This happened on April 9, 1917. Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanovknown to Lenin, boarded a train at Zurich station to undertake an eight-day journey which took him to St. Petersburg. He had been in exile for ten years … and he lived with his wife in a modest apartment on Spielgasse Street in the Swiss city.
Tsar Nicholas II had abdicated on March 15 and Russia was governed by a coalition of liberals and social democrats. There was social instability and a power vacuum which Lenin saw as an opportunity to launch a revolutionary process. At that time, Russia was at war with Germany.
The conflict constituted an insurmountable obstacle for the return of the Bolshevik leader to his country, since he necessarily had to pass through German territory. It was Fritz Platten, secretary of the Swiss Social Democratic Party, who made the necessary arrangements with the German government to grant the transit authorization. Emperor Wilhelm II personally approved the trip. He did this not out of altruism but because he knew that Lenin wanted to get Russia out of the war and that this served his interests.
To avoid being accused of collaboration with the enemy, Lenin demanded that the train leaving Zurich be sealed. No one, except a few German surveillance agents, was allowed to get in or out of the cars in which Lenin and 31 companions were traveling. The German government granted the train extraterritorial status, similar to that of an embassy. Lenin also managed to anonymize the passenger list.
The German government granted the train extraterritorial status, similar to that of an embassy.
In the Zurich train stationdozens of sympathizers hailed Lenin, while another group called him a traitor. The train crosses the border and arrives at Gottmadingen station, where the Germans facilitate the change of locomotive and wagons. According to Robert Service, an officer drew a line with white chalk to demarcate “German and Russian territory” on one of the cars. The men sat in the third class compartments and Lenin, his wife and the women in a second class carriage. “As soon as we left Gottmadingen, fears dissipated and morale rose,” Service explains. Another anecdote is that Lenin No Smokingbecause he hated tobacco. Smokers had to go to the toilet.
The train entered Germany and I leave behind me the stations of Ulm, Stuttgart, Karlsruhe and Frankfurt to Berlin. He was detained there for several hours, so there is speculation about the existence of a secret meeting with German authorities. Many people have claimed that Lenin received money to promote the Revolution, something the Russian leader always denied.
Eventually the railroad came to Sassnitz on the Baltic coast, where the delegation took a ferry to the Swedish town of Trelleborg, from where they took the train to Stockholm. Swedish socialists welcomed him as a hero. After spending the night, he begins the last phase of his journey. He entered his country through the Finnish town of Roundthen under Russian sovereignty. It was a critical moment because he feared arrest. He was searched and questioned, but was allowed to pass. The train headed towards Tampere and finally arrived at the station. Finlandwhere thousands of enthusiastic supporters awaited him. It was eleven o’clock in the evening on April 15.
After coming down to the stage, Lenin explained his revolutionary program and uttered his famous words: “The people need peace, bread and land”, emphasizing that the Bolsheviks would fight until “the final victory“. This was not an empty promise since six months later Lenin would take power, establishing a regime that would last over seven decades.
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