Conspirator

LENIN IN EXILE

Conspirator is the compelling story of how Lenin endured seventeen long and often difficult years in exile, living a hand-to-mouth existence, working towards the upheaval that in 1917 transformed the political landscape of Europe: the Russian Revolution.

Always on the move, he lived at various times in Paris, London, Geneva, Zurich, Munich, as well as the backwaters of rural Poland and Finland.

On a wider level, this book charts the life in exile of various European enclaves of Lenin’s colleagues in the Russian revolutionary movement – their hopes, their dreams, their quarrels, their extraordinary, rootless existence and the many risks they took in trying to smuggle illegal literature into Russia and spread their message.

UK: Hutchinson, 3 September 2009

US: Basic Books, 3 April 2010

UK REVIEWS

For a review by online culture magazine Beat:: www.beat.firestationnartscentre.com

For a review by The Common Reader blog see:

www.acommonreader.org.uk

‘Lenin died from Syphilis’ -for the Mail Online article discussing Helen Rappaport’s new theory, see: www.dailymail.co.uk

For an extended review article see the Culture Wars website:

www.culturewars.org.uk

WEB LINKS

See my Top Ten Books on Lenin at Guardian Unlimited:

www.guardian.co.uk/books

For my opinion on the etching of ‘Hitler playing Chess with Lenin’ that has come up at auction, see: www.telegraph.co.uk

On Lenin in London see: www.news.bbc.co.uk

II have just read what is probably the best biography of Lenin and indeed one of the best biographies of anyone that I have read. This is Helen Rappaport’s Conspirator: Lenin in Exile. The many other Lenin biographies are either hagiographies or cold war anti-communist rants. Helen Rappaport treats Lenin like a human being…

The Indian Express

I am grateful to the Lenin Museum in Tampere, Finland-

the only surviving museum dedicated to Lenin in the world -

for their support in this project

Lenin Museum, Tampere

For a Scott Pack Q&A with Helen on Conspirator go to: meandmybigmouth.typepad.com

For Scott’s review of Conspirator

go to:

meandmybigmouth.typepad.com