The dictatorial russian leader who took power after lenin was .

Joseph Stalin  was a Soviet dictator, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union between 1922 and 1952 and president of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union between 1941 and 1953.

In 1912, Lenin intended to propose the election of Stalin to the Bolshevik Central Committee at the Party Conference in Prague, but gave up when he met the resistance of the party. However, immediately afterward, Stalin was added to the Central Committee for "cooptation"

On April 3, 1922, Stalin was appointed General Secretary of the Pan-Russian Communist Party, a post he later transformed into the most powerful in the country. At that time, this position was seen as a minor charge within the party structure, however this position associated with the leadership it had over the Organizational Office of the Central Committee of the Party (Orgburó), gave Stalin a strong enough power base as to allow him to install his allies in the key positions of the party.

The accumulation of power by Stalin took the dying Lenin by surprise, who, in his last writings (Testament of Lenin), made appeals for the XII Congress of the Bolshevik Party to remove the "abrupt" Stalin.

the mongolian invasion of china and central asia resulted in a disruption of the silk road as the chinese garrisons lost support from the chinese kingdoms which fell under the mongols. however, as the mongols established a formal dynasty in china, the successors of genghis khan restored the garrisons along the silk road allowing the safe travel caravans again.