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New Documents on Lenin's Departure from Switzerland, 1917

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2008

Alfred Erich Senn
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International Review of Social History , Volume 19 , Issue 2 , August 1974 , pp. 245 - 276
Copyright
Copyright © Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis 1974

References

page 245 note 1 See Zeman, Z. A. B., Germany and the Revolution in Russia, 1915–1918 (London, 1958)Google Scholar; Hahlweg, Werner, Lenins Rückkehr nach Russland 1917 (Leiden, 1957)Google Scholar; Lenin, V. I., Polnoe sobranie sochinenii, 5th ed., Vol. 49 (Moscow, 1964).Google Scholar Hahlweg's introductory comments offer a very useful survey of the historiography of the question. For examples of the use of the documents, see Katkov, George, Russia 1917: The February Revolution (New York, 1967)Google Scholar; Reisberg, Arnold, Lenin im Jahre 1917 (Berlin, 1967)Google Scholar; Singer, Ladislaus, Raubt das Geraubte (Stuttgart, 1967)Google Scholar; Platten, Fritz Nicolaus, “Von der Spiegelgasse in den Kreml”, published serially in: Volksrecht (Zurich), March 13, 1967 to April 17, 1967Google Scholar, and reprinted as “Iz Zerkal'nogo Pereulka v Kreml'” in: Grani, No 77 (1970), pp. 102–33, and No 79 (1971), pp. 158–201Google Scholar; Gautschi, Willi, Lenin als Emigrant in der Schweiz (Zurich, 1973).Google Scholar For a recent memoir, see Belzner, Emil, Die Fahrt in die Revolution, oder Jene Reise. Aide-mémoire (Munich, 1969).Google Scholar

page 246 note 1 On the background and founding of the Central Emigré Committee, which claimed to represent the entire Russian emigration in Switzerland, see Senn, Alfred Erich, The Russian Revolution in Switzerland, 1914–1917 (Madison, 1971), pp. 165–66, 223Google Scholar; Senn, A. E., “Russian Émigré Funds in Switzerland, 1916: An Okhrana Report”, in: International Review of Social History, XIII (1968), pp. 76–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 246 note 2 “Protokoll der Untersuchungskommission über die Umstände der Ausreise Lenins und Genossen aus der Schweiz und Deutschland im Friihling 1917”, manuscript, International Institute of Social History, p. 122.

page 246 note 3 Julian Reichesberg, like his twin brother Naum, had long been active in socialist circles in Bern. Originally from Kiev, both brothers had made careers for themselves in Switzerland, but they continually rendered aid to Russian political émigrés. Plotnik was chairman of the Geneva Emigré Committee. Kossovsky had made a mark in the emigration by his openly defeatist position from the first days of the war. Dzerzhinskaia, the wife of the head of the Cheka, had lived in Switzerland since 1914; see her memoirs, V gody velikikh boev (Moscow, 1964).Google Scholar Lev Kritsman joined the Communist Party in 1918 and played an important role in Soviet economic planning during the 1920's.

page 246 note 4 See Doc. 1. Sergei Bagotsky, a doctor who had at one time treated Lenin and Krupskaia, later became the representative of the Soviet Red Cross in Switzerland. See his memoir O vstrechakh s Leninym v Pol'she i Shveitsarii (Moscow, 1958).Google Scholar

page 247 note 1 I want here to express my gratitude to the late M. Jules Humbert-Droz and to Dr Miroslav Tucek of the Schweizerisches Sozialarchiv for their help in tracing the wanderings of this report.

page 247 note 2 For documentation of the German side of the negotiations, see Hahlweg, Lenins Rückkehr, and Zeman, Germany and the Revolution in Russia. Zeman and others, however, give too much significance to the work of Evg. Mikh.

page 248 note 1 Lenin, , Poln. sobr. soch., Vol. 31, pp. 83–84.Google Scholar

page 248 note 2 See Doc. 4. Martov, Martynov, Astrov, Akselrod, and Semkovsky made up the Mensheviks' Foreign Secretariat in Switzerland. Natanson was a senior member of the Socialist Revolutionary Party. Riazanov had his differences with both the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks. Upon his return to Russia in the summer of 1917, however, he joined the Bolshevik party. Lapinski, a close friend of Martov's, was foreign representative of the PPS-Left. He later belonged to the Polish Communist Party. Isaak Bisk had been an active member of the Liga Schweizerischer Hilfsvereine für politische Gefangene und Verbannte Russlands. (The IISH possesses a small archive of this league.) On Lunacharsky's role in attempting to reconcile Russian socialist factions at this time, see Shcherbina, V. R. et al. , ed., V. I. Lenin i A. V. Lunacharskii [Literaturnoe Nasledstvo, No 80] (Moscow, 1971), pp. 634–44.Google Scholar

page 248 note 3 Shklovsky, a longtime resident of Bern who in 1917 received his doctorate in chemistry, had long been a close collaborator of Lenin's. See Haas, Leonhard, ed., Lenin, Unbekannte Briefe 1912–1914 (Zurich, 1967).Google Scholar

page 249 note 1 Lenin, Poln. sobr. soch., Vol. 49, p. 427. Italics in original.

page 249 note 2 The speculation has centered on the activities of two émigrés from Russia, Tsivin and Alexander Kesküla, and also on Carl Vital Moor, a Swiss socialist. While all three worked with the German ambassador in Bern, there is no evidence that they served as links between Lenin and the Germans. See Senn, , The Russian Revolution, pp. 61–63.Google Scholar I have been criticized for having ignored Moor's possible role in this question in this book (see Slavonic and East European Review, L (1972), p. 477Google Scholar), but Moor became an active German agent only after Lenin's departure from Switzerland and therefore he should not enter into this discussion at all. See Haas, Leonhard, Moor, Carl Vital. Ein Leben fur Marx und Lenin (Zurich, 1970), p. 169.Google Scholar In speaking to this question Soviet historians usually refer to Rothstein, Andrew, “Aus dem Sumpf der englischamerikanischen Ostforschung”, in: Jahrbuch für Geschichte der UdSSR und der volksdemokratischen Länder Europas, IV (1960), pp. 345–70.Google Scholar

page 250 note 1 See Doc. 8, and Charasch's articles “Lenins Abreise von Zürich”, in: Die Neue Zürcher Zeitung, April 13 and 19, 1921. The Swiss Foreign Office later attempted to compile a dossier on Lenin's departure, and the major document in the collection was a four-page report written by Charasch and dated January 27, 1921. Bern, Bundesarchiv, EPD, 1918/1919, “Lenin. Ausreise aus der Schweiz”.

page 250 note 2 On Dolin, see Agafonov, V. K., Zagranichnaia okhranka (Petrograd, 1918), pp. 177–82, 335–40.Google Scholar

page 250 note 3 On Helphand and Sklarz, see Zeman, Z. A. B. and Scharlau, W. B., The Merchant of Revolution (London, 1965).Google Scholar There is a strong tendency among western writers to exaggerate Helphand's activities in Switzerland from 1915 to 1917. To be sure, the German government gave him a great deal of money for his work, but his Swiss bank records indicated more investment than payments. Bern, Bundesarchiv, Landesgeneralstreik, S. 350. See also A. V., , “Les révolutionnaires russes en Suisse et leur départ pour la Russie”, in: Bibliothèque universelle et Revue Suisse, XL (1918), pp. 249–58.Google Scholar

page 251 note 1 Zeman, , Germany and the Revolution in Russia, pp. 27–28.Google Scholar

page 251 note 2 Lenin, , Poln. sobr. soch., Vol. 49, pp. 417–23.Google Scholar

page 251 note 3 On Lenin's considerations about returning, see ibid., pp. 403 ff.; Krupskaia, N. K., Reminiscences of Lenin (New York, 1970), pp. 335–46.Google Scholar

page 251 note 4 Troianovsky, a Bolshevik living in Baugy, had argued that socialism had always recognized the right of self-defense of a country. He later served as a Soviet diplomat. Rubakin, a bibliographer also living in Baugy, was becoming a pacifist under the influence of Tolstoyan friends.

page 251 note 5 Lenin, , Poln. sobr. soch., Vol. 49, p. 409.Google Scholar Italics in original.

page 252 note 1 Cf. Possony, Stefan T., Lenin: The Compulsive Revolutionary (Chicago, 1964), pp. 205–8.Google Scholar

page 252 note 2 Howard, Esme, Theatre of Life (London, 1936), II, p. 264Google Scholar; Howard to London, March 24 and April 14, 1917, Public Records Office, London, FO 371/3005/ 54134.

page 252 note 3 See Docs 10, 11 and 12, and Münzenberg, Willi, S Libknekhtom i Leninym (Leningrad, 1930), pp. 147–48Google Scholar; Platten, Fritz, Die Reise Lenins durch Deutsch-land im plombierten Wagen (Berlin, 1924), pp. 28–29Google Scholar; Kharitonov, M. M., “Iz vospominanii”, in: Zapiski Instituta Lenina, II, p. 144.Google Scholar

page 252 note 4 Lenin, , Poln. sobr. soch., Vol. 49, p. 417.Google Scholar

page 253 note 1 See Leninskii sbornik, II, pp. 383–93; Gautschi, , Lenin als Emigrant, pp. 266–86.Google Scholar

page 257 note 1 Feliks Kon, who had served as chairman of the Central Secretariat of Émigré Funds, at this time lived in Baugy where he worked as the secretary of N. A. Rubakin. Kon accompanied Lenin in leaving Switzerland.

page 258 note 1 Isaak Kornblum, a longtime resident of Bern, had served as chairman of the Bolshevik conference in Bern in 1915.

page 259 note 1 Abramovich, R. A., a member of the Bund and a Menshevik, later wrote a history, The Soviet Revolution (New York, 1962).Google Scholar

page 262 note 1 Friedrich Heeb was a Swiss Socialist journalist, later editor of the Zurich Volksrecht.

page 263 note 1 Naum Reichesberg was Professor of Statistics and National Economy at the University of Bern.

page 265 note 1 Charasch's article, “Das Ende der politischen Spionage”, noted the closing of the Tsarist police office in Paris and spoke expectantly of revelations about police agents among the émigrés.

page 265 note 2 Vladimir Burtsev, a veteran revolutionary who had done much to expose and disrupt the clandestine operations of the Tsarist secret police, had become a defensist during the war.

page 270 note 1 V. A. Karpinsky headed the Bolshevik library in Geneva and directed Lenin's publication activities in Switzerland during the war. After the Bolshevik revolution he closed the library, and in January 1918 he returned to Russia.

page 275 note 1 The commission chose not to refer to Bronski by name because it had not had the chance to question him directly.