Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (born Vladimir Ulyanov, 1870-1924) was the leading figure in the Russian Revolution of 1917. When the Russian Socialist Democratic Labor Party (RSDLP) split into the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks at the turn of the twentieth century, Lenin became leader of the Bolshevik faction. He went on to direct the Bolsheviks during the October Revolution in St. Petersburg (or Petrograd, later renamed Leningrad in Lenin's honor). After his death in Gorki, Russia, USSR, in  January of 1924, he was eventually succeeded by Joseph Stalin. Click here to enlarge.