Brought up in comfort and with a passion for hunting and fishing, chess, and the English classics, Vladimir Lenin was radicalized after the execution of his brother in 1887. While tracing Lenin's life from these early years to his long exile in Europe and return to Petrograd in 1917 to lead the first Communist revolution in history, Victor Sebestyen sheds new light on the burgeoning dictator's warm relationships with his mother, his wife, and his mistress. A compartmentalized figure, Lenin is also shown here in his role as a leader who unflinchingly 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.