The New Europe/Volume 3/Lenin's Return to Russia

Lenin’s Return to Russia

The Berner Tagwacht of 23 April publishes an article by Mr. Bezrabotnia, editor of a Russian revolutionary paper in Paris which the French Government has suspended, revealing something of the arrangements by which Lenin and his friends succeeded in passing through Germany on their way to Russia:—“Already in the first days after the proclamation of the political amnesty in Russia the Russian refugees in Switzerland, Britain, and France had to contend not only against the Consular agents of the old régime, but also with the secret opposition of the French and British Governments, which designated them “Russian pacifists.” Every difficulty is being put in the way of the Kientalers (i.e., Zimmerwaldians) while Plekhanov, the agent of the Russian bourgeoisie, is allowed to return to Russia as a Minister, accompanied by the mandatories of the British and French bourgeoisies. Full of indignation at these circumstances, the Swiss Social Democrats approached the German authorities with a view to securing their passage through Germany in exchange for German civilian prisoners in Russia. These steps were successful, all the more so as the Russian Government, at the invitation of the Council of Workmen’s Delegates, released the German prisoners and allowed them to return home. The only condition made by the German Government was that the refugees should travel in sealed coaches with the windows hermetically closed. A statement signed by their associates in Switzerland is published in the Berner Tagwacht of the same date as a counterblast to “tendencious and lying reports and articles” in the Entente Press, in which these Russians are represented as agents of imperialistic Germany. The signatories state that they are perfectly well aware that the German Government is only permitting the transit of these persons because it believes that their presence in Russia will strengthen the anti-war tendencies there. As, however, the signatories are convinced that their comrades by going to Russia will further the cause of the proletariat in all countries, and particularly the German and Austrian proletariats, they consider them not merely justified, but under an obligation to accept the opportunity offered them of travelling through Germany.