Vladimir Lenin was a Russian revolutionary and the first head of the Soviet Union, serving from 1917 until his death in 1924. He was the leader of the Bolshevik Party, which seized power during the October Revolution and overthrew the Provisional Government, becoming the first government of the Soviet Russia. Lenin’s ideas, including the Bolshevik interpretation of socialism, shaped the development of the Soviet state and had a profound impact on the course of 20th-century history.