Vladimir Ilyich Lenin received the first news of the victory of the February Revolution in Russia on March 15, 1917, while in Zurich. From that moment on, he began to look for ways to quickly return to his homeland. Lenin knew well that neither he nor other prominent Bolsheviks could simply travel through England. The British authorities were quite well aware of their revolutionary activities, when passing through England they could be detained and even arrested. But still, Lenin is considering the terms of travel through England, which should have been agreed upon with the British government through negotiations. These conditions included granting the Swiss socialist Fritz Platten the right to transport any number of emigrants through England, regardless of their attitude to the war, the provision of a carriage enjoying the right of extraterritoriality on the territory of England, as well as the possibility of quickly sending emigrants from England by steamship to the port of any neutral country. But the British authorities did not agree to this, which forced Russian emigrants in Switzerland to resort to traveling through Germany as the last option to return to Russia.
The idea of obtaining permission to travel through Germany in exchange for Germans and Austrians interned in Russia arose in emigrant circles shortly after receiving news of the amnesty in Russia. The emigrants knew that during the war between Russia and Germany, military detainees and prisoners of war were repeatedly exchanged through neutral countries, and they believed that the amnesty declared by the Provisional Government would open up for them this convenient path of returning to their homeland. At a meeting of representatives of Russian and Polish socialist organizations of the Zimmerwald trend in Bern on March 19, this plan was put forward by the Menshevik leader Martov. One of the leaders of the Swiss Social Democracy, Robert Grimm, was instructed to probe the Swiss government about agreeing to mediate negotiations on this issue with representatives of the German authorities in Bern. When it finally became clear to Lenin that the route through England was closed, he turned to Martov’s plan. But the negotiations were slow, and Vladimir Ilyich decided to involve Fritz Platten in this matter.
“One day, at 11 o’clock in the morning, I received a telephone call to the party secretariat and was asked to be at half past two for a conversation with Comrade Lenin in the premises of the Eintracht workers’ club. I found there small company comrades at lunch. Lenin, Radek, Münzenberg and I went for a confidential conversation in the board room, and there Comrade Lenin asked me whether I would agree to be their confidant in organizing the trip and accompany them when passing through Germany. After a short reflection, I answered in the affirmative,” Platten wrote in a book about Lenin’s emigration.
The explanation with Grimm was short and decisive. Grimm stated that he considered Platten's intervention undesirable. This statement further strengthened Lenin's previous distrust. However, Grimm did nothing against this step, and Minister Romberg received Platten for negotiations on the matter of relocating Russian emigrants living in Switzerland. On instructions from Lenin and Zinoviev, Platten presented Minister Romberg with the following conditions under which the emigrants agreed to move:
1. I, Fritz Platten, supervise at my full personal responsibility the movement of a carriage through Germany with political emigrants and legal persons wishing to go to Russia.
2. The carriage in which the emigrants are traveling enjoys the right of extraterritoriality.
3. Passports or identities should not be checked either when entering or leaving Germany.
4. Persons are allowed to travel completely regardless of their political direction and views on war and peace.
5. Platten purchases the necessary train tickets for those leaving at a normal rate.
6. The trip should be as non-stop as possible on direct trains. There should be no order to exit the carriage, nor exit from it on one’s own initiative. There should be no interruptions during travel without technical necessity.
7. Permission to travel is given on the basis of an exchange of those leaving for German and Austrian prisoners and internees in Russia. The mediator and those traveling undertake to agitate in Russia, especially among the workers, with the aim of bringing this exchange into practice.
8. The shortest travel time possible from the Swiss border to the Swedish border, as well as technical details must be agreed upon immediately.
Two days later there was unconditional consent. Reporting Berlin's decision, Romberg informed Platten that Janson, a representative of the General Commission of German Trade Unions, would board the train in Stuttgart. From further negotiations it turned out that the following conditions for the move were set: 1) the maximum number of people leaving should not exceed 60 people, 2) two second-class passenger cars would be kept ready in Gottmadingen. The departure day was set by the German authorities for April 9.
The group of people wishing to travel through Germany by April 1 consisted of only 10 people. Bolshevik groups in Switzerland, at the request of Lenin, brought to the attention of emigrants of all political persuasions that those who wished to travel in the first batch could join the group. Over the course of a few days, the initially small group of departures grew to 32 people.
By 11 a.m. on April 9, all necessary preparations were completed and the Zurich station office was warned about the departure of the emigrants. All those leaving gathered at the Tseringhof restaurant for a common modest lunch.
At half past two, a group of emigrants headed from the restaurant to the Zurich train station, loaded with pillows, blankets and other belongings. An impressive crowd of patriotic emigrants gathered at the station, shouting accusations of national treason at those leaving and predictions that they would all be hanged in Russia as Jewish provocateurs. In response to this, as the train departed, its passengers sang “The Internationale” in chorus. According to the schedule, the train departed at 3:10 am. A Swiss customs inspection took place in Taingen, and passports were not checked.
“In the first days of the Bolshevik coup, Vorovsky told me that he did not believe in the strength of this seizure of power by the Bolsheviks, nor in the ability of the Bolsheviks to do anything worthwhile, considering the coup to be a ridiculous adventure. Where can Lenin, this groundless dreamer, do anything positive? He can easily destroy, but he can’t create” (from the book by G.A. Solomon, “Among the Red Leaders”). Lenin knew neither life, nor Russia, nor the Russian peasantry; in fact, he did not know the subject of what he was trying to lead and what he was trying to fit into his communist dogmas. Boris Bazhanov wrote about this in his book “Memoirs of Secretary Stalin,” where he pointed out that all the activities of the Bolsheviks after the victory in the Civil War boiled down to empty theoretical feuds and disputes in the Kremlin; they simply did not know what was happening in the country. Lenin was an exclusively party creature. In no country in the world could he have been a minister, but in any country he could have been the head of a conspiratorial party, for he was a narrow party conspirator to the core, a fanatic and an idol of Bolshevism. And an idol is nothing in the world. On June 20, 1914, at a meeting of the conference of the International Socialist Bureau in Brussels, Plekhanov openly stated that main reason Lenin's intransigence lies in the fact that he does not want to let go of party money from his hands, some of which was seized by thieves. Plekhanov prophetically, shortly before the October revolution, declared that if Lenin became the head of Russia, it would be the end of the country, and the triumph of Lenin’s tactics would bring with it such disastrous and terrible economic devastation that the majority of the population would curse the revolution, which is what happened. And for the right-wing Mensheviks, Bolshevism was generally a counter-revolution; the leader of the Menshevik-defencists, Potresov, defended the idea of uniting the proletariat and the bourgeoisie in the name of national unity and the triumph of statehood. That is, the revolutionaries themselves and Lenin’s former comrades cursed him. The intensive hammering into the heads of the current non-Russian government of the thesis that Russia had no path in 1917 except the Bolshevik path is yet another of their devilish tricks. Russia was supposed to win the war as a result of the summer offensive of 1917, which was stopped by Bolshevik propagandists, disintegrating the army, and act as the victorious country in the Treaty of Versailles, receiving as a result of this victory its territories and its reparations, and continue progressive economic development, and not slide into the abyss of chaos, civil war, devastation, hunger and destruction of foundations.
April 9, 1917 V.I. Lenin (who was then known under the pseudonym N. Lenin) and his party comrades left Switzerland for Petrograd.
As is known approximately recent years thirty, in order to wrest certain victory from Russia in the First World War, Germany recruited a crowd of Russian-speaking revolutionaries in exile. She put them in a secret, sealed carriage and sent them to St. Petersburg. Having broken free, the Bolsheviks, supplied with German millions, carried out a coup and concluded a “obscene peace.”
To understand how true this version is, let’s imagine that today’s West will catch the best Russian oppositionists, from A. Navalny to M. Kasyanov, seal them, give them a lot of money for the Internet and send them to Russia to perform. Will the government collapse from this? Yes, by the way, all these citizens are already in Russia, and everything seems to be fine with their money.
The whole point is that the understandable historical hostility of many of our fellow citizens towards V.I. Lenin is no excuse for unbridled fantasizing. Today, as we celebrate the 99th anniversary of Lenin's departure to Russia, this is worth talking about.
Why through Germany
Since 1908, Lenin has been in exile. From the very beginning of the First World War, he was a determined and public opponent of it. At the time of the abdication of Nicholas II and the February Revolution, he was in Switzerland. Russia at this time participated in the war: in alliance with the Entente countries against the Quadruple Alliance (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey, Bulgaria).
The possibility of leaving Switzerland was closed to him.
1. You cannot travel through the Entente countries - the Bolsheviks demand the immediate conclusion of peace, and therefore are considered undesirable elements there;
2. In Germany, in accordance with wartime laws, Lenin and his comrades can be interned as citizens of a hostile state.
Nevertheless, all routes were being worked out. Thus, the logistically fantastic possibility of traveling from Switzerland through England was unsuccessfully probed by I. Armand. France refused to issue passports to the Bolsheviks. Moreover, the authorities of England and France, on their own initiative, as well as at the request of the Provisional Government, detained a number of Russian Social Democrats: L. Trotsky, for example, spent about a month in a British concentration camp. Therefore, after lengthy discussions and doubts, the only possible route was chosen: Germany - Sweden - Finland - Russia.
Lenin's return to Russia is often associated with the adventurer (and, presumably, German intelligence agent) Parvus - on the grounds that it was he who first suggested that the German authorities assist Lenin and other Bolshevik leaders. After which they usually forget to mention that Lenin refused Parvus’s help - this is evidenced by his correspondence with the revolutionary Ya. Ganetsky, who was in contact with Parvus:
“...The Berlin resolution is unacceptable to me. Either the Swiss government will receive a carriage to Copenhagen, or the Russian government will agree to exchange all emigrants for interned Germans... Of course, I cannot use the services of people who are related to the publisher of “The Bell” (i.e. Parvus - author).
The passage was eventually agreed upon through the mediation of the Swiss Social Democratic Party.
Railway carriage
The same carriage.
The story about a sealed carriage has taken root with light hand W. Churchill (“...the Germans brought Lenin to Russia in an isolated carriage, like a plague bacillus”). In fact, only 3 of the 4 doors of the carriage were sealed - so that the officers accompanying the carriage could monitor compliance with the travel agreement. In particular, only the Swiss Social Democrat F. Platten had the right to communicate with the German authorities along the route. He also acted as a mediator in negotiations between Lenin and the German leadership - there was no direct communication.
Conditions for travel of Russian emigrants through Germany:
"1. I, Fritz Platten, accompany, on my full responsibility and at my own risk, a carriage with political emigrants and refugees returning through Germany to Russia.
2. Relations with German authorities and officials are conducted exclusively and only by Platten. No one has the right to enter the carriage without his permission.
3. The right of extraterritoriality is recognized for the carriage. No controls on passports or passengers should be carried out either when entering or leaving Germany.
4. Passengers will be accepted into the carriage regardless of their views and attitudes towards the issue of war or peace.
5. Platten takes over the supply of passengers train tickets at normal tariff prices.
6. If possible, travel should be completed without interruption. No one should at will, nor upon orders to leave the carriage. There should be no delays in transit unless technically necessary.
7. Permission to travel is given on the basis of exchange for German or Austrian prisoners of war or internees in Russia.
8. The intermediary and passengers undertake to personally and privately seek the implementation of point 7 from the working class.
9. Move from the Swiss border to the Swedish border as quickly as possible, as far as technically feasible.
(Signed) Fritz Platten
Secretary of the Swiss Socialist Party".
In addition to Lenin, more than 200 people returned to Russia along the same route: members of the RSDLP (including Mensheviks), Bund, Socialist Revolutionaries, anarchist-communists, non-party members.
Nadezhda Krupskaya in her published books Soviet power wrote in her memoirs about “ secret list passengers" without any secrecy:
“...We went, the Zinovievs, the Usievichs, Inessa Armand, the Safarovs, Olga Ravich, Abramovich from Chaux-de-Fonds, Grebelskaya, Kharitonov, Linde, Rosenblum, Boytsov, Mikha Tskhakaya, the Mariengofs, Sokolnikovs. Radek was traveling under the guise of a Russian. In total there were 30 people traveling, not counting the four-year-old son of the Bundovka, who was traveling with us, curly-haired Robert. Fritz Platten accompanied us.".
Who used whom?
L. Trotsky described the participation of the German authorities and the German General Staff in the passage: “...allowing a group of Russian revolutionaries to travel through Germany was an “adventure” of Ludendorff, due to the difficult military situation in Germany. Lenin used Ludendorff's calculations, while having his own calculations. Ludendorff said to himself: Lenin will overthrow the patriots, and then I will strangle Lenin and his friends. Lenin said to himself: I will travel in Ludendorff’s carriage, and I will pay him for the service in my own way.”
“Lenin’s payback” was the revolution in Germany itself.
Money
Funds to pay for travel came from different sources: cash fund of the RSDLP (b), assistance from the Swiss Social Democrats (mainly loans). From the offer by German agents financial assistance Lenin abandoned the organizational one even earlier, around March 24-26.
After returning to Russia, Lenin spoke with April theses(April 17, published on the 20th, by the end of April adopted by the Bolshevik Party as a program), which became the theoretical basis for October.
Thus, we see simple facts:
For the “gains of the February Revolution,” Lenin’s arrival really turned out to be fatal;
He did not save the German Empire;
Prisoner a year later "obscene" Treaty of Brest-Litovsk He didn’t save Germany either, but saved the power of the Bolsheviks.
As for Russia, there is, of course, a point of view that it was completely and completely destroyed by the Bolsheviks, and now we do not live in it. However, for those who continue to stubbornly live in Russia, such a point of view is hardly interesting.
Unknown Lenin - SEALED CAR
Page 5 of 21
"SEALED CAR"
So, on April 8, all obligatory matters were completed and on the morning of the 9th, with the first train, Lenin and Krupskaya left for Zurich. And there was only a few hours for everything. We said goodbye to the owners, threw the essentials into the basket, returned the books to the library and took our things to the station. All those who had decided to go to were already gathering there.
“All those leaving,” says Platten, “gathered at the Zähringerhof restaurant for a common modest dinner. Due to the incessant running back and forth and the incessant information given by Lenin and Zinoviev, the meeting gave the impression of an agitated anthill.” After discussing the information, all those present decided to sign a commitment, according to which each of the trip participants took personal responsibility for the step taken 1.
And then a conflict occurred. Among those who intended to go, the doctor Oskar Blum, author of the book “ Prominent figures Russian revolution". According to the agreement, neither party affiliation nor way of thinking could serve as an obstacle to inclusion in the list. And among those leaving, in addition to the Bolsheviks, there were Mensheviks, Vperyodists, Socialist Revolutionaries, and anarchists. But Blum was suspected of having connections with the secret police. “Lenin and Zinoviev made it clear to him that it would be better if he refused the trip... His desire - to interview everyone traveling - was satisfied. By a vote of 14 to 11, his inclusion on the list of those leaving was rejected.”2
Gradually everyone gathered. At half past two, the entire group “set out from the Zähringerhof restaurant to the station, loaded - according to Russian custom - with pillows, blankets and other belongings.” The platform was already crowded with mourners. And suddenly it turned out that Blum had already entered the carriage ahead of time and calmly, with a smile, took his seat. It was here that Vladimir Ilyich, who had kept himself under control all this time, as they say, lost his temper. He jumped into the carriage and literally dragged the impudent man onto the platform by the collar.
Meanwhile, a crowd of emigrants gathered near the carriage, violently protesting against the trip. A fight was about to break out. But young Swiss friends of Platten and railway employees quickly pushed the troublemakers out of the platform. A couple of minutes before the train departed, David Ryazanov approached Zinoviev “in great excitement”: “V. I. got carried away and forgot about the dangers; you are cooler. Understand that this is madness. Persuade V.I. refuse..." 3 But it was too late to enter into a discussion.
Standing on the platform, Platten’s friend, the young anarchist Siegfried Bloch, bidding farewell to Lenin, politely “expressed the hope of seeing him again soon with us,” that is, in Switzerland. Vladimir Ilyich laughed and replied: “That would be a bad political sign.” 4 Those departing had already taken their places in the carriage and were all waiting for the signal to depart. Since in the “Leninoed” literature even the question of the number of emigrants going to Russia became the subject of political insinuations, we present a list of them. Under the obligation signed at the Tseringhof restaurant are the names: Lenin and Lenina (Krupskaya), Zinoviev and Radomyslskaya (Lilina). Safarov and Safarova (Martoshkina), Usievich and Elena Kon (Usievich), employees of the newspaper “Nashe Slovo” Ilya and Maria Miringof (Marienhof), Inessa Armand and her husband’s sister Anna Konstantinovich, Mikha Tskhakaya and David Suliashvili, Grigory Sokolnikov, M. Kharitonov , N. Boytsov, A. Linde, F. Grebelskaya, A. Abramovich, A. Skovno, O. Ravich, D. Slyusarev, Socialist Revolutionary D. Rosenblum (Firsov), B. Elchaninov, Sheineson, M. Goberman, Eisenhood and Bundovka B. Pogovskoy. So 29 adults and two children: Stepan - the son of the Zinovievs and Robert - the son of Pogovskaya. Total: 31 people. There was no signature of the thirty-second - Karl Radek. He was an Austrian subject and could not be considered a Russian emigrant. Therefore, Platten asked him not to flash at the station, but to join the group at the nearest stop in Schaffhausen, which Radek did 5.
Finally the station bell rang. The mourners sang “The Internationale”. And the train set off...
And those who remained, who considered this trip a political mistake - did they prove the possibility of a different solution? No...
Days passed in fruitless anticipation of a response from Petrograd. “Our situation has become unbearable,” Martov telegraphed to his colleagues in Russia. On April 15, a split occurred. A group of 166 emigrants who decided to wait became a separate organization. Only on April 21 did the answer to the telegram sent on the 5th come. Miliukov answered. He again pointed out that travel through Germany was impossible and - once again - promised to achieve return through England 6 .
The emigrants regarded the answer as a mockery. And on April 30, they announced that they would go home the same way as the Lenin group. When asked whether Germany was using their trip in its chains, they could only repeat what the Bolsheviks said: “It is absolutely of no concern to us what motives will guide German imperialism, since we are and will continue to fight for peace, of course, not in the interests of German imperialism, but in the spirit of international socialism... Lenin’s travel conditions, published by Platten in People’s Law, contain all the necessary guarantees.” Axelrod, Martov and Semkovsky wrote even more precisely: “Considerations of a diplomatic nature, fears of a false interpretation, recede into the background for us before the powerful duty of participating in the Great Revolution” 7 .
On May 12 (April 29), the second group of emigrants - 257 people, including Martov, Natanson, Lunacharsky and others, left through Germany for Russia. They arrived safely in St. Petersburg on Tuesday, May 22 (9).
However, not everything ended smoothly. Using the services of the same Robert Grimm in negotiations with Romberg, they brought him with them to Petrograd to meet with the Provisional Government regarding the fate of the emigrants remaining in Switzerland. But Grimm immediately began his “secret diplomacy” about the possibility of concluding a separate peace and was expelled from Russia with a scandal 8 .
On June 30 there was a third, then a fourth “race.” In exactly the same way, in a “sealed” carriage, through Austria, Russian socialists left Bulgaria. And the Swiss emigrants who believed Miliukov and were waiting to pass through England in August 1917 telegraphed Kerensky with resentment: “The Zimmerwaldists left, we stayed” 9 .
But all this happened later...
And on April 9 (March 27) at 15:10, the train with the first group of political emigrants left Zurich. Arrived in Taingen. Here, Swiss customs officers carried out a full luggage inspection. It turned out that some products - especially chocolate - exceeded export standards. The surplus was confiscated. Then they counted the passengers. “Each of us,” says Elena Usievich, “exited from the rear platform of the carriage, holding in our hands a piece of paper with a serial number written on it... Having shown this scrap, we entered our carriage from the front platform. No one asked for any documents, no one asked any questions” 10.
The carriage was driven across the border to the German station of Gottmadingen. The attache of the German embassy in Bern, who accompanied the group, transferred his powers to the officers of the German General Staff, Captain Arvid von Planitz and Lieutenant Dr. Wilhelm Bürig 11 . Everyone again unloaded from the carriage and entered the customs hall, where men and women were asked to stand on opposite sides of a long table.
“We stood in silence,” writes Radek, “and the feeling was very eerie. Vladimir Ilyich stood calmly against the wall, surrounded by comrades. We didn't want the Germans to take a closer look at him. The Bundovka, who was carrying her four-year-old son, put him on the table. The boy, apparently, was affected by the general silence, and he suddenly asked in a sharp, clear child’s voice: “Mamele, vusi dues?” The child, apparently, wanted to ask: “What is this? What's going on, mommy? And a child’s “cry in... the Minsk-English dialect” cleared the atmosphere 12. It turned out that the Germans needed all this “formation” only to count the passengers again.
Then in the waiting room III class dinner was served. “Thin, yellowish-pale girls in lace headdresses and aprons served huge pork chops with a side dish of potatoes on plates... It was enough to look at the trembling hands of the girls holding out the plates to us, at how they diligently averted their eyes from the food, to be convinced that that they haven’t seen anything like this in Germany for a long time... And we,” writes Elena Usievich, “stuffed untouched plates of food into the waitresses’ hands” 13 .
And in the morning, a gray-green carriage of II and III class of the “mixed” type arrived - half soft, half hard, the three doors of which were sealed with seals. The carriage was hitched to the train to Frankfurt and the travelers began to settle in. The first soft compartment was given to German officers. A dotted line was drawn with chalk at his door - the border of “extraterritoriality”. Neither the Germans nor the Russians had the right to cross it 14. A separate compartment was given to Lenin and Krupskaya so that Vladimir Ilyich could work. The Zinoviev family and Pogovskaya and her son each received a compartment. They also took a compartment for luggage. But when the division was over, it turned out that several sleeping places were missing. Then a sleep order schedule was drawn up for men. But every time it was Vladimir Ilyich’s turn to sit on the shelf, those on the waiting list categorically refused to take his place: You must be able to work peacefully 15 .
However, it was not possible to do quiet work. That's in the compartment about various kinds There were a lot of people jammed with things to do.
And Lenin even had to decide the question of how to divide the only toilet between smokers and non-smokers. Then in the next compartment, where the Safarovs, Inessa Armand and Olga Ravich were traveling, Radek began to tell jokes and the thin partitions literally trembled with laughter. Then the young people - “whose voices were better and their hearing was not too bad” - went to the compartment, as they said, “to give a serenade to Ilyich.”
“To begin with,” says Elena Usievich, “we usually sang “Tell me what you’re thinking about, tell us, our chieftain.” Ilyich loved choral singing, and we were not always asked to leave. Sometimes he would come out into our corridor, and everyone would start singing Ilyich’s favorite songs: “We were not married in a church,” “Don’t cry over the corpses of fallen soldiers,” and so on” 16 .
24-year-old Elena’s observations regarding Lenin’s personality are interesting: “I have never seen a man so natural and simple in every word, in every movement... No one felt depressed by his personality, or even felt embarrassed in front of him. .. Drawing in the presence of Ilyich was impossible. It wasn’t that he cut the person off or ridiculed him, but just somehow immediately stopped seeing you, hearing you, you definitely fell out of his field of vision as soon as you stopped talking about what really interested you, and started posing. And precisely because in his presence the person himself became better and more natural, it was so free and joyful to be with him” 17.
Meanwhile, the train was traveling through Germany. “At large stations,” writes Usievich, “our train stopped mainly at night. During the day, the police drove the public away, preventing them from approaching the carriage. But at a distance, people still gathered in groups both during the day and even at night and eagerly looked at our carriage. They waved at us from afar, showing us the covers of humorous magazines with the image of the overthrown tsar.” And it seemed to Elena that they “connected with the passage of Russian revolutionaries through their country hidden hopes for a speedy end to the horrific massacre, for peace...” 18
They passed Stuttgart and the accompanying officers informed Platten that Wilhelm Janson, a member of the leadership of the German trade unions, who would like to talk with the Russians, had boarded the next carriage - with the knowledge of the high military command. “My message,” writes Platten, “caused an explosion of merriment... The emigrants declared that they refused to talk and would not think of resorting to violence if repeated attempts were made.” Radek adds: “Ilyich ordered him to be driven out “to hell” and refused to accept him... Despite the slap he received, [Yanson] tried very hard, bought newspapers for us at every station and was offended when Platten reimbursed him for their cost” 19 .
In general, the emigrants, especially the young people, were in a somewhat excited and elated mood almost the entire journey. In the corridor of the carriage, arguments broke out every now and then - about the situation in Russia, the prospects for the revolution, and most importantly, how would they be met - would they be arrested immediately or later? During such a dispute, Lenin asked Platten: “What is your opinion, Fritz, about our role in the Russian revolution?” “I must admit,” I answered, “that... you seem to me something like the gladiators of Ancient Rome, fearlessly, with their heads held high, entering the arena to face death... A light smile slid across Lenin’s face...” 20
There were no contacts with the Germans. Even lunch - cutlets with peas, paid for by the Red Cross - was brought to the carriage. All the way the travelers looked out the windows. The absence of men was striking - both in cities and villages, gray, with dull eyes, tired faces 21. But an unexpected incident occurred in Frankfurt...
When the train stopped, the officers - von Planitz and Buerig - went to the restaurant. Meanwhile, the carriage was moved to another track. Then Platten also got out of the carriage, went to the station buffet, bought “beer, newspapers and asked several soldiers for a reward to take the beer to the carriage...”
The emigrants stood at the windows, peering into the faces of the passengers hurrying to the commuter trains, when suddenly, pushing aside the guards, soldiers broke through the carriage. “Each of them held a jug of beer in both hands. They attacked us, Radek writes, with unheard-of greed, asking whether and when there would be peace. This mood of the soldiers told us more about the situation than was useful for the German government... We didn’t see anyone else the whole way.” 22
On the evening of April 10 (March 28), the carriage was hooked up to the train and in the morning we arrived in Berlin, first at Potsdam Station, then at Stetin Station. The platform on which the train stood was cordoned off by civilian spies until the carriage was sent to Sassnitz.
Germany ended in Sassnitz. From here, travelers were transported on the sea ferry Queen Victoria to the Swedish city of Trelleborg. The emigrants were again counted and the German officers accompanying the group remained on the shore. Usually train passengers disembarked here and then went to the ferry. Local authorities invited the emigrants to dinner, but the Leninist group, in order not to set foot on German soil, refused the invitation and stayed overnight in the carriage. And only when in the morning the entire train was rolled into the hold, they went out onto the deck - there was already Swedish territory here 23.
To those authors who persistently write about how the German Kaiser took personal part in deciding the issue of the passage of emigrants and even gave appropriate instructions, just in case, we remind you that it was on this day, April 12, when the Russian revolutionaries left Germany, that Wilhelm II was for the first time informed about the “journey” of the internationalists 24.
On the ferry, the emigrants went to their cabins. “The sea was rough,” says Platten. - Of the 32 travelers, only 5 people did not suffer from seasickness, including Lenin, Zinoviev and Radek; standing near the main mast, they had a heated argument.” The fact is that passengers were given extensive questionnaires, and Lenin suspected some kind of trick on the part of the Swedish police. They decided to sign them with false names. They submitted the forms, but “suddenly the captain appears with a piece of paper in his hand and asks which of them is Mr. Ulyanov... Ilyich has no doubt that his assumption turned out to be correct, and so they came to detain him. There’s nothing left to hide - you can’t jump out into the sea. Vladimir Ilyich calls himself." It turned out that this was just a telegram from Ganetsky, who was meeting the ferry 25.
The Queen Victoria docks at Trelleborg around 6 p.m. On the pier, Ganetsky and the Swedish Social Democrat Grimlund. “Warm greetings, questions, fuss, shouting from the guys. “I have tears in my eyes with joy,” writes Ganetsky... “I can’t waste a minute; in a quarter of an hour the train is leaving for Malmö” 26 . In just over an hour, the train delivers travelers to Malmö at 20:41. Not far from the station, in the cafe of the Savoy Hotel, Ganetsky ordered dinner. “Our little fish,” said Radek, “who in Switzerland are accustomed to consider herring lunch, seeing a huge table filled with an endless number of snacks, attacked like locusts and cleaned everything out completely, to the unheard-of surprise of the waiters... Vladimir Ilyich did not eat anything. He tore the soul out of Ganetsky, trying to learn from him everything about the Russian revolution... that Ganetsky did not know” 27 .
On the night of April 13, we left for Stockholm by train. And again Lenin asked Ganetsky about latest information From Russia. Only at 4 o'clock in the morning was he persuaded to get some sleep. However, already in the morning at Södertälje station, correspondents burst into the carriage. “Strictly following the decision,” writes Elena Usievich, “not to answer any questions, we didn’t even say “yes” or “no,” but only... pointed our fingers in Ilyich’s direction. Believing that we did not understand the questions, the press representatives tried to speak to us in French, German, English, even Italian... Consulting a dictionary, they asked questions in Russian or Polish languages. We shook our heads and pointed our fingers at Ilyich. I’m afraid that the Western press has the impression that the famous Lenin is traveling accompanied by deaf-mutes...” Everyone calmed down after Vladimir Ilyich announced that a communiqué for the press would be transmitted in Stockholm 28 .
On Friday, April 13, at 10 a.m. the train arrived in Stockholm. At the Central Station he was met by Swedish Social Democrats: burgomaster Karl Lindhagen, member of the Riksdag, writer Frederik Ström, Russian Bolsheviks and many correspondents and photo reporters. Vladimir Ilyich told correspondents: “The most important thing is that we arrive in Russia As soon as possible. Every day is dear...” and submitted for publication the official communique about the trip 29.
From the station we proceeded to the Regina Hotel. A meeting was held here with the Swedish left. Lenin made a report about the circumstances of their trip. And the “Statement” signed in Bern by the internationalists of France, Germany, Poland and Switzerland was signed by the already mentioned Lindhagen and Ström, as well as the editor of Politiken Karl Carlson, the journalist Karl Chilbum, the poet and writer Ture Nörmann and the secretary Norwegian Socialist Youth Union Arvid Hansen 30.
It all ended with a hearty breakfast, and Radek joked about this: “Sweden differs from all other countries in that there is a breakfast there for every occasion, and when a social revolution occurs in Sweden, first a breakfast will be held in honor of the leaving bourgeoisie, and after that - breakfast in honor of the new revolutionary government" 31.
It was necessary to solve the problem of money. Vladimir Ilyich turned to Ström: “We borrowed several thousand crowns for the trip from a Swiss party comrade-manufacturer.” Here Strom apparently forgot something or did not understand. For the guarantor for the loan of 3 thousand francs issued by the Swiss socialists was not the manufacturer, but a member of the Canton Council, the far-right Social Democrat Otto Lang 32 . “Could you,” continued Lenin, “borrow a few thousand crowns from several workers’ organizations; it is difficult to travel through your long country and through Finland. “I promised,” writes Ström, “to try and called several trade union leaders, our publisher and Fabian Monsson to collect money in the Riksdag. Fabian took out several three-hundred notes. He went, by the way, to Lindman, who was the Minister of Foreign Affairs. “I would willingly subscribe for a hundred crowns, if only Lenin would leave today,” said Lindman. Several bourgeois members of the Riksdag signed up because Fabian said: “They will rule Russia tomorrow.” Fabian didn’t believe in this at all, but it helped... We collected several hundred crowns, and Lenin was pleased... Thus, he could pay for the hotel and tickets to Haparanda” 33. Finally, at the Russian Consulate General, Vladimir Ilyich received official certificate No. 109 about the passage of the entire group of emigrants to Russia.
Some other matters remained unfinished. Even in the morning, Lenin asked Ström to arrange a meeting with Karl Höglund, who was in prison. But the authorities refused, and then, together with Ström, he sent a telegram to Höglund: “We wish you a speedy return to freedom, to the fight!” They also sent a telegram to the Petrograd Soviet - Chkheidze, which, in addition to Lenin, was signed by Mikha Tskhakaya and David Suliashvili, with a request to provide the group with unhindered passage across the Russian border 34. Tskhakai’s signature had a special meaning: it was he who in ancient times brought Chkheidze into the ranks of Russian Social Democracy.
Everything, therefore, turned out well, although trouble could easily have happened. The danger came from the same Parvus. Knowing that German Chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg, State Secretary of Foreign Affairs Jagow and Finance Minister Helferich were dissatisfied with him for his apparent inaction 35, Parvus rushed to Stockholm and, through Ganetsky, asked Lenin for a meeting, allegedly on behalf of the Main Board of German Social Democracy. But when he arrived at the hotel, Lenin, warned by Ganetsky, had already left it. And Ganetsky, Borovsky and Radek drew up a formal protocol on the refusal of Russian emigrants from any contact with Parvus. However, this did not stop him, having received such a slap in the face and, naturally, keeping silent about it, from reporting to his boss Brockdorff-Rantzau that he had nevertheless met with the Russian Bolsheviks 36 .
In the afternoon Lenin held a meeting. Since both members of the Foreign Collegium of the Central Committee - he and Zinoviev - were returning to their homeland, it was decided to leave the Foreign Representation of the Central Committee consisting of Vorovsky, Ganetsky and Radek in Stockholm. They were given all the necessary instructions and handed over the money remaining with the Foreign Board - 300 Swedish crowns and Swedish bonds government loan the same value in which - at one time - Shlyapnikov invested party money 37.
And finally, since Radek remained in Sweden, it was decided to give his place in the group returning to Russia to the Polish Social Democrat, who was in Stockholm, Alexander Granas. Therefore, the size of the group remained unchanged - 32 people 38.
All business was completed, and Radek took Lenin and Zinoviev shopping. “Perhaps the respectable appearance of our respectable Swedish comrades,” Radek wrote, “gave us a passionate desire for Ilyich to look like a man.” We bought boots and a standard dark brown suit. And every time Vladimir Ilyich insisted: “Don’t you think that I’m going to open a shop in Petrograd? ready-made dress? Zinoviev recalled: “We walked mechanically through the streets, mechanically buying something from the essentials to fix V.I.’s unsightly toilet. and others and almost every half hour they inquired about when the train was leaving...” 39
We returned to the hotel, where the Swedes had a farewell dinner, and from there, with our things, we headed to the station. On the platform, together with the mourners, they staged a rally. “When our people had already loaded,” writes Radek, “some Russian, taking off his hat, began a speech to Ilyich. The pathos of the beginning of the speech, in which Ilyich was honored as a “dear leader,” forced Ilyich to raise his bowler a little, but... the further meaning of his speech was approximately this: look, dear leader, so that you don’t do any nasty things there in Petrograd. The embarrassment with which Ilyich listened to the first flattering phrases of the speech gave way to a sly smile.” The mourners sang “The Internationale” and at 18:37 the train set off 40.
“As soon as we settled into the compartment,” says David Suliashvili, “Lenin took out a pile of newspapers, lay down on the top bunk, turned on the electricity and began reading the newspapers...” Night fell. The compartment was quiet and comfortable. All that could be heard was the rustling of newspapers and the quiet exclamations of Vladimir Ilyich: “Oh, rascals! Ah, traitors! And in the morning, when everyone woke up, a meeting was held in the corridor of the carriage. Reading St. Petersburg newspapers was thought-provoking. It was agreed that all negotiations on the border would be conducted by Lenin and Tskhakaya, and agreed on how to behave in the event of an arrest or political trial in Petrograd 41 . For the rest of the day and a good half of the night, while the train dragged along Sweden, Vladimir Ilyich again sat over the newspapers, documents he had grabbed from Stockholm, took notes, trying to put together all his thoughts about the events taking place in Russia.
On April 15 (2), “on an early frosty morning,” writes Elena Usievich, “we landed in the small fishing town of Haparanda and a few minutes later crowded onto the porch of a small house, where for a pittance we could get a cup of black coffee and a sandwich. But we had no time for food. In front of us stretched the bay, frozen even at this time of year, and behind it - the territory of Russia, the city of Torneo and the red flag waving on the station building... We were silent from excitement, fixing our eyes on it” 42.
Vladimir Ilyich went to the Russian consulate and received 300 crowns of benefits for the group, which were due - from the Tatyana Fund - to all returning political emigrants, and paid for 32 third class tickets to Petrograd 43 . Meanwhile, “a dozen and a half sleighs with small shaggy horses harnessed to them drove up to the porch. We began to sit down in pairs... I suddenly remembered, - writes Elena Usievich, - that I had a small red handkerchief in my suitcase... I took it out, tied it to an alpine stick I had taken from my husband... At this time, Vladimir Ilyich’s sleigh was driving around ours to stand in front of the procession. Vladimir Ilyich, without looking, extended his hand, and I put my flag in it. All the sleighs started moving at once. Vladimir Ilyich raised a red flag high above his head, and a few minutes later, with the ringing of bells, with a small flag raised above Lenin’s head, we entered Russian territory... In Torneo, each of us was surrounded by a crowd of workers, soldiers, sailors, questions rained down, answers, explanations... “Look, we got it!” Nadezhda Konstantinovna told me, nodding at several of our especially ardent agitators...” 44
But then we had to deal not with friendly Russian border guard soldiers, but with English officers in command on the Finnish border. They were rude and unceremonious. And this immediately ruined everyone’s mood.
The fact is that after the attempt to keep the emigrants in Switzerland failed, the British authorities decided to stop them in Sweden. From the diary of the leader of the Swedish social democracy, Palmstierna, it is known that plans were even hatched to assassinate Lenin. But, after weighing all the pros and cons, they decided to abandon “extreme measures” and organize a corresponding slander campaign in Russia, as they say, to kill both politically and morally 45 .
However, the British officers, of course, could not deny themselves the pleasure of making fun of the political emigrants. We started with Platten. He was immediately told that he would be immediately arrested in St. Petersburg. And when Fritz replied that he was ready for that, the conversation was interrupted and they told him to go back to Haparanda under escort, because he was denied permission to cross the border. And the rest, also under military escort, will be sent to St. Petersburg at 4 o'clock 46.
What happened to Platten did not come as a surprise. The possibility of this option was discussed on the train. Then one of the young people started an argument: what if Fritz is not allowed into Russia? He was everyone's favorite, so we decided - as a sign of protest - not to cross the Russian border until we got permission for him. To the young people it seemed like a terribly noble act of solidarity. And they went around the carriage to collect signatures. They brought the document to Lenin. “Barely taking a glance at him, he calmly asked: “What idiot wrote this? The English and Russian governments will do everything not to let us through. And we ourselves will refuse?” “Only we,” writes Elena Usievich, “without any further explanation, understood how stupid it was...” 47
However, when Platten spoke about the decision of the British, Lenin invited the entire group to stay and immediately sent a telegram to St. Petersburg, to the bureau of the Central Committee of the RSDLP, with a request to speed up obtaining a pass for Platten. It was agreed with Fritz that he would wait three days for an answer in Haparanga. “However,” writes Platten, “not wanting to serve as an obstacle to their further trip, I persistently asked to be left in Sweden” 48.
Then the British resorted to another provocation... Everyone who wrote about what was happening in Torneo then especially noted: the search carried out by the British was deliberately offensive. And only 52-year-old Mikha Tskhakaya explained: the officers did not limit themselves to rummaging through things and pockets, they “subjected us to a humiliating search, stripping Ilyich and me naked...” 49
But this time it was not possible to provoke a scandal. All the emigrants filled out questionnaires, and Lenin literally “stared into the newspaper columns” of Pravda, bought at the station. Zinoviev says: “V.I. shakes his head, spreads his hands reproachfully: he read the news that Malinovsky turned out to be a provocateur. Further, further. The real concern is for V.I. some articles in the first issues of Pravda that were not sufficiently consistent from the point of view of internationalism. Really?.. Well, we will “fight” with them...” 50
And time goes by. The 16 hours indicated by the British for departure had passed. Only in the evening the train arrives and the group begins to load into a separate carriage. At 20 hours 8 minutes, Vladimir Ilyich gives a telegram to his sisters, Maria and Anna Ulyanov: “We are arriving Monday, at night, 11. Inform Pravda” 51. The English officers kept their word: the emigrants would be escorted to St. Petersburg by an armed convoy under the command of a lieutenant.
All night and all day the train traveled across Finland. “Everything was already nice, its own - poor third-class carriages,” says Krupskaya... “On the platforms of the stations we passed by, there were a crowd of soldiers. Usievich leaned out of the window. "Long live world revolution"- he shouted. The soldiers looked at the riding soldiers in bewilderment" 52 .
Vladimir Ilyich tried to concentrate and write. But the thought haunted him that those for whom he was looking for words, to whom he was going to address there - in Petrograd - were already here, nearby. That the escort soldiers and the young officer are the same real people who made the revolution. And it was felt that they, too, would like to talk with this “chief revolutionary.”
The lieutenant in command of the convoy, turning pale with excitement, looked several times into the compartment where Lenin was traveling. But he never dared to speak. And only when Vladimir Ilyich and Krupskaya “moved into the next empty carriage, he sat down and spoke... The lieutenant was a defencist,” says Nadezhda Konstantinovna, “Ilyich defended his point of view - he was also terribly pale. And little by little, soldiers filled the carriage. Soon the carriage was full. The soldiers stood on benches to better hear and see the one who spoke so clearly against the predatory war. And with every minute their attention grew, their faces became more tense.” Little Robert also came running here. He instantly “found himself in the arms of some elderly soldier, hugged his neck with his little hand, muttered something in French, and ate the Easter cottage cheese that the soldier fed him” 53 .
“V.I.,” writes Zinoviev, “literally stuck with these soldiers. There was talk about land, about war, about new Russia. The special, fairly well-known manner of V.I. approaching ordinary workers and peasants made it possible that in a very short time an excellent comradely relationship was established... But the defense soldiers stand their ground.” They are not at all embarrassed that the interlocutor is clearly one of the “educated”. They have their own point of view.
Actually, he had already heard all this - word for word - in Zurich from Mikhalev. This means that what Kondrat said is not an isolated opinion, but a widespread belief. Therefore, these soldiers “V.I. after an hour of conversation he dubbed them “conscientious defencists”... The first conclusion that V.I. makes: defencism is an even greater force. In the fight against it, we need strong persistence. But patience and a skillful approach are just as necessary." 54 This is how Grigory Zinoviev recalled this episode. He remembered what Lenin said and his political assessment of his interlocutors. But for Vladimir Ilyich himself, the main thing turned out to be something else...
In a letter dated March 26, Kollontai wrote to him: “The people are experiencing intoxication with the great act committed. I say “people” because what is in the foreground now is not the working class, but a vague, varied mass, dressed in soldiers’ greatcoats. Now the mood is dictated by the soldier. The soldier also creates a peculiar atmosphere, where the greatness of pronounced democratic freedoms, the awakening of consciousness of equal civil rights and a complete lack of understanding of the complexity of the moment that we are experiencing are mixed” 55 . It turned out that Alexandra Mikhailovna was not entirely right, but in some ways she was completely wrong...
A few hours later, already in Petrograd, in a conversation with members of the Central Committee and PC of the RSDLP, he remembered not how he argued with the “conscientious defencists,” but about how and what these soldiers said: “You should have heard with what conviction they talked about the need to immediately end the war, to quickly take away the land from the landowners. One of them, Lenin continued, clearly showed how to end the war. He made a very energetic movement with his hand, as if forcefully driving something deep into the floor, and said: “A bayonet into the ground - that’s how the war will end!” And then he added: “but we will not let go of the rifles until we get the land.” And when I noticed that without the transfer of power to the workers and peasants it was impossible either to end the war or to give the peasants land, the soldiers completely agreed with me.”56 This is how Nikolai Podvoisky wrote down the story of Vladimir Ilyich.
The next day, speaking with the “April Theses” to the Bolsheviks, Lenin also remembered the conversation in the carriage and how this peasant soldier, who did not want to let go of his rifle, imagined agrarian reform: “The Tambov peasant [said]... .
There is no need to pay for one tithe, 1 ruble for the second, 2 rubles for the third. We will take the land, and the landowner will no longer be able to take it away” 57.
A week later, on April 23 (10), in the brochure “The Tasks of the Proletariat in Our Revolution,” Lenin will write: “The war cannot be ended “at will.” It cannot end with the decision of one side. It cannot be ended by “sticking a bayonet into the ground,” to use the expression of one defense soldier.” A week later, in the article “Our Views,” he would repeat: “The war cannot be ended either by simply sticking bayonets into the ground, or even by the unilateral refusal of one of the warring countries.” And even two years later he will remember this conversation on the train with the nameless soldier 58.
And then, in the carriage, the discussion continued. Other emigrants came here. But when the young revolutionaries too categorically begin to “put pressure” on their interlocutors, Lenin, nodding at the soldiers, reproaches Usievich, Safarov, David Suliashvili: “Listen, listen...” 59 And he himself goes into the compartment. The first excitement from the meeting passed. Thoughts nurtured from the first days of the revolution, set out in articles and “Letters from Afar,” take on an even clearer form, are arranged in strict sequence... And he writes the initial draft of the “April Theses.”
At 9 pm the train stopped at Beloostrov station. They are met on the platform by: Shlyapnikov, Kollontai, Stalin, Kamenev, Maria Ulyanova and others. There are also about four hundred Sestroretsk workers who came for the meeting, led by Vyacheslav Zof, Nikolai Emelyanov and Lyudmila Stal. The workers picked up Lenin, carried him into the station cafeteria, placed him on a stool, and Vladimir Ilyich made his first short speech in Russia. Lyudmila Stahl invites Krupskaya to say a few words to the workers, but from excitement, writes Nadezhda Konstantinovna, “I lost all my words...” 60
The train, together with the members of the Central Committee and PC of the RSDLP who met them, moves on. And “in a cramped, dim third-class compartment, illuminated by a candle stub, the first exchange of views takes place. IN AND. bombards his comrades with a series of questions.” And at the end - the most pressing: “Will we be arrested...? The friends who meet us do not give a definite answer, but smile mysteriously” 61
If they knew what we now know, there would be less reason to smile.
The point is not only that, as part of the military team accompanying the emigrants from Torneo, four counterintelligence officers were traveling with documents for the entire group, which they were supposed to hand over at the Finland Station in St. Petersburg to the commissioner of the Provisional Government 62. Another thing is more important: it was in Beloostrov that something more serious could happen...
The head of counterintelligence of the Petrograd Military District, Boris Nikitin, left detailed memories on this matter. At the very end of March, he says, a representative of British counterintelligence came to him and handed over “a list of traitors of 30 people, headed by Lenin... Germany let them through and in about five days they will arrive at our border.” It turns out that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs cannot deny their entry without the approval of the Council. But the Chief Military Prosecutor, General Apushkin, gives Nikitin permission: “Do what you want, just to achieve results.”
“I’m calling by telegram,” Nikitin continues, “the commandant of Beloostrov, captain Savitsky... “Here you are,” I tell him, “you keep asking me for a living matter. simpler: by force, or whatever you want, but don’t let them cross the border." The result is known: the captain did not mention the four hundred Sestroretsk gunsmiths, but only later said to Nikitin, referring to his Cossacks: “The people did not come out” 63 .
On April 3 (16), 1917, at 23:10, the train arrives at the platform of the Finlyandsky station in Petrograd.
Information from Pravda: “At 11:10 a.m. the train arrived. Lenin came out, greeted by friends, comrades from long-standing party work. Under the banners of the party, he moved through the station, the troops took guard... Walking further along the front of the troops, trellises stood at the station and kept “on guard,” passing by the workers’ militia, N. Lenin was greeted with enthusiasm everywhere.” Representatives of the Petrograd Soviet, headed by Chkheidze, were already waiting for him in the “royal” room of the station...
Nikolai Sukhanov describes what follows: “At the head of a small group of people, behind whom the door immediately slammed again, Lenin entered, or perhaps ran, into the “royal” room, wearing a round hat, with a chilled face and a luxurious bouquet in his hands.
Having reached the middle of the room, he stopped in front of Chkheidze, as if he had encountered a completely unexpected obstacle. And then Chkheidze made the following “welcome speech”... “We believe that the main task of revolutionary democracy is now to protect the revolution from any attacks on it, both from within and from without. We believe that for this purpose it is necessary not to divide, but to unite ranks of all democracy. We hope that you will pursue these goals with us...” Lenin, apparently, knew well how to react to all this. He stood with such an air, as if everything that was happening did not concern him in the slightest: he looked around, looked at the surrounding faces and even the ceiling of the “royal” room, straightened his bouquet “which was rather weakly in harmony with his entire figure,” and then, completely turning away from the delegation of the Executive Committee, he “answered” this way: “Dear comrades soldiers, sailors and workers! I am happy to greet in your person the victorious Russian revolution, to greet you as the vanguard of the world proletarian army...” 64
Greeted by thousands of “hurray,” Lenin goes out onto the steps of the station. They help him climb onto the armored car. He stomped around on the platform near the machine-gun turret, as if testing the machine’s strength, and handed over the bouquet. But the bowler hat clearly interfered with him, just as it later interfered with the sculptors who sculpted famous monument on the square near the station and replaced the hat with a proletarian cap. And only after taking off his bowler hat, Vladimir Ilyich begins to speak...
Information from Pravda: “...Standing on the armored car of Comrade. Lenin welcomed the revolutionary Russian proletariat and the revolutionary Russian army, who managed not only to liberate Russia from tsarist despotism, but also laid the foundation social revolution on an international scale..." 65
“Those who have not lived through the revolution,” Krupskaya recalled, “cannot imagine its majestic, solemn beauty. Red banners, an honor guard of Kronstadt sailors, reflectors of the Peter and Paul Fortress from the Finland Station to Kshesinskaya’s house, armored cars, a chain of men and women guarding the path.
We were brought to Kshesinskaya’s house, where the Central Committee and the Petrograd Committee were then located. A friendly tea was held upstairs; the people of St. Petersburg wanted to organize welcome speeches, but Ilyich turned the conversation to what interested him most, and began to talk about the tactics that must be followed. Crowds of workers and soldiers stood near Kshesinskaya's house. Ilyich had to speak from the balcony...
Then we went home, to our people, to Anna Ilyinichna and Mark Timofeevich [Elizarov]... We were given a special room. On the occasion of our arrival, the little boy who grew up with Anna Ilyinichna, Gora, hung the slogan above both of our beds: “Workers of all countries, unite!” We hardly spoke to Ilyich that night - there were no words to express what we had experienced, but even without words everything was clear.
When we were left alone, Ilyich looked around the room... I felt the reality of the fact that we were already in St. Petersburg, that all these Paris, Geneva, Bern, Zurich were really the past” 66.
Notes:
1 Platten F. Lenin. From emigration to Russia. pp. 53,55,125.
2 Platten F. Lenin. From emigration to Russia. pp. 53.54.
3 Ibid. pp. 54.123
5 See: Platten F. Lenin. From emigration to Russia. P. 50
6. See also there. pp. 38,39,40.
7 Platten F. Lenin. From emigration to Russia. pp. 39, 41, 42; Urilov I.Kh. Yu.O.Martov. Politician and historian. M., 1997. P. 289,290
8 Platten F. Lenin. From emigration to Russia. pp. 71,72.
9 See article by Lukashev A.V. in the magazine “History of the USSR” (1963. No. 5. P. 21).
10 Platten F. Lenin. From emigration to Russia. pp. 66.148.
11 See ibid. pp. 52,56,57; Hoepfner K., Irmtraud S. Lenin in Germany. Translation with him. M„ 1985. P. 179
12 . Platten F. Lenin. From emigration to Russia. P. 129.
13 Ibid. P. 149.
14 See ibid. P. 56.
15 See ibid. P. 151.
16 Platten F. Lenin. From emigration to Russia. pp. 129,150.
17 Ibid. P. 151.
18 Ibid. P. 149.
19 Platten F. Lenin. From emigration to Russia. pp. 57,64,130,131
20 Ibid. P. 58.
21 Ibid. pp. 57.119.
22 Ibid. pp. 56.131; Hoepfner K., Irmtraud S. Lenin in Germany. P. 182.
23 Platten F. Lenin. From emigration to Russia. pp. 58,152,185; Hoepfner K., Irmtraud S. Lenin in Germany. P. 182.
24 Sobolev G.L. The mystery of "German gold". P. 71.
25 Platten F. Lenin. From emigration to Russia. pp. 131,139.
26 Ibid. P. 138.
27 Platten F. Lenin. From emigration to Russia. pp. 131,138,139.
29 Ibid. pp. 139,152.
29 V.I.Lenin. Biographical chronicle. T. 4. P. 46,47.
31 Platten F. Lenin. From emigration to Russia. P. 132
32 Ibid. pp. 53.203.
33 See article by Lukashev A.V. in the magazine "History of the USSR". (1963. No. 5. P. 18).
34 See: V.I. Lenin. Biographical chronicle. T. 4. P. 48; “Dawn of the East”, Tiflis, 1925, January 17.
35 See: Sobolev G.L. The mystery of "German gold". pp. 41,42,44,45.
36 See: Platten F. Lenin. From emigration to Russia. P. 132; Sobolev G.L. The Mystery of "German Gold". SS. 69,70.
37 See: Platten F. Lenin. From emigration to Russia. pp. 132,133.
38 See: Ermolaeva R.A., Manusevich A.Ya. Lenin and the Polish labor movement. M., 1471. P. 402.
39 See: Platten F. Lenin. From emigration to Russia. pp. 123, 132.
40 Ibid. P. 133.
42 Platten F. Lenin. From emigration to Russia. P. 153.
43 V.I.Lenin. Biographical chronicle.T. 4. P. 52.
44 Platten F. Lenin. From emigration to Russia. P. 153.
45 See article by Lukashev A.V. in the magazine “History of the USSR” (1963. No. 5. P. 22).
46 Platten F. Lenin. From emigration to Russia. pp. 59.60.
47 Platten F. Lenin. From emigration to Russia. P. 150.
48 Ibid. P. 60.
50 Platten F. Lenin. From emigration to Russia. P. 124.
51 Lenin V.I. Full collection op. T. 49. P. 434.
52 Platten F. Lenin. From emigration to Russia. pp. 119-120.
53 Ibid. pp. 119-120.
54. Platten F. Lenin. From emigration to Russia. pp. 124, 125.
55. RGASPI. Fund 134, op. 1, d. 272, l. 48.
56. Yakovlev B.V. Lenin. Autobiography pages. M. “Young Guard”, 1967. P. 555. The layout of the book, prohibited by censorship, is stored in RGASPI (fond 71. op. 51, d. 94).
57. Lenin V.I. Full collection op. T. 31. P. 110.
58. Right there. pp. 161, 281.
60. Platten F. Lenin. From emigration to Russia. pp. 120, 125.
61. Right there. P. 125.
63 Nikitin B.V. Fatal years. Paris, 1937. pp. 22, 57, 58.
64 Nukhanov N.N. Notes on the revolution. T. 2. Book. 3-4. M„ 1991. P. 6-7
66 Memories of V.I. Lenin. T.1. P.441, 442.
This composition was advanced both in time and in essence. It housed Lenin and the Bolsheviks. They took very serious risks. Everyone: both freedom and reputation. It was possible, of course, to sit in Europe, calmly wait for permission from the British, decorously go to some port, five months later board a ship and arrive in Petrograd for a final analysis. But, knowing the position of the Bolsheviks, the French and British could well have interned them until the end of the war, which their loved ones did not see at all at that time.
The carriages in which the emigrants traveled were made extraterritorial
Lenin counted in his head at breakneck speed. The ever-memorable Parvus volunteered to mediate with Germany, which was happy to flood Russia with active, loud defeatists. Tempting, but deplorable for reputation. And Lenin, grasping the idea, with an elegant feint replaced the mediator, rode on German dreams, and even seriously bluffed, offering to exchange Russian socialists for German prisoners, for which he did not and could not have any authority. They agreed to make the carriages in which the emigrants would travel extraterritorial, which is why those same legendary seals were hung on them.
From this point in the story, a grandiose historical hurdy-gurdy begins: what kind of seals were there, how many fillings there were, there weren’t, they came out, they didn’t come out, and so on and so forth. As the sealed carriage instantly became a symbol of Bolshevik betrayal and espionage, and Winston Churchill likened Lenin and his fellow travelers to “plague bacillus”, the dispute over technical details became fundamental. Karl Radek, a passenger on the same train, stated, for example, that there were no seals, and everything was limited to the obligation not to leave the carriages. There is a compromise option, according to which not all doors were sealed, but only some.
Lenin with a group of Russian political emigrants in Stockholm
However, the most interesting thing is to look at the life of the amazing passengers of the amazing carriage. Here is Lenin, who, together with Krupskaya, is given a separate compartment by his comrades. He takes a stack of Petrograd newspapers and climbs onto the top couch. From there comes the nervous rustling of paper and characteristic exclamations: “What a bastard! These are traitors!” After reading the newspapers and handing out political labels, guests are received here and issues are resolved. Including how to share the only toilet between smokers and non-smokers. They are singing in the corridor. Lenin comes out and joins. His repertoire includes: “We were not married in a church”, “Don’t cry over the corpses of fallen soldiers”...
We move along the corridor. From some point on, a line was drawn across there. This is a border, because one of the compartments of the extraterritorial carriage is occupied by German officers, and it, together with the adjacent area, is considered Germany. Migrants are not allowed there. What about luggage? The memoirs noted that the Bolsheviks traveled in a very Russian-intelligentsia way: with belongings, pillows and, of course, countless bundles of books. The provisions were thinned out even when leaving Switzerland: customs officers did not allow the national treasure - chocolate - to be taken out of the country.
Churchill likened Lenin and his comrades to “plague bacilli”
The most alarming thing is when passengers are finally taken out of the train. But they are simply counted, put back into the carriage and the doors are closed. Defeatism is defeatism, but they are still citizens of the enemy country... It was a difficult moment before loading the cars onto the ferry going to Sweden. Usually passengers are invited to spend the night in a hotel. But the revolutionaries reject the offer and sleep in the carriages. Only when the train is driven into the hold do the Leninists come out on deck. A new danger lurks on the border with Finland. The control is carried out by the British. They may not miss it. But by hook (“By hook”?) or by crook, everything is settled; only Fritz Platten, the formal organizer of the trip, who voluntarily agrees to return to Switzerland, and also in Stockholm, the Austrian subject Karl Radek, are sacrificed.
And then the Finland Station, the armored car, the April Theses and the October Revolution. And let’s say in Lenin’s language: “To hell with them, with German money and German seals, to hell with him, with Parvus! The Bolsheviks deceived everyone, took power and held it for more than seventy years.”
