Lenin arrives in
Petrograd at the Finland Station and is given a bouquet that Trotsky says must
have made him feel very awkward. He was greeted by Cheidze, the Menshevik president
of the Petrograd Soviet.
Cheidze felt he
had to caution Lenin about cooperation with the Provisional Government and its
defensist policies. Ignoring this, Lenin concluded his brief set of remarks saying,
“Long live the world socialist revolution!”
Lenin and his
entourage, including Zinoviev the agitator, drove to Bolshevik headquarters in
armored cars. They stopped from time to time so Lenin could deliver essentially
the same brief speech to crowds along the way.
At headquarters,
the expropriated mansion of a court ballerina, Lenin impatiently endured
numerous speeches of welcome. At length he addressed the party. For two hours
he spoke against the defensist, collaborationist, and right opportunist policies
the Petrograd Bolsheviks had let themselves be drawn into. He must also have
explained what he thought was the correct line, for as we’ll see he read out the “April Theses” the next day.
Nobody seems to have taken notes. The speech
left its hearers dumbfounded, wondering whether he really meant what he’d said.
The All Russia
Conference of Soviets was just ending that day.
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