Victor Sebestyen's riveting biography of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin—the first major biography in English in nearly two decades—is not only a political examination of one of the most important historical figures of the twentieth century but also a fascinating portrait of Lenin the man. Brought up in comfort and with a passion for hunting and fishing, chess, and the English classics, Lenin was radicalized after the execution of his brother in 1887. Sebestyen traces the story from Lenin's early years to his long exile in Europe and return to Petrograd in 1917 to lead the first Communist revolution in history. Uniquely, Sebestyen has discovered that throughout Lenin's life his closest relationships were with his mother, his sisters, his wife, and his mistress. The long-suppressed story told here of the love triangle that Lenin had with his wife, Nadezhda Krupskaya, and his beautiful, married mistress and comrade, Inessa Armand, reveals a more complicated character than that of the coldly one-dimensional leader of the Bolshevik Revolution. With Lenin's personal papers and those of other leading political figures now available, Sebestyen gives is new details that bring to life the dramatic and gripping story of how Lenin seized power in a coup and ran his revolutionary state. The product of a violent, tyrannical, and corrupt Russia, he chillingly authorized the deaths of thousands of people and created a system based on the idea that political terror against opponents was justified for a greater ideal. An old comrade what had once admired him said that Lenin "desired the good . . . but created evil." This included his invention of Stalin, who would take Lenin's system of the gulag and the secret police to horrifying new heights. In Lenin, Victor Sebestyen has written a brilliant portrait of this dictator as a complex and ruthless figure, and he also brings to light important new revelations about the Russian Revolution, a pivotal point in modern history. (With 16 pages of black-and-white photographs)

In his book Lenin: How to Become a Leader, Vladlen Loginov, one of Russia's leading authorities on Vladimir Lenin, discusses the revolutionary leader’s early years, his family, his political awakening and subsequent activities. He reveals the beginnings of the creator of the world’s first socialist country, as well as the source of the future statesman's incredible willpower, his ability to influence people, his drive to succeed and his leadership qualities. All of these, the book demonstrates, were intrinsic to Lenin's character from a young age. In his research, Loginov uses new sources and previously unknown documents and memoirs, as well as archives of Russians in exile. Edited and introduced by Professor Geoffrey Swain.

Though Mayakovsky is predominently regarded in the West as a tortured love poet; he was one of the 20th centuries' most important political poets, too. Thisis a bi-lingual Russian/English edition of Mayakovsky's most significant poem.

Ending a two-hundred-year tsarist regime and bringing communism to the masses, Vladimir Lenin changed not only Russia, but also the world’s political climate. Using source documents and photos, this text discusses the major events of the Russian Revolution and its consequences in a way that makes the concepts clear, concise, and interesting to students.

Traces the life of the leader of the Bolshevik Revolution, who became the first head of the Soviet state.