A month after Czar Nicholas II had been forced out of Petrograd, the Russian capital, Lenin returned to take control of the revolution.

Lenin was to become the first dictator of a Marxist state. He made peace with Germany after the first World War, nationalized industry and distributed land. However, Czarist forces returned, causing a civil war. The Czarists were beaten in 1920. In 1922 the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ) was established.

Petrograd was renamed Leningrad in his honor after his death in 1924. Joseph Stalin succeeded him.