The story of a middle-class student who became a revolutionary and founded the Soviet Union.

Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, later known as Lenin, is inextricably linked with the October Revolution of 1917. Who was he? He was probably the smartest, most cold-blooded, resolute revolutionary of his time. He was also the cruel lord of totalitarian power and ever-present terror. Lenin saw himself as “the best Marxist in the world,” and elevated the writings of the German theorist to provide the basis for a personality cult without equal. He wanted to bring down the monarchy and modernise Russia. He established the Soviet Union and built it into a world power. He wanted to free the peoples of the world, spread socialism across the globe – and yet he fell to the ancient false gods of uncontrollable power. When Lenin died in 1924, he bequeathed to the 20th century a new, one party dictatorship, to whom millions of people would fall victim. From the makers of “Hitler & Mussolini”, “Hitler & Stalin” and “Molotov”, this new film follows the story of a middle-class student’s conversion to political radicalism, his rapid rise as an ambitious politician to the leadership of the party. The viewer will discover a new, excitingly contradictory picture of Lenin.