German reaction of Lenin's rise to power

[Cantankerous]

I was reading about Vladimir Lenin signing the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in March 1918 while taking an 8th grade US history class in Corona del Mar High School, but also the fact that Lenin saw World War I as a war for the benefit of the ruling class. However, I wanted to ask how Imperial Germany reacted to the Bolshevik Revolution in November 1917 that brought Lenin to power, because Germany itself may have privately disagreed with Lenin's criticism of the war as a conflict to benefit the ruling class only, and Germany itself had colonies in the developing world (which ran counter to the premise of Lenin's 1917 book Imperialism: Highest Stage of Capitalism that European powers, including Germany, used colonialism in Africa, Asia, and the Pacific for their economic benefit rather than indigenous peoples of the colonies).

[TH]

Germany did help Lenin return to Russia, so I suppose they were pleased at the time.

After the outbreak of the February Revolution, German authorities allowed Lenin and his lieutenants to cross Germany en route from Switzerland to Sweden in a sealed railway car. Berlin hoped, correctly, that the return of the anti-war socialists to Russia would undermine the Russian war effort, which was continuing under the provisional government.

[Helmut0815]

Well, the germans had no sympathy at all for Lenin and his comrades, they considered him just as a tool to get Russia out of the war. Mission accomplished, full satisfaction on both sides. "The Bolsheviks are great guys and have done everything very nicely and well so far," noted german diplomat Kurt Riezler at the beginning of December 1917.
Imperial Germany had spent over 26 million Goldmarks until the end of 1917 to support the bolshevist revolution. On November 5th 1918, Germany broke off diplomatic relations with Soviet Russia, which was no longer needed.

regards


Helmut

[Thuringii]

History has its ironies,

The Germans initially aided and abetted Lenin in hopes that he would undermine the ware effort and monarchist regime in Russia - which, of course, proved to be successful.
However, the Germans did send troops to support the White Army in the Finnish Civil War against the Red Bolshevik Army. In addition Swedish and Baltic troops also supported the Whites.
Untimely revolution in Germany, caused ultimately by Lenin's spreading Bolshevik and Socialist doctrine more or less caused Germany to sue for peace. German troops after the Armistice, went back home to fight revolution. You could say they created their own demise.