Lenin:    

Assassination attempt, headaches, and strokes

August 30, 1918, Fania Kaplan shot and wounded Lenin.  He was shot in the shoulder and neck, and was in pain, but the wounds were not mortal.  Lenin made a quick recovery from his wounds, and returned to work within two weeks of the shooting.

By the spring of 1922 Lenin was plagued by insomnia and frightful headaches.  It was suspected that this was the result of lead poisoning due to the bullets that still remained after the assasination attempt in 1918.  On April 23 one of the two bullets was surgically removed.

On May 26, 1922, Lenin suffered a stroke that left him partially paralyzed and unable to speak properly.  By the end of September he was still not well, but he resumed his regular duties in Moscow on October 2.

Lenin with wife Krupskaya at Gorki in 1922

In the second half of December 1922, Lenin suffered a series of strokes, and by the end of that month his condition was very poor.  On March 9, 1923, Lenin suffered a major stroke.  His right side was totally paralyzed, and he lost the power of speech.  Being incapacitated, he remained at Gorki, attended by his wife and his younger sister Maria Ilinichna Ulianova, until his death, January 21, 1924.

Lenin with PP and MM Pokalin at Gorki, summer 1923

Lenin at Gorki, summer 1923

Ronald W. Clark, "LENIN   a biography", Harper & Row Publishers, 1988, p308.

Dmitri Volkogonov, "LENIN   a new biography", The Free Press, 1994, p408