Conspirator: Lenin in Exile, By Helen Rappaport
Your support helps us to tell the story
This election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.
The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.
Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.
Rightly compared to Sebag Montefiore's Young Stalin, this highly readable work recounts Lenin's 17 years of exile prior to the Russian Revolution in 1917. The account of his stay in London from 1902 is particularly enjoyable. The revolutionary enjoyed fish and chips and even attended the "Aba Daba Music Hall" on Gray's Inn Road, though Rappaport notes his appreciation ("there is... a certain satirical attitude towards the conventional") was "hamstrung by the clumsy, dead hand of jargon that infected all his work".
Lenin detested the mild, damp English winter that gave him colds. Many will sympathise with his detestation of our endless Christmas: "It would be a dull time and he could not bear the waste." Rappaport's vivid depiction of Lenin's rootless life explains his determination to create an unrelenting new order in Russia.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments