Lenin's Telegram On 1917 Return To Russia Sold At Auction

Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin in May 1919

A 1917 telegram sent by Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin has been sold at auction in London for 50,000 pounds ($77,600).

The historically significant telegram was sold at Christie's auction house on June 12.

Lenin sent the telegram to French Socialist poet Henri Guilbeaux on April 6, 1917, shortly after Lenin learned about the February Revolution in Russia.

In it, Lenin states his intention to return to Russia.

Lenin and Guilbeaux met when both were exiles in Switzerland. Guilbeaux was hiding from a death sentence in France for protesting against the country's participation in World War I.

In the telegram, Lenin invites Guilbeaux to travel to Russia, which Guilbeaux eventually did in 1919.

Lenin rewrote the text of the telegram by hand in 1920.

That letter also sold at Christie's on June 12 for some $190,000.

Based on reporting by ITAR-TASS and Lenta.ru