According to the International Churchill Society, Churchill wrote this in The Aftermath (1929) – the fourth volume of The World Crisis 1918–28: "He alone could have led Russia into the enchanted quagmire; he alone could have found the way back to the causeway. He saw; he turned; he perished. The strong illuminant that guided him was cut off at the moment when he had turned resolutely for home. The Russian people were left floundering in the bog. Their worst misfortune was his birth: their next worst – his death."
Interestingly, the Society names the object of Churchill's words as Nikolai Lenin; he is universally referred to today as Vladimir Lenin. Wikipedia elucidates: "He first adopted the pseudonym 'Lenin' in December 1901, possibly based on the Siberian River Lena; he often used the fuller pseudonym of 'N. Lenin', and while the N did not stand for anything, a popular misconception later arose that it represented 'Nikolai'. Under this pseudonym, he published the political pamphlet What Is To Be Done? in 1902 ... "
© Haydn Thompson 2020