Lenin is a colossal figure whose influence on twentieth-century history cannot be underestimated. Robert Service has written a calmly authoritative biography on this seemingly unknowable figure. Making use of recently opened archives he has been able to piece together the private as well as the public life giving the first complete picture of Lenin. This biography simultaneously provides an account of one of the greatest turning points in modern history. Through the prism of Lenins career Service examines events such as the October Revolution & the ideas of Marxism-Leninism the one-party state economic modernisation dictatorship & the politics of inter-war Europe. In discovering the origins of the USSR he casts light on the nature of the state & society which Lenin left behind & which have not entirely disappeared after the collapse of the Soviet regime in 1991. Immensely scholarly but also vivid & readable. This is a splendid book much the best that I have ever read about Lenin.. .I was overwhelmed by the power & vividness of this portrait
- Dominic Lieven Sunday Telegraph". He has managed skilfully to depict the surreal life of an obsessive brilliant & stubborn individual
- " Guardian". Lenins life was politics but Service has succeeded in keeping Lenin the man in focus throughout.. . This book deserves a place among the best studies of one of the most fascinating figures in modern history
- Harold Shukman " The Times"."