Dr Christopher Reid provides a report of Lenin's personal life and political career. Christopher Reid draws on a broad range of primary and secondary sources, making use of archive material made available in the Glasnost and post-Soviet eras. Reid's report highlights all the good in Lenin. However fails to highlight all the wrong and broken promises. In many ways, the actions of Lenin could suggest that he was a bad leader although in a purely Marxist sense. This is because in 1917 when he had achieved power, he made many promises to the people about "what is to be done" and these policies reflected the thinking of a Marxist leader. The policy of 'War communism' adopted during the civil war certainly reflected a Marxist leader in which he put severe pressure upon the peasants.