Kazakhstan. Semipalatinsk. A young couple kisses on a bench in a public park near a Lenin's bust statue from the former Soviet Union. Vladimir Ilyich Lenin ( born Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. April 22 [O.S. April 10] 1870 - January 21, 1924), 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. Semey is the Kazakh name for Semipalatinsk and is located in the Eastern Kazakhstan Province. © 2008 Didier Ruef