 Lenin and Hanecki were living in Poronin, a village close to the border, when war broke out between Austria and Russia in August 1914, and Lenin was threatened with arrest, as a Russian.Hanecki rescued him by arranging transport to the nearest town, Nowy Targ where - according to Lenin's widow - he warned the local chief of police that Lenin was an important figure in the world socialist movement and "a man for whose life he, the commander, would have to answer.