Why were the Bolsheviks able to seize power in October 1917?
Lenin’s return and the April Theses
- Where was Lenin during the February revolution and how was he able to return to Russia in April 1917?
- What were the April Theses? What is their significance?
- Lenin was in Switzerland in January 1917. The events of February 1917 took him by surprise. The Bolsheviks had very little involvement in the events themselves. They had probably only 10,000 members in Russia at the start of the year. Of all the parties in Russia at the time, the Bolsheviks seemed least likely to take power. Lenin was able to return by virtue of the fact that he was helped by the German government; they provided him with a train in which he travelled to Russia. In Churchill’s words they “transported Lenin in a sealed truck like a plague bacillus into Russia.” In April 1917 USA entered the war, whose troops would take a while to arrive; therefore if Germany could take Russia out of the war via Lenin, they could launch an offensive on the western front before the fresh American troops arrived.
