What were Lenin's expectations as World War 1 broke out?

Answer 1

Lenin believed that the social democratic parties in the countries involved in World War 1 would reject the national leaderships of these nations and not cooperate in the war efforts. He also expected that European workers and their union leaderships and political leaders to show international solidarity and declare themselves uninterested in the war. He was certain that workers conscripted into the war would balk at the idea of shooting across trenches at their proletarian brothers. These actions, Lenin hoped, would lead to the soldiers turning against the ruling classes of their own nations.Lenin was sorely disappointed when the majority of social democratic representatives actually supported the war and their ruling classes. They voted for war time expenditures and displayed few tendencies that would lead to international Marxist activities.