Today in History

January 21, 1924

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin Dies

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, the Russian revolutionary and leader of the October Revolution died on this day in 1924. Lenin was the first head of the Soviet Socialist Republic, and the brand of Communism that he espoused is commonly known as Leninism. Time Magazine in 1998 named Lenin one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th Century. He began his adult life as an attorney, but joined a Marxist organization as a young man. Arrested by authorities for his socialist activities, he was imprisoned in Siberia for a period of time in 1895. He began writing socialist tracts and commentary from exile in Europe after the failure of the 1905 Russian revolution. However, he returned to Russia in 1917 and with his partner LeonTrotsky took control of the nation and initiated Soviet rule. His secret police brutally suppressed any hint of counter-revolution or anti-government sentiment. He died at the age of 53 and his preserved body remains to this day on public display at the Lenin Mausoleum.

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