged Russian expansion in Manchuria. This provoked war with Japan in 1904. The resulting Russian defeat led to strikes and riots. In January 1905, on 'Bloody Sunday', the army in St Petersburg shot at a crowd demanding radical reforms. Opposition to the tsar grew and Nicholas was forced to grant a constitution and establish a parliament, the Duma.

Nicholas's concessions were only limited. Changes were made in the voting laws to prevent the election of radicals and the secret police continued to crush opposition. However, the Duma did give many more people, especially the middle classes, a voice in government.

The outbreak of World War One in 1914 temporarily strengthened the monarchy, with Russia allied to France and Britain against Austria-Hungary and Germany. In mid-1915 Nicholas made the disastrous decision to take direct command of the Russian armies. From then on, every military failure was directly associated with him.

With Nicholas often away, Alexandra took a more active role in government. Russia was suffering heavy losses in the war, there was high inflation and severe food shortages at home, which compounded the grinding poverty most Russians already endured. German-born Alexandra soon became the focus of discontent, as did her confidante, the mystic, Rasputin, who had been at court since 1905 and had gained great influence through his apparent ability to treat the haemophilia of Alexis, the heir to the throne.

In December 1916, Rasputin was murdered by a group of disaffected nobles. Then in February 1917, widespread popular demonstrations began in the capital Petrograd (as St Petersburg was renamed in 1914). Nicholas lost the support of the army and had no alternative but to abdicate. A shaky provisional government was established. The tsar and his family were held in various locations, eventually being imprisoned in Yekaterinburg in the Ural Mountains.

In October 1917, the Bolsheviks overthrew the provisional government. Following a harsh peace treaty with Germany in March 1918, Russia descended into civil war. On 17 July 1918, as anti-Bolsheviks approached Yekaterinburg, Nicholas and his family were executed. This was almost certainly on the orders of the Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin. Alexander Kerensky

Born: 22 April 1881

Died: 11 June 1970 Birthplace: Simbirsk, Russia Best known as: Head of Russia between the czar and the Bolsheviks

Name at birth: Alexandr Feodorovich Kerensky

A lawyer by trade, Alexander Kerensky was elected to the Duma in 1912 at a time when the rule of Czar Nicholas II was on shaky ground. Kerensky was a member of the moderate Labor party until the February Revolution in 1917, when he became a leader in the Socialist Revolutionary party.

Together with the Bolsheviks, led by Leon Trotsky and Vladimir Lenin, Kerensky helped form a provisional government to replace the overthrown government of the czar. Kerensky became the most powerful member of the provisional government and forced the Bolsheviks underground, arresting Trotsky and several others (Lenin escaped to Finland). The Socialist Revolutionaries, unlike the Bolsheviks, intended to keep Russia fighting in World War I, a decision that became increasingly unpopular with the Russian people. When social reforms were slow to take place under

Kerensky (especially land reform), he lost popular support to the Bolsheviks. He fled to Paris when the Bolsheviks seized power in the October

Revolution (1917), and eventually emigrated to the United States, where he lectured and wrote until his death in 1970. Lavr Georgiyevich Kornilov

(Born August 30 [August 18, Old Style], 1870, Karkaralinsk, Western Siberia, Russian Empire [now Qargaraly, Kazakhstan]—died April 13, 1918, near Ekaterinodar [now Krasnodar], Russia), Imperial Russian general, who was accused of attempting to overthrow the provisional government established in Russia after the February Revolution of 1917 and to replace it with a military dictatorship.

An intelligence officer for the Imperial Russian Army during the Russo-Japanese War (1904–05) and a military attaché in Beijing (1907–11), Kornilov became a divisional commander during World War I. Captured by the Austrians at Przemysl (March 1915), he escaped in 1916 and was placed in command of an army corps.

After the February Revolution Kornilov was put in charge of the vital military district of Petrograd (St. Petersburg) by the provisional government. His determination to restore discipline and efficiency in the disintegrating Russian Army, however, made him unpopular in revolutionary Petrograd. He soon resigned, returned to the front, and participated in the abortive Russian offensive in June against the Germans in Galicia. On August 1 (July 18, Old Style) Prime Minister Aleksandr Kerensky appointed him commander in chief, but conflicts developed between Kornilov and Kerensky, owing to their opposing views on politics and on the role and nature of the Army. At the end of August, Kornilov sent troops toward Petrograd; Kerensky, interpreting this as an attempted military coup d’état, dismissed Kornilov and ordered him to come to Petrograd (August 27). Kornilov refused, and railroad workers prevented his troops from reaching their destination; on September 1 he surrendered and was imprisoned at Bykhov.

Kornilov later escaped, and, after the Bolsheviks seized power (October 1917), he assumed military command of the anti-Bolshevik (“White”) volunteer army in the Don region. Several months later he was killed during a battle for Ekaterinodar. Leon Trotsky (1879 - 1940)

Trotsky was a key figure in the Bolshevik seizure of power in Russia, second only to Vladimir Lenin in the early stages of Soviet communist rule. But he lost out to Joseph Stalin in the power struggle that followed Lenin's death, and was assassinated while in exile.

Trotsky was born Lev Davidovich Bronstein on 7 November 1879 in Yanovka, Ukraine, then part of Russia. His father was a prosperous Jewish farmer. Trotsky became involved in underground activities as a teenager. He was soon arrested, jailed and exiled to Siberia where he joined the Social Democratic Party. Eventually, he escaped Siberia and spent the majority of the next 15 years abroad, including a spell in London.

In 1903, the Social Democrats split. While Lenin assumed leadership of the 'Bolshevik' (majority) faction, Trotsky became a member of the 'Menshevik' (minority) faction and developed his theory of 'permanent revolution'. After the outbreak of revolution in Petrograd in February 1917, he made his way back to Russia. Despite previous disagreements with Lenin, Trotsky joined the Bolsheviks and played a decisive role in the communist take-over of power in the same year. His first post in the new government was as foreign commissar, where he found himself negotiating peace terms with Germany. He was then made war commissar and in this capacity, built up the Red Army which prevailed against the White Russian forces in the civil war. Thus Trotsky played a crucial role in keeping the Bolshevik regime alive. He saw himself as Lenin's heir- apparent, but his intellectual arrogance made him few friends, and his Jewish heritage may also have worked against him. When Lenin fell ill and died, Trotsky was easily outmanoeuvred by Stalin. In 1927, he was thrown out of the party. Internal and then foreign exile followed, but Trotsky continued to write and to criticise Stalin.

Trotsky settled in Mexico in 1936. On 20 August 1940, an assassin called Ramon Mercader, acting on Stalin's orders, stabbed Trotsky with an ice pick, fatally wounding him. He died the next day. Vladimir Lenin (1870 - 1924)

Lenin was one of the leading political figures and revolutionary thinkers of the 20th century, who masterminded the Bolshevik take-over of power in Russia in 1917, and was the architect and first head of the USSR.

Vladimir Ilich Ulyanov was born in Simbirsk on the Volga River on 22 April 1870 into a well-educated family. He excelled at school and went on to study law. At university, he was exposed to radical thinking, and his views were also influenced by the execution of his elder brother, a member of a revolutionary group.

Expelled from university for his radical policies, Lenin completed his law degree as an external student in 1891. He moved to St Petersburg and became a professional revolutionary. Like many of his contemporaries, he was arrested and exiled to Siberia, where he married Nadezhda Krupskaya. After his Siberian exile, Lenin - the pseudonym he adopted in 1901 - spent most of the subsequent decade and a half in western Europe, where he emerged as a prominent figure in the international revolutionary movement and became the leader of the 'Bolshevik' faction of the Russian Social Democratic Worker's Party.

In 1917, exhausted by World War One, Russia was ripe for change. Assisted by the Germans, who hoped that he would undermine the Russian war effort, Lenin returned home and started working against the provisional government that had overthrown the tsarist regime. He eventually led what was soon to be known as the October Revolution, but was effectively a coup d'etat. Almost three years of civil war followed. The Bolsheviks were victorious and assumed total control of the country. During this period of revolution, war and famine, Lenin demonstrated a chilling disregard for the sufferings of his fellow countrymen and mercilessly crushed any opposition.

Although Lenin was ruthless he was also pragmatic. When his efforts to transform the Russian economy to a socialist model stalled, he introduced the New Economic Policy, where a measure of private enterprise was again permitted, a policy that continued for several years after his death. In 1918, Lenin narrowly survived an assassination attempt, but was severely wounded. His long term health was affected, and in 1922 he suffered a stroke from which he never fully recovered. In his declining years, he worried about the bureaucratisation of the regime and also expressed concern over the increasing power of his eventual successor Joseph Stalin. Lenin died on 24 January 1924. His corpse was embalmed and placed in a mausoleum on Moscow's Red Square.