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Lenin on the Train: The Journey that Changed the Course of History by Catherine Merridale

3.6 AVERAGE

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siria's review

3.0
This is a decent attempt at an account of the Russian revolutions of 1917, aimed at a popular audience, and more than a little undermined by someone's insistence that the book needed a marketing gimmick. Lenin on the Train purports to be about the epic, days-long train ride taken by Lenin from Switzerland, north through Germany, Sweden, Finland, and across into Russia in order to take over political leadership. Sadly, as pivotal as that journey no doubt was, there simply aren't enough surviving primary sources for Catherine Merridale to really be able to get a full-length book out of it. There are some great bits about the journey and about Merridale's research process—the impatient Lenin striding through the streets of Stockholm, refusing to pause long enough even to acquire a change of underwear; Merridale's visits to the claustrophobic, stuffy apartment where the leader once lived—which were the seeds for a stronger, but probably less commercial, work.