Commotion at the Finland Station - The Russian Revolution reimagined

Vladimir Illych Ullyanov had had a long journey, a journey that he feared would just end in arrest and interrogation. For just as surely as he saw the officials of the provisional government as his enemies and as all of those who supported them as collaborators and traitors, surely they would see him in the same light. It was only at the provincial halt at Sestroretsk, where he had been pulled from the train by enthusiastic local bolsheviks that he began to believe what Kamenev had been saying that they were going to be safe, and at home.
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The train was much delayed as it finally pulled into the Finland station, nearly midnight on Monday 3rd April, Easter Monday. Alexander Shliapnikov had been put in charge of organising the reception and his efforts had resulted in a huge crowd. A military band had gathered and sailors from Kronstadt had come to form a guard of honour. A searchlight swept the excited crowd, none of whom knew Lenin, only that their leader had come home. In the square outside the station armoured cars and other armed vehicles were parked untidely while men and women, soldiers and workers, true believers and hangers on and those who were just drawn to the excitement of the occasion milled around.
As the train entered the station the band struck up the Marseilleise, much to Lenin's irritation, why not the Internationale, well he thought, it's symptomatic of the compromise of this bunch of paper revolutionaries, I have arrived in time but only just he thought. Behind him Krupskaya hid her anxiety at the size of the crowds, she hoped that someone had arranged for them to stay in a flat somewhere.

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From the steps of the train Lenin addressed the crowd though such was the noise that Shliapnikov could only make out the odd word though the tone of contempt was enough to let him know that the Petrograd bolsheviks were in for a shock. As he stepped onto the platform the crowd swept him along across the platform through the booking hall and out onto the square; Lenin found himself on the bonnet of a car again attempting to address the crowd who were not really listening but enjoying the moment. Shliapnikov began to organise the various drivers he had recruited, but rapidly an argument broke out between one of them and the driver of an armoured car for Kronstadt who was refusing to move before his sailors returned. Spotting a gap in the crowd, Maronov, Sliapnikov's driver accelerated around the armoured car, suddenly a mother and child appeared in front of him he sharply turned the wheel to the right and slammed into the side of the car that was serving as an impromptu tribune for the Bolshevik leader. Lenin stumbled, slipped and fell, the crowd cushioned his fall but his head slammed into a lamppost. By the time Krupskaya got to his side he was barely conscious.
 
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