TODAY’S BIRTHDAY: Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (1870)Lenin was a Russian revolutionary and Bolshevik party leader whose mastery of political theory and shrewd political instincts led him to become the first Premier of the Soviet Union. As leader, Lenin nationalized banks, gave workers control over factory production, and introduced atheism as a political doctrine. His adaptation of traditional Marxist doctrine has become known as Marxism-Leninism and forms the basis of communist ideology.