1. After the Bolshevik revolution, the Soviet Union was led by a series of dictators including Lenin and Stalin who established totalitarian rule.
2. The early Soviet economy collapsed under war communism, leading to famine, so Lenin implemented the New Economic Policy which allowed some private enterprise and increased agricultural output.
3. Stalin emerged as the Soviet leader after Lenin's death and instituted five-year plans and brutal purges to rapidly industrialize the Soviet Union through centralized control, though living standards declined and millions died from famine or executions.