Chapter 256： Lenin returns home

In 1917, the First World War entered a stalemate. Germany was very tight on both the east and west fronts. Especially in February 1917, German-American diplomatic relations officially broke down. The German Army Chief of Staff Ludendorff determined that this would lead the United States to join the Allied Powers against Germany. Declaring war, once American troops land in Europe, Germany will not be able to win the war.

Therefore, Kaiser Wilhelm II eagerly hopes to make peace with Russia on the "weakest link" of the Allied camp, so that all the Eastern Front troops can be transferred to the Western Front to deal with the Allied Powers. However, the Russian bourgeois Provisional Government, which came to power through the January Revolution in 1917, ignored the Russian people’s call to withdraw from the war, and continued to strictly order the Russian army, which lacked ammunition and food, to carry on the so-called "duties promised by Russia to allies of the Allies". The German offensive to the teeth resulted in a series of catastrophic failures, and hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers died in battle.

In the face of such a temporary Russian government that "does not die, do not surrender, or go," Germany instead hopes to get in touch with the Russian Bolsheviks, who adhere to communism and the European revolution, in order to urge Russia to withdraw from the war. Ludendorff suggested that the Kaiser allow Lenin to return to Russia via Germany.

Of course, this does not mean that the German emperor and generals became fellow travelers of the communists. At the same time, Lenin, who was in exile in the neutral country of Switzerland, also discovered the contradictions between the imperialist countries. On January 22, 1917, Lenin published the famous "Revolution Report" to young Swiss workers in the People's Building in Zurich. He said: "The predatory war in Europe will eventually trigger a large-scale popular uprising!"

In this context, contact between the German authorities and Lenin became possible. Secret Contacts As early as before the "Revolution Report" speech, Lenin had made up his mind to return to China to start the revolution, and he had decided on the itinerary to return to China. One route is to return to Russia via a detour through France, but France and Russia are allies. If the French authorities discover that the anti-war Lenin enters its territory, they will certainly not let it go easily. The light will be imprisoned, or the war criminal will be sentenced. The other route is to head to Central Europe, go to Northern Europe via Germany, and then return from Finland.

On December 28, 1916, Lenin carried a small suitcase and walked out of his residence in Zurich. We followed him by train to the capital Bern at 10 am. After getting off the bus, he directly checked into a hotel not far from the train station. After half an hour, he walked out of the hotel and got on a tram bound for the small border town of Fosozules. After getting off the bus, he walked and looked around, then walked into the German consulate building in the local area. It was 12:30 in the morning. Lenin did not leave the consulate until 16:00 the next day. About 4 hours later, he got on the train back to Zurich.

It was later learned that Lenin's visit to Fosozurs was a meeting with Count von Romberg, the German envoy in Berne, and negotiated two plans for escorting Russian Revolutionaries back to the country. The first plan is to take a special train from Switzerland to Germany, and then enter Russia through Poland under German occupation or through neutral Sweden.

In view of the Russian Provisional Government’s request to Switzerland to extradite Lenin and other Bolsheviks, once Switzerland disagrees with Lenin and others’ leaving the country, a second set of plans will be adopted. The German General Staff will provide secret carriages and use international freight trains to send the Bolsheviks. People are transported out of Switzerland, or a ferry is prepared on Lake Constance on the German Lake to pick up Lenin and others.

Ludendorff believed that from a military point of view, it was a wise move to put Lenin back in Russia. …No matter how Russia is not an opponent of Germany, as long as it does not withdraw from the war, we cannot escape the shadow of defeat. Under this premise, we helped the Russian radicals who preached the Red Revolution to help Germany.

In early February 1917, Kaiser Wilhelm II formally approved the "Tor Plan" jointly formulated by the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the General Staff, and instructed on the plan: "More than 40 Bolsheviks headed by Lenin were against Germany. Useful value, accept their application."

The Russian Revolutionaries were divided into two groups and returned to the motherland via Germany in batches. On March 9, 1917, the first group of Revolutionaries headed by Lenin and his family boarded the German special train from Zurich. After the special train left, no one was allowed to get on the train or to get off the train. The windows of the special train were tightly covered by curtains made of black linen, and the cabin crew members tried their best to keep silent.

Fortunately, the Swiss government did not make any obstructions, and the trip went smoothly. After the special train entered Germany, a German officer named Herzog Moore got on the bus and handed out a booklet supposedly written by the German emperor to each Russian passenger, wishing them "a smooth journey and a successful revolution", and It specifically mentioned the hope that they could seize power after returning to Russia.

In the early morning of March 12th, UU Reading Lenin and his party arrived in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden. There, Lenin participated in a joint meeting between Russian immigrants and the Swedish Social Democratic Party, and established the Bolshevik Central Committee's Foreign Politburo, indirectly leading the Russian domestic engineering Soviets to fight against the Provisional Government.

When Lenin and others returned to St. Petersburg on March 17, they received an unprecedented warm welcome from the workers and soldiers. The sailors of the Baltic Fleet also drove armored vehicles with searchlights to take charge of Lenin's guard work. Among the cheering crowd, the sailor commander Maksimov invited Lenin to say a few words. Lenin boarded the armored car and delivered the famous speech "There will be bread, everything will be there"..."

After getting news that Germany had escorted him back from Switzerland, Edel got the news immediately. For Lenin's name, Edel can be said to be very acquainted. There were too many titles worn on his head in the previous life. I remember that in the textbooks of previous lives, he said that he was rare in the world, famous Marxists, proletarian revolutionaries, politicians, theorists, and thinkers. But what Edel attaches the most importance to him now; the founder of the Bolshevik Party.

Now Edel’s problem is to expand the smuggling trade in Russia, and strive to make the Russian interim government collapse as soon as possible. Because Lenin did not come to power, how could he show the importance of Romania? At that time, the only thing that can make trouble for the Allies on the Eastern Front is Romania. In order to win Romania to complete the Allied Powers, the conditions will be much higher than now.

However, the key to all this must be Lenin's rise to power. If he does not come to power and stop the war with Germany, then neither Britain nor France will attach importance to the role of Romania. As for the performance of the US military, the Allied powers, including the Americans themselves, are not very sure.

Thinking of this, Edel called a guard. "Call the chief guard."