Many conflicting stories were told and published about Lenin after the Bolshevist uprising in November, 1917. I decided to ascertain for myself during the two weeks I spent in Switzerland before going into Russia what the people of that country knew about him.

Lenin arrived in Switzerland in September, 1914, and left for Russia in March, 1917, with thirty other Russians, on the much-talked-of train that went through Germany with the sanction of the Kaiser.

A whole myth has grown up around Lenin since his return to Russia. He was a German agent; he was sent from Switzerland to Russia through Germany; he went for the express purpose of fomenting revolution in order to break down the morale of the Russian Army and to make it possible for German militarism to conquer. Document after document was printed to prove that this man was mercenary, that he was cold-blooded, without ideals of any kind, and that he had received millions in money from the Germans, whose plans he conscientiously carried out,—at least in connection with the disorganization of the Russian Army. While in Switzerland for two years during the war, he lived in luxury, always had plenty of money which was supplied from an unknown source, later discovered to be the banks of Germany.

I found when I went to Zurich that Lenin had passed the greater part of his time when in Switzerland in that town, and had lived in the poor quarter of the city. The house in which he and his wife lived, No. 14 Spiegelgasse, is on a very narrow street running down to the quay. They lived in one room on the second floor of this house. Their meagre furniture included a table, a washstand, two plain chairs, a small stove, a bed, a couch, and a petrol lamp. The room had a plaster ceiling and was unpapered, the bare board walls seeming most bleak. A cheap, dingy carpet covered the floor. The room was accessible only through a dark narrow corridor. On the same floor were three other rooms, two of which were occupied by two families, and the third was used as a common kitchen by every one. In this kitchen Lenin’s wife, who was his constant companion, only secretary and assistant, prepared their frugal meals and carried them to their room.

For these quarters Lenin paid thirty-eight francs a month, the equivalent of six dollars and sixty cents in American money.

I was told by many people who had known him in Zurich that Lenin seemed to wish to mingle only with working people there. His revolutionary friends took great pride in saying, “He never spent any time with mere intellectual reformers.” They told me that much of his time was passed in the Swiss Workers’ Assembly, where he talked to every one, but never made any speeches. He did speak, however, on many occasions in the Russian Assembly in Zurich.

His income was derived from articles written for Russian party papers. Before leaving for Russia he closed his account at a Zurich bank and drew out the balance on deposit there, which amounted to twenty-five francs.

For a short time while in Switzerland Lenin lived in Berne, in two rooms. I met the woman at whose Pension he dined while there. She said she had served Lenin, his wife, and his wife’s mother midday dinners while they stayed there. The price of those meals was eighty centimes each,—approximately sixteen cents. She informed me that they prepared their own breakfasts and evening meals.

The proprietor of the Wiener cafÉ, a coffee house located on the corner of Schrittfaren and Gurtengasse in Berne, told me that he remembered Lenin well, that he had come into his place on a number of occasions for a cup of coffee. “He spent most of his time here reading the papers and talking with the waiters,” he said, and described him as always being poorly dressed.

None of these simple people thought of Lenin as a person of any greater importance than themselves. He was one of them, a serious student who mingled with working people, eager to tell them of their importance in the political world.

When the Czar was overthrown and the Kerensky Government came into power, a committee of all the Socialist parties in Switzerland except the “Social Patriots” made an effort to assist in getting Russian exiles back to their own country. This committee collected the money for the transportation of the exiles. They endeavored to secure from France, England, and Switzerland permission for their passage through Archangel to Petrograd, but the Allied governments denied this permit. Then the Swiss Socialists entered into negotiations with the German Government to secure passage through Germany. On condition that an equal number of civilian prisoners then held in Russia be allowed to return to Germany, the German Government agreed to the passage of the immigrants through Germany.

The following statement, signed by the members of the Committee, is given in full, even to the peculiar English of the translation.

In view of the fact that the Entente newspapers have recently published a series of sensational and false accounts and articles regarding the return of the Russian comrades (Lenin, Zinovieff and others) branding them as accomplices and agents of Imperial Germany, as coworkers of the German Government. Simultaneously the German and Austrian press is attempting to represent these Russian revolution comrades as pacifists and separate peace advocates, we therefore deem it necessary to publish the following explanation under the Signature of the Comrades of France, Germany, Poland and Switzerland to whitewash the Comrades that departed to Russia.

We the undersigned are aware of the hindrances which the governments of the Entente are putting in the way of our Russian Internationalists in their departure. They learned of the conditions which the German Government has placed before them for their passage through to Sweden.

Not having the slightest doubt as to the fact, that the German Government is speculating by it to strengthen the one-sided anti-war tendencies in Russia, we declare:

The Russian Internationalists who during the whole war period have been combating in the sharpest possible manner imperialism in general and the German imperialism in particular, and who are now going to Russia in order to work there for the cause of the Revolution, will thus be aiding the proletarians of all countries as well, and particularly the German and Austrian working class by encouraging them to the revolutionary struggle against their own governments.

Nothing can be more stimulating and inspiring in this respect than the example of the heroic struggle on the part of the Russian proletariat. For that reason we the undersigned Internationalists of France, Switzerland, Poland and Germany consider it to be not only the right but a duty on the part of our Russian comrades to use the opportunity for the voyage to Russia, which is offered to them.

We wish them the best results in the struggle against the Imperialistic policy of Russian bourgeoisie, which constitutes a part of our general struggle for the liberation of the working class, for the social revolution.

The above declaration has received the full approval and signature of the following Scandinavian comrades:

The next train left in May, 1917, carrying three hundred Russians, and another three hundred went through Germany in July, 1917. In July the French and English governments finally granted permission for a train-load to pass through those countries to Archangel and thence to Russia. This trip lasted two months. I learned that the May and July trains also carried to Russia many active Menshevists, supporters of the Kerensky Government.

In August another group tried to return, but because Kerensky protested, the French and English notified this group that they must have passports from Russia. It was then impossible to go through Germany because of battles going on along the front. They did not get to Russia until December, after the Russian-German armistice.

Zinovieff, in an address to the Petrograd Soviet, September 6, 1918, told the story of the fabled armored train as follows:

“In March, 1917, Lenin returned to Russia. Do you remember the cries that went up about the ‘armored train’ on which Lenin and the rest of us returned? In reality Lenin felt a profound hatred of German imperialism. He hated it no less than he hated any other brand of imperialism.... When a prominent member of the Scheidemann party attempted to enter our car (which was not armored) in order to ‘greet’ us, he was told, at Lenin’s suggestion, that we would not speak to traitors and that he would be sparing himself insult if he refrained from trying to enter. The Mensheviki and the Social Revolutionists, who were rather stubborn at first, later on came back to Russia in the same way (more than three hundred of them). Lenin put the matter simply, ‘All bourgeois governments are brigands: we have no choice since we cannot get into Russia by any other way.’”

I found the following in a long article of appreciation written by Ernest Nobs, editor of the Swiss Volkrecht, published in Zurich in December, 1917.

“One who has seen the last winter, the medium-sized, square-built man, with a somewhat yellowish face and sharp, sparkling and flashing Mongol eyes, as he was steering towards some library in a wornout ulster coat, with a heap of books under his arm, could hardly foresee in him the future Russian premier.”

In the address mentioned on the foregoing page, delivered at the time Lenin was shot, Zinovieff said:

Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanoff (Lenin) was born on April 10, 1870, in the city of Simbirsk. His father, who was of peasant descent, was employed as Director of Public Schools in the Volga region. His elder brother, Alexander Ulyanoff was executed by Czar Alexander III. From that time on his mother showered all her tender affections on Vladimir Ilyich, and Lenin in his turn dearly loved her. Living as an emigrant, an exile, persecuted by the Czar’s Government, Lenin used to tear himself away from the most urgent tasks to go to Switzerland to see his mother in her last days. She died in 1913.

Upon his graduation from high school (gymnasium) Vladimir Ilyich entered the law school at the Kazan University. The universities of the capitals were closed to him because he was the brother of an executed revolutionist. A month after his entry he was expelled from the University for participation in a revolutionary movement of the students. It was not until four years had gone by that he was allowed to resume his studies. The legal career held no attractions for Lenin. His natural inclinations lay towards the field of revolutionary activity.... When he was expelled from the Kazan University he went to Petrograd. The first phase of his activities was confined to student circles. A year or two later he created in Petrograd the first ‘workmen’s circles’ and a little later crossed swords on the literary arena with the old leader of the Populists, N. K. Mikhailovsky. Under the nom de plume of Ilyin, Lenin published a series of brilliant articles on economics which at once won him a name.

In Petrograd he, with other workers, founded the ‘Union for the Emancipation of the Working Class,’ and conducted the first labor strikes, writing meanwhile leaflets and pamphlets remarkable for their simplicity of style and clarity. These were printed on a hectograph and distributed.... Very often now workers coming from far off Siberia or the Ural to the All-Russian Congress of Soviets recall to him their activities together in the early 90’s. They recognize that he was their teacher, the first to kindle the spark of communism in them.

In the 90’s Lenin was sentenced to a long prison term and then exiled. While in exile he devoted himself to scientific and literary activities, and wrote a number of books. One of these reached a circle of exiles in Switzerland, among whom were Plekhanoff, Axelrod, and Zasulich, who welcomed Lenin as the harbinger of a coming season, and who could not find words of praise sufficiently strong. Another book, a truly scientific one, won the praise of Professor Maxim Kovalevsky of the Paris School of Social Science. “What a good professor Lenin would have made!” he said.

Vladimir Ilyich languished in exile like a caged lion. The only thing that saved him was the fact that he was leading the life of a scientist. He used to spend fifteen hours daily in the library over books, and it is not without reason that he is now one of the most cultured men of our time.... In 1901 Lenin, together with a group of intimate friends, began the publication of a newspaper, Iskra, The Spark. This paper not only waged a political struggle, but it carried on vast organizing activities, and Lenin was the soul of the organizing committee.

Lenin’s wife, Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaya Ulyanova was the secretary of Iskra and the secretary of the organizing committee. Throughout Lenin’s activities as an organizer a considerable share of the credit is due to his wife. All the correspondence was in her charge. At one time she was in communication with entire Russia. Who did not know her? Martov in his bitter controversy with Lenin once called her "Secretary of Lenin, the Super-Center."...

In the summer of 1905 the first conference of the Bolsheviki was called. Officially it was known as the Third Conference of the Revolutionary Social Democratic Labor Party. This conference laid the corner-stone for the present Communist Party.... In the revolution of 1905 Lenin’s part was enormous, although he was residing in Petrograd illegally and was forbidden by the party to attend its meetings openly.

Vladimir Ilyich was exiled for the second time in 1907. In Geneva, and later in Paris, chiefly through the efforts of Lenin, the newspapers, The Proletarian and The Social Democrat were founded. Complete decadence was reigning all around. Obscene literature took the place of art literature. The spirit of nihilism permeated the sphere of politics. Stolypin was indulging in his orgies. And it seemed as if there was no end to all this.

At such times true leaders reveal themselves. Vladimir Ilyich suffered at that time, as he did right along in exile, the greatest personal privations. He lived like a pauper, he was sick and starved, especially when he lived in Paris. But he retained his courage as no one else did. He stood firmly and bravely at his post. He alone knew how to weld together a circle of gallant fighters to whom he used to say, “Do not lose your courage. The dark days will pass, a few years will elapse, and the proletarian revolution will be revived.”

For two years Lenin scarcely left the national library at Paris, and during this time he accomplished such a large amount of work that even those very professors who were attempting to ridicule his philosophic works admitted that they could not understand how a man could do so much.

The years 1910–11 brought a fresh breeze to stir the atmosphere. It became clear in 1911 that the workers’ movement was beginning to revive. We had in Petrograd a paper, the Star, (Zviezda), and in Moscow a magazine, Thought (Mysl), and there was a small labor representation in the Duma. And the principal worker both on these papers and for the Duma representation was Lenin. He taught the principles of revolutionary parliamentarism to the labor deputies in the Duma. “You just get up and tell the whole of Russia plainly about the life of the worker. Depict the horrors of the capitalist galleys, call upon the workers to revolt, fling into the face of the black Duma the name of ‘scoundrels and exploiters.’” At first they found this strange advice. The entire Duma atmosphere was depressing, its members and ministers met in the Tauride palace, clad in full dress suits. They learned their lessons however.

In 1912 we started to lead a new life. At the January conference of that year the Bolsheviki reunited their ranks which had been broken up by the counter revolution. At the request of the new Central Executive Committee Lenin and myself went to Krakov (Cracow, in Galicia). There comrades began to come to us from Petrograd, Moscow, and elsewhere. I recall the first large general meeting of the Petrograd metal workers, in 1913. Two hours after our candidates had been elected to the executive committee Lenin received a wire from the metal workers, congratulating him upon the victory. He lived a thousand versts away from Petrograd, yet he was the very soul of the workers of Petrograd. It was a repetition of what took place in 1906–7 when Lenin lived in Finland, and we used to visit him every week to receive counsel from him. From the little village of Kuokalla, in Finland, he steered the labor movement of Petrograd.

In 1915–17 Lenin was leading a very peculiar life in Switzerland. The war and the collapse of the International had a very marked effect on him. Many of his comrades who knew him well were surprised at the changes wrought in him by the war.

He never felt very tenderly toward the bourgeoisie, but with the beginning of the war he began to nurture a concentrated, keen, intense hatred for them. It seemed that his very countenance had changed.

In Zurich he resided in the poorest quarter, in the flat of a shoemaker. He appeared to be after every single proletarian, trying as it were to get hold of him and explain that the war was an imperialistic slaughter.... Lenin has always understood what enormous difficulties would arise before the working class after it had seized all power. From the first days of his arrival in Petrograd he carefully observed the economic disruption. He valued his acquaintance with every bank employee, striving to penetrate into all the details of the banking business. He was well aware of the provisioning problem, and of other difficulties. In one of his most remarkable books he dwells at length on these difficulties. On the question of the nationalization of banks, in the domain of the provisioning policy and on the war question Lenin has said the decisive word. He worked out concretely the plan of practical measures to be adopted in all domains of national life, long before October 25, (November 7), 1917. The plan is clear, concrete, distinct, like all his works....