Can anyone recommend a good biography of Vladimir Lenin?

[CFH]

I really don't feel like engaging in a 5-page discussion in which nothing is resolved, so I will just say that I literally agree with none of what you said.

OK, so which Socialist leader did NOT massacre large groups of people? Lenin's Red Revolution was not without loss of a great number of lives and for what? It's not as if the Russians ended up much better than they were.

Why Lenin why not focus on Mao or Stalin? Don't those guys tickle your fancy CFH? Focusing on Lenin is as pointless as focusing on Che Guavera or Leon Trotsky

I'm not going to address the first part of your post for the reasons I have already mentioned, but again I do not necessarily agree with your position. First, the is a huge difference between democratic socialism, socialism, and communism. Furthermore, many so-called "communist" leaders are nothing more than dictators who use their ostensible ideologies to justify their positions. I guess I did end up briefly addressing that point, but whatever.

As for the second part, why Lenin? Because I find him fascinating (in particular his perspectives on colonialism) and I want to learn more about him. Mao has never really interested me and I already know a lot more about Stalin than I do about Lenin. I don't think focusing on any historical figure is pointless (at least not from a historians perspective), I don't understand why you would think that was the case. I find Lenin as interesting as I do someone like Nixon, but it doesn't necessarily mean I relate to either one of them (though I do think, if not for the Vietnam War, that Nixon could have been an extremely good President, but I digress). Lenin, whether you like it or not and regardless of whether you agree with him, had a massive impact on the course of history in the 20th century, why wouldn't someone interested in history want to study him?