connect the dot

Event

Lenin's sealed train

Lenin's journey from Switzerland across Germany to Petrograd in April 1917, arranged with the German government.

3 links, 3 backed by primary records

Play the story Explore connections On the map ›

Dates
9–16 Apr 1917
Place
Zurich
Also known as
The sealed train, Lenin's return to Russia

In April 1917 Vladimir Lenin and some thirty other exiles travelled from Zurich across Germany to Sweden and on to Saint Petersburg. Their carriage was treated as extraterritorial (“sealed”).

Both sides recorded the deal. Lenin’s group said the Swiss socialist Fritz Platten negotiated it with the German ambassador; the Imperial German government’s files show the General Staff approving the transit. A German report later that month added: “He is working exactly as we would wish.”

Connections 3

involved

Timeline 1 date
  1. 9–16 Apr 1917 Lenin's sealed train
Proof 3 sources
  1. Germany and the Revolution in Russia, 1915-1918: Documents from the Archives of the German Foreign Ministry, Oxford University Press, 1958. Primary record
    No passport formalities of any kind at frontier-crossing. Luggage will be sealed. Safe transit guaranteed.
    Lenin's entry into Russia successful. He is working exactly as we would wish.
  2. How We Arrived (report to the Executive Committee of the Petrograd Soviet), Marxists Internet Archive (Lenin, Collected Works, vol. 24, Progress Publishers), 17 Apr 1917. Primary record
    The whole business was handled by Fritz Platten, a Swiss internationalist socialist. He concluded a Carefully worded agreement with the German Ambassador in Switzerland.
    This article was a report to the Executive Committee of the Petrograd Soviet made by Lenin the day after his arrival in Petrograd on April 4 (17), 1917
  3. Lenin on the Train, by Catherine Merridale (review), Kirkus Reviews, 2017. Scholarship & press
    It has long been known that Germany brokered the wartime trip, the aim being to enable Lenin to foment revolution and take Russia off the front.
Page history 1 change
  1. connect-the-dot: sourced knowledge graph engine, site and contentAlibeka7fa236

Edit this page: content/entities/event/le/lenin-sealed-train.md