User:Zetkin-Schaft;3/Locomotive H2 293

Memorial-locomotive at the Finland Station in St. Petersburg

The Finish locomotive H2 293 is a memorial-locomotive, displayed at the Finland Station in Saint Petersburg. It gained historical relevance when Vladimir Lenin fled Petrograd in 1917 while disguised as a stoker.

History

The 2 C-Steam locomotive was manufactured in 1900 by the Richmond Locomotive Works with the factory number 2991 and was delivered to the Finnish Railway as the H2 293.

Lenin arrived in Petrograd on April 16 [O.S. April 3] 1917 after travelling through Germany and Sweden on his return from Swiss exile in a sealed train.

Lenin had to flee Petrograd on the August 9 [O.S. July 27] 1917 after the provisional government under Alexander Kerensky put him up for arrest. He disguised himself as a stoker and drove past the border to Finland with train driver Hugo Jalawa on the locomotive H2 293 in order to go into hiding. He returned to Petrograd using the same method on October 7 [O.S. September 24] 1917 hid in a working class district on the Vyborg Side where he then started the October Revolution, brining down the Kerenski-Regime. The Locomotive H2 293 (known as Hk1 293 since 1942) continued operating until 1957 in service to the Finnish Railway(VR)

On June 13 1957, the VR gifted the locomotive to the Soviet Union and was subsequently displayed behind glass at the Finland Station in Leningrad.

Trivia

• The German rock band Schmetterlinge published the Jalava-Lied in the 1970s, which is about Lenin's return to Russia on the locomotive.
• The locomotive has nothing to do with Lenin's journey in a sealed train which happened in April of 1917 and is often mistaken in literature.