ABSTRACT
On 3 January 1907 Trotsky was moved to the Petersburg transit prison before commencing exile, which this time would be for an indefinite period. Even before he left Petersburg, he was determined to escape and hid a passport and gold coins in his boots. He was destined for a village a thousand miles from the nearest railway. The first stage of the journey was under military guard by railway as far as Tyumen, then by sledge along the course of the River Ob to Tobolsk and from there north towards Obdorsk. While en route Trotsky’s party stopped at the village of Berezov for a rest, because thereafter the sleighs were to be pulled by reindeer rather than horses. A local land surveyor suggested to Trotsky that, although there were no roads in the area, the River Sosva could be followed towards the Urals, where a narrow-gauge railway serving the local mines led eventually to the main Trans-Siberian Railway at Perm, from where it was a straight journey back to Petersburg. Trotsky feigned sciatica, found a guide willing to take him by deer sled along the Sosva, and set off through the February blizzards.
