Vladimir Lenin was a Russian revolutionary who founded the communist party and led the Bolshevik Revolution. He developed Leninism, focusing on establishing dictatorship of the proletariat led by a vanguard party. Some key aspects of Leninism include democratic centralism, imperialism as the highest stage of capitalism, and using a small highly disciplined party to lead the working classes to revolution where they may not spontaneously rise up. Lenin helped establish the Soviet Union but grew ill in his later years, dying in 1924.