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    Lenin on the Train
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    Lenin on the Train
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    Lenin on the Train
    Audiobook10 hours

    Lenin on the Train

    Written by Catherine Merridale

    Narrated by Gordon Griffin

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    In April 1917, as Tsar Nicholas II's abdication sent shockwaves across war-torn Europe, the future leader of the Bolshevik revolution, Vladimir Lenin, was far away, exiled in Zurich. To lead the revolt, Lenin needed to return to Petrograd immediately. But to get there, he would have to cross Germany, which meant accepting help from the deadliest of Russia's adversaries and betraying his homeland. Bringing to life a world of counter-espionage, intrigue, wartime desperation, illicit finance, and misguided utopianism,Catherine Merridale provides a riveting account of this pivotal journey as well as the underground conspiracy and subterfuge that went into making it happen.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDreamscape Media Audio
    Release dateMar 28, 2017
    ISBN9781520070469
    Author

    Catherine Merridale

    Catherine Merridale is the author of the critically acclaimed Ivan’s War: Life and Death in the Red Army, 1939-1945, and Night of Stone: Death and Memory in Russia. A professor of contemporary history at Queen Mary University of London, she has also written for The Guardian, the Literary Review, and the London Review of Books, and contributes regularly to broadcasts on BBC radio. She lives in Oxfordshire, England.

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    Reviews for Lenin on the Train

    3.5/5

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    • 3/5
      In 1917, at the height of the First World War, Germany turned to a new weapon in their fight against the Allied Powers. They found a revolutionary called Lenin, who was living in neutral Zurich, stuck him on a sealed train, and fired him (in Churchill's words) ‘like a plague bacillus’ through Germany and into Russia.‘What Lenin brought to Russia was class hatred, German money and elaborate works on the application of Marxism in Russia,’ as the chief of police in Petrograd put it (though how much Lenin was actually financed by the Germans is debatable). The point was that he, as a revolutionary socialist, was opposed to the war and would, it was hoped, pull Russia out of it altogether – so Berlin considered that ‘the interests of the German government are identical with those of the Russian revolutionaries’.The journey was a complicated one, logistically, and Catherine Merridale does her best to retrace the route – but in the end, the train journey itself is the least of what's being written about here. It's an excuse to examine the state of the war, and of the world, in 1917, from the swarming network of spies and chancers, to the competing intellectual arguments about people power versus government authority.Is the sealed train enough to hold the book together thematically? Well…just about.It's a useful book for fleshing out the character of Lenin, someone marked by his total intransigence with anyone who disagreed with him even slightly, and also by a sort of infuriatingly fussy authoritarianism. Even on the journey in question, he was legislating his infamous ‘in-train rules’ about when people had to go to sleep and what hand-drawn vouchers they needed to use the toilet. It sounds like sheer pettiness, but the difference between that and the regime he established in Russia – ‘a stifling, cruel, sterile one, a workshop for decades of tyranny’ – is only one of scale.Given the aims of the Germans in putting Lenin on this train, it is frustrating that Merridale never spells out the result of the journey: namely, that after Lenin's coup, the Bolsheviks did indeed sign a peace treaty with Germany. Unless I missed it, this simple fact is not even stated in the book.In any case, the real punchline comes when she considers the fate of Lenin's companions on the train once Lenin had died and the journey had passed into myth. The people with him had experienced it as reality, not myth – which from Stalin's point of view meant they knew too much.Zinoviev was shot with Kamenev in 1936. His son Stefan – who as a little boy in Switzerland had enchanted Lenin so much that the leader once attempted to adopt him – was shot in 1937. Zinoviev's second wife and travelling companion of 1917, who was exiled to one of the most northern labour colonies, was shot in 1938. […] In September 1937, and still protesting his innocence, [Shlyapnikov] was shot for his supposed involvement in Zinoviev's so-called conspiracy.… Radek and Sokolnikov were beaten to death in their respective labour camps within a few days of each other.… Fürstenberg was shot, as were his wife and son, after a fifteen-minute trial.My problems with the book had to do with its focus – Merridale's prose, by contrast, and her powers of explanation, are excellent. So you need a fair working knowledge of the context, but if you have that, this book makes for a fascinating snapshot on a particularly freighted moment in European history. It's also enjoyable to imagine someone picking it up as an imagined sequel to Girl on the Train.
    • 3/5
      I studied Russian History in college and the title of this book promised some unknown insights. The problem? The book's title misrepresents what's on the pages. There is little told about the train ride. And, too much detail that perhaps could be better stated in a history class, and not a novel. By promising a picture of Lenin as he makes his way to St. Petersburg the author does not set the stage for a book more about the Russian Revolution than one might expect in this setting. Still, Merridale provides a look at the various forces building towards the development of Lenin as the eventual leader. But that might have been better placed in a book with a more definitive title and theme.
    • 3/5
      This is the first book I've read on Vladimir Lenin, and I learned quite a bit from it. I admit I'm a huge fan of history on royalty so the Russian history I focused on was the various monarchs of the country. I knew the basics about Lenin and the change to Communism because of high school history classes, I took one focused on an overview of Russian history. So I had no clue what it took to bring Lenin out of exile and into Russia to take over governance of the country, especially since we were still involved in World War I at the time. I also didn't know multiple members of the Allied forces were trying to decide if it would be a good chance to take out someone, Lenin, who they felt would be detrimental to their war effort. Parts of it were slow and lost my interest, but the rest of it made up for those few pages.
    • 3/5
      Regular readers of these reviews know that I am no friend of mistitled books, and this one is a pretty egregious example of the breed. From the title, one would expect a laser beam approach to a minute but interesting subject; instead, we get a sprawl which tries to narrate and explain, inter alia, Allied diplomacy and espionage in Petrograd to try and keep Russia afloat and involved in WWI, German efforts to achieve the opposite, the factional feuding among international socialists and revolutionaries during the first years of the century, the February revolution, the Lvov and Kerensky governments, whether (and how) the Germans funded Lenin, and lots of backstory and introductions to the many characters in all of these threads. That's a lot of balls to keep in the air--thus Lenin gets on the eponymous train on page 145 and arrives in Petrograd with some ninety pages to go. And then, oddly, the book sputters to an abrupt halt in the summer of 1917 when nothing much was going on. It must be said that there is a lot of information to be had in the book, and that the author is a talented writer, but the involutions of socialist/revolutionary factionalism is not for most a high-interest subject, and given the book's considerable length, I wasn't too disappointed to see it end.
    • 5/5
      In this 100th anniversary year of the Russian Revolution, there is a flurry of books on the lead-up to the Bolshevik taking of power. This book concentrates on the story of Lenin's return to Russia from Switzerland where he had been in exile. Unable to return because the war had blocked most routes between the hostile powers, Lenin eventually resorted to a deal with the Germans that allowed him and his small party of loyal followers to travel in a carriage from which no-one could enter or leave as it crossed Germany, thus preserving Lenin from charges that he had consorted with an enemy country when he arrived in Russia. While Lenin's long journey from Switzerland, through Germany, Sweden and across the Finnish border to Petrograd and a heroes welcome is the centrepiece of the book, it also covers the chaotic months in Russia between the overthrow of the Tsar and the Bolshevik revolution, and the attempts of Britain and Germany to influence these events. It makes for a great read, the personalities are captured well, particularly Lenin, who comes across as a ruthlessly focussed, formidably energetic force of nature, so intent on revolution he often forgot to eat. Well worth reading for anyone with an interest in 20th century history.
    • 4/5
      This is a brief history of Lenin's stay in Switzerland, his trip through Germany, Sweden and Finland back to Russia and the early days of the Russian Revolution, including events going on in St. Petersburg before Lenin arrived. I am not an expert on events of this time or of Lenin, so I found this quite educational. Unfortunately, judging from what some of the author writes, much of the detailed notes, letters or published materials from that time has either been lost or suppressed. Unlike many histories of great people from the 19th and early 20th centuries, there aren't the usual huge volume of notes, diaries or contemporary writings to draw from. Having almost nothing of Lenin's to work with or from his direct associates that details this journey, the author instead relied on many other sources from the time and previous works. The events of the book were extensively researched, based on the notes. I found this book to be very interesting and insightful. I miss the level of detail of most historical works today, but that seemed to be a result of the suppression of information, not due to the author's omissions. One thing I did find curious is the author's refusal to associate Lenin or the revolution to Communism - the term only appears once or twice in the entire book. In fact, while 'constitutional monarch' and 'democracy' appear in the index, Communism does not. In general i feel that I did learn sometime about the events and people of the time, but there's a lot more to learn.
    • 4/5
      Well researched and written. However, a little disappointed that Lenin was only actually on the train here for about 20 pages? Maybe 30? Was excited to read more in depth about his trip but the book was far more a discussion of events leading up to him arriving in Petrograd and the time immediately following. Still, well done.
    • 4/5
      I cannot speak highly enough of Merridale's book Red Fortress - using the Kremlin's history and iterations as the lens with which to view Russian history is brilliant and phenomenally well written. Lenin on the Train is insightful and informative, but I suspect I'd have enjoyed it far more if I'd read a more general history of the Russian Revolution beforehand. Cited as a major source of confusion for readers and researchers in the prefatory notes, the author's treatment of the calendar difference made that aspect effortless to follow.
    • 4/5
      What an unexpected surprise. I was attracted to this work by the word "train." What I found is a book that covers the critical span of history in 1917 when Russia went from a kingdom to hodge-podge socialist country to Communist Russia in just a matter of months. It is fascinating reading and well written. The duplicity of both the Central Powers (Germany) and the Allies is breathtaking. The minds that came up with ideas to get Russia out of WW I and the minds working to keep Russia in were probably highly skilled in statecraft but I'd never wish to have a meal with any of them. Even the explanation of the picture on the cover is part and parcel of the whole mess.
    • 4/5
      "Lenin on the Train" is an excellent 'second step' book into the history of the Russian revolutions of 1917 and the reentry of Lenin back on home soil. Merridale provides a compelling and highly readable history of the February Revolution.The name implies that the book will narrate Lenin's journey on the sealed train through hostile German territory back to Petrograd. However, from early on, it is clear that there is not enough documentary evidence about Lenin's journey to make a full book. Therefore, I was a bit disappointed that so little of the work focuses on Lenin's time on the train. Instead, more than half covers the activity back in Petrograd during and after the February Revolution, just prior to Lenin's return. While this is interesting and well-told, it does not satiate my thirst for information about Lenin's journey. And while the February Revolution was very much based in Petrograd, Merridale does not expand the story to the activities in other parts of the Russian Empire. Therefore, apart from Lenin's particular movements, the story takes place in Petrograd.I was, however, very impressed by Merridale's notes and suggestions for further reading. These provide fertile ground for readers limited to English, as well as those with the ability to read Russian. While it is not a work of heavy scholarship, Merridale provides a very accessible and readable history of a sliver of the February Revolution.
    • 4/5
      This is a well-researched narrative in a, relatively, short package. Merridale lays out all of the details with the eyes of an archivist, but not dry to deter the everyday reader.
    • 5/5
      This is a must-read book for --Anyone who loves History-Anyone who loves Russian History-Anyone who loves good writing.That's it. Catherine Merridale has written several excellent history titles, including "Red Fortress - History and Illusion in the Kremlin." But just give this book a try to enjoy a little known, but devastatingly important, event in Russian history that changed the course of the world.
    • 4/5
      Lenin doesn't actually take the train until about half way into this book, but the work itself is very much like a train ride: sometimes bumpy, sometimes a bit dull, sometimes incredibly fascinating.Merridale is at her best when writing about the Soviet leader, whether he's on the train or not. Lenin is impassioned, obsessed, controlling, determined, relentless. I loved the author's descriptions of his journey on the train, from what he must have been seeing outside to his insistence that no one smoke along the way. That he ate little for three days, then was presented with a delicious meal but showed little interest (too busy thinking about the proletariat) is only one of the wonderful stories that Merridale includes here.Considerable time is spent on describing the events leading up to Lenin's trip back to Mother Russia, and those are usually less successful. It's important to have a foundation, of course, and Merridale does a wonderful job for about 80 pages. Then readers will begin to wonder: "Will we ever get to Lenin?" Then continually going back and forth can get tiring, overloaded with names of comrades-in-arms, until the whole thing becomes a bit chaotic, no doubt like the times themselves.I love Russian history, and I have to say I did learn some interesting information here. But this book seems to be trying to be that proverbial something for everyone: entertaining for non-history fans, insightful for those with more knowledge, both a primer and a sophisticated text, and I'm not sure that works.
    • 5/5
      A well written and solid account of Lenin's ride in a sealed train through Germany iniss 1917. There is more than I wanted on the actual Revolution itself; I had no idea that nobody wanted to rule the country and the masses were going to be screwed out of the new government but for our hero, who left Stalin as his ruler when he died.Miss Merridale then treats us to a final chapter on current Russia, including Putin.
    • 4/5
      In 1917 Russian Revolution started with a lot of chaos, and Lenin was miles away in Zurich. In order to return to Russia, Lenin had to cross Germany, still at war with Russia.Catherine Merridale tells of Lenin journey back to Russia in a Sealed Train. Using new facts she shows the route that the train had to take. Her research shows how the eight days, 2000 miles was accomplished. One of the facts that amazed me was how all the different countries, all having their different agendas, worked to get Lenin back to Russia.Lenin on the Train, almost seems like one is reading a novel by Merridale's writing. The account doesn't end with the train ride, Lenin doesn't step off the train and immediately his government is in charge. There is so much behind the scenes that I can only imagine the confusion that was the start of Lenin's reign.Merridale has written a factual account of the Russian Revolution, Lenin and the players from other countries making this happen. I recommend Lenin on the Train to be part of anyone's library on Russian History.
    • 3/5
      Catherine Merridale's "Lenin on the Train" is a bit difficult to categorize. This is not a monograph for academics or specialists, the lack of archival research and the limited citations means this is more a 'popular' approach to this period (WWI, Russian Revolution) and personality (Lenin). Simultaneously, however, the avalanche of names, locations, events, and dates mean readers need to have a rather in-depth understanding of the First World War and the Russian Revolution if they want to understand the narrative Merridale has created. While the initial approach offered by the author sparked some interest, specifically the question of what role did Germany actually play in allowing Lenin to travel through their territory and destabilize the Eastern Front has some parallels to events occurring today in both Eastern Europe and the United States (to what extent can state and non-state actors influence revolutions, revolutionary movements, or the democratic process) the rest of the text unfolded as a rather unoriginal attempt to contextualize Lenin, the lead-up to the Russian Revolution, and Lenin's eventual return, escape, and re-return to Russia. The most significant contribution Merridale makes is to showcase the chaotic nature of the Russian Revolution, how fragile the system that existed between the two revolutions was, and that Germany had no qualms about facilitating the return of personalities like Lenin to Russia if it would help get Russia out of the war and allow Germany to concentrate on the Western Front and potentially win the war. As much as Lenin might have had to live down that his return was facilitated by a state that was simultaneously at war with the Russia, this was also the man that authorized the treaty of Brest-Litovsk. Making deals with enemies and utilizing opportunities to continue preaching his brand of Marxism is what made Lenin the man he was. Thus, reiterating that Germany was complicit in Lenin's return really does little to enhance our understanding of either the Russian Revolution or Lenin. And once again I'm forced to wonder who is the intended audience for this text.
    • 5/5
      I remember learning about the Russian Revolution, or rather, Revolutions, of 1917 as part of my History O Level course, nearly forty years ago now. My teacher, Mr Nigel Johnson, stressed, repeatedly, tht one of the key reasons behind the failure of the first phase of the insurrection to capitalise upon the enforced abdication of the Tsar to introduce a new, enduring socialist regime, was the absence of experienced, seasoned revolutionaries. At the time of the initial rising, Lenin, for example, was in exile in Switzerland, working doggedly each day in his local library, desperately struggling to keep abreast of emerging political ideas and news from his homeland.When he heard of the success of that first rising, Lenin and his cronies, all exiled throughout western Europe in a form of communist Diaspora, were desperate to return, to help the cause, and also to stake their own respective claims in the emerging power vacuum. This was more easily said than done. The First World War was nearing the end of its third year, and in addition to the military forces campaigning across the continent, the various nations all had extensive networks of intelligence agents at work virtually everywhere.For Lenin, the greatest imperative was to return to Russia to enable the revolution to push through to secure Russia’s withdrawal from the war. This was of obvious advantage to Germany, who was engaged on two fronts, but would prove disastrous to France and Britain. Germany was, therefore, eager to help Lenin, but the issue was not quite as simple as that. If he were to return to Russia too obviously through the beneficence of Germany, his motives, and his loyalty to Mother Russia, would be questions. The solution hit upon was to transport Lenin across Germany from the Swiss border through to Sweden in a sealed train. From there Lenin and his retinue would travel further north, before crossing into Finland and then back down into Russia.Catherine Merridale’s marvellous book details the various stages of this grim journey, conducted in cramped conditions with inadequate food and drink, limited access to any facilities and scant assurance of success. Interspersed with this account she outlines the progress of the revolution, and the struggles of the Provisional Government and the Soviet Executive Committee to administer a country that was imploding without adequate food or munitions supplies. The trains did, however, run more or less to time – one of my friends remarked that if the network had been run by Southern Ril, we would still have a Tsar today.There have been plenty of histories of the Revolution, and we can expect a flurry of new ones in this centenary year. Few, however, can match the accessibility, fluency and downright engagement of Catherine Merridale’s book. She has that happy knack of explaining complex issues with a clarity that gains and securely retains the reader’s attention. This is history writing at its best – accurate, brief and clear, drawn from extensive, well-marshalled research.
    • 2/5
      At the beginning of the final chapter of Lenin on the Train, Merridale describes a painting in a museum in St. Petersburg. The painting is Lenin’s arrival at the Finland train station – the point in time that Soviets consider to be when Lenin officially arrived to take over the Russian revolution. Merridale points out that Stalin is prominent in the picture, even though he was not actually a passenger on the train.She is making the point that this train trip is a pivotal point in the stories that are told about the revolution – so important a point that Stalin wanted to make sure he was part of that story.And that is the purported purpose of the book – to provide insight and information about that train trip and its impact on Russia and the Soviets.Unfortunately, the book is much more about the revolution than the train trip itself. And that is the first flawChapter 6 is titled “The Sealed Train”, and that is pretty much all the book says about the trip. Previous chapters include some information on how the trip got started, and subsequent chapters talk about the arrival at various stations. But that is not the focus of those chapters. Everything else in the book instead focuses on how the revolution got started, how it evolved, and how Lenin took control.Somewhere, there is a compelling story about the train trip Lenin took – a story that would fill a book. However, I suspect that there is no one now alive nor any documentation that can provide the details necessary to tell the story effectively. Which means that Merridale may well have done all she could on the subject.Okay, maybe the book didn’t come through with what it promised. But that whole Russian Revolution thing is still some pretty exciting stuff, right?Unfortunately, that is the book’s other flaw. There is nothing exciting, compelling, or really even interesting about the way the overall story of the Russian Revolution is told. This comes off like an academic unsuccessfully trying to write for the public. There are stories, there are names, there are interesting quotes, but none of it comes together into a story that most people will want to read. I learned a few things about the Russian revolution from this book. But I cannot believe there is anything here most experts would not already know, and the approach is not conducive for most non-experts to want to delve in and learn from this source.
    • 4/5
      Thankfully, Catherine Merridale’s book, Lenin on the Train, isn’t about her reliving Vladimir Ilyich Lenin’s famous wartime train ride from Zurich to St Petersburg (now known as Petrograd). While Merridale notes following the same route herself, to better understand Lenin’s experience, her trip merely informs her book, a book which is firmly about Lenin’s historic trip, not hers.But it doesn’t not take long to describe an eight-day train ride, especially one onboard a “sealed” railroad car that made few stops. So most of Merridale’s book is about the events that led to Lenin’s famous train ride, and the events following his arrival in Petrograd. And that’s fitting as Lenin’s trip makes no sense on its own. Understanding his trip requires knowledge of the world in which Lenin lived at the time.Merridale certainly seems to know her stuff. She deftly describes the world in which Lenin lived before his trip, the various local and foreign players in the drama at hand, and the competing interests that could so easily have resulted in an entirely different outcome for Lenin, for Russia, and for the world. She doesn’t fall for the many myths surrounding Lenin or his trip, cutting through decades of Soviet and Communist propaganda, and the self-serving contemporary memoirs of Lenin’s contemporaries, to describe the events as accurately as anyone probably can today.Merridale also doesn’t make the mistake of overly romanticizing Lenin or his beliefs. She correctly portrays him as an unsentimental fanatic who cared for nothing and for no one as much as for his version of world revolution. Merridale makes clear that while Lenin at the time of his famous trip was not yet a murderer, he was well on his way to adding a murderer’s heart to his single-minded and ruthless dogmatism. And though arguably outside the scope of her book, Merridale doesn’t shy away from noting the great suffering, and many deaths, that Lenin and his followers imposed on so many Russians and others within the Russian sphere of influence.All in all, Merridale’s books is a lively read which cuts away the mythos and propaganda and leaves readers with the facts about Lenin’s famous train ride and its immediate consequences for Russia. Merridale’s book also provides interested readers with a secure base for further reading about the ultimate consequences of Lenin’s return to Russia.
    • 4/5
      Not to quibble too much but a better title for this book might be Lenin Takes the Train. Lenin doesn’t actually get on the train until about midway through the book and then he is only one the train for a chapter or two. Regardless, the book provides a well written history of the period from shortly before the abdication of the Tsar to the immediate aftermath of Lenin’s arrival at Finland Station in Petrograd (St. Petersburg) in April 1917. It is a story of intrigue and the role of Germany to get Russia out of WWI, the inept management of Russia’s involvement in the war by the Tsar, and the early revolutionaries who were attempting to build a democratic state (although failing miserably). Merridale reports on the attempts to find (or even confirm) the Germany bought Lenin’s commitment to sign a unilateral peace treaty with Germany with a shipment or deposits of gold (not proven). Lenin had been living, more or less, in exile in Zurich at the start of the revolution and it was the result of Germany’s willingness to allow Lenin to travel through Germany on his way to Russia via Sweden that permitted him to arrive in the Russian capital. For the record, it was less of a seal train than history seems to recall, but it is still important that this trip would not have happened without approval at the highest level in Germany. So despite the title, this is a nice, tight history of a very tumultuous time and an understanding of Lenin’s thinking in creating the Soviet Union.
    • 4/5
      This is a relatively short work, which has as its subject the Russian Revolution and return to St. Petersburg (Petrograd) of Vladimir Lenin from his exile in Switzerland. The book sets out the pre-revolution state of Russia as a combatant in World War I and the cultural and societal stresses created by the conflict. Upon the overthrow of the Tsar, many previously exiled revolutionaries flocked to Petrograd in order to have a hand in reshaping the Russian government, with Lenin being the most radical of the bunch.Being located in Switzerland, Lenin’s return necessitated the cooperation of the German government, a tricky scenario, as Germany continued to be an enemy of the Russian state. The Russian provisional government continued to prosecute the war, with the support of most (not Lenin) of the factions competing for power. Being seen as a puppet of the Germans would be extremely damaging to anyone seeking to exert influence over the fledgling Russian government.Lenin is presented as a radical firebrand, unflinching in his opposition to the War and his contempt not just for the Allied powers, but many of his associates as well, almost alone in his demand for peace at any cost, a peace that was ultimately achieved following the Bolshevik revolution by the extremely harsh Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. This is not an exceptionally easy book to read, awash as it is in Russian names that I found increasingly hard to differentiate. You almost need a scorecard to track the various characters in this historical drama. Much of the prose is very dry and consists of mere recitation of facts and events with little explanation or analysis.