Editing Vladimir Lenin (section)

=== Retirement and death ===
Persistent stories mark [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syphilis syphilis] as the cause of Lenin's death. A "retrospective diagnosis" published in The European Journal of Neurology in 2004 strengthens these suspicions.

The mental strains of leading a revolution, governing, and fighting a civil war aggravated the physical debilitation consequent to the wounds from the attempted assassinations; Lenin retained a bullet in his neck, until a German surgeon removed it on 24 April 1922. Among his comrades, Lenin was notable for working almost ceaselessly, fourteen to sixteen hours daily, occupied with minor, major, and routine matters. About the man at his life's end, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmitri_Volkogonov Volkogonov] said:
Lenin was involved in the challenges of delivering fuel into [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivanovo Ivanovo-Vosnesensk]... the provision of clothing for miners, he was solving the question of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamo dynamo] construction, drafted dozens of routine documents, orders, trade agreements, was engaged in the allocation of rations, edited books and pamphlets at the request of his comrades, held hearings on the applications of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peat peat], assisted in improving the workings at the "Novii Lessner" factory, clarified in correspondence with the engineer P. A. Kozmin the feasibility of using [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_turbines wind turbines] for the electrification of villages... all the while serving as an adviser to party functionaries almost continuously.
When already sick, Lenin remembered that, since 1917, he had only rested twice: once, while hiding from the Kerensky Provisional Government (when he wrote [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_and_Revolution ''The State and Revolution'']), and while recovering from Fanya Kaplan's failed assassination. In March 1922, when physicians examined him, they found evidence of neither nervous nor organic [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pathology pathology], but, given his [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatigue_%28medical%29 fatigue] and the headaches he suffered, they prescribed rest. Upon returning to St. Petersburg in May 1922, Lenin suffered the first of three strokes, which left him unable to speak for weeks, and severely hampered motion in his right side; by June, he had substantially recovered. By August he resumed limited duties, delivering three long speeches in November. In December 1922, he suffered the second stroke that partly [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paralysis paralyzed] his right side, he then withdrew from active politics. In March 1923, he suffered the third stroke that rendered him [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muteness mute] and bed-ridden until his death.

After the first stroke, Lenin dictated government papers to Nadezhda; among them was ''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenin%27s_Testament Lenin's Testament]'' (changing the structure of the soviets), a document partly inspired by the 1922 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgian_Affair Georgian Affair], which was a conflict about the way in which social and political transformation within a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republics_of_the_Soviet_Union constituent republic] was to be achieved. It criticized high-rank Communists, including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Stalin Joseph Stalin], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grigory_Zinoviev Grigory Zinoviev], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lev_Kamenev Lev Kamenev], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Bukharin Nikolai Bukharin], and Leon Trotsky. About the Communist Party's General Secretary (since 1922), Joseph Stalin, Lenin reported that the "unlimited authority" concentrated in him was unacceptable, and suggested that "comrades think about a way of removing Stalin from that post." His phrasing, ''"Сталин слишком груб"'', implies "personal rudeness, unnecessary roughness, lack of finesse", flaws "intolerable in a Secretary-General".

At Lenin's death, Nadezhda mailed his testament to the central committee, to be read aloud to the 13th Party Congress in May 1924. However, to remain in power, the ruling ''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troika_%28triumvirate%29 troika]''—Stalin, Kamenev, Zinoviev—suppressed ''Lenin's Testament''; it was not published until 1925, in the United States, by the American [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual intellectual] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Eastman Max Eastman]. In that year, Trotsky published an article minimising the importance of ''Lenin's Testament'', saying that Lenin's notes should not be perceived as a will, that it had been neither concealed, nor violated; yet he did invoke it in later anti-Stalin polemics.

Lenin died at 18.50 hrs, Moscow time, on 21 January 1924, aged 53, at his estate at Gorki settlement (later renamed [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorki_Leninskiye Gorki Leninskiye]). In the four days that the Bolshevik Leader Vladimir Ilyich Lenin [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lying_in_state lay in state], more than 900,000 mourners viewed his body in the Hall of Columns; among the statesmen who expressed condolences to the Soviet Union was Chinese premier [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Yat-sen Sun Yat-sen], who said:
Through the ages of world history, thousands of leaders and scholars appeared who spoke eloquent words, but these remained words. You, Lenin, were an exception. You not only spoke and taught us, but translated your words into deeds. You created a new country. You showed us the road of joint struggle... You, great man that you are, will live on in the memories of the oppressed people through the centuries. [http://real-life-heroes-and-good-guys.wikia.com/wiki/Winston_Churchill Winston Churchill], who encouraged British intervention against the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Revolution_%281917%29 Russian Revolution], in league with the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Movement White Movement], to destroy the Bolsheviks and Bolshevism, said: He alone could have found the way back to the causeway... The Russian people were left floundering in the bog. Their worst misfortune was his birth... their next worst his death.