The Lenin plot

By Mike Thomson Presenter

 

Lenin survived an assassination attempt in 1918 although he was badly wounded

Nearly a century ago, Britain was accused of masterminding a failed plot to kill Lenin and overthrow his fledgling Bolshevik regime. The British government dismissed the story as mere Soviet propaganda - but new evidence suggests it might be true.
For decades what became known as the "Lockhart plot" has been etched in the annals of the Soviet archives, taught in schools and even illustrated in films.
In early 1918, in the final months of World War I, Russia's new Bolshevik government was negotiating a peace deal with Germany and withdrawing its exhausted troops from the front.
This did not please London. The move would enable Berlin - which had been fighting a war on two fronts - to reinforce its forces in the West.
Determined to get the Russians back into the war on the Allied side, the British despatched a young man in his 30s to be London's representative in Moscow.
His name was Robert Bruce Lockhart. 

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