BOOK REVIEW: 'Lenin on the Train,' 'The Russian Revolution'

LENIN ON THE TRAIN

By Catherine Merridale

Metropolitan, $30, 363 pages

THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION: A NEW HISTORY

By Sean McMeekin

Basic Books, $30, 445 pages

In the spring of 1917, the German spy service sensed a sure-fire means of persuading Russia to make a separate peace and exit the Great ...