The Czech Mint commemorates the controversial figure of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin by issuance of the eighth silver medal from the series entitled Cult of Personality.

After the elder brother Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov was executed for preparing the assassination of the Russian Tsar, the young man, who entered history under the pseudonym Lenin, decided to become a professional left-wing revolutionary. However, he was arrested and sent into exile, where he spent 17 long years. He travelled around Europe and became a prominent theorist of Marxism and strategist for the Bolshevik Party... At the beginning of the 20th century, the Tsardom of Russia faced a serious crisis, and the Russian Social Democrats, who called themselves Bolsheviks, were convinced that change could only be achieved by force - through a carefully organized coup. This revolution was to be led by Lenin, surrounded by a cohesive group of exiled revolutionaries who would be the vanguard of the working masses. What must have been the surprise of the Bolsheviks when Tsar Nicholas II was overthrown in 1917 without their help. A disgusted Lenin declared the Russian revolution bourgeois and decided to engineer another - a proper socialist one. He was supported by Germany, which wanted to create chaos in Russia, its rival in the First World War. The first attempt of a Bolshevik coup failed and Lenin had to flee abroad again, but he soon returned and carried out a successful "Great October Socialist Revolution". As planned, he concluded peace with Germany and set about fighting his internal opponents. Thus began the Russian Civil War in which the Bolsheviks clashed with monarchists, liberals and moderate socialists. The cost of Lenin's victory was terrible - millions died and the economy was in ruins. In the totalitarian Soviet Union that emerged from this confusion, Lenin then implemented his doctrine: Marxism-Leninism. He promoted collectivisation, fought the Church and modernised Russia. After his death, Stalin took unlimited power and maintained the cult of Lenin. He had the revolutionary's body embalmed and displayed in a Moscow mausoleum where it has rested for 100 years...

"The obverse side is covered by a net spread between five rays with a hint of a five-pointed star, symbolizing the spread of the Bolshevik Revolution to all corners of Russia and other countries. The depiction of Lenin in the centre was inspired by contemporary stylized portraits designed to spread his ideology and cult. The net still bears the name VLADIMIR ILJIČ LENIN and the life dates: 22. 4. 1870 SIMBIRSK – 21. 1. 1924 GORKI," explains academic sculptor Jiří Dostál. "The sprawling net of Bolshevik ideology covers the reverse side, where it continues even after the death of Lenin, whose embalmed body became a symbol of the cult. The bottom line of the quotation LEARN, LEARN, LEARN is composed upside down, recalling Lenin's opposition to the intelligentsia," the medal's author said.

Each medal includes a special appendix that offers an objective view of Lenin through the eyes of historian Pavel Kosatík.