Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (a.k.a. Lenin), his wife Nadezhda Krupskaya, and 28 other proto-communist, Marxist revolutionaries–under the protection of the Foreign Ministry of Germany—board a sealed passenger train car, in Bern, Switzerland, bound for Petrograd, Russia, via Zurich; and Stockholm, Sweden.  This is in hopes that Lenin will overthrow the pro-war, liberal White republic established by Alexander Kerensky, and take Russia out of the conflict, thus relieving Germany of having to fight a two-front war.

       Questions:

• Would Germany have attempted to topple the Russian republic, and install a communist dictatorship—which they were anathema to—had it not been for a desire to defeat the allies before the army of the United states arrived?
• Had the Germans not smuggled Lenin into Russia, and the U.s. stayed out of the Great War (World War I), what would have been the chances that Hitler and Stalin would have come to power?

       [added 6/13/2022] Thanks to Jim Lorenz for this entry.