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.
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09 April 2017
13:10 GMT
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.
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12:00 GMT
About a hundred Russian emigres gather at Zurich train station to protest the Bolsheviks’ trip through German territory. They call those departing “traitors.”
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08 April 2017
19:30 GMT
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.
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03 April 2017
23:50 GMT
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23:48 GMT
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.
