Lenin on the Train

Amazon.com Price: $13.13 (as of 10/11/2019 21:23 PST- Details)

Description

One of The Economist‘s Best Books of the Year

A gripping, meticulously researched account of Lenin’s fateful 1917 rail journey from Zurich to Petrograd, where he ignited the Russian Revolution and perpetually changed the world

In April 1917, as the Russian Tsar Nicholas II’s abdication sent shockwaves across war-torn Europe, the future leader of the Bolshevik revolution Vladimir Lenin used to be far away, exiled in Zurich. When the news reached him, Lenin immediately resolved to go back to Petrograd and lead the insurrection. But to get there, he must cross Germany, which meant accepting help from the deadliest of Russia’s adversaries. Millions of Russians at home were suffering on account of German aggression, and to accept German aid―or even protected passage―would be to betray his homeland. Germany, for its part, saw a possibility to further destabilize Russia by allowing Lenin and his small group of revolutionaries to go back.

Now, in Lenin on the Train, drawing on a dazzling array of sources and never-before-seen archival material, renowned historian Catherine Merridale provides a riveting, nuanced account of this enormously consequential journey―the train ride that changed the world―in addition to the underground conspiracy and subterfuge that went into making it happen. Writing with the same insight and formidable intelligence that distinguished her earlier works, she brings to life a world of counter-espionage and intrigue, wartime desperation, illicit finance, and misguided utopianism.

When Lenin arrived in Petrograd’s now-famous Finland Station, he delivered an explosive address to the impassioned crowds. Simple and extreme, the text of this speech has been in comparison to such momentous documents as Constantine’s edict of Milan and Martin Luther’s ninety-five theses. It used to be the moment when the Russian revolution became Soviet, the genesis of a system of tyranny and faith that changed the course of Russia’s history perpetually and transformed the international political climate.


Recent Products