Vladimir Ilyich Lenin , born Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov , and also known by the pseudonyms VI Lenin, Nikolai Lenin and N. Lenin, , was a Russian revolutionary, a communist politician, the main leader of the October Revolution, the first head of the Russian Soviet Socialist Republic and from 1922, the first de facto leader of the Soviet Union. He was named by Time Magazine as one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century. His contributions to Marxist theory are commonly referred to as Leninism.