After the outbreak of the February Revolution, German authorities allowed Lenin and his lieutenants to cross Germany en route from Switzerland to Sweden in a sealed railway car. Berlin hoped, correctly, that the return of the anti-war socialists to Russia would undermine the Russian war effort, which was continuing under the provisional government.
Why did the Germans seal the doors of Lenin's train?
Once the three of the carriage's four doors at the Russian end were closed shut, Fritz Platten, a Swiss socialist marked them with chalk in German as "sealed". The train was given a high traffic priority by the Germans. Crown Prince Wilhelm, the eldest son of Kaiser Wilhelm II, was delayed for two hours to let Lenin's train to pass.
What was the purpose of a sealed train?
The most notable use of a sealed train was the return of Vladimir Lenin to Russia from exile in Switzerland in 1917, but the practice was used a number of times throughout the 20th century to allow the migration or transport of controversial individuals or peoples. For instance, sealed trains were used for repatriation...
What did Lenin say on the train ride to Germany?
He later recalled that as the doors closed Lenin leaned from the carriage window, shook his hand and said, "Either we'll be swinging from the gallows in three months or we shall be in power." (13) At the German frontier at Gottmadingen station, they were escorted by German soldiers to their own specially commandeered military "sealed train".
Who was on the sealed train with Lenin?
Lenin's Sealed Train. The people who travelled with him included Gregory Zinoviev, Karl Radek, Inessa Armand, Nadezhda Krupskaya, Georgi Safarov, Zinaida Lilina and Moisey Kharitonov. Lenin's supporters milled around the waiting train carrying revolutionary banners and singing the "Internationale".
Who was on the train with Lenin?
Lenin and his fellow exiles, revolutionaries all, including his wife, Nadezhda Krupskaya, had boarded a train in Zurich, crossed Germany, traveled the Baltic Sea by ferry and ridden 17 hours by rail from Stockholm to this remote corner of Sweden. They hired horse-drawn sleds to head across the frozen river to Finland.
How long was Lenin on the train?
A century ago this April, revolutionary politician Lenin embarked on a circuitous eight-day rail journey from Switzerland to Russia. Allan George and The Railway Magazine recall the remarkable tale.
Why did Germany smuggle Lenin?
The Germans hoped that if they could smuggle him back into Russia, he might take control and end his country's part in the war. They did, and he did, and under his direction the Soviet Union was born. The Germans organized the railway cars for the journey, protected by a squad of their own troops.
When did Lenin return to Russia train?
On April 16, 1917, Vladimir Lenin, leader of the revolutionary Bolshevik Party, returns to Petrograd after a decade of exile to take the reins of the Russian Revolution.
Why did the Germans send Lenin to Russia in a sealed train car?
The Germans had sent him in a sealed car from Switzerland. They hoped that Lenin would foment further instability in Russia since Lenin's Bolsheviks were opposed to continuing the war with the Germans.
What were Lenin's last words?
Vladimir Ilych Lenin's last words were, “Good dog.” (Technically, he said “Vot sobaka.”) He said this to a dog that brought him a dead bird. Surgeon Joseph Henry Green was checking his own pulse as he lay dying.
Why was Vladimir Lenin exiled?
In 1897, he was arrested for sedition and exiled to Shushenskoye in Siberia for three years, where he married Nadezhda Krupskaya. After his exile, he moved to Western Europe, where he became a prominent theorist in the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP).
Is Lenin's body still on display in Red Square?
Lenin's corpse is indeed still on display in his mausoleum in Red Square, and visitors still file by during visiting hours.
How did Lenin take over Russia?
Under the leadership of Russian communist Vladimir Lenin, the Bolshevik Party seized power in the Russian Republic during a coup known as the October Revolution.
What were the three things that Lenin wanted to do after he returned to Russia in April 1917 from his exile Class 9?
In 1917, Lenin returned to Russia. Since the start of the World War, he and the Bolsheviks were against Russia's involvement. Lenin had three demands: First, he declared that the war be brought to an end; second, he wanted the lands to be transferred to the peasants; third, the banks had to be nationalised.
How did Lenin get back to Russia?
Aided by German intelligence agents, exiled Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin, along with 23 other Russian banished revolutionaries, secretly returned to Russia in a sealed train.
What did Vladimir Lenin promise?
The Second Revolution: 'Peace, bread and land' Vladimir Lenin knew how unhappy the people of Russia were. He promised them lots of things that they wanted - his slogan was peace, bread and land. This promise made him very popular. Lenin was the leader of a group of revolutionaries called the Bolsheviks.
How long was Lenin in exile for?
In 1897, he was arrested for sedition and exiled to Shushenskoye in Siberia for three years, where he married Nadezhda Krupskaya. After his exile, he moved to Western Europe, where he became a prominent theorist in the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP).
When did Lenin flee to Finland?
On 16 and 17 July 1917, Lenin went into hiding and then fled Russia for Finland, after Kerensky's provisional government outlawed the Bolshevik Party and started to arrest members of the party.
Did the Germans send Lenin to Russia?
The Germans agreed to help Lenin, but they wanted him to convince Russia to leave the war. After much negotiation, an agreement between Lenin and the German Imperial government was finally reached. It was agreed that 32 Russian revolutionaries, including Lenin, would be transported across Germany in a 'sealed train'.
Who took over when Lenin died ill?
Upon Lenin's death, Stalin was officially hailed as his successor as the leader of the ruling Communist Party and of the Soviet Union itself.
What did Lenin call for?
Lenin called for “Mass Terror” during the civil war of 1918, resulting in executions in the tens of thousands. Historian Alexander Margolis had the last word on the subject, if not the understatement of the century: “If they had arrested Lenin at the Finland Station, it would have saved everyone a lot of trouble”.
When did Lenin leave Switzerland?
Not far from food riots of his own and loathe to unleash such a bacterium against his own homeland, a “Sealed Train” carrying Vladimir Ilyich Lenin and 31 dissidents departed from exile in Switzerland on April 9, complements of the Kaiser.
What did Kaiser do in the midst of chaos?
In the midst of this chaos, the Kaiser calculated that all he had to do was “kick the door in”, the Russian Republic would collapse, and they would be out of the war. He was right.
What happened in 1918 in Russia?
Imperial Russia had seen the first of what would be two revolutions back in February, when food riots led to the overthrow and exile of the Imperial family. Full scale civil war broke out in 1918, resulting in the Bolshevik murder of the Czar and Czarina, together with their children, servants and dogs.
What was the war effort shackled to a corpse?
By 1916 it was generally understood in Germany, that the war effort was “shackled to a corpse”, referring to Germany’s Austro-Hungarian ally. Italy, the third member of the “Triple Alliance”, was little better. On the Triple Entente side, the French countryside was literally torn to pieces, the English economy close to collapse. The Russian Empire, the largest nation on the planet, was on the edge of the precipice.
Was Lenin in exile?
Lenin was in exile at this time, and Imperial Germany was at war with Russia. British historian Edward Crankshaw writes, the German government saw “in this obscure fanatic one more bacillus to let loose in tottering and exhausted Russia to spread infection”.
Why were sealed trains used?
For instance, sealed trains were used for repatriation of combatants in the Spanish Civil War, Jewish emigration from Nazi Germany to the United States, and expulsion of East German refugees to West Germany.
What is a sealed train?
A sealed train is one that travels internationally under customs and/or immigration seal, without its contents legally recognized as entering or leaving the nations traversed between the beginning and end of the journey or subject to any otherwise applicable taxes.
When did Lenin and 31 other exiles embark on a train?
At last, on 9 April 1917, Lenin and 31 other exiles embarked on a train at Zurich station. This has gone down in history as the ‘sealed train’, and and its journey became part of the mythology of the Russian Revolution, helped not least by Platten’s own account, published in 1924. Front cover of Platten's Die Reise Lenins...
Who pushed Lenin down?
Platten pushed Lenin down, sustaining a minor injury himself and probably saving the Bolshevik leader’s life. Despite his services to the Revolution, he later fell victim to Stalin’s purges, and was shot on 22 April 1942 – ironically, the anniversary of Lenin’s birth.
Where did Lenin arrive in St Petersburg?
At last, on 16 April, they arrived (on an ordinary train) at the Finland Station in St Petersburg, where Lenin proclaimed to a welcoming crowd the ‘worldwide Socialist revolution’ which he believed was just beginning. Finnish Locomotive 293, which undertook the last leg of Lenin’s journey. It was presented to Russia by Finland ...
Where was Lenin stuck in Zurich?
To the Finland Station in a not-so-sealed Train. In the weeks following Russia’s February Revolution in 1917, an increasingly frustrated Lenin was stuck in Zurich, forced to follow events from afar. Like other Russian political exiles, he had found neutral Switzerland a convenient haven when war broke out in 1914, but now it was more like a cage.
Did Platten help Lenin?
They were travelling in a car together when a would-be assassin opened fire. Platten pushed Lenin down, sustaining a minor injury himself and probably saving the Bolshevik leader’s life.
Lenin and The Sealed Train Though Germany
I have always wondered why Lenin's accepting the aid of German militarists in getting transported to Russia in order to carry out a Bolshevik Revolution did not end up discrediting him in the eyes of most Russians.
Re: Lenin and The Sealed Train Though Germany
1. It wasn't Lenin alone, but several wagon loads of political emigres from Switzerland belonging to various left parties. 2. Transit was officially arranged as an exchange for German POWs and internees in Russia. 3.
Re: Lenin and The Sealed Train Though Germany
Art has answered most of what was asked. however the sealed train seems to be far less sealed than many imagined, and contact with other travellers was possible. The 'sealed' nature seems to have been far more a case of keeping a low profile.
Re: Lenin and The Sealed Train Though Germany
This should be interesting to read. In the United States the 'Sealed Train' story was part and parcel to the Cold War. Wilhelmine Germany and Nazi Germany, a collective of evil we fought in two world wars spawned our then current enemy.
Re: Lenin and The Sealed Train Though Germany
Lenin when WW I began was in Austria-hungary instead of being interned he was transported to Switzerland in an Austrian goverment mail train. he also called for the defeat of the RUSSIAN armies!? during the war he and his party maintained contacts with the germans.
Re: Lenin and The Sealed Train Though Germany
Lenin certainly made no bones about using the Germans (or anybody else, Russian or not) to further the Soviet Revolution in October (November on our calendar) But remember, the German advances were, until Hoffman's February 1918 offensive, in Poland and the Ukrane, not Mother Russia proper. This was far from the Soviet Revolutions in St.
Re: Lenin and The Sealed Train Though Germany
Again it wasn't Lenin and his gang but plenty of men from various parties including SRs, mensheviks, anarchists and Jewish Bund.
What did Lenin hire to travel across the frozen river?
They hired horse-drawn sleds to head across the frozen river to Finland. “I remember that it was night,” Grigory Zinoviev, one of the exiles traveling with Lenin, would write in a memoir. “There was a long thin ribbon of sledges. On each sledge were two people. Tension as [we] approached the Finnish border reached its maximum....Vladimir Ilyich was outwardly calm.” Eight days later, he would reach St. Petersburg, then Russia’s capital but known as Petrograd.
What did Lenin do in 1891?
Upon earning a law degree from St. Petersburg University in 1891, Lenin became a leader of a Marxist group in St. Petersburg, secretly distributing revolutionary pamphlets to factory workers and recruiting new members.
Where did Lenin go in 1917?
Inside the waiting room I found what I’d been looking for, a bronze plaque mounted on a blue tile wall: “Here Lenin passed through Haparanda on April 15, 1917, on his way from exile in Switzerland to Petrograd in Russia.”.
How many Lenin statues have been removed?
In Ukraine, about 100 Lenin monuments have been removed in the last couple of years, commencing with a Lenin statue in Kiev toppled during demonstrations that brought down President Viktor Yanukovych in 2014. Even a Lenin sculpture in a central Moscow courtyard was a recent victim of decapitation.
Why was Vladimir's brother killed?
Though Vladimir and his siblings grew up in comfort, the poverty and injustice of imperial Russia weighed heavily upon them. In 1887 his older brother, Alexander, was hanged in St. Petersburg for his involvement in a conspiracy to assassinate Czar Alexander III.
What was Lenin's plan for Russia?
Moving from Prague to London to Bern, publishing a radical newspaper called Iskra (“Spark”) and trying to organize an international Marxist movement, Lenin laid out his plan to transform Russia from a feudal society into a modern workers’ paradise.
Where did Lenin and his wife go?
Lenin and his fellow exiles, revolutionaries all, including his wife, Nadezhda Krupskaya, had boarded a train in Zurich, crossed Germany, traveled the Baltic Sea by ferry and ridden 17 hours by rail from Stockholm to this remote corner of Sweden. They hired horse-drawn sleds to head across the frozen river to Finland.
