There are three places in Geneva where Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin left his mark. The first is "Karoujka", rue de Carouge 91-93. The Bolshevik Russians loved this place because it had a 100-seat restaurant that belonged to the Lepechinskaya family. In the same house in Carouge was the typography (printing works) for the Bolshevik newspapers: "Iskra", "En avant" and "Ecole marxisme de Genève". Iskra (spark) played a major role, because as Lenin himself said: "A newspaper is the essential weapon for nurturing a revolution".
Apart from that, the house also housed a library of revolutionary literature. During the period of the USSR, this library was the foundation of the Institute of Marxism-Leninism.
Karoujka: a foot in Russian history
I went to see 'Karoujka' with my own eyes, in a noisy street. In front of the building, trams and cars go by non-stop. According to the lease, Lenin was appointed as a "literator", and paid 600 francs a year for his accommodation. Today, on the ground floor of the building, there is a grocery shop and a Portuguese café. People are drinking and chatting. In silence, I look down this alleyway 91-93 and step into history. One of his fellow emigrants from Geneva described him as follows: "A man who was always badly dressed, shorter than his wife, with a face full of pox, in short not a beauty, but according to the neighbour in question a friendly character who was interested in everything and everyone".
I imagined a person exactly like the one described in the rue de Carouge. Then I headed for the Jonction, where there is a second house with a plaque reading "Vladimir Ilitch Ulyanov, Lenin, Founder of the Soviet Union, lived in this house from 1904 to 1905".
Lenin: a beer-lover
La
troisième adresse de Lénine se situait juste en face de
l'université de Genève près du parc des Bastions, là où se
trouve aujourd'hui un restaurant japonais "Takumi".
A l'époque, il y avait une brasserie nommée "Landolt". À ce propos, Lénine était un grand amateur de bière. Le père de la révolution russe aurait d’ailleurs gravé son nom sur une table de la Brasserie Landolt.
Un de compatriote de Lénine, Bobrovskaia-Zélikson disait dans sa mémoire qu’en 1904, à la veille d nouvel an au Landolt, Lénine portait un toast et parlait de : "La grande tempête qui s'approche".
On a beau être le père du communisme, on n'en a pas moins un compte dans une banque bien capitaliste, l’Union de Banque Suisse ! En 1917, sa révolution tant attendue est sur le point de se réaliser en Russie et il décide de retourner au pays. Mais avant de quitter Genève, Lénine passe à la banque. Il vide son compte, exceptés 5 francs et 5 centimes, correspondant à sa contribution au parti. Cent ans plus tard, le compte existe toujours et les 5 francs et 5 centimes sont devenus 12 francs 90 centimes, grâce aux intérêts.
La petite Histoire est souvent plus intéressante que la grande Histoire, particulièrement dans ce cas, pour ceux qui ont vécu sous le régime soviétique.
