Who was Lenin?

Vladimir Lenin was born on April 10th, 1870 in Russia. He was the leader of the Bolshevik party during the 1917 revolution and became the first head of the Soviet State. He was arrested numerous times up until the revolution for being involved in political activism. In fact, during the February 1917 revolution, Lenin was in exile and had to seek passage through Germany and into Sweden in order to get home after the first revolution. Lenin arrived back in Petrograd in April 1917 and declared publicly that ‘all power should be given to the soviets’ and that every Russian had the right to ‘peace, bread and land’. Both of these slogans appealed to every citizen. By autumn, the provisional government lost support thanks to the continued involvement of Russia in the war. Lenin decided to seize power. In October 1917, all the bridges in Petrograd were blocked by Bolsheviks and the Red Guards marched into a meeting of the Provisional Government and proclaimed that the soviets were in charge. Lenin was admired by the Russian populace, so much so that Stalin used his popularity to legitimise his rule.