Lenin got back to Russia after the February revolution (which was with the Allies in WW1) via Germany (Which was...not.)
Germany realised that they could fuck with Russia by sending him there to ramp up the political chaos, and so gave him a (not actually) sealed train through Germany to Finland Station in St Petersburg, where he was greeted by massive crowds, turning him from a moderately well know agitator exiled to Switzerland into one of the primary political figures of the age. By doing so Germany, a Capitalist power, gave Lenin resources, and accidentally triggered the most serious threat to capitalism that has ever existed.
Because of this, Leftists, especially older ones, will use the term "Arriving at Finland Station" to refer to a moment when the left (or the org, or the person) comes to a position of real political power.
The sad fact is, many Communist or Socialist revolutions got their funding, or their organisation, from capitalist sources. On the one hand, that's playing with fire. On the other, if it's skillfully done you can hoist them with their own petard.
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Lenin got back to Russia after the February revolution (which was with the Allies in WW1) via Germany (Which was...not.)
Germany realised that they could fuck with Russia by sending him there to ramp up the political chaos, and so gave him a (not actually) sealed train through Germany to Finland Station in St Petersburg, where he was greeted by massive crowds, turning him from a moderately well know agitator exiled to Switzerland into one of the primary political figures of the age. By doing so Germany, a Capitalist power, gave Lenin resources, and accidentally triggered the most serious threat to capitalism that has ever existed.
Because of this, Leftists, especially older ones, will use the term "Arriving at Finland Station" to refer to a moment when the left (or the org, or the person) comes to a position of real political power.
The sad fact is, many Communist or Socialist revolutions got their funding, or their organisation, from capitalist sources. On the one hand, that's playing with fire. On the other, if it's skillfully done you can hoist them with their own petard.