The year 1917. The First World War seems to be endless. Millions of soldiers are dying in the trenches. Planes drop bombs. The first tanks are feared among the infantry. The victims of combat gases suffer inhumanly. But the turn in the arena of warfare will come about thanks to one man.
A brilliant idea is emerging in the German government. Here, in neutral Switzerland, the most famous revolutionist in the world - Vladimir Ilyich Lenin - safely resides. It can completely change riot-ridden Russia and help Germany win the war.
Zurich, April 9, 1917. Lenin puts his foot on the steps of the wagon, which will take him to the Russian capital - Petrograd. He has to travel 3,500 km of a war-torn continent. When eight days later he disembarks at the end station, the world will change its face due to him. Forever.
Learn the history of a journey that changed the history of the world with Catherine Merridale's book, Lenin on the Train (Horizon 2017 sign).
One hundred years later, Catherine Merridale follows Lenin. Recreates the route of its passage. He reaches places that remember the leader of the October Revolution. And to people who miss him. But this is only an excuse to tell the story of an extraordinary journey of breakthrough importance and to paint the panorama of Europe at that time. It is also a picture of today's Russia of Putin, a man who has lost to only one person, precisely Lenin.
Catherine Merridale - writer, historian, member of the British Academy, specializing in Russian history. Her books, translated into 20 languages, have won numerous awards. Her best-selling Ivan's War was released in Poland. The Red Army 1939-1945.