Lenin's grad

A visit to St Petersburg (née Leningrad) is incomplete without something on Lenin. There are so many plaques and statues of him around the city that it seems at times that if he as much as hesitated in a doorway something was placed on the wall alongside it.  

Very dull light all day long and a long day indoors at work meant this blip became the best option.

This is the metro station at Udelnaya, the site of Lenin's escape to Finland in August 1917 (he was at the time Russia's most wanted man).  The inscription on the wall explains it:

In early August 1917, V.I. Lenin, hiding from the persecution of the bourgeois Provisional Government, illegally left on the train number 293 from the railway station specific to Finland. In early October 1917 he returned to Petrograd to guide the preparation of an armed uprising. 

Lenin's journey to Udelnaya involved having to walk through the woods in the dark and across a burning peat bog (a depiction here).  He was furious at the lack of planning (no map - they got lost) and poor organisation ("only three baby cucumbers and not even a bread roll" for the three of them to eat).  Nonetheless, it ended well and Lenin dressed up as a train stoker was able to board the train at Udelnaya and get across to Finland.  Udelnaya achieved its "15 minutes of fame" and the rest is history.