Lenin began plotting an overthrow of the Provisional Government. ... On November 7 and 8, 1917, Red Guards captured Provisional Government buildings in a bloodless coup d'état. The Bolsheviks seized power of the government and proclaimed Soviet rule, making Lenin leader of the world's first communist state.

How did Lenin come to power?

Under the leadership of Russian communist Vladimir Lenin, the Bolshevik Party seized power in the Russian Republic during a coup known as the October Revolution.

When did Vladimir Lenin come to power?

He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1924 and of the Soviet Union from 1922 to 1924. Under his administration, Russia, and later the Soviet Union, became a one-party socialist state governed by the Soviet Communist Party.