Lenin's Return

• Bolshevik leader Lenin returned from exile at the beginning of April/
• He arrived on a sealed train with the backing of the German government.

  • One German official described the process as transporting a deadly virus in a test tube then breaking the test tube when it was in Russia.
• His arrival transformed the fortunes of the Bolsheviks who were outnumbered by Mensheviks and SRs in the Petrograd Soviet as well as other soviets.
• Bolsheviks were divided about how far they should co-operate with the PG.

  • They lacked the clear policies of the Mensheviks who were working with the PG.
  • The Mensheviks felt the PG represented the capitalist, democratic phase of Marx's historical theory.
  • Therefore it was a necessary precursor to the establishment of a socialist state.