This is a succinct, lucid and highly-readable introduction to the life and revolutionary career of Vladimir Ilych Lenin, one of the most influential political figures of the 20th century.Dr Rice's book focuses on Lenin's long political apprenticeship in the revolutionary underground and the convoluted road to power. Drawing on the testimony of family, friends and close associates Dr Rice's portrait of Lenin reveals him to be at times testy, mischievous, demanding and often belligerent; yet the people who knew him best never doubted his selfless commitment to pursuing a vision of the world where ordinary men and women would one day live free from exploitation. 'Dizzy with success' after seizing power in October 1917, Lenin and the Bolsheviks soon discovered the political realities of precipitous economic breakdown, bloody civil war, foreign intervention and revolutionary infighting. Ultimately the strain proved too much for the Soviet leader who became incapacitated by illness and tortured by developments within the party which he abhorred but could not prevent.