lenin was the central figure in transforming russia from a royal autocracy into a socialist state. he became a leading spokesman of social democracy in the russian capital, and in 1895 he was imprisoned. exile in siberia followed, and in 1900 lenin moved abroad. convinced of the need for a revolutionary voice, he founded the newspaper iskra in 1900. in his early writings, he argued that workers were incapable, on their own, of seeing beyond bread-and-butter issues; they needed a tightly organized revolutionary party to act on their behalf.
in 1903, the russian social democrats split over these issues, with lenin carrying the majority with him. in 1904, he returned briefly to saint petersburg to help organize the revolution.
by the time of the october revolution, lenin was the undisputed leader of the radical socialist movement. his concept of the dictatorship of the proletariat was ruthlessly imposed during the civil war. in 1921, he introduced the new economic policy to reverse the push toward a fully communist economy. he died in 1924, too soon to witness the full consequences of proletarian dictatorship.
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