Lenin and other old Bolsheviks were remarkably Spartan and frugal, carrying on the lifestyle and ethos of the underground revolutionary into government. Lenin didn't smoke, wasn't really interested in drinking, women, or even music; saying 'I can't listen to music too often...It makes me want to say kind, stupid things, and pat the heads of people...But now you have to beat them on the head, beat them without mercy'.

Stalin and his cronies, on the other hand, enjoyed lavish lifestyles, often occupying the former homes of the Tsarist elite. The disparity between their rhetoric and reality is perhaps most clearly seen on the 8th of November 1932, when, as the Bolshevik magnates celebrated the 15th anniversary of the October revolution with a feast and toasted their success, hundreds of miles away in Ukraine millions were starving in the biggest man-made famine in history.

Sources: A People's Tragedy The Russian Revolution 1891-1924: Orlando Figes, Stalin The Court of the Red Tsar: Simon Sebag Montefiore