{"product_id":"9780141979946-lenin-on-the-train","title":"Lenin on the Train","description":"\u003cmeta content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\" http-equiv=\"Content-Type\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e              'The superb, funny, fascinating story of Lenin's  trans-European rail journey and how it shook the world' Simon Sebag  Montefiore, \u003ci\u003eEvening Standard\u003c\/i\u003e, Books of the Year\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Splendid . a jewel among histories, taking a single episode from the  penultimate year of the Great War, illuminating a continent, a  revolution and a series of psychologies in a moment of cataclysm and  doing it with wit, judgment and an eye for telling detail' David  Aaronovitch, \u003ci\u003eThe Times\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eBy 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?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCatherine Merridale's \u003ci\u003eLenin on the Train\u003c\/i\u003e 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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWith 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Rarewaves","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56451330113910,"sku":"9780141979946","price":10.77,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0092\/7504\/8033\/files\/stand_32227958.jpg?v=1760461871","url":"https:\/\/www.rarewaves.com\/products\/9780141979946-lenin-on-the-train","provider":"Rarewaves.com","version":"1.0","type":"link"}