April 16, 1917: Lenin Arrives at the Finland Station

Painting of Lenin's arrival. Artist unknown.

April 16, 1917: The most famous train ride in history ends, as Vladimir Lenin disembarks at the Finland Station in Petrograd, Russia.

He was stepping into a situation where history seemed to be rewritten every day. World War I was raging, and it proved to be the undoing of Czar Nicholas II. The Eastern Front between Germany and Russia proved every bit as brutal as the Western Front between Germany and the alliance of Britain and France.

Nicholas, thinking himself smarter than he really was, took personal control of the Army, and was away from the capital, Petrograd (formerly St. Petersburg), for much of 1915 and 1916. He proved a spectacularly bad commander, and his neglect of the home front left the people of the Russian Empire impoverished, in some cases starving.

The people hated him as a tyrant, and hated his wife the Czarina Alexandra as a German interloper. By February 23, 1917, a cold snap had made everything worse, and people began marching through the streets of the cities with red banners. Police shot at them, and riots resulted. And several military units were in mutiny. The "February Revolution" was underway.

The Czar's Cabinet told him that the only way to stop the rioting was to abdicate. He refused. On March 11, the 48-year-old Emperor suffered a coronary occlusion. By this point, the troops had stopped firing on the rioters, and let them run riot. Finally, on March 15, the Czar's Generals told him that abdication was the only way to avoid either a civil war or complete conquest by the Germans. He relented, and a provisional government was installed, with Alexander Kerensky as President.

Lenin, 46, and the leader of Russia's Communist Party, was living in exile in Switzerland. When he learned of the February Revolution, he decided to return to Russia to take charge of the Bolsheviks, but found that most passages into the country were blocked due to the ongoing conflict.

He organized a plan with other dissidents to negotiate a passage for them through Germany. Recognizing that these dissidents could cause problems for their Russian enemies, the German government agreed to permit 32 Russian citizens to travel by train through their territory, among them Lenin and his wife, Nadezhda Krupskaya.

For political reasons, Lenin and the Germans agreed to a cover story that Lenin had travelled by sealed train carriage through German territory, but in fact the train was not truly sealed, and the passengers were allowed to disembark to, for example, spend the night in Frankfurt.

The group travelled by train from Zürich to Sassnitz, proceeding by ferry to Trelleborg, Sweden -- which was neutral in the war, and would also be in World War II -- and from there to the Haparanda-Tornio border crossing and then to Helsinki, in Russian-controlled Finland, before taking the final train to Petrograd in disguise.

Arriving at Finland Station on April 16, Lenin gave a speech to Bolshevik supporters, condemning the Provisional Government, and, as he had before, calling for a continent-wide European proletarian revolution.

Old Finland Station

Over the following days, he publicly condemned both the Mensheviks and the Social Revolutionaries, for supporting the Provisional Government, denouncing them as traitors to socialism. Considering the government to be just as imperialist as the Czarist regime, he advocated immediate peace with Germany and Austria-Hungary, rule by soviets, the nationalization of industry and banks, and the state expropriation of land, all with the intention of establishing a proletariat government and pushing toward a socialist society.

Things turned against Lenin, and he had to return to Finland on August 10. The tide turned back toward the Bolsheviks, and he returned on October 10. On November 7, the Bolsheviks took power.

Built in 1870, the original Finland Station was demolished and replaced with a new one, inaugurated in 1960. The turreted building is decorated with sculptures glorifying the October Revolution, and incorporates a portico preserved from the original 1870 edifice.

New Finland Station

The station is 107 miles southeast of the Russian border with Finland, and 450 miles northwest of Moscow. St. Petersburg replaced Moscow as the capital of Russia in 1721, when it was established by Czar Peter I, a.k.a. Peter the Great, who named it for himself. Afterward, it was said to be named for St. Peter, the Apostle and the 1st Pope. To make it sound less German and more Russian following the failed revolution of 1905, it was renamed Petrograd.

Lenin restored Moscow as the capital. Following Lenin's death in 1924, Petrograd was renamed Leningrad. After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, it was renamed St. Petersburg. As was said at the time, it was better to name it after a saint than after a monster. With 5.6 million people, it remains the 2nd-largest city in Russia, behind Moscow.

*

April 16, 1917 was a Monday. Football was out of season. Professional basketball barely existed. The hockey season ended 3 weeks earlier, when the Seattle Metropolitans became the 1st American team to win the Stanley Cup.

Baseball season was newly underway:

* The New York Giants beat their arch-rivals, the Brooklyn Robins, 5-0 at Ebbets Field. (The Dodgers were named for Wilbert Robinson while he managed them from 1914 to 1931.) Ferdie Schupp pitched a 5-hit shutout.

* The Boston Braves beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 3-1 at Braves Field in Boston. Jesse Barnes outpitched Grover Cleveland Alexander.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Philadelphia Athletics, 6-1 at Shibe Park in Philadelphia. Babe Ruth went the distance to be the winning pitcher, and went 1-for-4.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Cincinnati Reds, 8-4 at Redland Field (later Crosley Field) in Cincinnati. Honus Wagner, entering his final season, did not play.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Detroit Tigers, 4-0 at Navin Field (later Briggs Stadium and Tiger Stadium) in Detroit. Urban "Red" Faber pitched a 2-hit shutout, allowing a double by Ty Cobb and a single by Owen "Donie" Bush. Eddie Collins went 1-for-3 with a walk and an RBI. "Shoeless" Joe Jackson went 2-for-4 with an RBI.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat their arch-rivals, the Chicago Cubs, 5-1 at Weeghman Park (later Wrigley Field) in Chicago. Rookie Rogers Hornsby went 1-for-4 with an RBI.

* The New York Yankees and the Washington Senators were postponed at the Polo Grounds, on account of cold. (It couldn't have been colder than it would have been in Petrograd that day.) The game was made up as part of a doubleheader on July 5. The Senators won the opener, 2-1. The Yankees won the nightcap, 5-4. In the bottom of the 13th inning, Frank "Home Run" Baker lived up to his nickname by hitting a home run off Walter Johnson, who was in his 3rd inning of relief.

* And the Cleveland Indians and the St. Louis Browns were rained out at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. This one was also made up as part of a doubleheader on July 5. The Indians won the 1st game, 5-3. The Browns won the 2nd game, 4-1. Over the 2 games, Tris Speaker went 1-for-8 with 2 RBIs, and George Sisler went 5-for-7 with a walk and 2 RBIs.