The conqueror of Napoleon, Russia enjoyed its image of a great Empire in the XIXth c. But inside, the country suffered from poverty and lacked means of industrial development

« The Tsar, the Priest and the Rich Man on the Shoulders of the Labouring People », 1918, a Bolshevik propaganda poster.

 

. Hard life and work conditions culminated in a spontaneous democratic uprising in 1917. But a popular revolution rapidly degenerated and descended into dictatorship of the Soviets and soon into the cult of personality.

 

Vladimir Ilich Ulianov - Lenin, 1870-1924.