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Needing support, Bolshevik leader turns to Left (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

lacking

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'needing' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'support bolshevik leader turns to left' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'leader' could be 'king' (King is an example) and 'king' is present in the answer.
'left' could be 'l' (common abbreviation) and 'l' is present in the answer.
This may be the basis of clue (or it may be nonsense).

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for lacking that I've seen before include "Deficient or inadequate" , "'Deficient, wanting (7)'" , "Short" , "Missing" , "Absent, deficient" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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