Lenin was a revolution. He lived and breathed and died for it. Born in 1870, in the sleepy Volga town of Simbirsk, he died in 1924 at the age of 53 having changed the course of history throughout the world. What was the genius that enabled Lenin to create and sustain a revolution that constantly hovered on the brink of utter chaos? It was his incredible strength of will and personality, his fantastic organisational ability and complete dedication to the goal of revolution, which enabled him to surmount domestic dissension and disorder, political rivalries, and economic ruin. It was his supreme ability to adapt, to change, to pursue any means to achieve his ends that enabled the revolution to survive. Louis Fischer's book is based on meticulous sifting of the Soviet sources. The author first met Lenin in 1922, when the country was in the throes of revolution and remained a devoted scholar of Soviet affairs throughout the rest of his life.