In 1912 Lenin was in exile in Switzerland, and delegated Joseph Stalin to serve on the first Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party. In November 1917, the Bolsheviks confiscated power in Russia. The Soviet Union was then founded in 1922, with Lenin as their first leader. During the years that Lenin ruled, Stalin had advanced to move up the party ladder, and in the year of 1922 he was appointed as the secretary general of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. This role admitted him to elect his allies into government job and cultivate a base of political support. Lenin then died in 1924, Joseph ultimately overthrew his rivals and achieved the power strife for control of the Communist Party. Later in the 1920s Stalin became dictator of the Soviet Union.