Vladimir Ilyich Lenin visited London on six occasions at the beginning
of the twentieth century and it was in this city, where Marx wrote Das
Kapital, that the roots of Lenin's political thought took shape. This
book, from a former curator of the Russian collections at the British
Library, tells the story for the first time of Lenin's intriguing
relationship with the enigmatic Apollinariya Yakubova - a revolutionary
known to her comrades as the 'primeval force of the Black Earth'.
The book reveals Lenin's London-based accomplices and political rivals,
and sheds new light on his world-view - one which would have such a
crucial impact on the twentieth century. This is the first full
exploration of the formation of one of the leading political visionaries
of his age. Henderson has made a series of stunning archival
discoveries, published here for the first time, as well as photographs
and details of the Russian revolutionaries (and indeed international
police spies) who congregated in the east end of London - known then as
the 'Little Russian Island'. Featuring an extraordinary amount of new
archival material, this is an essential addition to our knowledge of
Lenin the man and of the roots of the Russian revolution.