46 (April 5) in the evening, Vladimir Ilyich arrived at the Finland Station in Petrograd, and the next day he, together with Comrade Zinoviev, made the following statement to the Executive Committee of the Soviet of Workers' and Peasants' Deputies.
23.
LENIN AND ZINOVIEV. HOW WE GOT HERE.
(A report made to the Executive Committee by Comrades Lenin and Zinoviev on behalf of comrades who arrived from Switzerland.
It has already leaked into the socialist press that the English and French governments have refused to allow emigrant-internationalists into Russia.
The 32 emigrants of various parties who arrived here (among them 19 Bolsheviks, 6 Bundists, 3 supporters of the Parisian international newspaper "Nashe Slovo") consider it their duty to announce the following:
"We have a number of documents in our hands, which we will make public as soon as we receive them from Stockholm (we left them there because representatives of the English government are in charge on the Swedish-Russian border), and which will show to everyone the sad disunity of the named "allied" governments in this matter. On this point we will only add the following: The Zurich Committee for the evacuation of emigrants, which includes representatives of 23 groups (including the Central Committee, Organizational Committee, Socialist-Revolutionaries, Bund, etc.), in a unanimously adopted resolution publicly stated the fact that the English government decided to deprive emigrant-internationalists of the opportunity to return to their homeland and take part in activities against the imperialist war.
From the very first days of the revolution, this intention of the English government became clear to the emigrants.
Then, at a meeting

LENIN AND ZINOVIEV. - HOW WE GOT HERE.

of representatives of the Socialist-Revolutionary party (M. A. Natanson), the Organizational Committee of the R. S.-D. L. P. (L. Martov), the Bund (Kossovsky), a plan arose (it was put forward by L. Martov) to achieve the passage of emigrants through Germany in exchange for German and Austrian prisoners interned in Russia.
A number of telegrams were sent to Russia in this sense, and at the same time, steps were taken through Swiss socialists to implement this plan.
The telegrams sent to Russia were detained, apparently, by our "Provisional Revolutionary Government" (or its supporters).
After waiting two weeks for a response from Russia, we decided to implement the named plan ourselves (other emigrants decided to wait a while longer, considering it still unproven that the Provisional Government would not take measures to allow all emigrants to pass).
The matter was in the hands of the Swiss socialist-internationalist Fritz Platten. He concluded a precise written agreement with the German ambassador in Switzerland. We will publish the text of the conditions.
The main points are: 1) All emigrants are traveling regardless of their views on the war. 2) The carriage in which the emigrants are traveling enjoys the right of extraterritoriality, no one has the right to enter the carriage without Platten's permission. No control, no passports, no luggage. 3) Those traveling are obliged to agitate in Russia for the exchange of the emigrants who have been allowed through for a corresponding number of Austrian-German internees.
All attempts by the German Social-Democratic majority to communicate with those traveling were resolutely rejected by the latter. Platten accompanied the carriage all the way. The latter decided to travel with us to Petrograd, but was detained on the Russian border (Torneo). We hope only temporarily. All
negotiations were conducted with the participation and in full solidarity with a number of international socialists. The protocol on the trip was signed by two French socialists: Lorio and Guilbeaux, and a socialist from the Liebknecht group (Harstein), the Swiss socialist Platten, the Polish Social Democrat Bronsky, the Swedish Social-Democratic deputies Lindhagen, Carlson, Ström, Ture Nerman and others...
"If Karl Liebknecht were now in Russia, Milyukov would release him to Germany; Bethmann-Hollweg is releasing you,

LENIN COLLECTION.
Russian internationalists, to Russia. Your job is to go to Russia and fight both German and Russian imperialism."
That's what the named comrade-internationalists told us. We think they were right. We will make a report on the trip to the Executive Committee of the Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies. We hope that it will achieve the release of a corresponding number of internees, primarily the prominent Austrian socialist Otto Bauer, and that it will achieve the passage into Russia of all emigrants, and not just social-patriots. We hope that the Executive Committee will put an end to the unprecedented state of affairs whereby no newspapers to the left of "Rech" are allowed through, and when even the manifesto of the Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies to the workers of all countries is not allowed into the foreign press.

VI.
LETTERS OF V. I. LENIN
TO A. M. GORKY.
(Additions to the letters published in "Lenin Collection" No. 1.)