Lenin arrives in Petrograd

Following seventeen years of exile in Europe, V. I. Lenin arrives via train at Petrograd’s Finland Station. His eight-day journey from Zurich, Switzerland through Germany, Sweden, and Finland is facilitated by the German government which hopes that his return to Russia will sow dissension in the country. After disembarking, Lenin delivers a speech while standing atop an armored car to the large and boisterous crowd of supporters who have gathered to greet him

Previewing arguments that will appear in the “April Theses” he presents to Bolshevik Party comrades the following day, Lenin condemns the Provisional Government and calls for a worldwide socialist revolution.