Vladimir Lenin was the father of the Soviet Union. The extremely frigid temperatures of Russia's winter in the year 1924 led to Lenin's body decomposing at a much slower rate than normal; thus, the Russian residents decided to preserve his body. The professor of medicine Vladimir Vorob'ev and the biochemist Boris Zbarskii were tasked with embalming Lenin's deceased body; their method worked. Lenin's body became recognized among the Soviet people as, of course, Vladimir Lenin, but also as the embodiment of Communision; this birthed the term "Leninism," which pertained to a person's legacy that they left behind even after thier physical body had died. The individuals who continue to preserve Lenin's body today refer to it as a living sculpture. While Lenin had been the one to lay the foundation for Communism, one of his most motivated and devoted followers, Joseph Stalin, was the one who began to build upon his foundation.

Joseph Stalin became a devoted follower of Vladimir Lenin in 1905; so much so, that he committed numerous bank heists in 1907 to fund Lenin's Bolsheviks. Eventually, in 1912, Lenin departed from the Social Democratic Party and and appointed Stalin as his new party's Central Committee; he viewed him as ruthless and dependable. Finally, in 1917, the Bolsheviks overthrew the Russian government; Lenin appointed Stalin to his cabinet as the Commissar of Nationalities. Stalin was described as not being intelligent, but being determined and hard-working enough to reach his aggresive goals. Stalin loved doing office work and eventually worked his way up more in the system that Lenin had devised. In the year 1922, Lenin suffered the first of many critical strokes which eventually led to his death in 1924; afterwards, a group of Lenin's closest companions were left to rule over Russia. However, Stalin was able to manipulate the competition and took full control of the party and had the others eliminated.

The Russian Revolution was an example of how regular citizens of a country could manipulate the class system and gain power by utilizing their intellect to make smart moves. While Stalin was not described as being particulaly intellectual, he had learned how power was passed on and how much weight it carried. Stalin was smarter than he appeared, and the Revolution was one example of how easily power could be handed off to the wrong person and how the Communistic government never completely abolished the class system.

Works Cited

"Joseph Stalin." Tribune Content Agency Photos, 2013. Gale In Context: College, link.gale.com/apps/doc/YGWNWU421704033/CSIC?u=purdue_main&sid=bookmark-CSIC&xid=29f084cd. Accessed 8 Nov. 2021.

"Joseph Stalin." UXL Biographies, UXL, 2011. Gale In Context: College, link.gale.com/apps/doc/EJ2108102152/CSIC?u=purdue_main&sid=bookmark-CSIC&xid=8593adca. Accessed 8 Nov. 2021.

Yurchak, Alexei. "Communist Proteins: Lenin's Skin, Astrobiology, and the Origin of Life." Kritika, vol. 20, no. 4, fall 2019, pp. 683+. Gale In Context: World History, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A607387978/WHIC?u=purdue_main&sid=bookmark-WHIC&xid=de903246. Accessed 8 Nov. 2021.