Lenin addressing Russian soldiers, Petrograd, Russia, 1920. Trotsky and Kamenev stand at right. Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (April 22, 1870 - January 21, 1924) was a Russian Marxist revolutionary, communist politician, Marxist theoretician, and first premier of the Soviet Union. In 1903 he formed the Bolsheviks and led them in the 1917 October Revolution, which established the Soviet Government. He formed the Comintern in 1919 and adopted the New Economic Policy after the Civil War had led to the virtual collapse of the Russian economy. He was a gifted, charismatic orator and his extensive theoretic and philosophical developments of Marxism produced Marxism-Leninism, the pragmatic Russian application of Marxism. He stressed bold, revolutionary action and insisted that a strong Communist party would be needed in a Marxist nation to direct the efforts of the workers. In May 1922, he suffered a stroke, which left him unable to speak for weeks. By August he resumed limited duties. In December 1922, he suffered a second stroke that partly paralyzed his right side. In March 1923, he suffered a third stroke. He was mute and bed-ridden, but remained the leader of the Communist Party. He died in 1924 at the age of 53.