After years in exile, Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin is rushing back to Russia to give new momentum to the 1917 revolution that toppled the Tsarist regime.
Follow his fateful journey with the Lenin Tracker.
17 April 2017
16 April 2017
Thousands of workers, soldiers, and sailors greet Lenin as he arrives in the Russian capital. Months of political struggle with opponents are still ahead of him, but the dictatorship of the proletariat is imminent!
READ MORE: Lenin arrives in Petrograd to join the Russian Revolution
Lenin is about to arrive at the Finland Station in Petrograd.
Lenin’s wife Nadezhda Krupskaya says: “Everything was familiar and dear – shabby third-class train cars, Russian soldiers. It felt incredibly good.”
15 April 2017
The group starts the final leg of the journey, departing Tornio for the capital Petrograd. The train will go through the territory of Finland.
As the train was about to depart, Lenin addresses the locals in Finnish, saying “Goodbye Finns!”
They are all thoroughly searched by British officers, who are stationed at the Russian border as Entente allies. Unable to find anything suspicious on them, the officers let them go.
The Bolsheviks are asked to fill out immigration forms. Lenin writes that he is a journalist returning home from political emigration.
They take sleighs to cross a small frozen river separating Haparanda and Tornio, a town in Finland which was part of the Russian Empire at the time. The first thing they see is the red revolutionary banner flying on top of the border checkpoint.
The revolutionaries arrive in Haparanda in northern Sweden. It’s just below freezing and everything is still covered in snow here.
14 April 2017
The train is getting closer to the Russian border. The Bolsheviks are nervous as they're unsure how they will be treated – authorities can easily arrest and jail them as “traitors.”
During the 37-hour train ride to Haparanda, Lenin is reading newspapers to learn about the situation in Russia. “Scoundrels! Traitors!” – he exclaims reading news about Chkheidze and Tsereteli, the leaders of rival Socialist faction of Mensheviks.
In the train, the Bolsheviks discuss how they should act at the Russian border or in case of interrogation by authorities.
13 April 2017
About 100 people gather at Stockholm Central Train Station to bid farewell to the departing Bolsheviks. Everyone is wearing red revolutionary emblems and sing the socialist anthem – the Internationale.
The Bolsheviks depart for the town of Haparanda on the Swedish-Russian border.
Swedish Social-Democrats organize a farewell dinner for the Bolsheviks at the Hotel Regina.
Because of Lenin’s shabby proletariat look, his comrades convince him to buy some new clothing and shoes.
Swedish MP Fredrik Strom says Lenin “was dressed like a worker who went out for Sunday stroll during unstable weather: long oversized coat, an umbrella, soft frayed felt hat and thick sole boots suitable for snowy and rainy weather.”
In Stockholm, the group is warmly received by Swedish socialists. This is the only known picture taken of the group during their journey.
Swedish MP Fredrik Strom books Hotel Regina for the Bolsheviks. The travellers were so poorly dressed that the doorman first does not want to let them in.
The Bolsheviks arrive in Stockholm.
When the train stops near the city of Sodertalje, not far from Stockholm, a group of Swedish journalists burst into the car eager to speak to Lenin and other Bolsheviks. The revolutionaries are taken aback given that they tried to keep low profile throughout the trip. Lenin refuses to speak to the press.
12 April 2017
The Bolsheviks board the overnight Malmo-Stockholm express.
Weary and hungry, they devour a buffet at the Savoy Hotel restaurant, to the great surprise of the staff. Lenin isn’t eating though – he’s busy discussing news from revolutionary Petrograd.
The Bolsheviks arrive in Malmo.
The steamboat arrives in Trelleborg, Sweden. A local train takes the group to Malmo, where they are greeted by local socialists and Bolsheviks residing in the country.
Leaving Germany, the Bolsheviks don’t know what to expect from the Swedish authorities. Out of precaution Lenin tells his fellow travelers to sign immigration forms under their pseudonyms.
The Baltic Sea is stormy. Fritz Platten says that only five travelers out of 32 were not seasick.
After the three-day train ride, the émigrés arrive in the port of Sassnitz in the north of Germany to board a steamboat headed to Sweden.
11 April 2017
While en route, Lenin is working on his April Theses – a series of 10 directives that outline the Bolshevik Party’s plan to turn the revolution socialist.
Lenin’s wife Nadezhda Krupskaya: “We looked out of the windows and were stunned by complete absence of adult men – only women, teenagers and children could be seen at train stations, in fields, and in the streets.”
Back in Russia, the Bolsheviks are eagerly awaiting Lenin to arrive and give the party new momentum. Most Bolsheviks leaders were in exile when the February Revolution took place, and party structure and organization are still weak.
The train arrives in Berlin and waits there almost the entire day, while the Russian émigrés, as agreed, remain inside.
“I recall the terrible impression of a frozen country when we were traveling through Germany,” revolutionary Grigory Zinoviev says. “The Berlin we saw from the window of our train looked like a cemetery.”
Uncertainty lies ahead for the Bolsheviks – they are not sure how will they be treated after they leave Germany for Sweden. And the gravest concern is that they could be arrested as traitors by the Provisional Government when they enter the Russian Empire.
For fear being compromised, Lenin rejects any meetings during their trip.
Traveling through enemy territory, the Bolsheviks are accused of being traitors and German spies.
The revolutionaries pass by Frankfurt. They say that the sight of tired working class people at the train station revealed to them the dreadful conditions the Germans are facing.
“This somber procession like a lightning bolt illumined the situation in Germany and awakened hope in the hearts of the traveling émigrés that soon the masses will rise against the ruling classes,” the Swiss Socialist Fritz Platten says.
10 April 2017
Lenin draws a line with chalk in the train car to separate the revolutionaries and the German officers. He also establishes a toilet ticket system in order to prevent people from taking their time to smoke in the lavatory.
Their train car has diplomatic immunity and cannot be stopped or searched.
The party has departed from Gottmadingen towards the port of Sassnitz. Their journey will take them through all of Germany, coming via Frankfurt and Berlin, before they reach their destination.
09 April 2017
The revolutionaries arrive at the German border, in the town of Gottmadingen. Here they board a “sealed” train car which has diplomatic immunity. Under the agreement, the Germans will not check their documents or search their luggage. Only one door out of four remain open. A line is drawn on the floor which separates the Russians and the accompanying German officers.
The group of 32 Bolsheviks depart from the Zurich train station, embarking on a perilous journey to Petrograd, where Vladimir Lenin hopes to take over the Revolution and do away with the Provisional Government.
About a hundred Russian emigres gather at Zurich train station to protest the Bolsheviks’ trip through German territory. They call those departing “traitors.”
08 April 2017
The controversial decision to go through Germany, which is at war with Russia, has been blasted by opponents and some fellow revolutionaries as treachery. Lenin is even being accused of spying for the Germans.
03 April 2017
WWI is raging in Europe and Vladimir Lenin and his fellow political emigres are stuck in Switzerland – the route through the Allied nations and sea is deemed too dangerous. Swiss socialist Fritz Platten helps the Bolsheviks arrange a deal with the German government, which allows them a safe passage through enemy territory. The Germans hope that Lenin’s arrival will usher in Russia’s signing of a separate peace.