Lenin's journey in a sealed car

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The travel route
Starting point of the trip: Zurich main station
Destination of the trip: Finnish train station in Petrograd
Lenin 1915

The journey of Lenin in sealed wagons took place during the First World War in April 1917th It led Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, together with other emigrants from exile in Switzerland, through the German Empire via Scandinavia to Petrograd, today's Saint Petersburg . The " sealed car" was only used on the German section of the route.

background

In the Russian Empire , political activists who campaigned for a revolutionary change in the social order had to face imprisonment or exile. Lenin and many other Russian socialists were forced to leave Russia and go into exile after the failed Russian Revolution of 1905 . After the fall of Tsar Nicholas II in the February Revolution of 1917 , there was full freedom of activity for all socialist directions.

Lenin, who had been in neutral Switzerland since 1914 , but surrounded by belligerent powers, tried desperately to return to Russia after the revolution. He was still a Russian citizen and thus a member of a warring power. Explorations in the direction of France and Great Britain , allied with Russia , in order to get to Russia via them and the likewise neutral Scandinavian states, failed because they feared that Lenin's anti-war stance could affect their interests in Russia. For the Russian Lenin, the alternative of traveling to Russia via Germany and the Scandinavian states meant accepting the help of the war opponent, in other words, formally treason . Lenin feared that this charge would harm him politically. Since the countries of the Triple Entente , allied with Russia, strictly refused to issue Lenin with a visa , this was the only option he ultimately had.

Informal contacts between the German Foreign Office and the Russian exiles in Switzerland, who were split into several rival groups, had existed since September 1914, when the German ambassador in Bern, Gisbert von Romberg , discussed the attitude of the Russian revolutionaries to the role through the Estonian revolutionary Aleksander Kesküla Explored Germany in revolutionizing Russia. Further contacts existed through the envoys in the neutral states of Denmark ( Ulrich von Brockdorff-Rantzau ) and Sweden ( Hellmuth Lucius von Stoedten ). On December 6, 1915, Brockdorff-Rantzau wrote in a memorandum to Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg :

"Victory and first place in the world as a prize is ours if we succeed in revolutionizing Russia in time and thereby breaking the coalition [of the opposing powers]."

However, at best, this was intended to create a threat to Russia; no concrete steps were taken on the German side until March 1917. At the beginning of April 1917 Brockdorff-Rantzau developed the program in a further memorandum to "create the greatest possible chaos" in revolutionary Russia by stirring up conflicts between the political camps, whereby the radical elements should be given preferential support in order to achieve a separate peace in the east as soon as possible get. Bethmann Hollweg finally took up this line and instructed Romberg to offer the revolutionaries in Switzerland the return journey via Germany.

Negotiations to travel through Germany

Immediately after the overthrow of the tsar became known, they founded a "Central Committee for the Return of Russian Emigrants in Switzerland", which represented over 500 exiles. Independent of German offers, this decided on March 19 to apply for a transit permit from the Germans in exchange for German and Austro-Hungarian prisoners of war in Russia. The committee transferred the political negotiations to the Swiss social democrat Robert Grimm . The request was published on 23 March by the Foreign Secretary, Arthur Zimmermann , who in Bad Kreuznach was staying Supreme Command made known, raised no objections. The only conditions were that the modalities of the trip should be regulated jointly by the Foreign Office and Department IIIb of the Deputy General Staff. In addition, there were concerns about the attitude of the other planned transit countries. The German side was determined to bring Lenin across the front line to Russia if necessary, should neutral Sweden refuse to pass through.

Independently of the emigre committee, Lenin, who was recommended to the Germans by Alexander Parvus as being particularly suitable for destabilizing Russia, contacted the German embassy in Bern at the end of March. He appointed the Swiss socialist Fritz Platten to be his middleman , through whom he had a list of conditions sent on April 4. The next day it passed from Romberg to Berlin. Key point was that the cars traveled in the Lenin and his companions, as has been declared constitutionally neutral, Lenin and his companions therefore not entered the bottom of the "enemy countries," as long as they stayed in the car. Direct contact between Germans and Russians was also avoided by the fact that Platten traveled with them and conveyed messages between Russians and German escorts as “neutral” Swiss messages so that they did not speak directly to one another. Lenin could always state that none of his tour group spoke to Germans during the passage. The conditions were confirmed by the German side three days later and the procedure was largely adhered to during the trip. The situation of having to travel through Germany was also sharply criticized by Russian exiles in Switzerland, so Lenin insisted that all fellow travelers pay for the passage through Germany and that the Allies tried to pass through until one day before departure to get approved. On Easter Sunday , April 8, 1917, he tried to make representations to the United States Embassy in Bern. The young employee he reached by phone was Allen Dulles , but who had an appointment for a tennis match and referred him to the following Monday.

Platten later acted as a transport guide on the journey through the German Reich. The German-Swedish trade unionist Wilhelm Jansson and Rittmeister of the Reserve Arwed von der Planitz were appointed by the German side to accompany the transport . The press should not cover the event. The German embassy in Stockholm also obtained a permit to travel through Sweden.

Kaiser Wilhelm II only found out about the matter in retrospect, on April 11, 1917, when the action was already in full swing. He had no objection to it.

The drive

Overview

Lenin's journey from Zurich to Petrograd in April 1917
date From, to Railway line train annotation
9th April Zurich main station - Gottmadingen Railway line Zurich – Winterthur
Rheinfallbahn
Hochrheinbahn 		Local train approx. two hours driving time
9th April Gottmadingen - singing Hochrheinbahn Special train ("sealed wagon") Overnight in Singen
10th of April Singen - Hattingen (Baden) - Stuttgart Central Station - Karlsruhe - Frankfurt am Main Black Forest
Railway (Baden) Railway line Stuttgart – Hattingen
Railway line Stuttgart – Bruchsal
Rheintalbahn
Main-Neckar-Eisenbahn or Riedbahn 		Special train ("sealed wagon") Overnight in Frankfurt am Main
11 April Frankfurt – Kassel or Erfurt – Berlin Main-Weser-Bahn
Hannöversche Südbahn Railway
line Halle – Hann. Münden
or the
Hanau – Frankfurt
Kinzigtalbahn (Hessen)
line Bebra – Fulda
line Halle – Bebra line
and further:
Berlin – Halle line 		Special train ("sealed wagon") Overnight in Berlin, there for about 20 hours
12. April Berlin - Stralsund - Sassnitz - Trelleborg and on towards Malmö Berliner Nordbahn Railway
line Stralsund – Sassnitz
Königslinie
Kontinentalbanan
Södra stambanan
Västra stambanan 		Special train (“sealed wagon”) to Sassnitz
Ferry Drottning Victoria to Trelleborg
Regular train to Malmö
Night train to Stockholm
April 13th Stay in Stockholm Departure 18:37 towards Bräcke , overnight stay in a couchette car
April 14th Stockholm– Gävle - Bräcke - Boden Railway line Stockholm – Sundsvall
Norra stambanan
Railway line Sundsvall – Storlien
Stambanan genom övre Norrland 		Night train Stockholm – Bräcke
Passenger train Bräcke – Boden 		Overnight on the train to Bräcke
April 2nd jul. / April 15, 1917 greg. Soil - Haparanda - Tornio Railway line Boden – Haparanda
crossing the border
 Passenger trains In the evening, after 6 p.m., departure by train towards Helsingfors
April 3rd jul. / April 16, 1917 greg. Tornio - Riihimäki - Terijoki - Petrograd Oulu – Tornio
railway line Seinäjoki – Oulu
railway line Helsinki – Seinäjoki
railway line Saint Petersburg – Riihimäki railway 		Passenger trains Arrival at the Finnish train station in Petrograd at around 11 p.m.

Switzerland


Lenin ("oulianoff") left Bern tomorrow to Henri Guilbeaux on April 6, 1917

On Easter Monday, April 9, 1917, the tour group gathered in the morning at the Zähringerhof inn at Zurich's main train station , where they had lunch. Farewell speeches were given and Lenin read out a statement on behalf of the entire group in German and French . The group consisted of 32 people, among them besides Lenin himself:

On the way across the station forecourt to the train and on the platform, the group was greeted with boos from opposing political activists. This first move was a scheduled move. The departure was observed by the German military attaché , Major von Bismarck, who appeared incognito at the station , and was delayed by about a quarter of an hour due to a delay. On the train, albeit in a different car, a German lieutenant from the Landgendarmerie was traveling .

The Swiss customs control took place at Schaffhausen station . Swiss authorities had not signed the agreement between the tour group and the German Reich and treated them like ordinary travelers abroad. In order to be independent of German supplies, the Russians had packed a substantial supply of food, most of which has now been confiscated: Due to the war, the transport of food abroad was severely restricted. During the customs control, the Russian tour group waited on platform 3. After the onward journey, the group's luggage was checked again in the last station on Swiss territory, Thayngen . This first section of the journey ended in Gottmadingen station, which was already in Germany .

Germany - the "sealed car"

Book by the accompanying Swiss communist Fritz Platten

First day

In Gottmadingen the group was received by German officers led by the Rittmeister of the Reserve Arwed von der Planitz . He had received his instructions directly from First Quartermaster General Erich Ludendorff . A second officer was a Lieutenant von Bühring, who spoke Russian but was not supposed to let them know. The group had to first in the reception building of the railway station waiting where the entry formalities were completed and the Russians paid the fare (Lenin had insisted on not get paid to ride by the Germans) and then to their special train accompanied. This consisted of a 2nd / 3rd passenger car . Class and a luggage cart .

The passenger car, the "sealed car", had a side aisle, so it was an express train car. There was a toilet at each end. At one end there were three (old) 2nd class compartments and five 3rd class compartments at the other. Lenin and his wife were given a second class compartment for themselves, the other two were given to families with children. The remaining travelers were divided into four compartments. The German escort took over the one end compartment of the 3rd class. In the corridor, a chalk line was drawn between the Russian and the German part of the car, which neither Germans nor Russians were allowed to cross, only the Swiss Fritz Platten was allowed to cross the line. The arrangement had the disadvantage that the 32 Russians had to share the one toilet at their end of the car, for both normal use and smoking, as Lenin forbade smoking in the rest of the car. The "sealing" of the car consisted in locking three of the four outer doors.

The first stage of the journey in Germany led as a special train only to Singen (Hohentwiel) station, six kilometers away , where the train was parked for the night. The Russians stayed in the neutral car, the German company got them beer and sandwiches and then went to the city to spend the night. The German press reported the trip and the Foreign Office launched a corresponding information to the press. The trip attracted little public interest. If the tour group was noticed when the train stopped at train stations, Germans reacted rather dismissively. In Mannheim, Fritz Platten was forced to demand that French songs be stopped. Only in Frankfurt am Main was there more intensive contact, where people also spoke.

Second day

On Tuesday, April 10, 1917, the journey continued at around 5 a.m. from Singen via Stuttgart to Karlsruhe. The two cars were now attached to a scheduled train. The "sealed car" was treated like a through car and attached to changing scheduled trains.

In Stuttgart, the German trade unionist Wilhelm Jansson boarded the train. Lenin refused contact with him, so that he was not allowed to enter the Russian part of the car. Lenin worked while driving, took notes and discussed with comrades. In the early evening the train reached Frankfurt am Main, where it was put on a siding for the night. The German escort and Fritz Platten went into town, the Russian group stayed behind in the car. A group of German soldiers got into the car and discussed with the Russians, mainly to find out how long the war would last.

On that day, the Foreign Office found that the Russians had not taken care of a transit visa for Sweden and tried to do it by telegraph , which they succeeded. However, the German envoy in Bern had drawn attention to this fact the day before. The Swedish government allowed them to pass through on the same day.

third day

On Wednesday, April 11, 1917, the train on which the two cars were attached had a dining car and the Russian tour group could even be provided with warm food. However, the train left Frankfurt delayed because the connecting train had been missed, with which the "sealed" car should have been carried on. The delay increased during the day. That was a problem because the ferry from Sassnitz to Sweden only drove once a day. In order to accelerate the train, even the train of the German Crown Prince is said to have waited two hours in Halle to allow the overhaul. Nonetheless, when the train arrived in Berlin , it was clear that the ferry to Sweden would only be able to reach the next day. The car was therefore parked in Berlin first in the Potsdamer Bahnhof , later in the Stettiner Bahnhof . The travelers spent around 20 hours in their car in Berlin. The group was visited by a German officer in civilian clothes, who inquired about their condition via plates. The officer reported that the group was very positive about care and support during the journey.

fourth day

The Drottning Victoria , with which Lenin crossed the Baltic Sea

From Berlin on Thursday, April 12th, 1917, we first went to Stralsund. A fixed link to the island of Ruegen did not exist yet, so the "plumbed" car with the ferry between Stralsund and Altefähr be transported to the island had before he finally, after five hours' journey reached the Sassnitz where travelers left their car and the ferry Drottning Victoria of King line to the Swedish Trelleborg umstiegen. Most of the members of the tour group got seasick on the crossing , but not Lenin. The crossing took four hours.

Sweden

Stockholm Central Station
Haparanda train station

First day

In Trelleborg, the group expected a small welcoming committee, including the mayor of Trelleborg. But there were only 15 minutes before the tour group boarded the train to Malmo .

Jakub Fürstenberg, who worked in an import and export business that also transferred part of the money that Germany used to finance subversive efforts in Russia, had a buffet prepared at the Hotel Savoy in Malmö. This was consumed in less than 15 minutes. That same evening the journey continued on a night train to Stockholm .

Second day

During the night drive, Lenin discussed with his fellow travelers in his compartment until 4 a.m.

The next morning, Wednesday, April 13, 1917, they arrived in Stockholm around 9:00 a.m. and were greeted by Stockholm Mayor Carl Lindhagen , the Reichstag member Fredrik Ström and other members of the Reichstag at the main station . Since a train to northern Sweden did not leave until the evening, Lenin used the time for numerous talks with Swedish comrades and, accompanied by Frederik Ström, had himself dressed up in the PUB , a bourgeois merchandise temple. Here he also bought suit and shoes, which he wore at his first appearances in Petrograd and later in public and which were later immortalized on numerous Lenin statues. He decided not to buy clean underwear for lack of time. Numerous other members of the group first used the opportunity to freshen up after four days in a hotel.

In the evening, the tour group took the train to 18:37 after Bracke . Hundreds of socialists had come to see them off. Red flags fluttered, even on the locomotive. Thanks to the funds donated by comrades in Stockholm, the group could afford compartments with wooden bunks and travel through the night lying down.

third day

On April 14, 1917, at 5:30 am, the train reached Bräcke. Here they got on a train to Boden , which the train reached around 10 p.m. After waiting for more than two hours, they rode on a train that left town shortly after midnight. It was now Thursday, April 15, 1917. After a seven-hour drive they reached the Haparanda border station .

Finland

Commemorative plaque for Lenin's border crossing at the train station in Tornio

The Grand Duchy of Finland was at that time a part of the Russian Empire endowed with extensive internal autonomy . The Russians entered here - exactly one month after the Tsar's abdication - that is, native soil, Platten, as Swiss, but entry was refused. The thorough checks on travelers in the Finnish border town of Tornio ended on April 2nd . / April 15, 1917 greg. - here the Julian calendar was in effect and it was Easter Sunday of the Russian Orthodox Church - around 6 p.m. The group then boarded a train towards Helsingfors , which they used to Riihimäki . The group drove in 3rd class cars. In Riihimäki it rose on Monday April 3rd jul. / April 16, 1917 greg. , to a train to Terijoki and changed there again the train, which this time went to Petrograd .

Russia

Statue of Lenin by Sergei Yevseev in front of the Finnish train station in St. Petersburg

Before that, however, another border control had to be passed, as the border between Finland and Russia was controlled like an international border. At that time the border station was Beloostrov , about 40 km from Petrograd. However, proper border control no longer took place. Rather, the train was stormed by enthusiastic workers before it had finally come to a standstill on the platform. Some of the workers had walked long distances from Sestrorezk or had come by train from Petrograd to greet Lenin. They carried him into the station concourse, where he gave an impromptu speech. The Provisional Government , however, did not believe it had to prepare any special countermeasures, as it expected that Lenin would be publicly discredited by the mere fact that his journey had been made possible by Germany, the enemy of the war. This assumption turned out to be erroneous.

The reception at the Finnish train station in Petrograd was overwhelming. Thousands of workers were awaiting the arrival of soldiers from Kronstadt had come to a guard of honor to form. The train arrived at the station with a delay shortly before midnight. As he got out of the car, he was given a bouquet of flowers that he couldn't do anything with. He immediately hurried to the prince's room at the station. There he explained to those present - who had rather expected that he would join the existing government that had emerged from the revolution - that a new epoch had now dawned and the " world socialist revolution " was celebrated. Lenin first developed the ideas in sketchy form that later became known as the April Theses . When he had managed to leave the station through the crowds, he got into an armored car in front of the station building , from which he gave a speech to the assembled and with which he drove into town.

Worth knowing

  • There were other transports of Russian emigrants on the route used by Lenin. In May and June 1917 there were two transports with 400 people from different political directions, including families with small children, and emigrants from Belgium.
  • Today issued the Finland Station locomotive H2 293 of the Finnish Railways is fled to the Lenin in August 1917 to Finland and he returned to the in October. It has nothing to do with his trip from Zurich to Petrograd in April 1917.
  • The car exhibited in the Lenin Museum in Sassnitz during the GDR was one that was built in 1912 for the court train of the German Empress and converted to a car 1./2. Class had been rebuilt. It also had nothing to do with Lenin's journey from Zurich to Petrograd in April 1917.

See also

literature

sorted alphabetically by author

  • Werner Hahlweg : Lenin's journey through Germany in April 1917. In: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte , 1957, pp. 307–333 ( PDF; 1.3 MB ).
  • Werner Hahlweg (Ed.): Lenin's return to Russia 1917: The German files = studies on the history of Eastern Europe IV. Brill, Leiden 1957.
  • Catherine Merridale : Lenin's train. The journey into the revolution . Translation by Bernd Rullkötter. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2017. ISBN 978-3-10-002274-5 . (English 2016)
  • Michael Pearson : The sealed wagon. Lenin's path from exile to power . Universitas Verlag, Berlin 1977, ISBN 3-8004-0845-7 .
  • Fritz Platten : Lenin's journey through Germany in a sealed car. Neuer Deutscher Verlag, Berlin 1924, new edition at ISP, Frankfurt am Main 1985.
  • Karl Radek : Lenin's "sealed train". In: New York Times , February 19, 1922.
  • Stefan Zweig : The sealed train, in: Great moments of mankind , fourteen historical miniatures. Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1964, ISBN 3-596-20595-6 .

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Unless otherwise stated, the dates are based on the Gregorian calendar . In Russia at that time the Julian calendar was still in force with a time difference of 13 days.
  2. ↑ The railroad car was not sealed, but could not be left. More on this cf. in the relevant section.
  3. ^ Easter Sunday of the Western Churches.
  4. ↑ According to Wikipedia classification (if available)
  5. ↑ The information in Merridale, p. 245, that the tour group changed trains “just north of Helsingfors ” can only refer to this branch station .
  6. ↑ Since the departure took place at noon, the local train to Schaffhausen , Zurich HB from 1:35 p.m. (see: Official Swiss Course Book Winter 1916/1917, Table 349) is an option. This contradicts the statement of the German military attaché, Major von Bismarck, who observed the scene and speaks of an "express train" (Hahlweg: Lenin's return , p. 96f.). There was also no express train on the connection at lunchtime. Pearson says explicitly that the train left at 3:10 p.m. (Pearson, p. 63). The timetable does not include a train at 3:10 p.m. But since the train left about a quarter of an hour late (Hahlweg: Lenin's return , p. 101), it could have been the train with the scheduled departure at 14:58.
  7. ^ At which of the numerous Frankfurt train stations this happened, the source does not say.
  8. ↑ At least the statement that the Crown Prince's train waited two hours to organize this overtaking process is not very credible.
  9. ↑ It is more of a literary representation. It contains factual errors and the author's conclusions are sometimes speculative.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gerd Koenen : Game for world power. Germany and the Russian Revolution. In: Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte 67, Heft 34–36 (2017), p. 15 ( online ), accessed on October 21, 2017.
  2. ↑ Hahlweg: Lenin's Journey through Germany in April 1917 , pp. 308-312.
  3. ^ Hahlweg: Lenin's journey through Germany in April 1917 , p. 312 f.
  4. ↑ Hahlweg: Lenin's Journey through Germany in April 1917 , p. 315 f.
  5. ^ Merridale, p. 169.
  6. ↑ Hahlweg: Lenin's Return , p. 91.
  7. ↑ Merridale, p. 170.
  8. ↑ Merridale, pp. 170f.
  9. ↑ There was only a short note in the Zürcher Morgenzeitung reporting on it in the German sense, cf. Hahlweg: Lenin's Journey through Germany in April 1917 , p. 323.
  10. ↑ Hahlweg: Lenin's return , pp. 93–95.
  11. ↑ Information from Merridale, pp. 173–176.
  12. ↑ Merridale, p. 175.
  13. ↑ Text of the telegram: partons demain midi allemagne platten accompagne train priere venir immediately frais couvrirons amenez romain rolland s'il est d'accord en principe. Faites possible for amener naine ou graber . telegraphiez volkshaus oulianoff
  14. ↑ a b Merridale, p. 172.
  15. ^ Merridale, p. 231.
  16. ^ Hahlweg: Lenin's return , p. 96f.
  17. ↑ Hahlweg: Lenin's Return , p. 101.
  18. ^ Pearson, p. 64.
  19. ^ Merridale, p. 176.
  20. ^ Pearson, p. 65.
  21. ^ Pearson, p. 65.
  22. ↑ Merridale, pp. 176f.
  23. ^ Pearson, p. 66.
  24. ↑ a b Merridale, p. 177
  25. ^ Pearson, p. 66.
  26. ^ Merridale, pp. 178, 180
  27. ↑ Merridale, p. 179
  28. ^ Merridale, p. 181
  29. ↑ Hahlweg: Lenin's return , pp. 95f.
  30. ^ Merridale, p. 182
  31. ↑ Plates, p. 35
  32. ↑ a b Merridale, p. 189
  33. ^ Pearson, p. 72.
  34. ↑ Cf. Lenin's report on the trip in: Hahlweg: Lenin's return , p. 106; Pearson, p. 72.
  35. ↑ Merridale, pp. 182f.
  36. ^ Merridale, p. 188.
  37. ↑ Merridale, p. 193.
  38. ↑ Hahlweg: Lenin's Return , p. 91.
  39. ↑ Hahlweg: Lenin's Return , p. 92.
  40. ↑ Pearson, pp. 72, 82.
  41. ↑ Hahlweg: Lenin's Return , p. 92.
  42. ^ Pearson, p. 82.
  43. ↑ Pearson, pp. 82, 85.
  44. ^ Pearson, p. 85.
  45. ↑ Hahlweg: Lenin's Return , p. 92.
  46. ^ Merridale, p. 190.
  47. ↑ a b Merridale, p. 191
  48. ↑ a b Merridale, p. 194.
  49. ^ Pearson, p. 88.
  50. ^ Pearson, p. 88.
  51. ↑ a b Merridale, p. 226
  52. ↑ Merridale, pp. 231f.
  53. ↑ Merridale, pp. 232f.
  54. ↑ a b c d Merridale, p. 243
  55. ↑ Person, p. 95.
  56. ↑ See: Merridale, Fig. 39.
  57. ↑ Vladimir D. Nabokow : Petrograd 1917. The short summer of the revolution. Rowohlt, Berlin 1992, p. 107 f. and 133.
  58. ↑ Merridale, p. 250.
  59. ↑ Merridale, pp. 254-256.
  60. ↑ Hahlweg: Lenin's return, pp. 115-136.
  61. ↑ Mikko Alameri: Railways in Finland . . Josef Otto Slezak, Vienna 1979. ISBN 3-900134-22-7 , pp. 63, 89.
  62. ↑ Merridale, Fig. 36.
  63. ↑ Book presentation and reviews at Perlentaucher.de , accessed on April 5, 2017