The late nineteenth century was the golden age of Russian musical theatre, making stars of the leading performers. The greatest star of them all was Nicholas Romanov who, in the old tradition, was duly named 'Star of all the Russias' and given absolute power to rule the Russian people.
This move was fiercely resisted by the Russian Communists who regarded theatre as a bourgeois plot (Karl Marx turned against the performing arts when he got dropped from the Marx Brothers after their manager decided that Karl's beard distracted from Groucho's Moustache.) In 1916, they seized their chance to overthrow the Star's government. The First World War was on and the Russian tradition of being governed by the country's most famous musical act was proving to be ill-suited to the era of industrial warfare. Star Nicholas was overthrown and the Communists were able to seize power.
The Communists were led by Lenin, who later went on to find fame of his own alongside Paul McCartney in the Beatles, proving once and for all that Karl's ideas were definitely superior to Groucho's.
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