Veteran journalist and author
Joseph C. Goulden offers a good review of Catherine Merridale's Lenin On the Train and Sean McMeekin's The Russian Revolution: A New History for the Washington Times.
In the spring of 1917, the
German spy service sensed a sure-fire means of persuading Russia to make a
separate peace and exit the Great War. Czar Nicholas II had abdicated in the
face of mass protests that swept the streets of Petrograd, the then-capital, and
signs of war-weariness were increasingly evident.
German eyes fell upon
Vladimir Lenin, an aspiring Communist leader in exile for decades. He was
considered to be a man of extraordinary ruthlessness — a “one-man demolition
crew” who would wreck Russia’s war effort, in contrast with the moderates then
in the vanguard of revolution.
But Lenin was in exile in
Switzerland, and the only feasible route back to Russia was through Germany and
territories which it controlled. Lenin was so desperate to return that he
considered posing as a deaf-mute Swede (until his wife reminded him of his
habit of talking in his sleep — in Russian).
But the spy chiefs found a
solution: Lenin and selected followers would transit Germany in a sealed train
that would be declared “an extraterritorial entity.” Once in Finland, smugglers
would take them across to Petrograd.
The remarkable story of
Lenin’s odyssey — and the bloody chaos he would inflict on the world — are told
in striking works by Catherine Merridale, a noted historian on the human
consequences of the Soviet era, and the academic Sean McMeekin. They offer a
richly documented look at the Russian Revolution, now marking its centennial
year.
… Further, Lenin’s pockets
sagged with German gold. He spent millions of dollars on propaganda aimed at
convincing Russian troops to stop fighting. (The energetic Mr. McMeekin
unearthed long-hidden files on secret German financing that escaped
destruction). London’s spies spent their own fortune on propaganda;
intelligence buffs should enjoy accounts of this covert warfare.
Lies have long shelf lives: A
million Russian rubles went to leftist writer John Reed for his acclaimed 1919
book “Ten Days That Shook the World,” which in 1981 was the basis for Warren
Beatty’s historically laughable movie “Reds.”
In short order, Lenin added a
new ingredient to what had begun, more or less, as a grass-roots revolution.
His contribution was terror — directed first at the relatively moderate
leadership he replaced but rapidly expanded to include anyone who objected to
his harshness. Lenin opted for terror to cleave away opponents — and he
continued that course long after the government he established was on a secure
footing. (The secret police organization that morphed into the KGB was his
creation.) Further, his determination to overthrow western democracies put the
Soviet Union at odds with much of the world through the end of the Cold War.
You can read the rest of the
review via the below link:
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