Published in Great Britain in 1964, this book, translated into many languages, is still one of the most popular biographies of V. I. Lenin abroad. R. Payne saw his main task in writing the story of “a broken, tortured, incredibly generously gifted man by nature, one of a kind, who can without hesitation be called a political genius.” Did the author achieve his goal? Now, with the publication of the book in Russian, not only foreign, but also domestic readers can judge this. There are many other interesting biographies in the creative heritage of R. Payne. This book is Robert Payne's debut in Russia. The book is illustrated with black and white photographs.