David Tenner
2018-04-21 21:19:51 UTC
Rather weirdly, the 1918 Left SR uprising may have posed the greatest
physical danger to Lenin *after* it had been defeated! I got these deetails
from Robert Service's *Lenin: A Biography*:
On July 7, after the Left SRs' former headquarters had been captured, Lenin
decided to visit it, in order to get some idea how the uprising had been
organized. As Lenin's car was making its way, a group of armed men sprang on
to the road and shouted for the car to stop. Lenin instructed his chauffeur,
Stepan Gil to comply--but before the car stopped, the armed men started to
fire on it. Luckily for Lenin, the men turned out to be Bolsheviks, and he
let them off with a schoolmasterly admonition to be more careful in the
future.
This was not the end of Lenin's troubles: later in the day his car was again
stopped. A semi-official patrol of youths demanded to see his identity papers
and decided that the document stating he was Sovnarkom Chairman was invalid!
He was arrested and taken to the nearest police station, where the confusion
was cleared up. Lenin and the police officer felt free to laugh about the
incident--but what if the patrol had been a little more trigger-happy? (One
has to remember that Lenin's appearance was not all that familiar to many
Russians at the time. Only in January 1918 had the first official portrait of
him appeared.)
But here is the incredible part: Lenin was in danger a *third* time that day!
Shots were fired at the car on the way back from the police station.Gil put
his foot down hard on the accelerator and the two men arrived back at the
Kremlin. It had been an exhausting day...
https://books.google.com/books?id=N9mbl_xbWpkC&pg=PT436
physical danger to Lenin *after* it had been defeated! I got these deetails
from Robert Service's *Lenin: A Biography*:
On July 7, after the Left SRs' former headquarters had been captured, Lenin
decided to visit it, in order to get some idea how the uprising had been
organized. As Lenin's car was making its way, a group of armed men sprang on
to the road and shouted for the car to stop. Lenin instructed his chauffeur,
Stepan Gil to comply--but before the car stopped, the armed men started to
fire on it. Luckily for Lenin, the men turned out to be Bolsheviks, and he
let them off with a schoolmasterly admonition to be more careful in the
future.
This was not the end of Lenin's troubles: later in the day his car was again
stopped. A semi-official patrol of youths demanded to see his identity papers
and decided that the document stating he was Sovnarkom Chairman was invalid!
He was arrested and taken to the nearest police station, where the confusion
was cleared up. Lenin and the police officer felt free to laugh about the
incident--but what if the patrol had been a little more trigger-happy? (One
has to remember that Lenin's appearance was not all that familiar to many
Russians at the time. Only in January 1918 had the first official portrait of
him appeared.)
But here is the incredible part: Lenin was in danger a *third* time that day!
Shots were fired at the car on the way back from the police station.Gil put
his foot down hard on the accelerator and the two men arrived back at the
Kremlin. It had been an exhausting day...
https://books.google.com/books?id=N9mbl_xbWpkC&pg=PT436
--
David Tenner
***@ameritech.net
David Tenner
***@ameritech.net