Lenin and Germany

Whilst reading Einstein in Berlin I came across a very interesting fact.

Lenin and his political party created communist Russia. We also know that Hitler hated the communists, second only to the Jews.

However, Russia, like Germany, during the start of the First World War was a monarchy. And both were at war with each other. Germany desperately needed to end the war on the Eastern front with Russia so that it could concentrate all its forces on the Western front against Britain and France.

And so it was cultivating Russian dissidents who were in exile to agitate and create trouble for the Russia government. To this end, they cultivated Lenin, who was then in exile in Switzerland, and Trotsky and in 1917 sent then back to Russia with lots of gold, cash and resources to overthrow the government. This led to the October 1917 revolution and the Bolsheviks, led by Lenin took power and made Russia a communist country.

Truly incredible. Communist Russia came about because of Germany cultivating dissidents, including Lenin, to destabilize and overthrow the then government for its own selfish reasons. That giant then smashed Germany in the Second World War and occupied parts of Germany for a long period thereafter. And the giant created then by Germany still looms large.