It was in 1888, during a period of exile for illegal political activity in Kazan, Russia, that Vladimir Ilich Lenin read Karl Marx’s “Das Kapital,” amongst other revolutionary political literature, according to Britannica. Over the succeeding decades, Lenin would immerse himself in the pursuit of establishing a socialist government in Russia, which fell within reach after the Tsar was deposed and replaced by a provisional government in 1917. However, Lenin believed this was merely the first step towards the end goal of a nation truly governed by its workers, and set about convincing his Bolshevik party that another revolution was needed. 

Months later, with the people of Russia growing disillusioned with war-weariness and a collapsed economy, in October 1917, Lenin and his Bolsheviks arranged for their troops, the Red Guard, to take up strategic positions in Petrograd (modern St. Petersburg) before declaring the overthrowing of the Provisional Government, as detailed by Britannica. The chairman of the Provisional Government, Kerensky, found himself without military support of his own and was helpless to intervene.

After some resistance from military cadets and students, which was swiftly crushed, a new Bolshevik-dominated government was formed, ostensibly in the name of the people but operationally under the direct control of Lenin himself, now the leader of the largest country in the world. Lenin remained head of state of the Soviet Union until his death from illness in 1924.