Karl Radek

Non-fiction

Project 1917 is a series of events that took place a hundred years ago as described by those involved. It is composed only of diaries, letters, memoirs, newspapers and other documents

Karl Radek

19.10.17

Liberation can only be possible if Bolsheviks seize power.

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Karl Radek

Stockholm, Sweden

05.09.17

Attends the III Zimmerwald Conference

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Karl Radek

Of the newly-arrived social democrats, the leader of the Belgian social democrats, De Brouckere, made the strongest impression on me. I knew him before the war as one of the best of the Left Marxists, yet now he seemed to be capable of speaking and thinking of nothing but fighting the war to its conclusion. Of all the visitors, the independent German social democrats made the most pathetic impression; they were very revolutionary in their words, but were afraid to give us detailed reports of the situation in Germany

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Karl Radek

Stockholm, Sweden

13.04.17

Probably the respectable appearance of reputable Swedish comrades has made us wish that Ilyich looked like a person. We were trying to persuade him to at least buy new boots. He left in highlander boots with huge nails.
We pointed out to him that if it was all right to spoil with these boots the sidewalks of vulgar towns of bourgeois Switzerland, then conscience should prohibit him to go to Petrograd with these instruments of destruction, where maybe there are no more sidewalks. I went with Ilyich to a Stockholm department store, accompanied by a Jewish worker, Khavin, who was knowledgeable about local customs. We bought Ilyich boots and began to tempt him with other wardrobe items. He defended himself as he could, asking us if we thought that he was planning to open a clothing shop upon his return to Petrograd, but we managed to persuade him and outfitted him with a pair of trousers, which I, having arrived to Piter in October, found him wearing, despite the rather formless appearance they have acquired under the influence of the Russian revolution.

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Karl Radek

Trellborg, Sweden

12.04.17

In Berlin, the platform at which the train stopped was cordoned off by plain-clothes operatives. We travelled in this way as far as Sassnitz, where we boarded a steamer. There, we were given instructions to carry out the usual formalities and fill out forms. Ilyich saw this as a cunning ruse by the enemy, and ordered us to sign our names using various pseudonyms, which later led to a comical misunderstanding. See more

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Karl Radek

Schaffhausen, Switzerland

09.04.17

So, we have started out. We have arrived on a Swiss train into Schaffhausen where we needed to transfer to a German train. German officers were expecting us. They showed us to the customs hall, where they needed to count the number of “live” shells that they were transporting to Russia. According to our deal, they could not ask us for the passports. Thus, at customs women and men were separated on both sides of the table, so that on our way, no one took flight or switched a Russian revolutionary for a German girl and left an embryo of the revolution in Germany. See more

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