A trip to the last century!

1924: Lenin in state

Vladimir Lenin, the revolutionary leader behind the communist Bolshevik Revolution, died in 1924 of a brain hemorrhage. The man who brought terror to so many was 54 at the time of his death. Doctors noted Lenin's cerebral arteries were "so calcified that when tapped with tweezers they sounded like stone.” In this Hulton Archive photograph, the Soviet Union’s first leader is shown lying in state at the Kremlin.