By far Joseph Stalin was worse than Lenin. Stalin sent millions of people to their unjustifiable deaths. Although Lenin was the leader of the soviet revolution he was never in power long enough to be responsible for the shear magnitude of human atrocities committed by Stalin. Lenin, however, was responsible for purging parts of some ethnic and government opposition groups. Stalin was one of Lenin's "enforcers" and would kill innocent people without cause, question, or concern. It was after Lenin's death when Stalin took over and had many high ranking military and revolutionary officer/officials executed. Also, he sent millions of innocent Soviets to Siberia as slaves and work them essentially to their deaths.
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Vladimir Lenin, then Joseph Stalin
At first, lenin... then lenin died and Stalin screwed with the succession and seized power.
Stalin's chief was Vladimir Lenin during the years before the Russian Revolution and until Lenin's death.
There are various reasons that Stalin pretended that he was close to Lenin. For example, he thought that it would gain him support.
Lenin felt that Stalin was far too harsh and that he would not make a good leader, but after his unexpected death in 1924, Lenin did not name his succesor, and Stalin took that chance to take power.