In April 1917, twenty years after he first went into exile, Lenin arrived at the Finland Station in St. Petersburg. Soon after the news of the Russian Revolution had reached Switzerland, Lenin, along with 31 other émigrés, had elected to return swiftly to Russia via Germany, without awaiting permission from the leadership of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (RSDLP) or the Russian government. The plan was for them to travel through enemy territory.