Lenin on the Train
Book description
'The superb, funny, fascinating story of Lenin's trans-European rail journey and how it shook the world' Simon Sebag Montefiore, Evening Standard, Books of the Year
'Splendid ... a jewel among histories, taking a single episode from the penultimate year of the Great War, illuminating a continent, a revolution and aā¦
Why read it?
2 authors picked Lenin on the Train as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
This book narrowly focuses on one of the most famous moments that putatively determined the course of Russian and world history in the 20th centuryāLeninās journey from exile in Zurich, through enemy territory, to Petrograd in April 1917. The journey acquired infamy because it was facilitated by the German Army and government.
Leaving to one side consideration of counterfactuals or āwhat-ifs,ā I loved Merridaleās book because it manages to capture so many worldsāthe world of Russian revolutionary politics and exile, of espionage during WWI, and the early weeks of the Revolution of 1917āall while maintaining a focus on the humanā¦
From Erik's list on Russiaās Revolution and Civil War.
This book made me a traveling companion of Lenin. Together with him we go on an incredible journey: from Switzerland across Europe via Finland to Petrograd. This journey changed the world, because it brought Lenin back to Russia, Russia the October coup, and the century of a Soviet regime. Merridale depicts the unique moment of the dawn of a new age as banally and grotesquely as if she had really been there. The best part: just before he left, Lenin called the American embassy because he would have preferred to be transported by the Americans rather than the Germans. Butā¦
From Susanne's list on Pre-Putinās Soviet Russia.
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