In presence of Lenin, the Bolshevik Karachan tells Reilly, "The Bolshevik Party did not want to get out of the war with Germany." In fact, the Bolsheviks had opposed the war from the start, taking part in the anti-war Zimmerwald Conference in 1915. The left-wing opposition to the Brest-Litovsk Treaty was not support for the war as such, but opposition to the harsh terms that Germany had imposed as a price for peace. This political background is crucial for understanding the real events that are depicted in the series.