Vladimir Lenin was born on April 22, 1870, in Streletskayan Ulitsa (Simbirsk). Lenin’s brother Aleksandr Ulyanov was executed in 1887 after trying to kill Nicholas II. Lenin went to Kazan University but got expelled after only three months when he decided to take part in a student protest. After college he formed the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. When he was about thirty-three, he moved to London, England after a brief residence in Geneva. Then he broke away from the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party with the Bolshevik Party in 1912. Lenin would then start a massive revolution in 1917 which would give him power and would overthrow the Tsarist Russian Empire and start the Soviet Union. In 1923 Lenin suffers his third stroke which would leave him unable to speak and cause him to step down. In 1924 Lenin dies after three strokes. The Soviet Union announced the death on January 21. Joseph Stalin rose to power after Lenin.

This is a portrait of Vladmir Lenin that was made during his reign as the leader of the USSR.