Lenin On The Train

Author : Catherine Merridale
Publisher : Metropolitan Books
Page : 224 pages
File Size : 46,7 Mb
Release : 2017-03-28
Category : History
ISBN : 9781627793025

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Lenin on the Train by Catherine Merridale Pdf

One of The Economist's Best Books of the Year A gripping, meticulously researched account of Lenin’s fateful 1917 rail journey from Zurich to Petrograd, where he ignited the Russian Revolution and forever changed the world In April 1917, as the Russian 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. When the news reached him, Lenin immediately resolved to return to Petrograd and lead the revolt. But to get there, he would have to cross Germany, which meant accepting help from the deadliest of Russia’s adversaries. Millions of Russians at home were suffering as a result of German aggression, and to accept German aid—or even safe passage—would be to betray his homeland. Germany, for its part, saw an opportunity to further destabilize Russia by allowing Lenin and his small group of revolutionaries to return. Now, in Lenin on the Train, drawing on a dazzling array of sources and never-before-seen archival material, renowned historian Catherine Merridale provides a riveting, nuanced account of this enormously consequential journey—the train ride that changed the world—as well as the underground conspiracy and subterfuge that went into making it happen. Writing with the same insight and formidable intelligence that distinguished her earlier works, she brings to life a world of counter-espionage and intrigue, wartime desperation, illicit finance, and misguided utopianism. When Lenin arrived in Petrograd’s now-famous Finland Station, he delivered an explosive address to the impassioned crowds. Simple and extreme, the text of this speech has been compared to such momentous documents as Constantine’s edict of Milan and Martin Luther’s ninety-five theses. It was the moment when the Russian revolution became Soviet, the genesis of a system of tyranny and faith that changed the course of Russia’s history forever and transformed the international political climate.

Author : Catherine Merridale
Publisher : Metropolitan Books
Page : 385 pages
File Size : 45,9 Mb
Release : 2017-03-28
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781627793018

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Lenin on the Train by Catherine Merridale Pdf

"A gripping, meticulously researched account of Lenin's fateful rail journey from Zurich to Petrograd, where he ignited the Russian Revolution and forever changed the world. In April 1917, as the Russian 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. When the news reached him, Lenin immediately resolved to return to Petrograd and lead the revolt. But to get there, he would have to cross Germany, which meant accepting help from the deadliest of Russia's adversaries. Germany saw an opportunity to further destabilize Russia by allowing Lenin and his small group of revolutionaries to return. Now, drawing on a dazzling array of sources and never-before-seen archival material, renowned historian Catherine Merridale provides a riveting, nuanced account of this enormously consequential journey--the train ride that changed the world--as well as the underground conspiracy and subterfuge that went into making it happen. Writing with the same insight and formidable intelligence that distinguished her earlier works, she brings to life a world of counter-espionage and intrigue, wartime desperation, illicit finance, and misguided utopianism. This was the moment when the Russian Revolution became Soviet, the genesis of a system of tyranny and faith that changed the course of Russia's history forever and transformed the international political climate"--

Author : Catherine Merridale
Publisher : Penguin UK
Page : 400 pages
File Size : 42,9 Mb
Release : 2016-10-06
Category : History
ISBN : 9780141979939

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Lenin on the Train by Catherine Merridale Pdf

THE TIMES, THE FINANCIAL TIMES AND ECONOMIST BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2016 'Twice I missed my stop on the Tube reading this book... this is a jewel among histories' David Aaronovitch, The Times 'The suberb, funny, fascinating story of Lenin's trans-European rail journey to power and how it shook the world' - Simon Sebag Montefiore, Evening Standard Books of the Year A gripping account of how, in the depths of the First World War, Russia's greatest revolutionary was taken in a 'sealed train' across Europe and changed the history of the world By 1917 the European war seemed to be endless. Both sides in the fighting looked to new weapons, tactics and ideas to break a stalemate that was itself destroying Europe. In the German government a small group of men had a brilliant idea: why not sow further confusion in an increasingly chaotic Russia by arranging for Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, the most notorious of revolutionary extremists, currently safely bottled up in neutral Switzerland, to go home? Catherine Merridale's Lenin on the Train recreates Lenin's extraordinary journey from harmless exile in Zurich, across a Germany falling to pieces from the war's deprivations, and northwards to the edge of Lapland to his eventual ecstatic reception by the revolutionary crowds at Petrograd's Finland Station. With great skill and insight Merridale weaves the story of the train and its uniquely strange group of passengers with a gripping account of the now half-forgotten liberal Russian revolution and shows how these events intersected. She brilliantly uses a huge range of contemporary eyewitnesses, observing Lenin as he travelled back to a country he had not seen for many years. Many thought he was a mere 'useful idiot', others thought he would rapidly be imprisoned or killed, others that Lenin had in practice few followers and even less influence. They would all prove to be quite wrong.

Author : Michael Pearson
Publisher : Fontana Press
Page : 412 pages
File Size : 43,6 Mb
Release : 1989
Category : Revolutionaries
ISBN : IND:30000022286334

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The Sealed Train by Michael Pearson Pdf

Author : Thomas Keneally
Publisher : Open Road Media
Page : 467 pages
File Size : 40,6 Mb
Release : 2017-11-14
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781504038713

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The People's Train by Thomas Keneally Pdf

Artem Samsurov, an ardent follower of Lenin and a hero of the rebellion, flees his Siberian labor camp for the sanctuary of Brisbane, Australia in 1911. Failing to find the worker’s paradise and brotherhood he imagined, Artem quickly joins the agitation for a general strike among the growing trade union movement. He finds a fellow spirit in a dangerously attractive female lawyer and becomes entangled in the death of another Tsarist exile. But, Atrem can’t overcome the corruption, repression, and injustice of the conservative Brisbane. When he returns to Russia in 1917 for the Red October, will his beliefs stand? Based on the true story of Artem Sergeiv, a Russian immigrant in Australia who would play a vital role in the Russian Revolution, The People’s Train explores the hearts of the men and women who fueled, compromised, and passionately fought for their ideals.

Author : Catherine Merridale
Publisher : Metropolitan Books
Page : 528 pages
File Size : 52,8 Mb
Release : 2013-11-12
Category : History
ISBN : 9780805098372

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Red Fortress by Catherine Merridale Pdf

A magisterial, richly detailed history of the Kremlin, and of the centuries of Russian elites who have shaped it—and been shaped by it in turn The Moscow Kremlin is the heart of the Russian state, a fortress whose blood-red walls have witnessed more than eight hundred years of political drama and extraordinary violence. It has been the seat of a priestly monarchy, a worldly church and the Soviet Union; it has served as a crossroads for diplomacy, trade, and espionage; it has survived earthquakes, devastating fires, and at least three revolutions. Its very name is a byword for enduring power. From Ivan the Terrible to Vladimir Putin, generations of Russian leaders have sought to use the Kremlin to legitimize their vision of statehood. Drawing on a dazzling array of sources from hitherto unseen archives and rare collections, renowned historian Catherine Merridale traces the full history of this enigmatic fortress. The Kremlin has inspired innumerable myths, but no invented tales could be more dramatic than the operatic successions and savage betrayals that took place within its vast compound of palaces and cathedrals. Today, its sumptuous golden crosses and huge electric red stars blaze side by side as the Kremlin fulfills its centuries-old role, linking the country's recent history to its distant past and proclaiming the eternal continuity of the Russian state. More than an absorbing history of Russia's most famous landmark, Red Fortress uses the Kremlin as a unique lens, bringing into focus the evolution of Russia's culture and the meaning of its politics.

Author : Edmund Wilson
Publisher : FSG Classics
Page : 609 pages
File Size : 45,8 Mb
Release : 2012-04-24
Category : History
ISBN : 9780374533458

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To the Finland Station by Edmund Wilson Pdf

One of the great works of modern historical writing, the classic account of the ideas, people, and politics that led to the Bolshevik Revolution Edmund Wilson's To the Finland Station is intellectual history on a grand scale, full of romance, idealism, intrigue, and conspiracy, that traces the revolutionary ideas that shaped the modern world from the French Revolution up through Lenin's arrival at Finland Station in St. Petersburg in 1917. Fueled by Wilson's own passionate engagement with the ideas and politics at play, it is a lively and vivid, sweeping account of a singular idea—that it is possible to construct a society based on justice, equality, and freedom—gaining the power to change history. Vico, Michelet, Bakunin, and especially Marx—along with scores of other anarchists, socialists, nihilists, utopians, and more—all come to life in these pages. And in Wilson's telling, their stories and their ideas remain as alive, as provocative, as relevant now as they were in their own time.

Author : Mizuma Lenin
Publisher : Notion Press
Page : 70 pages
File Size : 42,7 Mb
Release : 2019-06-01
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781645871224

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Vibes by Mizuma Lenin Pdf

Vibes takes us on a beautiful journey called life. This book talks about numerous train journeys that the author embarked upon when she was very young. The main attraction of a train journey is the journey itself, which is as important as the destination. Train journeys are always a great source of fascination for most of us as it affords us a chance to see new places and meet the most interesting people. The explicit life experiences, the lessons she has learnt, all form the essence of this book. Travelling by train is a quintessential part of the Indian experience; one as memorable as the food you’ll indulge in and the landmarks that will leave you in awe. There’s always something magical about train journeys. Sometimes the magic is inside—on a train you can meet people and listen to the sound of wheels whooshing on the rails beneath you. Sometimes the magic is outside, in the scenery that traverses by an adventure, an experience, and an insight into the heart of a place. A myriad of things are made to happen, impossible events become a reality, and unexpected phenomenon takes place at any given time. Where will the magic take you? Be inspired to meet the enthused people and the scintillating world as seen through the eyes of the author in her new book Vibes.

Author : Kristin Hannah
Publisher : Macmillan
Page : 402 pages
File Size : 44,9 Mb
Release : 2010-02-02
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781429938464

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Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah Pdf

Can a woman ever really know herself if she doesn't know her mother? From the author of the smash-hit bestseller Firefly Lane and True Colors comes Kristin Hannah's powerful, heartbreaking novel that illuminates the intricate mother-daughter bond and explores the enduring links between the present and the past Meredith and Nina Whitson are as different as sisters can be. One stayed at home to raise her children and manage the family apple orchard; the other followed a dream and traveled the world to become a famous photojournalist. But when their beloved father falls ill, Meredith and Nina find themselves together again, standing alongside their cold, disapproving mother, Anya, who even now, offers no comfort to her daughters. As children, the only connection between them was the Russian fairy tale Anya sometimes told the girls at night. On his deathbed, their father extracts a promise from the women in his life: the fairy tale will be told one last time—and all the way to the end. Thus begins an unexpected journey into the truth of Anya's life in war-torn Leningrad, more than five decades ago. Alternating between the past and present, Meredith and Nina will finally hear the singular, harrowing story of their mother's life, and what they learn is a secret so terrible and terrifying that it will shake the very foundation of their family and change who they believe they are.

Author : Yuri Slezkine
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 1128 pages
File Size : 51,7 Mb
Release : 2017-08-07
Category : History
ISBN : 9781400888177

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The House of Government by Yuri Slezkine Pdf

On the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution, the epic story of an enormous apartment building where Communist true believers lived before their destruction The House of Government is unlike any other book about the Russian Revolution and the Soviet experiment. Written in the tradition of Tolstoy's War and Peace, Grossman’s Life and Fate, and Solzhenitsyn’s The Gulag Archipelago, Yuri Slezkine’s gripping narrative tells the true story of the residents of an enormous Moscow apartment building where top Communist officials and their families lived before they were destroyed in Stalin’s purges. A vivid account of the personal and public lives of Bolshevik true believers, the book begins with their conversion to Communism and ends with their children’s loss of faith and the fall of the Soviet Union. Completed in 1931, the House of Government, later known as the House on the Embankment, was located across the Moscow River from the Kremlin. The largest residential building in Europe, it combined 505 furnished apartments with public spaces that included everything from a movie theater and a library to a tennis court and a shooting range. Slezkine tells the chilling story of how the building’s residents lived in their apartments and ruled the Soviet state until some eight hundred of them were evicted from the House and led, one by one, to prison or their deaths. Drawing on letters, diaries, and interviews, and featuring hundreds of rare photographs, The House of Government weaves together biography, literary criticism, architectural history, and fascinating new theories of revolutions, millennial prophecies, and reigns of terror. The result is an unforgettable human saga of a building that, like the Soviet Union itself, became a haunted house, forever disturbed by the ghosts of the disappeared.

Author : Victor Sebestyen
Publisher : Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Page : 785 pages
File Size : 45,5 Mb
Release : 2017-02-09
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781474600460

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Lenin the Dictator by Victor Sebestyen Pdf

'A fresh, powerful portrait of Lenin' Anne Applebaum, author of Red Famine 'Richly readable ... An enthralling but appalling story' Francis Wheen, author of Karl Marx The cold, one-dimensional figure of Lenin the political fanatic is only a partial truth. Drawing on extensive material that has only recently become available, Sebestyen's gripping biography casts an intriguing new light on the character behind the politics. In reality, Lenin was a man who loved nature as much as he loved making revolution, and his closest relationships were with women. He built a state based on terror. But he was a highly emotional man given to furious rages and deep passions. While never ignoring the politics, Sebestyen examines Lenin's inner life, his relationship with his wife and his long love affair with Inessa Armand, the most romantic and beguiling of Bolsheviks. These two women were as significant as the men - Stalin or Trotsky - who created the world's first Communist state with him.

Author : China Miéville
Publisher : Verso Books
Page : 384 pages
File Size : 50,8 Mb
Release : 2018-05-22
Category : History
ISBN : 9781784782788

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October by China Miéville Pdf

Multi-award-winning author China Miéville captures the drama of the Russian Revolution in this “engaging retelling of the events that rocked the foundations of the twentieth century” (Village Voice) In February of 1917 Russia was a backwards, autocratic monarchy, mired in an unpopular war; by October, after not one but two revolutions, it had become the world’s first workers’ state, straining to be at the vanguard of global revolution. How did this unimaginable transformation take place? In a panoramic sweep, stretching from St. Petersburg and Moscow to the remotest villages of a sprawling empire, Miéville uncovers the catastrophes, intrigues and inspirations of 1917, in all their passion, drama and strangeness. Intervening in long-standing historical debates, but told with the reader new to the topic especially in mind, here is a breathtaking story of humanity at its greatest and most desperate; of a turning point for civilization that still resonates loudly today.

Author : Sean McMeekin
Publisher : Yale University Press
Page : 331 pages
File Size : 53,9 Mb
Release : 2008-12-17
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9780300152791

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History's Greatest Heist by Sean McMeekin Pdf

How Lenin’s regime turned Russia’s priceless cultural patrimony into armored cars, trains, planes, and machine guns Historians have never resolved a central mystery of the Russian Revolution: How did the Bolsheviks, despite facing a world of enemies and leaving nothing but economic ruin in their path, manage to stay in power through five long years of civil war? In this penetrating book, Sean McMeekin draws on previously undiscovered materials from the Soviet Ministry of Finance and other European and American archives to expose some of the darkest secrets of Russia’s early days of communism. Building on one archival revelation after another, the author reveals how the Bolsheviks financed their aggression through astonishingly extensive thievery. Their looting included everything from the cash savings of private citizens to gold, silver, diamonds, jewelry, icons, antiques, and artwork. By tracking illicit Soviet financial transactions across Europe, McMeekin shows how Lenin’s regime accomplished history’s greatest heist between 1917 and 1922 and turned centuries of accumulated wealth into the sinews of class war. McMeekin also names names, introducing for the first time the compliant bankers, lawyers, and middlemen who, for a price, helped the Bolsheviks launder their loot, impoverish Russia, and impose their brutal will on millions.

Author : Andreas Fischer
Publisher : Springer Nature
Page : 283 pages
File Size : 48,9 Mb
Release : 2021-01-11
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9783030512835

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James Joyce in Zurich by Andreas Fischer Pdf

This book offers a comprehensive account of James Joyce and Zurich, one of the four cities (including Dublin, Trieste and Paris) in which he spent significant parts of his life. As a refugee during World War I, Joyce wrote a substantial part of Ulysses in Zurich and subsequently visited the city regularly during the 1930s. Finally, a refugee for the second time, he died there on 13 January 1941 and is buried in Fluntern Cemetery. This guide is conceived both as a book that may be read in its entirety or consulted selectively for specific information. An introduction and three chapters, Joyce in Zurich, Zurich in Joyce and Zurich after Joyce, are followed by sixty alphabetically ordered articles on people, places, institutions and events relevant to Joyce during his time in Zurich. Linked by cross-references and an index, they provide a rich, kaleidoscopic view of Joyce’s Zurich.

Author : Michael Pearson
Publisher : Random House (NY)
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 45,8 Mb
Release : 2001
Category : Russia
ISBN : 037550589X

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Lenin's Mistress by Michael Pearson Pdf

Armand, who had shared Lenin's exile, became the chief of the Women's Section of the Central Committee.