> parvus made contact with general erich ludendorff who later admitted his involvement in his autobiography, my war memories, 1914-1918 (1920) that he told senior officials: "our government, in sending lenin to russia, took upon itself a tremendous responsibility. from a military point of view his journey was justified, for it was imperative that russia should fall." > general max hoffmann, chief of the german general staff on the eastern front commented: "we naturally tried, by means of propaganda, to increase the disintegration that the russian revolution had introduced into the army. some man at home who had connections with the russian revolutionaries exiled in switzerland came upon the idea of employing some of them in order to hasten the undermining and poisoning of the morale of the russian army." > hoffmann claims that reichstag deputy mathias erzberger became involved in the negotiations. "and thus it came about that lenin was conveyed through germany to petrograd in the manner that afterwards transpired. in the same way as i send shells into the enemy trenches, as i discharge poison gas at him, i, as an enemy, have the right to employ the expedient of propaganda against his garrisons." > paul levi, a close associate of rosa luxemburg, and a member of the german anti-war spartacus league, handled the berne-zurich end of negotiations, with karl radek. levi was contacted by the german ambassador in switzerland and asked: "how can i get in touch with lenin? i expect final instructions any moment regarding his transportation". lenin now negotiated the deal with the ambassador that would allow him to travel through germany.  > once the three of the carriage's four doors at the russian end were closed shut, fritz platten, a swiss socialist marked them with chalk in german as "sealed". the train was given a high traffic priority by the germans. crown prince wilhelm, the eldest son of kaiser wilhelm ii, was delayed for two hours to let lenin's train to pass.
Poland