Project1917.com 13.03-21.01.1917

https://project1917.com/ 13.03.1917-21.01.1917

“1917. Free History” is a project that enables participants to find out about the history of 1917 from those who lived during this defining moment of twentieth century history.

The project consists entirely of primary sources. It includes not a trace of invention. All the texts used are taken from genuine documents written by historical figures: letters, memoirs, diaries and other documents of the period.

“1917. Free History” is a serial, but in the form of a social network. Every day, when you go onto the site, you will find out what happened exactly one hundred years ago: what various people were thinking about and what happened to each of them in this eventful year. You may not fast-forward into the future, but must follow events as they happen in real time.

“1917. Free History” is a way of bringing the past to life and bringing it closer to the present day. It is a way of understanding what the year 1917 was like for those who lived in Russia and in other countries. We have scoured archives and storerooms for texts, photographs and videos, many of which have never seen the light of day before.

The project is the work of a team of journalists, experts, designers, animators and illustrators.

How does it work?

Our main aim is to make history popular – to bring a multitude of voices from a diverse array of historically significant figures to as wide an audience as possible. That is why we do not always observe all those standards which are normally considered inviolable in serious scholarship.

We shorten texts to make them more readable. However, we never change the words or the sense of what has been written

Next to each entry, users will find a link directing them to the original document from which it was taken.

Project Team

Mikhail Zygar – project author, founder and editor-in-chief

Aleksandr Kerensky

Mikhaylovskoye artillery school, Petrograd, Russian Empire

Comrades! There arise moments in the existence of every nation – just as they do in the existence of individuals – when the most pressing question of the day is no longer how best to live, but whether life will continue at all. We are going through just such a moment, and must ask ourselves whether Russia will survive if the old order continues to exist. We are gathered here to swear that Russia will be free.

Comment

2 Share

Anna Akhmatova

Sreznevskikh's ap., 9, Botkinskaya, Petrograd, Russian Empire

It’s going to be the same as the Great French Revolution, perhaps even worse.

Isabella Bottino

1 Comment

9 Share

Vasily Shulgin

Shpalernaya, 47, the Tauride Palace, Petrograd, Russian Empire

The situation is such that we cannot do without many old bureaucrats. For who can replace them? And so they’ve decided to send members of the State Duma as ‘commissars’. One of the major and successful appointments was that of a Duma member and engineer Bublikov as commissar of ‘Communications’.

Comment

Alexander Bublikov

Railway ministry, Petrograd, Russian Empire

My first task was to dispatch a network-wide communiqué to the railwaymen regarding today’s events, and to call upon them to work toward the benefit of this newly free country. My second task was to ascertain the whereabouts of the Tsar.See more

Comment

Nicholas II

Likhoslavl, Tver region, Russian Empire

We left Mofilev at 5 o’clock in the morning. The weather was bright and frosty.

1 Comment

Sophie Buxhoeveden

The Empress had said to me that to go "would look like flight," and she was also afraid of the risk to the children had they been moved while they were so ill. On the morning, however, she told me that I should "quietly pack my bag to be able to start with them at any moment, should this prove necessary." The gentlemen had on that morning again raised the question of the Empress's departure, but it was too late now.

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Zinaida Gippius

Sergievskaya 83, Petrograd, Russian Empire

There will be further battles. Lord! Save Russia. Save her, save her, save her. Save her from herself, guide her as You see fit. See more

Comment

Maurice Paleologue

10, Kutuzov embankment, Petrograd, Russian Empire

The firing, which had died down by this morning, began again about ten o'clock; it seemed to be pretty vigorous in the region of the Admiralty. Armoured cars, with machine-guns and displaying red flags, were continually passing the embassy at top speed. More fires were blazing at several points in the capital.See more

Comment

Vladimir Lenin

Zurich, Switzerland

From Russia we receive nothing, not even letters! We relay through Scandinavia.

Berlano Andrade, Isabella Bottino

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Alexandra Kollontai

Oslo, Norway

No sooner do I take a seat in the carriage than I see the following large-lettered headline on the front page of my neighbour’s newspaper: REVOLUTION IN RUSSIA. My heart quivers. For some reason, I believe it at once: this is no journalistic bluff, this is for real. I try to make out what it says. It’s too late to buy a paper of my own – the train has set off. “When you’re done with it, lend it to me,” I say to my neighbour. “I’m Russian – it’s only natural that I should be in interested in what’s going on.”

Smiljana Antonijević, Jess Zilla and 1 other

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Nikolai Wrangel

Petrograd, Russian Empire

I see a handsome officer decorated with the order of St George. He is surrounded on all sides, surrounded tightly, as if in grips of a vise. He turned pale, but remains calm. No a single face muscle twiched; he looks right at the bastards’ faces with cold, calm eyes and I feel that he will look at death the same way.See more

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Nikolay Punin

Fountain house, 53, Liteynyy avenue, Petrograd, Russian Empire

The troops are disorganised, they’re all thronging about while officerless military patrols attempt to maintain order. Could it really be that socialism’s creative energies will be put into effect? My people, will you find in it yourselves to become great at last?

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Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich

Petrograd, Russian Empire

8 o’clock, we were woken up by heavy traffic, of both passenger and freight cars, that were overcrowded with soldiers who were shooting, mostly, into the air—there were also strong explosions of hand grenades. See more

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Jean Cocteau

Rome, Italy

We are once again in Rome after our travels in Naples, where we also explored Pompey in an automobile. I think that no city in the world will ever please me such as did Naples. See more

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Sergei Bulgakov

Zubovsky boulevard 15, ap. 11, Moscow, Russian Empire

Military units and automobiles had already materialised, together with sinister-looking, revolver-wielding, long-haired types – and girls of a corresponding appearance. The Kremlin was taken almost without a single shot being fired, and, come evening, Moscow found itself in the hands of the revolutionary authorities.See more

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Maxim Gorky Ekaterina Peshkova

Petrograd, Russian Empire

Soldiers fraternize with the public and the mood, in general, is improving. It is difficult to understand how all this will end. Take care of our son.

Jess Zilla

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Rurik Ivnev

Lahtinskaya street, Petrograd, Russian Empire

The soldiers have joined the people. Armed soldiers roam the streets in automobiles draped in red flags. The crowd greets them with a “hurrah” and people throw their caps in their air. A worker explains to an assembled crowd that he works from morning to night and still his family are dying of hunger. See more

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Leon Trotsky

Redaction of the "New World" magazine, Manhattan, 77, New York

Disorganised, compromised, fragmented government at the top, a completely crippled army, discontent, uncertainty and fear among the propertied class, a deep exasperation in the lower classes, an exponentially grown proletariat, hardened in the fire of current events—all this gives us the right to say that we are witnessing the beginning of the Second Russian Revolution. Let’s hope that many among us take part in it.

Orlando Da Rocha Hill

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2 Share

George Buchanan

4, Dvortsovaya embankment, Petrograd, Russian Empire (British Embassy)

The old Government had ceased to exist, and all its members, with the exception of Pokrowski and of the Minister of Marine, Admiral Grigorowich, had been arrested. By the evening the whole garrison, as well as all the troops which had arrived from Tsarskoe and the neighbouring districts, had gone over to the Duma, while many officers had also offered their services. So far as Petrograd was concerned, the revolution was already an accomplished fact; but the situation was beset with colossal difficulties. The workmen were armed, numbers of released criminals were at large, in many regiments the soldiers were without officers, while in the Duma a sharp struggle was proceeding between the executive committee and the newly formed Soviet. See more

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Maurice Paleologue

4, Dvortsovaya embankment, Petrograd, Russian Empire (British Embassy)

During a day which has been prolific in grave events and may perhaps have determined the future of Russia for a century to come, I have made a note of one episode which seems trivial at first sight, but in reality is highly significant. The town house of Kchechinskaïa, at the end of the Kammenny-Ostrov Prospekt and opposite Alexander Park, was occupied by the insurgents today and sacked from top to bottom. I remember a detail which makes it easy to see why the residence of the famous dancer has been singled out by mob fury. See more

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Lili Dehn

Alexander Palace, Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

Neither the Grand Duchess nor I could sleep, and we lay awake in the darkness talking in low tones. Occasionally I was silent, but, when this was so, Anastasienever failed to ask: See more

Comment

George V

London, United Kingdom

Bad news from Russia, practically a Revolution has broken out in Petrograd and some of the Guards Regiments have mutinied and killed their officers. This rising is against the Government not against the war.

Comment

12 March

It has begun!

“Today is one of Russia’s greatest and most joyous days”

“The world’s gone mad and is dying before our very eyes”

Leonid Andreyev

1, Moyka embankment, Petrograd, Russian Empire

Today is one of the greatest and most joyous days for Russia. What a day!

Marina Daiman, Kate Dohrti and 16 others

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Felix Yusupov

Rakitnoe estate, Kurskaya guberniya, Russain Empire

The world has gone mad and is dying before our very eyes.

Marina Daiman, Rafael Padial and 14 others

2 Comment

7 Share

Vladimir Mayakovsky

Citizens!

This is the first day of the workers’ deluge.

We come to the aid of the muddled-up world.

Let crowds rock the skies with their stamp and yelling!

Иван Петров, Marina Daiman and 19 others

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Alexandra Feodorovna

Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

-9°C. I had lunch upstairs with Lily. Horrible things are happening in St Petersburg. Revolution.

Marina Daiman, Vladimir Okhnich and 3 others

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117 Share

Nicholas II

Mogilev, Stavka, Russian Empire

Riots broke out several days ago in Petrograd; regrettably soldiers have begun taking part in them. A vile feeling to be so far away and to receive scraps of bad news.

Marina Daiman, Lisa Evreinoff Linker and 5 others

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Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich

Petrograd, Russian Empire

I went to the war minister and passed on through Nicky’s apparatus those measures that must be taken immediately as to calm the onset of the revolution, namely the resignation of the whole cabinet, and then entrusting Duke Lvov to chose a new cabinet at his discretion. I added that the answer should be given right now, since time does not wait, every hour is important. The answer was: do not make any changes before I arrive.

Marina Daiman, Lisa Evreinoff Linker and 2 others

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Mikhail Rodzianko

32, Kirochnaya street, Petrograd, Russian Empire

The Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich arrived in Petrograd, and we had a meeting with him in the company of the Chairman of the State Duma, his comrade Nekrasov, the secretary of the State Duma Dmitriyukov and member of the Duma Savich. See more

Letitia Rydjeski, Marina Daiman

1 Comment

Boris Anrep with Anna Akhmatova

Anrepov's house, Ligovskiy avenue 3/9, Petrograd, Russian Empire

I don’t think much about the revolution. There is only one thought, one wish: to meet Anna Andreevna. I crossed the Neva on foot to avoid the barricades erected around the bridges. I remember a prison escapee, a boy aged about eighteen and seized by panic, who asked me for directions to the Varshavskiy train station. Staggering, I made my way to the house of Szreznevskiy, rung the bell and Anna Andreevna opened the door. “You? On a day like this? Officers are kidnapped on the streets”. – “I removed my epaulettes”. See more

Letitia Rydjeski, Lisa Evreinoff Linker and 6 others

1 Comment

3 Share

Olga Paley

Pashkovsky lane, 2, Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

The ground is truly giving way underneath our feet. The prisons are wide open, and their malcontents have positioned themselves at the heads of political movements. Slowly but surely our regiments are going over to the enemy camp, and rumors abound that the First Infrantry Regiment billeted at Tsarskoye Selo has thrown in its lot with the rebels.

Marina Daiman, John Bessa and 5 others

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22 Share

Aleksandr Kerensky

Shpalernaya, 47, the Tauride Palace, Petrograd, Russian Empire

The decision to create an Interim council with unlimited powers.

At 1PM the soldiers were still not there, thus, when somebody finally called out to me from the vestibule, announcing the arrival of the soldiers, I rushed to the window, barely believing in such an eventuality. See more

Alexander Kerensky, Greggery Peccary and 1 other

1 Comment

Vladimir Mayakovsky

Petrograd, Russian Empire

I walked along side the motorcars toward the Duma. I popped into Radzianko's office. I inspected Miliukov. He was silent. But for some reason it seemed to me that he was stuttering. I was bored an hour later. I left.

Rafael Padial, Vladimir Okhnich and 8 others

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Pablo Picasso

Grand - Hotel "Vesuvio" 45, Partenope street, Naples, Italy

All the women in Naples are beautiful. Everything is very easy here.

Rafael Padial, Lisa Evreinoff Linker and 5 others

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4 Share

Feodor Chaliapin

performs the role of the Miller in A. Dargomyzhsky's opera "The Mermaid"

Big Hall of People's house, Petrograd, Russian Empire

Matthew Klauber, Oleg Savitskii

Comment

Alexander Spiridovich

Petrograd, Russian Empire

Legitimate power was gone. There is anarchy in the city. There is no other solution. We need to assume power. Rodzianko hesitates. He has already made many revolutionary moves but keeps repeating, “I do not wish to rebel.” Wavered in his conviction by heated arguments, tired, and stressed out, Rodzianko asked to give him “a quarter of an hour” to think it through calmly. See more

Rafael Padial, Vladimir Okhnich and 2 others

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Aleksandr Kerensky

Petrograd, Russian Empire

We signed a law that permitted the publication of a first revolutionary newspaper, “The Duma Report Bulletin,” since all the city publications were on strike and the capital did not have accurate news of what was happening. I remember that, while signing it, I could not stop myself from laughing. See more

Letitia Rydjeski, Lisa Evreinoff Linker and 5 others

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Mathilde Kschessinska

Kshessinska mansion, Petrograd, Russian Empire

The next day it was clear that the abscess was not going to burst, and that it would be foolish to count on any lull. The situation was growing worse from hour to hour. See more

Natalia Lapotko, Lisa Evreinoff Linker and 3 others

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Nicholas II Alexandra Feodorovna

Mogilev, Stavka, Russian Empire

My own Treasure,

Tender thanks for your dear letter. This will be my last one. How happy I am at the thought of meeting you in two days. I had much to do & therefore my letter is short. See more

Anna Portoraro, Lori Stuart and 1 other

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Pavel Milyukov

Shpalernaya, 47, the Tauride Palace, Petrograd, Russian Empire

By evening we already felt that we were not alone in the palace, and, furthermore, that we were no longer the palace’s masters. The Council of Workers’ Deputies – hastily convened by party organizations that had hitherto refrained from spearheading the revolution – was already assembling at the other end of the building. See more

Kate Dohrti

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Maurice Paleologue

10, Kutuzov embankment, Petrograd, Russian Empire

At half-past eight this morning, just as I finished dressing, I heard a strange and prolonged din which seemed to come from the Alexander Bridge. I looked out: there was no one on the bridge, which usually presents such a busy scene. But, almost immediately, a disorderly mob carrying red flags appeared at the end which is on the right bank of the Neva, and a regiment came towards it from the opposite side. It looked as if there would be a violent collision, but on the contrary the two bodies coalesced. The army was fraternizing with revolt.See more

Letitia Rydjeski, Marina Daiman and 3 others

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25 Share

Lili Dehn

Alexander Palace, Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

The winter afternoon was fast drawing in, and I found the Empress alone in her boudoir. At the sight of the Empress, so tragically alone, so helpless in the midst of the signs and splendour of temporal power, I could hardly restrain my tears. Controlling myself with an effort, I tried to steady my voice: “Permit me to remain with you, Madame," I entreated. See more

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Vasily Shulgin

Shpalernaya, 47, the Tauride Palace, Petrograd, Russian Empire

When it became evident that the government was no more, it simultaneously became apparent that it wasn’t viable to remain without a government for so much as an hour. And that the State Duma Committee, which was promptly swamped with appeals for directives, would therefore have to don Monomakh’s hat.

Rodzianko was in two minds for a long time. What would this prove to be, he kept asking – an insurrection or not?

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Carl Mannerheim

Petrograd, Russian Empire

An elderly, venerable porter put his head round the door. Utterly shell-shocked, the old man stammered that the revolution had begun: the insurgents were on their way to arrest officers, he said, and they very keen to know the number of my room. I had to hurry. Already in my uniform and boots, I threw over my shoulders an insignia-free winter overcoat, ripped off my spurs and put on a hat worn by civilians and military men alike.

Comment

Maxim Gorky

23, Kronversky ave., Petrograd, Russian Empire

“The soldiers are fraternizing with the public and in general there’s a positive mood. But it's difficult to say how all this will end. See more

Marina Daiman, Anna M. Plestovic and 4 others

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Aleksandr Kerensky

Tavrichesky Palace, rooms of the Provisional Committee, Petrograd, Russian Empire

By the end of the day, the whole of Petrograd was in the hands of the insurgent troops. The state machine had ceased to function, while certain ministry offices and government agency buildings had been occupied by the revolutionary forces. Some buildings – the Okhrana headquarters, police stations, courthouses – were set alight. By that time, we had established in the Duma a central body that would exercise control over the actions of the troops and insurgents.See more

Alexander Kerensky, Matthew Klauber and 3 others

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11 March

"The first red banner has appeared, a vile rag"

Guardsmen are shooting their commanders, and not the striking workers

"The palace is deadly quiet"

Alexandra Feodorovna with Grigori Rasputin

Alexander Palace, Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

The sun shines so brightly and I felt such peace and tranquility next to his precious grave! He died to save us.

Sebastian Clare, Henry Molumphy and 2 others

1 Comment

3 Share

Olga Paley

Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

The first red banner has appeared, a vile rag.

Letitia Rydjeski, Bren Ke and 3 others

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73 Share

Maxim Gorky

23, Kronversky ave., Petrograd, Russian Empire

There are no pleasures, only profanity.

Smiljana Antonijević, Robert Rehe and 2 others

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Alexander Balk

Petrograd, Russian Empire

At around ten o’clock, reports came from the outskirts of the city that the troops had begun to fire on the crowds.

A company of the Pavlov regiment refused to put down the disturbances, they shot at the mounted police patrol (a policeman and two horses were killed). The battalion commander, Colonel Eksten, was badly wounded in the head.

Sebastian Clare, Claire Melvin and 1 other

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34 Share

Alexander Spiridovich

333 ap., 54, Fontanka embarkment, Petrograd, Russian Empire

The palace is deadly quiet. It is unsettling. And most importantly- his Majesty is not here. It is necessary for his Majesty to return immediately from Stavka.

Brooke McMurray, Garrett Harloff

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1 Share

Alexandra Feodorovna

Alexander Palace, Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

Told much about the disorders in town (I think over 200,000 people) -- find that one does not keep good order. But I wrote all this yesterday, forgive me, I am foolish. But one ought to arrange card system for bread (as in every country now) as one has it for sugar some time and all are quiet and got enough. Our people are idiots. See more

Ann Schneider

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Alexander Kolchak

Trabzon

On the third day I left Sevastopol in the morning for Trabzon and, with my usual bad luck, we ran into rather blustery weather, with brisk winds from the NW at times reaching storm levels. With the boat pitching violently on enormous overtaking waves there was only one thing I could do: sleep.

Carol Mann

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Alexandre Benois

38, 1st line of Vasilyevsky Island, Petrograd, Russian Empire

Everyone is extremely worked up and no one has any illusions concerning the success of the revolutionary movement. It seems more likely to imagine that the insurrection will be supressed by the usual combination of police and bayonets. The insurrection itself, at the very least, can already be spoken of as a done deal.

Gene Linetsky

Comment

Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich

Gatchina, Russian Empire

The rioting in Petrograd has intensified — about 200 people have been killed on Suvorov Avenue and on Znamensky.

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Alexey Vasilyev

Petrograd, Russian Empire

It was almost three in the morning by the time I got home from the cabinet meeting at Prince Golytsin’s house. The ministers were in a state of great aggravation, and at the same time, clearly suffering from their awareness of the heavy responsibility which they bore for the current situation, seemed despondent, which I found rather dispiriting.

Comment

George V

Marlborough House, London, United Kingdom

Had a talk with Mother about Russian and Nicky. She is very much upset about it all.

Sebastian Clare

Comment

Mathilde Kschessinska

Kshessinska mansion, Petrograd, Russian Empire

On the 26th, a Sunday, General Halle telephoned me once more to warn me that the situation in the city was very serious, and that I should save what I could from my house before it was too late. He telephoned repeatedly all through the day. Although he still considered the situation very serious, he hoped it might improve "if the abscess burst". His advice to save what could still be saved placed me in a real dilemma. Although I never kept my large diamond jewellery at home, but left it with Faberge, I still had at home a great number of small jewels, not to mention the silver and other precious objects with which my rooms were decorated. What was I to choose? What was I to take away, and where?

Carol Mann

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Alfred Knox

Petrograd, Russian Empire

I spent the morning with Markozov, whom I interrupted at breakfast at 10 a.m. There is no lack of rye flour in Petrograd. It is true that from the 1st till the 9th only 210 wagon-loads of flour came in, but 100 wagons came in yesterday, and there are now 459,000 puds in store, in addition to quantities estimated at 20,000 puds with the bakers and perhaps 100,000 puds with private consumers.See more

Sebastian Clare

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Pierre Gilliard

Alexander Palace, Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

On the 11th the situation suddenly became very critical and the most alarming news arrived without warning. The mob made its way into the centre of the town, and the troops, who had been called in the previous evening, were offering but slight resistance. See more

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Maurice Paleologue

10, Kutuzov embankment, Petrograd, Russian Empire

General Khabalov, Military Governor of Petrograd, has had the city placarded with the following warning this morning:

"All meetings or gatherings are forbidden. I notify the civil population that I have given the troops fresh authority to use their arms and stop at nothing to maintain order."

Genie Petrovits Nordskog, Ovidiu Mirică

Comment

The New York Times

PETROGRAD, MARCH 10. Petrograd in distress. A Reuter dispatch says that the Russian government has called a special conference to meet immediately deal with the food problem in the Russian capital, which is said extremity urgent. The members of the conference will include the Premier, the Ministers of War, Communications, Commerce and Agriculture, the Mayor of Petrograd and representatives of the Duma, the Council of the Empire, and the Zemstvo assemblies.

Letitia Rydjeski

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Mikhail Rodzianko Nicholas II

Mogilev, Stavka, Russian Empire

Most humbly I report to your Majesty, that the popular disturbances which have begun in Petrograd are assuming a serious character and threatening proportions. The causes are a shortage of baked bread and an insufficient supply of flour, which are giving rise to panic, but most of all a complete lack of confidence in the leadership, which is incapable of leading the nation out of this difficult situation. In such circumstances there will undoubtedly be an explosion of events, which may be possible to contain temporarily at the price of shedding the blood of innocent citizens, but which it will be impossible to control if they persist. See more

Letitia Rydjeski, Sebastian Clare and 1 other

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10 March

The Empress: “It is a campaign of hooliganism. Little boys and girls running about and shouting.”

Akhmatova is unable to find a horse-cab thanks to the demonstrators

“There are disturbances in the city. The troops refuse to shoot at the people.”

Alexandra Feodorovna Nicholas II

Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

My precious, darling treasure! The strikes and disturbances in the city are beyond provocative. It is a campaign of hooliganism – little boys and girls running about shouting they have no bread, simply in order to create excitement; workers stopping others from doing their work. If the weather were very cold, they would all probably be sitting at home. But it will all pass and settle down, as long as the Duma behaves itself.

Sebastian Clare, Jonathan Chaney and 2 others

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Sergey Khabalov

Mogilev, Stavka, Russian Empire

Around 200 workers were on strike and used force to prevent others from working. The workers prevented the tram from moving. At midday some of the workers forced their way onto Nevskiy, but were dispersed. Violent actions manifested themselves in the shattering of windows in a number of shops and trams. The troops did not use their weapons; four police officers were left with non-threatening injuries.

Comment

Vsevolod Meyerhold

Alexandrinsky Theatre, Petrograd, Russian Empire

premiere of the play "Masquerade"

Oleg Savitskii, Isabella Bottino

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Nicholas II

Mogilev, Russian Empire

I hope Khabalov is able to put a swift stop to these disturbances on the streets. Protopopov should give him clear and precise instructions. I kiss you all affectionately.

Lisa May Davidson

1 Comment

2 Share

Zinaida Gippius

Sergievskaya 83, Petrograd, Russian Empire

Actually, it seems that things are not settling down but heating up, slowly but surely. It’s interesting that the government is showing no obvious signs of life. It is difficult to tell where the government is, or who is even in charge. This is something new. It’s as if the Prime Minister (I can’t even remember for the moment who it is) has died at home in his apartment.

Sebastian Clare, Natalia Lapotko and 2 others

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25 Share

Amedeo Modigliani

paints “Girl in a Green Blouse”

Emil Gudo's square, 13, Paris, France

Светлана Павликова, Oleg Savitskii

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1 Share

Elizaveta Naryshkina

Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

There are riots in the city. The troops refuse to shoot the masses. The tsarina and the children have fallen ill with measles.

Oleg Savitskii

1 Comment

Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich

Kiev, Russian Empire

I telegraphed Nicky and put himself at his complete disposal. At the same time, I called my brother Sergei Mikhailovich on the phone. His voice sounded very worried:

“The situation in Petrograd is getting worse and worse,” he nervously said. “Street clashes continue, and you can expect the troops to go over to the rebels at any moment."

“But what about cavalry guard? Can you also not rely on them?"

“There’s something weird and mysterious about way the order of their dispatch to St. Petersburg was canceled. The cavalry guard didn’t think to quit the front."

Sebastian Clare, Lori Stuart

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Nadezhda Udaltsova

82 apartment, 65, Smolenskiy blvd, Moscow, Russian Empire

I saw Rodchenko today. He’s just the person with whom I can work.

Rafael Padial, Melina Revuelta and 1 other

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Alexander Balk

Petrograd, Russian Empire

The situation is considered threatening; General Khabalov has declared his intention to take up arms tomorrow.

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Mathilde Kschessinska

Kshessinska mansion, Petrograd, Russian Empire

I went quite normally to the Alexandre Theatre, where Youriev's twenty-fifth stage anniversary was being celebrated with Lermontov's The Masquerade, produced by Meierhold. The audience was tense and nervous. There was a sound of firing in some quarters. But I was able to return without trouble.

Natalia Lapotko, Alexandra Shtein and 2 others

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Anna Akhmatova

Sreznevskikh's ap., 9, Botkinskaya, Petrograd, Russian Empire

I spent the day as follows: in the morning I went to the embroiderer’s to inquire concerning a new dress. Then I wanted to take a cab home. The first cabbie I saw was an old man, who answered: “sorry, madam, I’m not going there…. There’s gunfire on the bridge”.

Letitia Rydjeski, Marina Daiman and 6 others

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Maurice Paleologue

10, Kutuzov embankment, Petrograd, Russian Empire

The hair-raising problem of food supplies has been investigated to-night by an "Extraordinary Council," which was attended by all the ministers (except the Minister of the Interior), the President of the Council of Empire, the President of the Duma and the Mayor of Petrograd. Protopopov did not condescend to take part in the conference; he was no doubt communing with the ghost of Rasputin.See more

Sebastian Clare, Oleg Savitskii

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Anna Vyrubova

Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

Half-asleep I saw my parents and my sister and remember overhearing their conversations with Her Majesty about some kind of riots.

Sebastian Clare, Lori Stuart and 1 other

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09 March

A Russian revolutionary freezes in Switzerland

The Petrograd city governor describes the situation in the city

The Grand Duchess Anastasia cares for her sick sisters and writes to her father

Maxim Gorky

Petrograd, Russian Empire

I would like to give you some good news, but there is none of it!

Kenneth Whyte, Nick Short and 7 others

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Zinaida Gippius

Sergievskaya 83, Petrograd, Russian Empire

The riots are continuing. But, for the time being, they are innocent enough. Young Cossacks are riding up and down Nevsky Prospect.

Brooke McMurray, Iain Jessup and 1 other

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Nicolas Chkheidze

Tauride Palace, Petrograd, Russian Empire

Disregard of streets is a feature of government and many among us. But the street has already spoken, gentlemen, and this street is now to be reckoned with.

Brooke McMurray, Simon Pirani and 2 others

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Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich

Gatchina, Russian Empire

At 12 o'clock I had breakfast, and at 1 o'clock I rode horseback to the Tsarsko-Slavic forest, where they hunted a wolf. The circle was behind the railway, to the left of the road, in the same place where they had hunted before. The wolf broke through the people, they tried to cover it, but despite the fact that riders were cathing the wolf up, they could not cover it because it did not stop.

Lori Stuart

1 Comment

Julius Martov

Zurich, Switzerland

It’s winter again here, it’s snowed and it’s very cold: I’ve fallen ill (a cold) and must stock up on menthol.

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Alexander Balk

Petrograd, Russian Empire

Most factories have gone on strike since the morning. A thick crowd is filling up Nevskiy. Crowds are moving and protests have begun.

Leaders of the left have already made a decision to take advantage of tomorrow’s crowds, should these gather, to agitate. If the crowds will be supportive, rioting is to be initiated, and, depending on the circumstances, weapons might be used. I reported this to General Khabalov. The military leadership has so far decided to refrain from using weaponry.

Jess Zilla

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Claude Debussy

attended a charity concert in support of musicians.

Paris, France

Smiljana Antonijević

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Pablo Picasso with Jean Cocteau

Grand - Hotel "Vesuvio" 45, Partenope street, Naples, Italy

Heading from Rome to Naples.

Chiara Zavarka

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Alexandra Feodorovna Nicholas II

Alexander Palace, Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

My precious! Yesterday there were disturbances on Vasilievsky Island and on Nevsky Prospect, because the poor tried to storm the baker’s shops.

May God bless you and keep you. I send countless kisses from your warmly devoted and passionately loving dear old Wifey.

Chiara Zavarka, Jess Zilla and 1 other

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Alexander Spiridovich

Petrograd, Russian Empire

They sing revolutionary songs. Chants of “Down with the government!”, “Long live the republic”, “Down with war!” can be heard. A police patrol lunges towards the crowd, it is met with a barrage of ice chunks. The cossacks stay idle, merely passing through the crowd on foot, some of them laughing. The crowd is extatric and chants “hooray!”, the cossacs meet the chants with nods and bows. The police are infuriated. One phase was passed around among groups of dispersing workers: “the cossacks support us, the cossacks support the people!”…

Taco Tichelaar, Rafael Padial and 6 others

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Sergey Prokofiev

Apartment house, 122, Fontanka embankment, Petrograd, Russian Empire

Today I went to a concert at the Marinskii, but the theatre was two thirds empty. Apparently there'd been a deliberate shooting on Nevsky and music lovers decided not make the journey along Nevskii to the concert.

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Grand Duchess Anastasia Nicholas II

Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

My darling Papa, dearest one. I am sitting in a darkened room with Olga and Tatyana. They send you big kisses, they are lying down and not doing anything in particular. They both have a slight temperature. I have not been in to see Alexei, as he was still asleep. Maria and I are still well, and sitting with everybody in turn. I wonder when I will fall ill and which of us will fall ill first - myself or Maria?!

I love you terribly and send you big hugs and kisses! God bless you.

Lori Stuart

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Franklin D. Roosevelt

White House statement that Wilson has power to arm and inference that he will use it. J. D. Josephus Daniels says that he will use it by Monday. Why doesn’t President say so without equivocation?

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Nicholas II Alexandra Feodorovna

Mogilev, Stavka, Russian Empire

My brain is able to rest here; there are no ministers or troublesome questions requiring deliberation. I feel this is good for me, but only for my brain. My heart suffers from our separation. I hate to be separated, particularly now, at this time! I shall not be away for long. I shall do all I can sort out matters here, and then I shall have done my duty.

Lori Stuart

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Maurice Paleologue

10, Kutuzov embankment, Petrograd, Russian Empire

This morning the excitement in industrial circles took a violent form. Many bakeries were looted, especially in the Viborg Quarter and Vassili-Ostrov. At several points the Cossacks charged the crowd and killed a number of workmen.

Lori Stuart

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Free Trader-Journal

Huge Animal Fights With Regiment on French Front

Petrograd. Fighting with the Russian army In France is a huge bear from the Caucasian mountains, who seems to enjoy his sojourn on the French front fully as much as his masters enjoy theirs. He Is the mascot of one of the Russian regiments that were transported halfway round the world from the Russia to the French front to show the solidarity of the allies. When the time comes for the bear’s regiment to go to the front line treaties for its six days of duty the bear goes along. He keeps the all night vigils with the sentries, and as there is nothing else to eat but the regular rations brought up from the rear he permits the soldiers to divide their share with him.

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08 March

Something is beginning, something bad!

The affectionate correspondence of the Tsar and Tsaritsa

Prokofiev describes the beginning of demonstrations in Petrograd

Vladimir Lenin Inessa Armand

Zurich, Switzerland

Dear Friend,

I haven’t heard from you for a long time.

I suppose you don’t feel like working on the translation of the leaflet into English? In that case, drop it: I’ll send it as it is to Paris, maybe they’ll find some Englishman there.

All the very best,

Yours,

Lenin

Chiara Zavarka, Dale Urie and 1 other

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Amedeo Modigliani

paints "Portrait of a Woman in a Black Tie"

Emil Gudo's square, 13, Paris, France

Sara Lomasz Flesch, Gloria V Nijensohn Stokol and 5 others

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Alexandre Benois

38, 1st line of Vasilyevsky Island, Petrograd, Russian Empire

Something is awry! Large-scale rioting happened on the Vyborg side due to bread difficulties (it is surprising that this has not happened earlier!).

Paul Rou, Julio Mariutti and 1 other

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Zinaida Gippius

Sergievskaya 83, Petrograd, Russian Empire

There have been disturbances today. Of course, nobody knows anything for sure. Tramcars have been stopped in some places (and smashed). it seems a policeman was killed. If everything calms down again tomorrow and we start to put up with things once again - in typical Russian fashion, dully, unthinkingly and silently - then it will not make the slightest bit of difference in the future.

We rioted without dignity and will succumb without dignity. But the attempts to “thwart” us will be just as feeble as our rioting. Which of these two feeble forces will be victorious?

My poor country. Come to your senses!

Letitia Rydjeski, Brooke McMurray and 4 others

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Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin

has finished painting "Noon"

Letitia Rydjeski, Sara Lomasz Flesch and 6 others

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Vasily Kravkov

7th Siberian army corps

Some kind of curse seems to hang over the Russian soul: as soon as one of our number is given authority, he immediately imagines himself to be a “servant of the Tsar”, and in such a way feels justified in making his presence felt as strongly as possible by those under him. What is worse, this tendency is observed even among highly educated individuals in the pedagogical and religious communities. This passion for lording it over our inferiors is sadistic!

Nell Rapport, Dale Urie

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Sergey Prokofiev

Apartment house, 122, Fontanka embankment, Petrograd, Russian Empire

I saw a crowd gathering on the Anichkov Bridge. Judging by their short coats and heavy boots they seemed to be mainly workers.

A woman with a very stupid expression, completely failing to understand the general atmosphere, called on the crowd to “beat the yids”. See more

Letitia Rydjeski, Rafael Padial and 3 others

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Sofia Tolstoy

Yasnaya Pol'yana, Tul'skaya guberniya, Russian Empire

Tanya had been in Tula and was in low spirits when she returned: there was talk of revolution, there was nothing to buy; no bread, no kerosene and shops were closing down.

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Alexandra Feodorovna

Alexander Palace, Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

Ah my love, how sad its without you – how lonely, how I yearn for your love and kisses, priceless treasure, think of you without end.

Lori Stuart

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George Buchanan

4, Dvortsovaya embankment, Petrograd, Russian Empire (British Embassy)

With the fatality that dogged his footsteps the Emperor, who had spent the months of January and February at Tsarskoe, feeling that he could no longer absent himself from Headquarters, had returned to Mohileff — more than twenty hours distant by train — on Thursday, March 8. Had he remained at Tsarskoe a few days longer, within reach of those who could have kept him accurately informed of the development of events in the capital, he would have been better able to appreciate the extreme gravity of the situation.

Nick Short, Nell Rapport and 4 others

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Mathilde Kschessinska

Kshessinska mansion, Petrograd, Russian Empire

Next day, while my housekeeper was checking the silver, glass and linen, as she always did after large parties, Vova burst in and told me that a huge crowd was pouring out of Great Dvorianskaia Street. This was the beginning of what everybody had been afraid of: street demonstrations.

Nell Rapport, Chiara Zavarka

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Alfred Knox

Petrograd, Russian Empire

I visited Guchkov at 6 p.m., driving through Cossack and police patrols on the Liteini, for the workmen are commencing to strike for want of food. Guchkov said that the blow the present disorgani- sation of transport was dealing the Russian cause was worse than any disaster in the war—worse than the defeats at Tannenberg or in Galicia. The causes are the stupidity and supineness of the present Government, and its con- tinuance in power will make it impossible for Russia to fight through a fourth winter. He had told M. Dumergue (the Chief of the French Delegation) that, with the present Government, he need not count on Russia helping to beat Germany. On February 7th it had been suddenly discovered that many railways had only two to five days’ supply of coal. The Ministers of Ways, Rukhlov and Trepov, had bargained with the coal owners for a year and seven months with out making any contract. They depended on requisitions, which brought them, of course, the worst coal, to the detriment of the engines. See more

Letitia Rydjeski

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Pierre Gilliard

Alexander Palace, Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

It was only after long hesitation that the Czar, in his anxiety, had decided on March 8th, 1917, to leave Tsarskoiie-Selo and go to G.H.Q.

His departure was a great blow to the Czarina, for to the fears aroused in her breast by the political situation had been added her anxiety about Alexis Nicolaievitch. The Czarevitch had been in bed with measles for several days, and his condition had been aggravated by various complications. To crown everything, three of the Grand-Duchesses had also been taken ill, and there was no one but Marie Nicolaievna to help the mother.

Nell Rapport, Lori Stuart

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Nicholas II Alexandra Feodorovna

Mogilev, Stavka, Russian Empire

It did me good, in my solitude, after two months being together, it not to hear your sweet voice, without to be comforted by those lines of tender love!

What you write about being firm – the master – is perfectly true. I do not forget it – be sure of that, but I need not bellow at people right & left every moment. A quiet sharp remark or answer is enough very often to put the one or the other into his place.

Now, Lovy–mine, it is late. Good night, God bless your slumber, sleep well without the animal-warmth.

Nell Rapport

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Maurice Paleologue

10, Kutuzov embankment, Petrograd, Russian Empire

There has been great agitation in Petrograd all day. Processions have been parading the main streets. At several points the mob shouted for "Bread and peace!" At others it sang the Working Man's Marseillaise. In the Nevsky Prospekt there have been slight disorders. In spite of the fact that revolution is in the air in his capital, the Emperor, who has spent the last two months at Tsarskoïe-Selo, left for General Headquarters this evening.

Nell Rapport, Rafael Dupim and 1 other

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Norwich Bulletin

James W. Paige, inventor of "one of the most remarkable pieces of mechanism ever put together," is in the poorhouse at Oak Forest. Twenty - five years ago he was owner of the Paige Compositor plant here, for the making of typesetting machines. Upward of $2,000,000 was Invested in the plant. Paige was reputed to be worth $1,500,000 himself. Mark Twain was one of the investors. In the panic of 1893 Paige lost his money. His great invention, although a mechanical marvel, proved impractical, and needed further development, which never came. Mark Twain, who lost a large sum by the smash, went on a lecture tour around the world In order to pay his debts. Mr. Paige "disappeared."

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07 March

“A small gold fir tree, with branches shimmering with little diamonds”: Russia’s first ballerina is living a life of luxury.

“Poor Russia. For goodness sake, come to your senses!”

The Empress writes to Nicholas II: “Be strong, show them a firm hand. That is what the Russians need.”

Nicholas II

In the train

Read, packed. Misha was there for lunch. Said goodbye to all my dear family and went with Alix to Znamenia, and from there to the station. At 2 o'clock left for the Stavka. The day was sunny and frosty. Read, felt bored and rested.

Vera Shattock, Orhan Gafarlı

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Mathilde Kschessinska

Kshessinska mansion, Petrograd, Russian Empire

I gave a dinner party for twenty-four friends, for which I brought out my finest Limoges service, my Danish service for the fish, and gilt cutlery copied from two sets belonging to Catherine the Great which could be seen at the Hermitage.See more

Letitia Rydjeski

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Alfred Knox

Petrograd, Russian Empire

I saw Byelyaev at 9.45 p.m. and found him much depressed. He said he would do all that was possible to hasten the conveyance of stores from Romanov, and he begged me to avoid alarming people in England into possible refusal to continue the despatch of munitions to the port. See more

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Zinaida Gippius

Sergievskaya 83, Petrograd, Russian Empire

I know what will happen…but I have not the courage to wait, because...well in any case too much has been said about this matter. Silence. Poor Russia. For goodness sake, come to your senses!

Kenneth Whyte

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Felix Dzerzhinsky Sofia Dzerzhinskaya

Butyrkaya prison, Moscow, Russian Empire

I am still in solitary confinement with the same companion, and fairly content on the whole. I work at my machine for five hours every day. You don’t need to send me anything, and in any case, almost everything is forbidden except pork fat, sugar and bread, but we have all that here anyway. I am very grateful for the chocolate, grapes and sweets that Yasik wants to send me; I hope that at some time in the future we will eat them together.

Rafael Padial, Carlos Mejía Alvites and 1 other

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Edvard Munch

paints “Portrait of Thorvald Lochen”

Ekely estate, Norway

Bernhard Living, Nell Rapport

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Romola Nijinsky

Madrid, Spain

It seems I had forgotten one drawback to our recent trip, until I opened the closet one day and discovered it was full of mice. I burst into tears when I saw what they did to my dresses. See more

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Maxim Gorky Ivan Bunin

23, Kronversky ave., Petrograd, Russian Empire

Dear friend! I’ve learnt that you are interested in our venture- to publish a range of biographies for children- and that you wish to undertake more than just the biography of Cervantes. If you limited yourself to just that, goodness only knows!

Nell Rapport

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Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich

Fountain house, 53, Liteynyy avenue, Petrograd, Russian Empire

I am immensely tired.

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Alexandra Feodorovna Nicholas II

Alexander Palace, Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

It seems as the things were taking a better turn -- only, my Love, be firm, show the Master hand, it's that what the Russians need. Love and kindnesses you have never failed to show - now let them feel your fist at times. They ask for it themselves - how many have told me - 'we want to feel the whip' - it's strange but such is the Slave nature, great firmness, hardness even - and warm love. See more

Sara Lomasz Flesch, Lisa May Davidson

2 Comment

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Nicholas II Alexandra Feodorovna

Bologoye, Tver Oblast, Russian Empire

We eat well. With you all in spirit. It is lonely and boring here. So very grateful for the letter. Embrace you all. Sleep well.

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06 March

Zweig’s thoughts on Russian literature

How the three-hundred-year anniversary of the Romanov dynasty was celebrated

“It seemed to me that his Majesty has lost weight and is looking older.”

Maurice Paleologue

10, Kutuzov embankment, Petrograd, Russian Empire

Petrograd is short of bread and wood, and the public is suffering want.

At a bakery on the Liteïny this morning I was struck by the sinister expression on the faces of the poor folk who were lined up in a queue, most of whom had spent the whole night there. See more

Taco Tichelaar, Kenneth Whyte and 3 others

1 Comment

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Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin

has finished painting "Morning"

Miroslav Tomek, Gloria V Nijensohn Stokol and 2 others

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Alfred Knox

On Saturday morning, M. Diamandi (the Rumanian Minister) telephoned that he wanted to see me. I went to him at 3p.m. I am sorry for him,for he is a gentleman, honest and a patriot, and he feels his position acutely, for he was largely instrumental in bringing his country into the war, that has proved so disastrous for it, while its intervention has so far brought nothing but inconvenience to the Entente. He talked for one and a half hours. First he pointed out See more

Ništa Niko

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Elizaveta Naryshkina

Alexander Palace, Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

At two I set off to the Alexandrov Palace for the reception. His Majesty departs tomorrow. I was preparing to accompany him, but the Empress told me this would not be necessary and brought him to me herself to say goodbye. He was very amiable and kind. It seemed to me that his Majesty has lost weight and is looking older.

Ništa Niko, Lisa May Davidson and 2 others

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Alexander Blok

The 13th engineering and construction squad of the Union of Zemstvos and Towns, Pinsk marshes, Minsk guberniya, Russian Empire

This wretched feeling I have comes first and foremost from the apathy I’ve fallen into. I want to finally get around to living, not just existing. I want to do something worthwhile…. Writing is difficult, because everyone around me is screaming in my ear, 20 people are hammering in nails, playing chess, speaking over the telephone, chopping wood, playing on the mandolin – and all at the same time!

Elizabeth Owen

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4 years ago

Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna

recalls the celebrations for the three-hundred-year anniversary of the Romanov dynasty (6-8 March 1913):

Petrograd, Russian Empire

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In the People's House opened on the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty. St. Petersburg, Russian Empire, 1913

There was such glitter and such splendour, but everything seemed false and laboured. Aliki was quite worn out and almost fainted during the ball. As I looked at all the festive illuminations, and attended one ball after another I had the strange feeling that, although we were celebrating in the same way as we had for centuries, some new and terrible circumstances were appearing around us, due to forces beyond our control.

Nell Rapport, Andy House and 1 other

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Stefan Zweig

8, Kohgasse, Vienne, Austria

Alexander Pushkin, the father of Russian literature is of noble blood. Leo Tolstoy is the son of the old aristocratic family. Turgenev, a landowner. Dostoevsky, a bureaucrat’s son. But all of them are nobles nonetheless. For literature, art, and all kinds of creative works in the Russian empire in the 19th century empire have belonged to the nobility. See more

Gloria V Nijensohn Stokol, Bernhard Living and 4 others

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Vasily Shulgin

If someone wants to jump into a pit, you should exert all your efforts to hold him back. If, however, it becomes clear that he is determined to jump, you should push him, in the hope that just maybe your extra efforts will carry him over to the other side.

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05 March

The Tsar’s brother takes a liking to a balalaika player

The Emperor is unhappy at the fact that the British ambassador is interfering in domestic politics

One of the Empress’s ladies-in-waiting: “We all seem out of sorts. What fun it would be to have some champagne!”

Rurik Ivnev

Field of Mars, Petrograd, Russian Empire

I cannot and will not believe that in this world, with all its wealth, with all our intelligence and with so many kind hearts, we cannot arrange our affairs in such a way that half-starving (truthfully starving!) Chinese were not forced to wander the streets in summer clothes selling ridiculous and entirely unwanted paper flowers.

Heavens above! What can possibly stand in our way?

Letitia Rydjeski, Matt Kosko and 6 others

1 Comment

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Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich

Gatchina, Russian Empire

After lunch someone picked up a balalaika and the choir of the 1st Railway Regiment of His Majesty burst into song – they sang and played remarkably well.

Skander Dar El Jadid, Ništa Niko and 2 others

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Lili Dehn

Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

One evening, about a fortnight before the Revolution, when I was sitting in my usual place, listening to the Roumanian orchestra, I noticed that the Empress seemed unusually sad. So I ventured to bend forward and whisper, anxiously:

- Oh, Madame, why are You so sad tonight ? - The Empress turned and looked at me: - Why am I sad, Lili? I can't really say, but the music depresses Me. I think my heart is broken.

The same evening, Anna childishly observed:

- We all seem out of sorts. What fun it would be to have some champagne!

The Empress was angry at the suggestion:

- No - she said, - the Emperor hates wine, he can't bear women to drink wine — but what matter his likes or his dislikes, when people will have it that he's a drunkard himself?

Ništa Niko

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Anna Vyrubova

Alexander Palace, Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich paid a visit to the Emperor and set about convincing him that the army was growing increasingly discontented at his prolonged absence from the Stavka (General Headquarters of the High Command). Following this conversation, the Emperor decided to take off, regarding discontent in the army as a sufficiently serious reason to hasten to the Stavka; at the same time, however, he and the Empress learned of further developments that outraged and disturbed them deeply.

The Emperor informed me that he’d been told by a trustworthy source that the British ambassador, Sir George Buchanan, was playing an active role in the intrigues against Their Majesties, and that he and the Grand Dukes were all but holding meetings on the subject at the embassy. The Emperor spoke of his intention to send a telegram to King George and ask him to forbid the British ambassador from interfering in the domestic politics of Russia; he perceived in all this a desire on the part of Britain to foment revolution in our country, and thereby to leave it in a weaker position once we get to peace negotiations. But as for requesting that Buchanan be recalled, this, in His Majesty’s words, “would be too severe a move”.

Nell Rapport, Ništa Niko and 4 others

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Sofia Tolstoy

Yasnaya Pol'yana, Tul'skaya guberniya, Russian Empire

Tania loudly read "Childhood", by Leo Tolstoy, to us. What a feeling of freshness! But there were some weaker moments.

Ništa Niko, Georgiana Ciobanu and 1 other

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Mikhail Larionov

publishes his book Radiantismo

Rome, Italy

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Mikhail Lavrionov. "Blue Rayonism". 1915

It is almost like a mirage appearing in the scorched air of the desert, painting exotic cities, lakes and oases in the sky: Rayonism blurs those lines which exist between the painted canvas and nature.

Sara Lomasz Flesch, Gloria V Nijensohn Stokol and 4 others

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Sergei Yesenin

Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

Thes past few days I have lost my wits and shaved my head, my scalp has already dried up completely/my scalp is now extremely dry. I’ll fly a little.

Bernhard Living, Ništa Niko and 2 others

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04 March

A tender letter to the wife of the future orchestrator of the Red Terror

One of the Empress’s ladies-in-waiting: “Not far from the Winter Palace, I personally saw a slogan that read ‘Down with the Tsar!’”

Choreographer Léonide Massine talks about his work with Picasso and Cocteau

Felix Dzerzhinsky

Butyrskaya prison, Moscow, Russian Empire

My dearest Zosya,

Here, in prison I can’t keep a postcard even from our young son. I was hoping they would give me at least one day to look at it. Perhaps even more. I have Yasik’s postcard before me, written by him, and his words, thoughts, and feelings make me smile. How happy I am with you, my dear, I would release bubbles in the air, so that they, colorful and beautiful, floated slowly, and we would follow them, with our heads craned and blowing so they didn’t fall.

And I think when you grow up, and you'll be big and strong, we will teach ourselves how to fly a plane. We’ll fly like birds, to the high mountains, to the clouds in the sky, and the towns and villages, fields and forests, valleys and rivers, lakes and seas—the whole beautiful world—will be below us. And the sun will be above us, and we'll fly. My Yasik, don’t worry that I'm no longer with you. It can’t be otherwise. I love you, my sweetheart. You are my joy though I can only see you in my thoughts and dreams. You’re my entire happiness. Be good, kind, cheerful and healthy. Always be happy for mommy, me, and the people so that when you grow up, work, and enjoy your work and please others, and be an example to them. I kiss you and hug tightly, my sonny boy.

Ništa Niko, Georgiana Ciobanu and 2 others

1 Comment

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Sophie Buxhoeveden

Winter palace, St. Petersburg, Russian Empire

Not far from the Winter Palace, scrawled on the wall of the Staff Headquarters, I personally saw a slogan that read ‘Down with the Tsar!’ It was erased – only to reappear the next morning. When my carriage got caught in a traffic block, a passerby deliberately spat through the open window: no one was even attempting to camouflage their hostility now.

Lisa May Davidson

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Amedeo Modigliani

Paints "Reclining Nude"

Emil Gudo's square, 13, Paris, France

Sara Lomasz Flesch, Gloria V Nijensohn Stokol and 2 others

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Leonide Massine

Rome, Italy

It’s difficult to convey the excitement of working with artists like Picasso and Cocteau. Every time we met in the Piazza Venezia in Rome to exchange ideas, sparks would fly across the room. Any innovation – sound effects, Cubist-style costumes, megaphones – would engender a fresh new chain of ideas. It seemed to me that Cocteau’s indefatigable imagination served to stimulate the complex artistic vision of Picasso.

Gloria V Nijensohn Stokol, Ništa Niko and 1 other

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Olga Rozanova Mikhail Matushin

ap. 38, 10, Sadovo-karetnaya street, Moscow, Russian Empire

My most esteemed Mikhail Vasilyevich!

The art collective Supremus is soon to begin publishing a journal of the same name. It will be periodical and make no pretences at impartiality. Its programme is to be Suprematism in paintings, sculpture, architecture, music, new theatre e.t.c. Its content will be articles, news, letters, aphorisms, poems, reproductions of Suprematist paintings and craftworks, articles in fiction and non-fiction e.t.c.

Aware of your sympathies for our movement, the art collective Supremus invites your participation in the journal and, should you be interested, invites you to send at your first possible convenience any articles on art, criticism or other related fields which you have currently written and ready for publication. You have, I believe, previously heard from Kazimir Severinovich concerning our project and the character of the proposed journal.

I have now moved to Moscow where I am considering establishing myself on a more permanent footing. Contributors to the journal will include members of the Supremus collective such as Udaltsova, Popova, Klyun, Menkov, Pestel, Arkhipenko, Davydova, Rozanova and others. Malevich is to be editor. We are to have poems from Kruchenykh, Alyargov and others.

With respect, Olga Rozanova

Bernhard Living

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03 March

The strike at the Putilov plant

“The French couldn’t care less what’s going on inside the country – provided Russia’s fighting well”

Modigliani finishes a new painting

Maurice Paleologue

10, Kutuzov embankment, Petrograd, Russian Empire

I have just been told of a long conversation which took place recently between the Empress and Monsignor Theophanes, the Bishop of Viatka. This prelate is a creature of Rasputin, but the way he spoke to his sovereign shows that he has a sensible and independent mind.

The Tsarina first asked him about the attitude of his flock towards the war. Monsignor Theophanes replied that the spirit of patriotism had not waned in his diocese which lies west of the Urals: of course the public was suffering from so long a trial; there was grumbling and criticism, but men were willing to put up with many more losses and much more privation in the cause of victory. He could reassure the Empress on that point. But in other respects he had much to worry and grieve him; he had observed that the demoralization of the people was making alarming progress every day. The men who returned from the army, sick, wounded, or on leave, were giving utterance to scandalous opinions; they openly professed unbelief and atheism and did not even shrink from blasphemy and sacrilege. Anyone could see at once that they had been in touch with intellectuals and Jews.

The cinemas, which had now spread to every little provincial town, were now another cause of degeneration. Melodramatic adventures and scenes of robbery and murder were too heady for simple souls such as moujiks:they fired their imaginations and turned their heads. It was thus that the bishop accounted for the unwonted number of sensational crimes of violence which have been recorded in recent months not only in the diocese of Viatka but the neighbouring dioceses of Ekaterinburg, Tobolsk, Perm and Samara. In support of his statements, he showed the Empress photographs of looted shops, sacked houses and mutilated corpses, all of them obviously showing the handiwork of audacious criminality. He, then castigated a wholly modern vice---morphia-taking---of which the masses in Russia had not even heard until quite recently. The evil had come from all the military hospitals with which the country is dotted.

Many doctors and chemists had got into the habit of taking morphia; through them the use of the drug had spread among officers, officials, engineers and students. Before long the hospital attendants had followed their examples, and their case was far more pernicious because they had made men of the people their companions in debauchery. When they did not take morphia themselves they sold it to others; everyone in Viatka knew the cabarets where this trade was carried on. The police had good reasons for shutting their eyes to it ...

Monsignor Theophanes ended thus:

"The wretched condition to which the sviat chenik isreduced, as things are now, compels him to resort to a scandalous sort of trading which deprives him of all prestige and dignity. I anticipate great disasters to our holy church unless its supreme guardian, our revered and pious Tsar, reforms it as soon as possible..."

Brooke McMurray, Ge Hailun and 3 others

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Rurik Ivnev

Kamennoostrovskiy avenue, Petrograd, Russian Empire

Some girl on the tram accidentally bumped into me. I was in a black mood and got absolutely enraged for some reason. Suddenly, though, I noticed that the girl’s sleeve was stained with something white, and all my anger melted away at once, with nothing less than pity taking its place. (The little stain on her sleeve struck me as poignant – I was moved by the thought that her folks hadn’t got it out for her at home, etc.)

Andre Badenhorst, Maria V. Zolotukhina and 5 others

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Amedeo Modigliani

works on the painting "Blonde Nude"

Emil Gudo's square, 13, Paris, France

Gloria V Nijensohn Stokol, Nell Rapport and 2 others

Comment

Alexandra Feodorovna

Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

We went in a closed car with Tatiana, Anastasia and Anya Vyrubova to Alexandrovskii street and back again.

Nell Rapport

Comment

Alexey Vasilyev

situation in Petrograd

Petrograd, Russian Empire

A strike has begun in the factory in Putilov.

Matt Kosko, Nell Rapport and 1 other

2 Comment

1 Share

Zinaida Gippius

Petrograd, Russian Empire

The embassies are preoccupied exclusively with the war. The French couldn’t care less what’s going on inside the country – provided Russia’s fighting well; and they keep harassing us for news from the front. They were placated with the information that the current state of affairs is “reassuring”, and, as regards the Caucasus, even “magnificent”. A host of minor news stories and silly rumours are doing the rounds – they’re saying, for example, that “Wilhelm has been killed”. Now that’s a good one! Dima has learned much that is comic and tragic from right-wing dignitary circles.

Nell Rapport

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02 March

General Denikin complains that he cannot express himself explicitly in letters to his bride on account of censorship

Admire "A girl in yellow dress" by Modigliani

Freud is in a bad mood

Maurice Paleologue

10, Kutuzov embankment, Petrograd, Russian Empire

The effects of the stimulant which the Allied Conference provided to the Russian Government departments, or at any rate the departmental offices in Petrograd, has already worn off.

The artillery, war-factory and supply and transport departments have fallen back into their old casual and leisurely ways. Our officers and engineers are up against the same dilatory replies, the same dead weight of inactivity and indifference as before. It is enough to make one despair of everything. How I can sympathize with the spur of Ivan the Terrible and the cane of Peter the Great!

Nick Short, CM Lund and 1 other

Comment

Anton Denikin Xenia Chizh

Romanian front, 4 Army, 8 Corps

You’re unhappy with the fact that I’ve told you little about the situation here. That’s true enough. But, when it comes to most operations-related matters, matters of army life, or even matters regarding the country at large – matters that could be of interest to you – we must observe the injunction against disclosing military secrets. It’s for this reason that my letters are colourless and insipid. As to letters concerning completely neutral matters – matters of heart and soul – it’s none too pleasant when they’re rifled by the hand of a stranger, and not always a clean hand at that.

Ned Lewis, Ge Hailun

Comment

Nikolay Gumilyov

Okulovka, Novgorodskaya guberniya, Russian Empire

I have been assigned a new colonel, who is frightfully thoughtful and dedicated. He will make a pleasant companion and an even better worker.

Orhan Gafarlı

Comment

Amedeo Modigliani

paints "A girl in yellow dress"

Emil Gudo's square, 13, Paris, France

Carol Mann, Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal and 13 others

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Sigmund Freud

19, Berggasse, Vienna, Austro-Hungarian Empire

In the last weeks of cold and dark I stopped working in the evenings and am yet to return to it. Even now it is warmer the lack of light prevents me from finding any pleasure in my work and gives me enough justification to put it aside. My motivation for work has been dulled and supressed. This unbearable waiting to find out what is to come of this world of ours is too much for me. I am considering returning to work in the summer, at that time when one needs to struggle with one’s nature and force oneself to work in the city.

As for science, it seems of late there has been little of novelty and only slow progress.

Nick Short, Sara Lomasz Flesch and 8 others

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Lev Tikhomirov

Moscow, Russian Empire

Our poor hungry cat torments us with its cries for food. But we ourselves are in the same position.

Ge Hailun, Andre Badenhorst and 1 other

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Alexander Rodchenko

Moscow, Russian Empire

Art's value is determined by its capacity to stride unceasingly ahead. Its most treasured principles must be

novelty,

inventiveness,

inquisitiveness,

analysis,

rebellion

and daring.

Lev Manovich, Sam Burgess and 9 others

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01 March

The Empress is just about holding it together – but only thanks to barbiturates

Mata Hari is questioned by the French authorities

The Russian army is sent pornographic images from France

Alfred Knox

Petrograd, Russian Empire

The Ambassador left yesterday for Finland on a few days’ well-earned holiday. I had an interview with Byelyaev to give him a telegram from Sir Henry Wilson describing the disorganisation at Romanov. I put the case as strongly as I could, pointing out that it was disgraceful that our merchant seamen should risk their lives to deliver material at Romanov that the Russians made no attempt to remove. See more

Nick Short, Ge Hailun

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Franz Kafka

rents a two-room apartment on the Schoenborn Palace

Prague, Schönborn Palace

Nick Short, Sara Lomasz Flesch and 13 others

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5 Share

Zinaida Gippius

Sergievskaya 83, Petrograd, Russian Empire

It would be good to be blind and deaf. I would write poems “on love and immortality” (oh, if only I could!) and would cease being a “public figure”. What’s not public about genuinely good poetry? Those who take to writing should do with fewer opinions. Let the facts speak for themselves. Life will justify me.

Nick Short, Ge Hailun and 3 others

1 Comment

Elizaveta Naryshkina

Petrograd, Russian Empire

The Emperor thinks of nothing but his unlimited power, and works exclusively towards securing it. Alas, alas – he stands to lose far more in the future than what he should voluntarily relinquish now, thus securing his popularity and the love of his people.

Sebastian Clare, Nick Short and 4 others

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Lili Dehn

Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

The Empress was in very indifferent health. At an official reception following the departure of the Guards, the Empress told me that she hardly knew how to endure the strain. "Veronal is keeping me up. I'm literally saturated with it," she said.

Nick Short, Maria V. Zolotukhina and 1 other

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Mata Hari

at her interrogation

107, Faubourg Saint-Denis street, Paris, France

I was arrested on February 13. That’s all. In closing, I want to protest once again. I’ve never spied against France, nor have I even attempted to do so. I haven’t written a single letter I shouldn’t have written. I’ve never asked my friends for information which did not concern me, and I’ve never set foot anywhere I had no business to be. My original intention was to remain in France for no more than three months. My thoughts were only of my lover. Espionage couldn’t be further from my mind. Only circumstances decided otherwise.

Sebastian Clare, Ion Copoeru and 2 others

Comment

Andrei Snesarev

Tysmenytsia, Russian Empire

Pornographic pictures from France are going around.

Ništa Niko

Comment

28 February

The event everybody has been fearing and anticipating begins

Nikolai II “ I came down with a bad head cold straight away”

Kerensky: “The worst enemy of all is the system of irresponsible despotism”

Vyacheslav Ivanov

"Svetlana" resort, Sochi, Russian Empire

How important the South is to me! Every day I experience the festival and celebration of meeting with the sea. My heart is gladdened at the sight of every flower and every branch. Why, here we have had raspberries in December, and violets all year round; the mimosa has only just finished flowering, while the almonds and azaleas have just come out in flower, and now, all of a sudden, we are snowed under.

Comment

Maurice Paleologue

10, Kutuzova embankment, Petrograd, Russian Empire

From whatever point of view the Russian be regarded, whether political, intellectual, moral or religious, he always presents the paradoxicaI spectacle of extreme docility combined with a spirit of revolt which is very strongly marked.See more

Ion Copoeru

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El Paso herald

Russia, which Is under rather a sinister influence of the planets. will turn to the UnIted States for supplIes and Immense contracts are possIble, but warning Is gIven that graft and double- dealIng are IndIcated. ShIppIng troubles more serious than any that have been experienced are prophesied for England. Persons whose birthdate It Is have the augury of a successful year. Change and travel that wIll be lucky are probable, Children born on thIs day are lIkely to be bright and industrious. These subjects of Pisces usually prosper in whatever they undertake. Neptune Is theIr principal ruling planet.

Comment

Aleksandr Kerensky

speaks in the Duma

State Duma, Petrograd, Russian Empire

We have an enemy, gentlemen, that is much more dangerous than German agents, or betrayal and the treachery of isolated figures. It is our system, our system of unaccountable despotism, our system of medieval ideas about the state, ideas not of the state not as a modern European entity, but as a dominion, in which there is only the ruler and his slaves.

Taco Tichelaar, CM Lund and 2 others

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Sergey Makovsky

Razyezzhaya street, Petrograd

The melting snow on Ivanovskaya Street has turned into thick, dirty slush. As usual, I left the house about eleven and hailed a cab. Up drove up “Vanka”, an old man with a grey, matted beard who looks as if he is grown over with moss.See more

CM Lund

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Mikhail Rodzianko Nicholas II

32, Kirochnaya street, Petrograd, Russian Empire

Your Majesty, at the grave hour of when the country faced imminent death, your ancestor did not hesitate to entrust power to a person with the public’s confidence. The country was saved, and the name of the Emperor Alexander I was not only written in golden letters on the pages of Russian history, but also world history. With all the fervor we can muster, knowing that patriotic duty rests on us all, we beseech you, Your Majesty, to follow your noble’s ancestor’s example. The midnight hour is upon us, and we’re almost at the point where any appeal to the people’s reason will be too late and useless.

Peter Cantropus, Orhan Gafarlı

Comment

Nadezhda Udaltsova

Moscow, Russian Empire

Tomorrow riots are expected. Lord, may this all be over as soon as possible.

My salvation, my only salvation, is art. I'm still an amateur, but I will become professional. If there’s a magazine [willing to take me on], I’ll work a great deal for it.

Jernej Komac, Maria V. Zolotukhina

Comment

Nicholas II

Petrograd, Russian Empire

I’ve suddenly come down with a heavy cold.

Jernej Komac, Orhan Gafarlı

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Nikolay Punin

Petrograd, Russian Empire

Only someone – and this is truly rare – who is a creative type of person but also thinks, lives and realises himself predominantly in picturesque forms, i.e. with paint, in spatial form and relationships etc., only that person can, through the result of their creativity, yield a painting that is pure.

Maria V. Zolotukhina

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5 Share

27 February

Prokofiev tries to spend some time doing nothing, without success

“All Europe has gone off the rails and is careening into a ditch”

Opening of the last session of the last Duma of the Russian Empire

George Buchanan

4, Dvortsovaya embankment, Petrograd, Russian Empire (British Embassy)

On February 27 the Duma met, and the opening sitting, which I attended, passed off so quietly that I thought I could safely take a short holiday in Finland.

Taco Tichelaar, Nils Eivind Bjørnerud and 2 others

Comment

Alexander Blok

Parohonsk, Brest uyezd, Belorussia

The scent of spring is with us for two days already. We saw off the final festivities of Maslenitsa with military precision – while exercising remarkable restraint from drink, we ate more than would feed an entire division, rode on our horses for miles and miles around snow-covered forests and plains, and billeted ourselves wherever we chose.

Nick Short, Sara Lomasz Flesch and 3 others

Comment

Pierre Gilliard

Alexander Palace, Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

After his return from G.H.Q. the Czar had remained at Tsarskoie-Selo for the months of January and February. He felt that the political situation was more and more strained, but he had not yet lost all hope. The country was suffering: it was tired of the war and anxiously longing for peace. The opposition was growing from day to day, and the storm was threatening, but in spite of everything Nicholas II. hoped that patriotic feeling would carry the day against the pessimism which the trials and worries of the moment made general, and that no one would risk compromising the results of a war which had cost the nation so much by rash and imprudent action. His faith in his army was also unshaken. He knew that the material sent from France and England was arriving satisfactorily and would improve the conditions under which it had to fight. He had the greatest hopes of the new formations which had been created in the course of the winter. He was certain that his army would be ready in the spring to join in that great offensive of the Allies which would deal Germany her death-blow and thus save Russia: a few weeks more and victory would be his.

Nick Short

Comment

Harrisburg telegraph

A Russian Finn applying to a judge in Jersey City for final citizenship papers was asked:

- What is the Constitution of the United States?

- Rugged and healthy, I should say, - was the reply.

Whereupon the judge gave him five days in the jug to think it over, and canceled his preliminary papers. Considering the time our Constitution has spent on the sick list since the Democrats came into power, the penalty imposed on such ignorance was eminently proper.

Nils Eivind Bjørnerud, Matt Kosko and 1 other

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Sergey Prokofiev

Apartment house, 122, Fontanka embankment, Petrograd, Russian Empire

I decided to take a break from my own work and give myself some leisure time. I have no desire to become a slave to my own compositions. And recently I have quite worn myself out with my music, anyway. So I decided to make myself a free man for a while, not to compose anything, not to study anything and not to worry about anything.

But of course, I was unable to do without music, and soon I began to make some very good progress with the Violin Concerto; I drafted a scherzo (which will be a scherzo to end all scherzos) from existing notes, and wrote something for the final movement. The first part of the exposition was already complete last year. Alongside that, I had some ideas for about half a dozen “doggies” for Op. 22. So despite my rule of idleness, contrary to my expectations, something got written after all.

Nils Eivind Bjørnerud, Rafael Padial and 10 others

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Harrisburg telegraph

Hollidaysburg, Pa. Feb. 27

The will of Randolph McMullen, a wealthy farmer of Tyrone township, probated here today, directs that his estate be divided under the supervision of three trustees to be appointed by the Court, consisting of a Protestant clergyman, a Catholic priest and a Jewish rabbi. The reason expressed in the will for this unique request is that each trustee will watch the other and that every cent given to charity will be rightly applied. The estate, estimated to be worth $100,000, will lie divided among the poor of Blair, Huntingdon and Cambria counties.

Comment

Vladimir Korolenko

1, Malo-Sadovaya st., Poltava, Russian Empire

I have the feeling that not only Russia but all of Europe is spinning out of control. It is as if the forces of traditional inertia have suddenly ceased to function. It is as if the locomotive of Europe has gone off the rails, is careening into a ditch, has burst into flames, and yet, and herein is the joke, the engine-driver keeps shovelling in coal completely unawares.

Carol Mann, Ge Hailun and 1 other

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Maurice Tourneur

Premiere of the comedy "A Girl’s Folly"

Hollywood, USA

Nils Eivind Bjørnerud, Ge Hailun and 1 other

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Leonide Massine

Corso Umberto street, Rome, Italy

I have noticed that Picasso exhibits a surprising and rather unusual interest in a picture which hangs above the bed In Diaghilev’s apartments on the Via del Corso. The picture is a stolidly unremarkable and hackneyed piece of Italian 18th-century court art. “Pablo, what can it be in that picture that has piqued your interest so?” asked Diaghilev. “I’m studying it thoroughly”, answered Picasso, “in order to learn better how not to paint”.

Stephan Wintner, Maria V. Zolotukhina

Comment

Konstantin Somov

Petrograd, Russian Empire

The opening of the Duma, riots are “promised”.

Taco Tichelaar, Maria V. Zolotukhina

Comment

Elizaveta Naryshkina

Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

The people are becoming increasingly discontented. The situation is very threatening.

Jernej Komac, Maria V. Zolotukhina

Comment

Mikhail Rodzianko

32, Kirochnaya street, Petrograd, Russian Empire

The opening of the Duma went off quite peacefully. There were no workers in evidence, only a huge number of policemen posted in all the courtyards round about. In order not to fan the flames, or to make an already tense atmosphere worse, I restricted my address to comments about the army, which I praised for its uncomplaining fulfilment of its duty. Instead of more general political disputes, the session was devoted to the question of food supplies, as the agricultural minister, Rittich wanted to talk on the subject, and made a very long speech. See more

Taco Tichelaar, Nick Short and 1 other

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Vasily Kravkov

7th Siberian army corps

Soldiers are busy bartering with the local civilians: a piece of sugar gets them straw for bedding, and for one more they get not only a woman to lie in it with, but also venereal disease and syphilis.

Nils Eivind Bjørnerud, Sebastian Clare and 1 other

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26 February

Pasternak is seized with inspiration

Picasso on prostitutes in Rome

Trotsky: “Those most responsible for accelerating our plunge into war were, as always, the pacifists”

Anna Vyrubova

Alexander Palace, Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

All has been quiet on the front since mid-December, and the Tsar has felt his presence at headquarters to be superfluous. Each day he has received news over the direct line in the evening. The Tsar’s snooker room is full of military maps, so that no one, not the children, not the servants and not even the Empress, has dared enter for fear of disturbing them. The keys were last seen with the Tsar. The recent snowstorms and the danger they represent to the supply question in the capital have given Their Majesties great cause for concern.

Nick Short, Nathan Wood

Comment

Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich

Gatchina, Russian Empire

We went to the Imperial Porcelain Factory, where we bought a few things.

Taco Tichelaar, Nick Short and 3 others

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Boris Pasternak

Ushakovs' chemical plant, Tykhie Gory, Vyatsk guberniya, Russian Empire

Had some difficulties, and a terrible period of melancholy. On finally sitting down to get on with my previously started “prose”, I was struck by something I would now struggle to clearly describe, and driven by this strange mood I began to feverishly churn out something of real significance in verse. I say something, because I cannot for the life of me make out how exactly this new “Poem on One Dear” will work out.

Ge Hailun, Maria V. Zolotukhina

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Leon Trotsky

1/2

Pacifist demonstration in Washington. 1917

America was busily getting ready for war. As ever, the greatest help came from the pacifists. Their vulgar speeches about the advantages of peace as opposed to war invariably ended in a promise to support war if it became “necessary.” It is a well-known axiom that pacifists think of war as an enemy only in time of peace.

Rafael Padial, Patrick Brown and 6 others

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Pablo Picasso

Italy, Roma, Via del Babuino, 9, Hotel de Russie

In Rome of an evening whores ply their trade in automobiles - at walking pace - they accost their clients with smiles and gestures and stop the car to negotiate the price.

Jernej Komac, Ge Hailun

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15 Share

Vladimir Lenin Inessa Armand

Zurich, Switzerland

We have got to come out as strongly and bluntly as possible against the ridiculous pacifism of the French (achieving socialism without revolution, and so on) and the ridiculous belief in democracy.

Carol Mann, Rafael Padial and 6 others

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Nadezhda Udaltsova

82 apartment, 65, Smolenskiy blvd, Moscow, Russian Empire

We ran with Malevich and filed a transfer request for Moscow, but I don’t think it’s going to happen. It’s impossible to do anything alone but there’s no one else. Exter was sick. There’s some kind of emptiness and solitude, and we’re senselessly beating on the walls, and there’s no one there or left.

Nils Eivind Bjørnerud, Carol Mann and 3 others

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Vladimir Dzhunkovskiy

near Volno, Belorussia, Russian Empire

The most tragic incident occurred in the Kiev Grenadier Regiment, which I was part of not long ago. One of the regiment’s companies staged a mutiny. A bunch of scoundrels led by a volunteer, who managed to escape, snuck up to the dugout where the regiment commander and battalion commander sat, fired several shots through the window, followed by grenades. Mashkovskii, one of the officers, was killed on the spot and another four officers were wounded.

Jernej Komac

Comment

25 February

Luminaries of the Russian avant-garde perform folk songs

The Lenten festival of Maslenitsa is celebrated in Russia

Stravinsky is commissioned to conduct his Firebird in Rome and Milan

Olga Rozanova

ap. 38, 10, Sadovo-karetnaya street, Moscow, Russian Empire

I have learnt a few folk songs and sometimes we get together and give them a bash. While I would hardly call my life monotonous, I am certainly working a lot, so I often get tired and am not feeling at my best. The cold weather continues to bear heavily on us. I will probably stay in Moscow over the summer, as I need to continue with my work. While it will almost certainly be hot and uncomfortable in the city, I really want to earn some more money.

Matt Kosko, Rafael Padial and 2 others

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Vera Sudeikina

Ekaterina's canal, Petrograd, Russian Empire

In the evening we’ll have pancakes.

Jernej Komac, Milica Mesterovic and 1 other

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Alexandre Benois

scenery sketches "Mardi Gras in St. Petersburg" for the ballets "Petrushka"

Petrograd, Russian Empire

Ge Hailun, Maria V. Zolotukhina and 1 other

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Ernest C. Warde

The premiere of a drama based Oliver Goldsmith's novel, the "Vicar of Wakefield"

Hollywood, USA

Kleber Oliveira

Comment

Serge Diaghilev Igor Stravinsky

Rome, Italy

Would you like to conduct “The Firebird” and “Feu d’Artifice” at a charity concert to be held in Rome, Naples and Milan between the 9th and 26th of April? The Italian ambassador in Berne will be able to lend his assistance.

Rafael Padial, Maria V. Zolotukhina and 1 other

Comment

Julius Martov

Zurich, Switzerland

Plekhanov has published a most curious interview in Jesolo. In it he assures his readers that Russian peasant women are so patriotic that they refuse to become engaged to those who return from the front without glorious tales of heroism. And so it goes, on and on and in equally jingoistic style.

Sebastian Clare, Maria V. Zolotukhina

Comment

Leonid Andreyev

1, Moyka embankment, Petrograd, Russian Empire

Feeling rather despondent. Things at the newspaper are not so good, there is a lot of absurd editorial nonsense that would take too long to write about. Stupidity, too. This, together with the censorship, is making the paper very mediocre and childish. Too many sarcastic sketches. But we will continue to fight and not lose hope. I’m as stubborn as a mule in this sense: once I devote myself to something I don’t see anything else, and now, unless I am writing for Russkaya Volya or fighting with Russkaya Volya or talking about Russkaya Volya, I feel I have nothing to live for. It’s absurd!

Taco Tichelaar

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Ilya Ehrenburg

France

The Senegalese are getting on very well with the Russian soldiers. A shared child-like simplicity of spirit, naivety and kindness has brought them together. They spoke, as it were, over each other’s heads, not understanding a word and yet spending hours together communicating in smiles over bottles of beer. The good-natured Russians say: “don’t get hung up on his black skin. What kind of soul he’s got, that’s what you need to look at”.

Matt Kosko, Ge Hailun

Comment

Boris Pasternak Rosalia Pasternak

Ushakovs' chemical plant, Tykhie Gory, Vyatsk guberniya, Russian Empire

Dear, dear Mama, I received your card, dearest! Why are you sad? Don’t be! These two months will fly by, and we will see each other in May. I’m feeling sad too. For some reason, for a week now, my work has not been going well. I thought I would have something to bring by spring, to make you happy. But it seems not. I am afraid of such blocks, for which only I myself am to blame. Something inside seizes up and I get stuck. I hug you tight and send kisses to Pappa, Shura and the girls.

Yours, Borya

Comment

Amedeo Modigliani

paints "Renee"

Emil Gudo's square, 13, Paris, France

Leusa Araujo, Kleber Oliveira

Comment

Elizaveta Naryshkina

Alexander Palace, Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

The German scum are not letting up with their merciless war on shipping, sinking cargo and murdering innocent passengers. While they make no secret of their intention of dominating Europe and swallowing up the territories of Belgium, Poland, England and Russia one by one, while they stand united in their unshakeable egoism, here each of us thinks only of his own petty problems.

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24 February

Zinaida Gippius doesn't believe in revolution

Alexandra Exter paints "Futurist composition" in Kiev

Blok longs for his wife

Herbert George Wells with James Joyce

"A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" is a book to buy and read and lock up, but it is not a book to miss.

The value of Mr. Joyce's book has little to do with its incidental insanitary condition. Like some of the best novels in the world it is the story of an education; it is by far the most living and convincing picture that exists of an Irish Catholic upbringing. It is a mosaic of jagged fragments that does altogether render with extreme completeness the growth of a rather secretive, imaginative boy in Dublin. The technique is startling, but on the whole it succeeds. Like so many Irish writers from Sterne to Shaw Mr. Joyce is a bold experimentalist with paragraph and punctuation. He breaks away from scene to scene without a hint of the change of time and place; at the end he passes suddenly from the third person to the first; he uses no inverted commas to mark off his speeches.

Ge Hailun

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Zinaida Gippius

Sergievskaya 83, Petrograd, Russian Empire

Petersburg is full of evil rumours. And not only rumours, either. There is some very vague talk of a workers’ demonstration arranged to coincide with the opening of the Duma on 27th. I think this is unlikely. I don’t imagine we will see anything of the sort. There are many reasons, but the most important, (which makes it quite unnecessary to list the others) is the fact that the workers will not support the Duma coalition.

Jernej Komac, Ge Hailun

2 Comment

Elizaveta Naryshkina

Alexander Palace, Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

I was called to the Empress, to find that she looked unwell and tired. I did not stay long; she was quite affectionate but it was clear her mind was elsewhere. I told her I should like to go to Petrograd for a longer period of time. I shall pass the Lenten fast with them if the Lord sees fit. I see that this will be a good thing to do: there is no resentment, but the situation has become more or less clear.

Jernej Komac

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Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich

Petrograd, Russian Empire

The bread queues in Petrograd have been getting longer and longer, although the wheat and rye has been rotting all along the Great Siberian Railroad and in the south west regions. The city garrison, which consisted of new recruits and reserves was not, of course, a reliable enough force to maintain order in the event of serious disturbances. I asked the military command if they were planning to bring more dependable regiments back from the front line. I received the reply that thirteen guard cavalry regiments were expected to come from the front shortly.

Jernej Komac, Lisa May Davidson

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W. Somerset Maugham

Tahiti, France

in Tahiti

Maria V. Zolotukhina, Kleber Oliveira

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Vasily Gurko

Hotel "Evropeyskaya", 1, Mikhailovskaya street, Petrograd, Russian Empire

Having found out that I was to present a report to the Emperor on the following day, Rodzianko called on me in my hotel. Our conversation stretched deep into the night and finished at 2am. Wishing him a good night, I promised once again to try and make the Tsar see sense and issue the reforms of the so-called “Progressive Bloc”.

The “Progressive Bloc” was the name given to an assembly of party leaders and influential statesmen from the State Duma and State Council. Given the state of the country, their demands in early 1917 were very modest. The most important of these demands was that the Tsar would issue a decree granting full authority to Prime Minister Alexander Trepov to select cabinet ministers for the government. After the selection, the cabinet was to be accountable not to the Duma but to the Tsar personally.

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Peter Kropotkin

9, Chesham Street, Brighton, East Sussex, United Kingdom

We’ve had the most unbearable frosts. I have shut the library, which I am not heating, and am working in my bedroom, which I can barely keep above eight degrees. I’m feeling bitter about my 74 years, and about the fact that, while the horizons for constructive and creative minds are endlessly expanding, I personally cannot work for more than four or five hours in a day.

Jernej Komac

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Alexander Blok Lyubov Mendeleeva-Blok

Parohonsk, Brest uyezd, Belorussia

I do not know whether it will be possible to leave soon, for thousands of reasons, but I really want to and I want to see you. I'm quite through with stupidity, which here abounds.

Ge Hailun, Maria V. Zolotukhina

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Ivan Bunin

26, Povarskaya street, Moscow, Russian Empire

I’m having a very bad winter this year. I’ve been in poor health for 6 weeks already and the last bout had me feeling especially awful; I suffered from a terrible pain in the bony ridge of my brow.

Ge Hailun, Maria V. Zolotukhina

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Alexandra Exter

works on "Futurist composition"

27, Bogdana Khmel'nitskogo (Fundukleyevskaya) street, Kiev, Russian Empire

Julio Mariutti, Ge Hailun and 5 others

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Maurice Paleologue

10, Kutuzova embankment, Petrograd, Russian Empire

This evening I gave a dinner to the Grand Duchess Marie Pavlovna and her son, the Grand Duke Boris. My other guests were Sazonov, Shebeko, the former ambassador to Vienna, Princess Marie Troubetzkoï, Princess Bielosselsky Prince and Princess Michael Gortchakov, Princess Stanilas Radziwill, M. and Madame Polovtsov, Count and Countess Alexander Shuvalov, Count and Countess Joseph Potocki, Princess Gagarin, M. Poklevski, Madame Vera Narishkin, Count Adam Zamoïjski, Benckendorff, General Knorring and my staff. See more

Leyla Latypova, Jernej Komac

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23 February

How Russian soldiers differ from their French brothers-in-arms

The incredible account of the last attempt to save the Romanov dynasty

The leader of the Constitutional Democratic Party implores the workers of Petrograd not to strike

Maurice Paleologue

10, Kutuzova embankment, Petrograd, Russian Empire

The foreign delegates have hardly left Petrograd before the horizon of the Neva is darkening anew.

The Imperial Duma is to resume its labours on Tuesday next, the 27th February, and the fact is causing excitement in industrial quarters. To-day, various agitators have been visiting the Putilov works, the Baltic Yards and the Viborg quarter, preaching a general strike as a protest against the government, food-shortage and war. See more

2 Comment

The Lovington Leader

With his three sons a russian who lives ordinarily just ten hours by rail from Petrograd is now en route to that capital. To get there he was obliged by the German captors of Vilna to go by way of America. He estimates that the ordinary ten-hour journey will cost him $2,000. And that is just another instance of the old saying that the longest way round is the shortest way through.

Comment

Pierre Pascal

Mogilev, Stavka, Russian Empire

Russians don’t like to preen or to put on airs, even on the subject of their own nation. A Russian loves his country profoundly and knows its worth, but keeps it to himself. A Frenchman will boast about having been at the front and will tell you of his heroic feats, his sufferings and his injuries. He will do all this because he thinks he has done something extraordinary. The Russian may tell you has been at the front if there is some reason do so, but for him this is an absolutely ordinary fact. He won’t think for a minute of bragging about it.

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Vasily Shulgin

Petrograd, Russian Empire

Milyukov has issued an open letter to the workers of Petrograd. A day previously, a “decree” was issued by General Khabalov, the Petrograd city governor. Strangely enough, the two documents were not greatly dissimilar. In some places, the two used similar arguments (“For the sake of the motherland”). And both the leader of the opposition and the city governor called on the workers to remain calm.

Comment

Rurik Ivnev

alone

Lahtinskaya street, Petrograd, Russian Empire

Today is my birthday. But I’m keeping it to myself. Why should I remind myself and others once again of the impending end …

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Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich

Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

I finally got an invitation from Alix for breakfast in Tsarskoe Selo. Those breakfasts! It seems half a year of my life has been lost at breakfast in Tsarskoye Selo!

Alix was in bed and promised to see me as soon as I was done eating. There were eight of us at the table: Nicky, myself, the Heir, the Emperor’s four daughters and an aide-de-camp. They were all in good spirits and completely ignorant of political events. See more

Taco Tichelaar, Dušan Velimirović and 1 other

1 Comment

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Grand Duchess Olga

Alexander Palace, Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

I’ve come down with an ear ache. Polyakov looked at it and said my middle ear is inflamed. I had breakfast with Papa. Mama is in bed.

Comment

Pathe News

Boy scouts’ honor guard in Great Britain

Comment

22 February

Conan Doyle is not impressed by the Russian political system

Trotsky falls out with American socialists after less than a month

A general in the Tsarist army, the future president of Finland, describes the situation in Petrograd

Alfred Knox

Petrograd, Russian Empire

I talked to Polivanov. He said the Ministry of Ways had been haggling over two years about the price of coal, and hence the miserable stuff that is ruining the engines. I asked him what he would do if dictator. He said he would call the best traffic managers together to consult. He would then place each main line under a dictator, who would have full powers on his line to hang or to do as he liked.See more

Comment

Evening star

An appeal to French peasants of both sexes to help in solving the food problem has been issued by the ministry of agriculture and will be placarded in every country district. The appeal calls on the country people to sow as much grain as they can and wherever they can. so that "the sowings of the spring of 1917 may prepare the harvest of victory.” The document concludes: "To work then with all your energies. You are working for French victory and French peace. The country counts on”.

Comment

Edvard Munch

paints "Nude from the back"

Ekely estate, Norway

Nils Eivind Bjørnerud, Kleber Oliveira

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Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich

Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

Mikhail Alexandrovich and I spoke to his Majesty again. It was a waste of time. When it was my turn to speak I was so agitated I could not a say a word.

“Thank you, Sandro, for the letter you brought me from Kiev” – this was the only reply his Majesty gave to my many pages of advice.

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Arthur Conan Doyle

London, United Kingdom

Consider the awful condition of the world before this thunder-bolt struck it. Could anyone, tracing back down the centuries and examining the record of the wickedness of man, find anything which could compare with the story of the nations during the last twenty years! Think of the condition of Russia during that time, with her brutal aristocracy and her drunken democracy, her murders on either side, her Siberian horrors, her Jew baitings and her corruption.

Comment

Julius Martov

Zurich, Switzerland

Trotsky is already in New York. I’d wager that within three months he’ll have quarrelled with the American socialists and gone off to form his own splinter group.

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Leon Trotsky

1522, Vyse Ave, Bronx, NY, USA

In ideas the Socialist party of the United States lagged far behind even European patriotic Socialism. In the United States there is a large class of successful and semi-successful doctors, lawyers, dentists, engineers, and the like who divide their precious hours of rest between concerts by European celebrities and the American Socialist party. See more

Rafael Padial, Julio Mariutti

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Benito Mussolini

Ronchi, Italy

It happened during the bombardment of enemy trenches in Sector 144 – The Karst Sector, under a deafening hail of shells. Here, I experienced something that is commonplace in the trenches. A group of twenty of our men were hit by one of our own grenades. We were showered with mud, smoke and torn metal. See more

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Carl Mannerheim

Petrograd, Russian Empire

Of course it was impossible to keep track of the situation within the country while fighting on the front. Now, having spent a few days in the capital, I have heard of the most curious happenings. The State Duma, which was called up once again in November 1916, has been reverberating with revolutionary speeches. See more

Comment

21 February

Trotsky describes pogroms in New York

Kerensky visits Zinaida Gippius

The Emperor sends his relatives away from Petrograd

The New York Times

PETROGRAD, Feb. 21. The question of railway construction on a large scale is occupying the attention of the Ministry of Ways and Communications and leading economists. The Ministry has drawn a scheme which is to be carried into effect after the war, but the whole matter has assumed a more urgent character owing to the application of a group of American capitalists for a concession to build a railway from Moscow to the Donets coal fields. See more

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Nicholas II

Alexander Palace, Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

All day there was a blizzard and the trains everywhere were held up. I received four official visitors. I sat for a while with Alexei and went for a walk. Studied.

Nils Eivind Bjørnerud

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Maurice Paleologue

10, Kutuzova embankment, Petrograd, Russian Empire

After an interminable series of luncheons, dinners and receptions at the embassy, the Finance Ministry, the Franco-Russian Chamber of Commerce, the President of the Council's residence, the Town Council, the Grand Duchess Marie Pavlovna's palace, the Yacht Club, etc., the foreign delegates are now returning westwards, via the ice-bound Arctic Ocean. See more

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Sergey Prokofiev

Nikolaevsky railway station, Moscow, Russian Empire

On the way back to St Petersburg. Have just got on the train. This time I am travelling third class, as first and second are all taken up by deputies of the State Duma and officers of the highest ranks. Nevertheless, it must be said that my fellow travellers are from the educated classes.

Nils Eivind Bjørnerud, Lena Dg and 1 other

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Leon Trotsky

1522, Vyse Ave, Bronx, NY, USA

After the Germans came out for unrestricted submarine warfare, mountains of military supplies blocked the railways and filled all the eastern stations and ports. Prices instantly soared, and I saw thousands of women – mothers, in the wealthiest city of the world – come out into the streets, upset the stalls, and break into shops. What will it be like in the rest of the world after the war? I asked myself.

Julio Mariutti

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Grand Duchess Olga

Alexander Palace, Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

Cold weather, a snowstorm, minus 24 degrees this evening. We didn’t do anything in particular in the evening. Father read “Masquerade”. Bed at 11.

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Zinaida Gippius

Sergievskaya 83, Petrograd, Russian Empire

Kerensky called on us in the last few days and related with much invective the news of the recent arrest of a number of workers from the War Industry Committee and the position that Milyukov has taken regarding the event. Kerensky was all aflame, positively beside himself with anger, to which I only shrugged my shoulders. The story was, after all, nothing new. Milyukov and his faction were only being true to themselves.

Kerensky was restless and impatient as always. But, profound as his impatience and indignation are, he’s right to experience them.

Comment

Mikhail Larionov

at work sketching the costume of the Dragon in the ballet "Russian Fairytales"

Rome, Italy

Nils Eivind Bjørnerud, Lena Dg and 2 others

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20 February

The tsar’s former lover is advised to leave the capital

The chief of Petrograd’s secret police warns of imminent food riots

Tough choices at the French embassy in Petrograd: should the foie gras be washed down with Bordeaux or Burgundy?

Leonide Massine

Rome, Italy

Many have heard of the young Spaniard who painted the dancers and helped Bakst to paint some of the accessories used in the ballet.

Grigore Pintea, Lena Dg

Comment

Paul Klee

paints «Hieroglyph with a bird and a fish»

Summer school, Gersthofen, Bavaria, German Empire

Lena Dg, Julio Mariutti and 1 other

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Olga Paley

Petrograd, Russian Empire

One eminent Russian lady ventured to pen a letter of unprecedented nerve to the Empress. I saw this letter, written in a careless and hasty hand on pages torn out of a notebook. Among other things, she wrote the following: “Leave us, in our eyes you're a foreigner.” Naturally, the Empress was mortally offended.

Lisa May Davidson

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Alexander Spiridovich

Petrograd, Russian Empire

Globachev has reported on the increasing dissatisfaction with the lack of certain foodstuffs. He warned of the possibility of so-called "bread riots" and excesses of "the most horrible of all the anarchic revolutions." Almost every day his reports speak of strikes. The General warned that there may be an attempt to organize a march to the Tauride Palace and that the Bolsheviks, the Mensheviks and the Social-Democrats. are united in this plan.

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Peter Struve

Petrograd, Russian Empire

Two features characterize the internal political situation in Russia today: 1) economic difficulties related to the war. 2) The increasingly deepening standoff between the Tsarist government and the people. Dissatisfaction with the situation in the country is extremely sharp and clearly visible.

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Amedeo Modigliani

paints "Adriana" ("Woman with a Fringe")

Emil Gudo's square, 13, Paris, France

Nils Eivind Bjørnerud

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Mathilde Kschessinska

Kshessinska mansion, Petrograd, Russian Empire

Every day brought more and more alarming news. Nobody knew the exact reasons for this anxiety, but a menacing, stormy atmosphere hung over the capital, and uncertainty increased. It had begun with vague reports, and nobody had been able to decide whether the situation was really serious, or whether these were merely rumours spread by a troubled populace. However, in the first week of February General Halle, Chief of Police of the Fourth District of the "Peterbourgskaia", See more

Taco Tichelaar

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Maurice Paleologue

10, Kutuzova embankment, Petrograd, Russian Empire

Doumergue and General de Castelnau lunched at the embassy very privately to-day.

We conjured up memories of the days just before the war. Doumergue, then President of the Council and Minister for Foreign Affairs, was one of the first who saw, or rather confessed himself obliged to see, the threatening reality. See more

Comment

19 February

Pablo Picasso visits Diaghilev in Rome

Lenin continues to berate Trotsky

“The general mood in Petrograd is subdued. People are openly criticising the tsar”

Vladimir Lenin Inessa Armand

Zurich, Switzerland

Dear Friend,

The other day we had a gratifying letter from Moscow (we shall soon send you a copy, although the text is uninteresting). They write that the mood of the masses is a good one, that chauvinism is clearly declining and that probably our day will come. The organisation, they say, is suffering from the fact that the adults are at the front, while in the factories there are young people and women. See more

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Lev Tikhomirov

Moscow, Russian Empire

It’s Maslenitsa. And there’s no food to be had. We barely managed to get ourselves some milk. As for meat, Masha’s attempt to get hold of some proved wholly unsuccessful. Marfusha was next to be sent, and after spending an age in the queue she got four pounds of the stuff (bones included). See more

Elenaabout Gurdjieff, Taco Tichelaar

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Pathe News

Alpine ski squad on patrol.

Nils Eivind Bjørnerud

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Carl Mannerheim

Petrograd, Russian Empire

The general mood in Petrograd is subdued. People are openly criticising the tsar. Due to heavy snowstorms, tens of thousands of freight cars are stuck on the tracks, with the bread and fuel situation in the capital and other major cities becoming particularly severe as a result.

Taco Tichelaar

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Alla Nazimova

New York, USA

Premiere of the play "Admission of a mistake”

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Pablo Picasso

Italy, Roma, Via del Babuino, 9, Hotel de Russie

We’re on our way from Paris to Rome to work on the ballet "Parade".

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Jean Cocteau

Rome, Italy

About to head off for the baths. Street by street we’re getting to know the city, wandering around without coats. Picasso arrives soon.

Rome is bewitching. I succumbed to the charms of its streets on the very first morning. We arrived by train following a journey accompanied by countless adventures, the very least of which was yesterday’s sleepless night.

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Grand Duchess Olga

Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

Sat at home with Alexei in the playroom with Mama and Anya. Uncle Mimi drank tea. Clearly it was very cold. Papa read "August Cadets" about grandpapa. It was awfully sweet.

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Zinaida Gippius

Sergievskaya 83, Petrograd, Russian Empire

England is deeply indifferent toward us. But it cares so much about the war, which it understands to some degree.

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18 February

Fitzgerald on the ladies

A Russian socialist in Norway enjoys Grieg and Munch

The Duma chairman proposes a daring plan to the tsar’s relatives

Francis Scott Fitzgerald

Princeton, USA

My remark about 2 beautiful girls is a drama — fifty is only a chorus.

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Petrogradskaya Gazeta

Petrograd, Russian Empire

No matter how hard the authorities try to ban the baking of sweet pastries and cakes, throngs of customers continue to congregate at the city’s confectioners.

Judging by the quantities in which they devour them, the public’s appetite for sweets seems only to grow.

Henrik Gabrielsen Sletta

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Leon Trotsky

1522, Vyse Ave, Bronx, NY, USA

The janitor of the house was a negro. My wife paid him three months’ rent in advance, but he gave her no receipt because the landlord had taken the receipt-book away the day before, to verify the accounts. When we moved into the house two days later, we discovered that the Negro had absconded with the rent of several of the tenants. See more

Henry Lin

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Carl Mannerheim

Tsaritsyn, Russian Empire

I travelled to Tsarskoye Selo, having learned that the Emperor was currently in residence there. As a member of His Majesty’s retinue, I could expect to be granted an audience. Only two people were scheduled to be received by the tsar that day, and an audience was indeed promptly granted. Normally, the Emperor was all attention at debriefings, and I had assumed that an update about the situation on the Romanian front would spark his interest. It appeared to me, however, that, in this particular moment, his thoughts were preoccupied with completely different problems.

Comment

George Buchanan

4, Dvortsovaya embankment, Petrograd, Russian Empire (British Embassy)

I had been instructed to report, for the information of the Imperial conference that was about to meet in London, as to the prospects of Russia continuing in the war; and, after consultation with Lord Milner, with whom it had been my privilege to work during his stay in Petrograd, I telegraphed to the Foreign Office on February 18 as follows: See more

Taco Tichelaar

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Alexandra Kollontai

«Turisthotell», Holmenkollen, Norway

Attended a symphonic concert at the local National Theatre. An evening of Greig. In the hall of the university I marveled at the works of my beloved Munch (a Norwegian artist). An atmosphere of aestheticism, art and beauty reigns in Norway, which comes as great relief after the earthy and business spirit of America! Yet still I have come to appreciate America. I saw her close up and learnt to appreciate her.

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Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich

Petrograd, Russian Empire

Chairman of the State Duma Rodzianko barged his way into my presence with an endless stream of news, theories, and anti-dynastic plans. His audacity knew no limits, which, together with his obvious intellectual failings, gave him the air of a character straight out of Moliere.

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Natalia Goncharova

Hotel Minerva, Piazza della Minerva, 69/A, Roma, Italy

1/2

Kikimora's сostume design by Mikhail Larionov for the ballet "Russian fairy tales". 1915

How precious to me is every scrap of news I receive from Moscow. You start to understand the Chinese, who are said to sew a handful of earth into the soles of their shoes upon leaving home so as always to walk upon native soil. We’re doing a great deal of work at the moment. Mikhail Fedorovich’s ballet will soon be arriving here in Rome before transferring to Paris, Spain and South America. It’s a series of Russian pieces, so each act is a separate ballet – there’s no common storyline connecting them, and they develop completely independently from one another.

Comment

Vladimir Lenin

Zurich, Switzerland

Dear Mark Timofeyevich,

From the enclosed you will see that Nadya is planning the publication of a Pedagogical Dictionary or Pedagogical Encyclopaedia.

I am strongly in favour of this plan because, in my opinion, it fills a very serious gap in Russian pedagogical literature; it will be a very useful work and will provide an income, which for us is extremely important.

With the increase in the number of readers and the broader circles involved, there is now a quickly growing demand for encyclopaedias and similar publications. A properly compiled Pedagogical Dictionary or Pedagogical Encyclopaedia will become a handbook and go through a number of editions.

I am sure Nadya can do this because she has been working in pedagogy for years, has written about it and has undergone systematic training. Zurich is an exceptionally convenient centre for work of this kind; it has the world’s finest pedagogical museum.

Comment

Moskovskie vedomosty

Moscow, Russian Empire

By some kind of miracle, Moscow’s restaurants continue to be able to get their hands on things that, for most people in Moscow, are unimaginable luxuries. Do you wish to eat the finest meat on fasting days? Well, you can, for ten times the price of course. Pining for wine? They have cellars full of the best sorts, only at shocking prices: from 25 to 75 roubles a bottle. They even have cognacs for 400 roubles. The leading restaurateurs have flour, and butter, and cream. These are the sorcerers of our times, and every first-class restaurant is like a state within a state with fine white tablecloths as the flags of their sovereignty. It’s enough to make one cry for our dear Russia.

Zhenglei Shi

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Russkoe Slovo

advertising section

Moscow, Russian Empire

Donate to the bathhouses in the trenches. Malyi Gnezdnikovskii Lane, Building 12, Apartment 5. Telephone: 2-05-87.

Elenaabout Gurdjieff

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17 February

Vladimir Lenin: “What a swine this Trotsky is!”

Nicholas II: “Wrote to Georgie”

A general close to the tsar on the tragic role played by the Empress’ best friend

Claude Debussy

Paris, France

I have been put to bed... yesterday, when I left to fetch some coal, the cold got to my lower back and now I’m suffering like St. Sebastian.

Grigore Pintea

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1 Share

Paul Klee

paints "Wanderer-birds"

Summer school, Gersthofen, Bavaria, German Empire

Elenaabout Gurdjieff, Anton Zotov

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1 Share

Alexandre Benois

38, 1st line of Vasilyevsky Island, Petrograd, Russian Empire

Coka is interested in home cinema and spends his savings on the purchase of second-hand films.

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Mikhail Rodzianko

32, Kirochnaya street, Petrograd, Russian Empire

If it is unthinkable that a doctor should be entrusted with the building of a bridge, or an engineer the curing of patients, it is even more inconceivable that the economic life of the country should be taken from the direction of those who are informed as to the minutiae of its operations and handed over to those who are, at best, amateurs, and at worst – pure ignoramuses.

Anton Zotov

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Vladimir Lenin

Zurich, Switzerland

What a swine this Trotsky is—Left phrases, and a bloc with the Right against the Zimmerwald Left!! He ought to be exposed (by you) if only in a brief letter to Sotsial-Demokrat!...

Best greetings.

Yours, Lenin

1 Comment

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Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich

Kiev, Russian Empire

Dear Nicky, we are going through the most dangerous moment in the history of Russia: the question is, shall Russia be a great State, free, and capable of developing and growing strong, or shall she submit to the iron German fist?See more

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Vasily Maklakov

Petrograd, Russian Empire

The purpose of the state consists not in supplanting people’s endeavours and achievements, but in fostering the development of all aspects of the individual himself. To this end, it’s necessary to defend the individual against other people’s attempts to violate his liberty, and to champion equal “human rights” for everyone.

Anton Zotov, Pier Vegner Tosta

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Alexander Spiridovich

Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

The significance of the role played by Vyrubova over the past two months has been underestimated. In the wake of Rasputin’s murder, she has become even more intimate with the Tsarina in honouring the memory of their late “Friend” – something that the adroit Protopopov grasps all too well. He has outflanked her, of course, bewitching her by dint of his veneration of the departed “Friend” and his supposedly “spiritual” connection with him – charlatanism pure and simple. And, thanks to Protopopov, Vyrubova has become a real mediator between him, the Minister of Internal Affairs and Their Majesties.

A. Vyrubova now serves as a kind of stand-in for the Royal Family’s relatives as well. Correspondence aside, they’ve maintained close ties only with the Emperor’s brother, Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich.

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Alexey Vasilyev

Rasputin's murder investigation

Petrograd, Russian Empire

“My dear fellow, help if you can. Grigory Rasputin”

Armed with this recommendation, provincials would normally seek an audience with the minister in question, firmly convinced that their request would immediately be granted. How great was their astonishment when they were turned away, the intervention of the omnipotent “elder” notwithstanding!

People often claimed that his interventions were successful when it came to borderline cases; I never believed such claims, however, and, though I’d investigate these rumours from time to time, I never found any conclusive evidence of their truthfulness.

Almost half of the people who sought help from Rasputin were poverty-stricken and therefore hoped to get some kind of financial assistance from him – not unreasonably so, since Rasputin never refused to help folk out with money.

Simple peasants would often come to see him for no reason other than to satisfy their curiosity, eager to speak with a man who’d managed to gain access to the tsar’s court despite being a simple muzhik. Rasputin normally received them with great cordiality and discussed their affairs at length, unmindful of the fact that far more important individuals were thus being kept waiting.

Comment

Pathe News

King George V opens a new session of Parliament

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El Lissitzky

participates in the work of the national Jewish aesthetics club.

Moscow, Russian Empire

Elenaabout Gurdjieff

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Nicholas II

Alexander Palace, Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

It’s a bright and frosty day. Voeikov and Sandro were here in the morning. I’ve had a walk . I’ve seen Belyaev and Fredericks. Maria and I had a stroll. I wrote to Georgie in English.

Elenaabout Gurdjieff

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16 February

Bertrand Russell: “The current powers that be are the very embodiment of evil”

Nijinsky on his relationship with Stravinsky

Freud is dissatisfied with everything

Alexander Vertinsky

wrote the lyrics to the "Ball of the Lord"

Kislovodsk, Russian Empire

Olga Malkova, Marc Adam and 1 other

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Sergey Prokofiev

Apartment house, 122, Fontanka embankment, Petrograd, Russian Empire

Had my concert in Saratov. I almost didn’t leave Petrograd: central Russia is now enveloped in the most frightful snowstorms, and the drains are facing delays of up to 24 hours while the lines are cleared of snowdrifts. To make matters worse, all the most convenient trains have been reassigned for the delivery of supplies to the capital. It took us 48 hours, instead of the usual 36, to get to Saratov; I slept almost the entire way, which was a merciful relief from the exhaustion of life in Petrograd. In Saratov I walked along the frozen Volga, practiced some under-rehearsed passages and played through some of Rachmaninov’s news romances, which are very fine indeed.

Elenaabout Gurdjieff, Anton Zotov

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Sofia Tolstoy

Yasnaya Pol'yana, Tul'skaya guberniya, Russian Empire

Workers strike at a rifle factory in Tula. To buy anything they must queue in long lines, yet they are fined when late for work. Where is the justice?

Darine Elzein

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Bertrand Russell

London, United Kingdom

The present holders of power are evil men, and the present manner of life is doomed. To make the transition with a minimum of bloodshed, with a maximum of preservation of whatever has value in our existing civilization, is a difficult problem.

Kristen Michelle

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Vladimir Lenin

published "Proposed Amendments to the Resolution on the War Issue" in the "Volksrecht" newspaper.

Zurich, Switzerland

The party shall proclaim the socialist transformation of Switzerland. This revolution is the only, and really effective, way of liberating the working class from the horror of high prices and hunger, and is essential for the complete elimination of militarism and war.

Michelle Ort

Comment

Maxim Gorky

Petrograd, Russian Empire

I work like elephant. Have caught a cold, lost my voice and I sneeze. But nothing of it!

Darine Elzein

Comment

Vaslav Nijinsky

New York, USA

Children should always be with their mothers. I took my Kyra to America. Stravinsky saw me off at the station, and I gave him my hand very coldly. I did not like him then, and therefore wanted to show him this, bit he did not feel it because he kissed me. I had a nasty feeling. We stayed in America for a year and a half. Thinking that travelling with the child would be bad for her. I left her in New York. Stravinsky did not write to me, nor I to him. Already almost a year and a half I have heard nothing of him.

Elenaabout Gurdjieff, Taco Tichelaar

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El Lissitzky

Moishe Broderzon’s book "The Prague Legend", illustraded by Lissitzky, is published

Moscow, Russian Empire

Elenaabout Gurdjieff

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Olga Rozanova

Becman's house, ap. 29, 5, Patriarshiye pound, Moscow, Russian Empire

I now prefer to work on my paintings of a morning instead of preparing for lectures. Come Easter, a Suprematist exhibition is slated to take place in a private house. If I have enough time, I’ll produce some paintings featuring “transfigured colouration” for this event. You do, of course, wish me success?

Elenaabout Gurdjieff

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Sigmund Freud

19, Berggasse, Vienna, Austro-Hungarian Empire

There is nothing, nothing except stasis, inertia, withdrawal, and, at best, a suffocating sense of expectation. In ten days at the surgery I have spoken with only two patients, neither of them new. My days, consequently, are almost entirely void of activity. Two weeks of cold and darkness have forced me to abandon my habit of never working in the evening.

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Filippo Marinetti

is wounded in the groin during the fighting at Monte Cucco

Gorizia, Italy

I was in a pitch-black, earth-covered trench when I really began to apprehend the objects surrounding me for the first time. I would handle them in an effort to fathom out their inner essence.

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Mathilde Kschessinska

Kshessinska mansion, Petrograd, Russian Empire

Finally, on February 2nd, Countess Mathilde Ivanovna Witte organised, with the Tsar's approval, a charity performance in aid of

the Disabled Soldiers' Work-house, which was run by a special Commission of the Supreme Council and was under the patronage of Her Majesty the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna.

Сountess Witte, with whom I was on excellent terms, had asked me to help her organise the performance, and I secured the services of our leading artists.

M. N. Kousnetzova sang the second act of Manon and danced Spanish dances. Lidia Lipkovska sang the lesson scene from the third act of The Barber of Seville. D. A. Smirnov sang Lensky's aria from the duel scene of Eugene Onegin. Finally, Fokine and I appeared as Harlequin and Columbine in his ballet Le Carnaval. Next we danced the first act of Don Quixote, and Tamara Karsavina performed the waltz from the same ballet.

The evening was a triumphant success. It was a very elegant and select audience, and Fokine was delighted with my interpretation of the role of Columbine, which he had wanted me to dance. It was my first performance in this ballet in St. Petersburg.

After the performance Countess Witte gave a supper party to which the leading artists and various members of high society were invited. It was served at little tables, and I remember that my neighbour was Stanislas Poklevsky, Russian Minister in Roumania. I was on excellent terms with Countess Witte, who was a woman of high intelligence, and Andre, who had closely followed the lectures on political economy given by the Count, held them both in very high esteem.

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Grand Duchess Olga with Anna Vyrubova

Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

At around 4 I went for a walk with father. It is cold, -12 degrees, and it is snowing. At 5 we four went together to Anna’s for her name day.

Comment

15 February

“It’s Russia that has lapsed into such ignominy. And what else will befall her?”

Leo Tolstoy’s widow takes pity on the workers

The food situation in Petersburg grows ever more perilous: the city is threatened by famine due to the poor organisation of deliveries.

Dmitry Merezhkovsky with Zinaida Gippius

Returned to Petrograd from Kislovodsk

Katerina Startseva

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Zinaida Gippius

Sergievskaya 83, Petrograd, Russian Empire

We’re back at home. The snow is deep, the cold bitter. But the morning skies gleam pink over the Tauride Gardens, as does the dead round dome of the Duma.See more

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Sofia Tolstoy

Yasnaya Pol'yana, Tul'skaya guberniya, Russian Empire

Paid the workers their wages. I often pity the working folk; you want to clothe them in better outfits, feed them up and show them all affection – especially the children.

Zhenglei Shi

Comment

Ilya Ehrenburg

5th military hospital, Julien Michelet st., Paris, France

In the military hospital at Vanves, Paris, Russian lance corporal Stepan B. is being seen to by a French nurse. She tells him about what the Germans did to her home town of Lunéville. A Russian nurse translates:

“…And an entire block was burnt to the ground. Thirty-two houses. The men were taken out of town and shot. The Église Saint-Jean was torched, as was the Jewish synagogue; and they went round to the neighbours and grabbed the old woman…”

She explains everything at length, and the soldier sighs:

“That isn’t good, the poor woman!”

Then the French nurse says, smiling, “But when you Russians get to Germany you’ll show them what’s what. I only want one thing – I want all the Germans slaughtered.”

The Russian nurse translates. Stepan looks at her, bewildered, flummoxed.

“How’s that, then?.. What, are we animals?.. Oh no, young miss, that simply isn’t on…”

Vitor de Vile

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Vladimir Lenin Inessa Armand

Clarens, Switzerland

Dear Friend,

I am sending you a leaflet. Will you please translate it into French and English...

Please translate it in vigorous language, in short sentences. Please write it in duplicate on thin paper as clearly as possible to avoid misprints.

Yours, Lenin

Comment

23 Share

Lilya Brik

Angry

ap. 42, 7, Zhukovskogo street, Petrograd, Russian Empire

We played whist, poker, baccarat, sevens – for money, of course, as Mayakovsky demanded.

Darine Elzein

Comment

Pathe News

Thousands demonstrate in London in support of the war.

Zhenglei Shi

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Andrei Shingarev

Shingarev's apartment, 22, Bolshaya Monetnaya street, Petrogradskaya side, Petrograd, Russian Empire

The situation is getting worse with every day. We are heading towards the abyss. A revolution would be our undoing, but we are surely heading for one. And even without a revolution everything is coming undone at a dizzying rate. The supply situation in Petrograd is already critical. If not today then tomorrow we will run out of bread. The soldiers are grumbling, and the garrison is unreliable. At least, as you know, our military power and technical capabilities have grown to unprecedented levels. Our spring offensive will be supported by a hitherto inconceivable quantity of shells. If we can just hang on till the spring…

Comment

Raymond Poincare

Montdidier, Compiegne, Viller Cotre, France

Were gathering forces that shall enable us to fight back and advance with confidence.

Comment

14 February

Rumours about a palace coup won’t die away

The celebrated Russian dance Nijinsky develops schizophrenia

The housing issue of Franz Kafka

Maxim Gorky

23, Kronversky ave., Petrograd, Russian Empire

Life is increasingly becoming a nightmare, and especially difficult for those who have no personal life. Personal life is, at any rate, that moderately dirty and uncomfortable place where one can rest.

Kostya Tchourine, Julián Huertas and 2 others

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Edvard Munch

Paints "Nude on the couch"

Ekely estate, Norway

Julián Huertas, Grigore Pintea and 1 other

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Elizaveta Naryshkina

Alexander Palace, Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

A snow storm. I learned that the heir to the throne is more seriously ill than we’d thought. I can imagine the trepidation of the Empress, exacerbated by Grigory’s disappearance. The poor, dear woman – I pity her from the bottom of my heart yet cannot express any sympathy to her.

Comment

Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich

Retrograd, Russian Empire

Certain “conspirologists” assured us that things wouldn’t go beyond a “palace coup” – that is, the tsar would be forced to abdicate the throne in favour of his son Alexei, with supreme power being handed over to a special council consisting of individuals who “understood the Russian people”. I thought this plan astonishing. I’d never yet encountered an individual possessed of such an understanding.

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Pathe News

British farmers feed swans starving from the cold.

Grigore Pintea

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Vaslav Nijinsky

New York, United States

In Massine Diaghilev developed the love for glory. I was not passionate either about works of art or glory. Diaghilev noticed this and left me alone. Left alone I ran after the girls, I liked them. Diaghilev thought that I was bored, but I was not. I practiced my dances and composed ballets alone. Diaghilev did not like this.See more

Kenneth Whyte, Julián Huertas

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Maximilian Voloshin

lecturing "The fate of Verhran" in Moscow Drama Theatre

The "Hermitage" theatre, Karetnyy lane, Moscow

When the earth is consumed in war, and all of humanity is divided into two irreconcilable camps, there must be such a person as would throw himself down to the floor of his cell and pray on his knees for all, for his enemies and his brothers. In the epoch of all-consuming cruelty and blindness, there must remain those who are capable of opposing the desire for revenge and hatred, who are capable of exorcising the spirit of insanity with their benediction. This must be the poet’s calling.

Olga Malkova

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Nikolai Pokrovsky

Petrograd, Russian Empire

Conclusions of the Strategic Council: Military operations in 1917 will be decisive; offences will be launched on various fronts without sparing any and all resources available to the allied armies.

Comment

Olga Rozanova

Becman's house, ap. 29, 5, Patriarshiye pound, Moscow, Russian Empire

How are the Caucasus? We read in the papers and hear on the streets that the population there is being conscripted. Is this correct? There was another draft recently in Moscow, but only for the workers. As for the larger picture, the political landscape seems to be shrouded in mystery.

Malevich is living at his dacha, and says that he will be able to rent you two rooms there on the upper floor in the summer for 20 roubles a month.

Well goodbye for now. Best wishes, write soon, and stay in good health.

O.R.

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Rurik Ivnev

Lahtinskaya street, Petrograd, Russian Empire

Today, while standing in the tram vestibule, I gave someone a rough push and said, “Why aren’t you moving right down inside the carriage?” When I saw that this someone was a pale-faced, haggard Chinaman, I felt a painful pang of guilt, as if I’d slighted a guest in my own house. How many of these Chinamen traipse the streets of Petersburg? And to think – their native land, their homes, they’ve left it all behind – and what awaits them in the future? Nothing. Lord, have mercy on these wretched vagabonds and make their lot a little easier!

Letitia Rydjeski

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Franz Kafka Felice Bauer

Prague, Austro-Hungarian Empire

My Dearest, so here’s my apartment saga. It’s a grandiose subject. It scares me and I can’t deal with it. It’s too big for me.

Sometime in the summer I went with Ottla in search of housing, and although I don’t believe it’s possible to do this calmly, I went to look nonetheless. There was a little house for rent starting in November. Ottla, who is also looking for peace, however, in her own way, got a burning desire to rent this house. Ottla ordered everything to be painted, bought all sorts of wicker furniture (I don’t know a more comfortable chair than this one), and managed to keep all this a secret from the rest of the family.

When I got back from Munich, I was filled with new determination, I went to the apartment rental office, where I was immediately offered to look at an apartment in one of the most beautiful mansions in the city. It has two rooms, a hallway, half of which has been converted into a bathroom. 160 crowns a year. It’s simply a dream come true! I went [to see it]. The rooms are tall and beautiful, purple with gold, everything is almost like in Versailles. The apartment had only one drawback. The former tenant had to invest so much money into the apartment that he wasn’t ready to part with it just like that. Therefore, to give it up, he was looking for someone willing to at least partially compensate him for incurred costs (the electric wiring and telephone, bathroom installation, and building the closets). He is asking (probably a quite modest) sum 1,650 crowns for everything. It's too expensive for me.

However, I found another apartment with a little lower ceiling on the third floor in the same mansion. However, it was not completely clear, if the apartment is for rent or not. I then went into despair. I went to Ottla’s house in this state of mind. It had just been completed. At first, there were a lot of flaws and shortcomings that I don’t have the time right now to spell them out. Now it completely suits me. I’m happy with everything: there’s marvelous street, it’s quiet inside, only a thin wall separates us from the neighbor, but the neighbor is quiet enough; I usually eat dinner alone and usually stay until midnight. And now suddenly a deal has been reached with the apartment in the mansion: He’s willing to rent it to me.

But perhaps I should put this apartment behind me now, and not go see it. But in fact I have already rented it, but the manager, of course, is willing to release me from this verbal contract. I’ve said so little! Now, I need to think it over, decide, and move quickly.

Alp Klanten, Richard Shepherd

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Grand Forks Herald

Whether their are guests or not on Saint Valentine's Day, why not vary the menu by having something pleasing to eat and some dainty decorations? The children and even the older people will enjoy the surprise and variety of it, and variety, you know, is "the spice of life."

Sweetheart Sandwiches.

Make a soft filling of equal parts of chopped dates, chopped raisins, and chopped walnut meats, moistened to a spreading consistency with strained honey. Spread between thin slices of buttered white bread and cut with a heart-shaped cooky cutter.

Lovers Dream Sandwiches.

Cream three tablespoonfuls of butter until very light. Mix thoroughly with an equal quantity of strained honey. Use as a sandwich filling between thin, slices of white bread, cut in triangles.

Saint Valentines Favored Desert.

Fill small, heart-shaped moulds with strawberry gelatin. Allow to harden. Place thin slices of vanilla Ice cream on plates, and unmould a strawberry heart on top of each slice. Finish with a little whipped cream and garnish with a Maraschino cherry.

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13 February

Psychologist Ivan Pavlov on the Russian slave mentality

The infamous erotic dancer Mata Hari is arrested

The starve makes people leave their houses

Ivan Pavlov

Bol'shaya Pushkarskaya street, Petrograd, Russian Empire

How often and in how many ways does the impulse of slavery appear on Russian soil, and how useful it is to realise this!

Comment

Elizaveta Naryshkina

Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

A lull on the political front. The whole world is protesting German submarine activities. As a moral victory this is important, but for the moment is having little practical effect. In what capacity can America or China do anything?

Walid Azar

Comment

Mata Hari

Palace-Hotel, Paris, France

Arrested

Margaretha Zelle, female, also known as Mata Hari, lives in the Palace Hotel, is Protestant, a foreigner born in the Netherlands on August 7, 1876, 1.78 meters tall, and literate, is accused of espionage, in part for passing state secrets, or for collecting information constituting a state secret with the purpose of transferring it to the enemy, and with the intention to helping the enemy carrying out its operations. She was delivered to the Saint-Lazare prison and imprisoned in a cell No. 12.

Walid Azar

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27 Share

Pathe News

French submarine hunters.

Walid Azar

Comment

Kazimir Malevich

Colour and number and sound rule the world.

Anton Zotov, Walid Azar and 1 other

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39 Share

Leon Trotsky

1522, Vyse Ave, Bronx, NY, USA

Walid Azar, Henry Lin and 2 others

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Maurice Paleologue

10, Kutuzova embankment, Petrograd, Russian Empire

Eleven workmen, members of the Central Committee of Military Industries, have just been arrested on a charge of "plotting a revolutionary movement with the object of proclaiming a republic."

Arrests of this kind are common enough in Russia, but in the ordinary way the public hears nothing about them. After a secret trial, the accused are sent to a state gaol or banished to the depths of Siberia. The press never mentions the matter, and quite frequently even their families do not know what has happened to their missing relative. The silence in which these summary convictions are wrapped has a good deal to do with the tragic notoriety of the Okhrana. But this time the element of mystery has been dispensed with. A sensational communiqué informs the press of the arrest of the twelve workmen. This is Protopopov's way of showing how busy he is in saving tsarism and society.

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Grand Duchess Olga with Tsarevich Alexei

Alexander Palace, Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

We have 2 in the infirmary. There was an operation, the re-amputation of a foot. After 5 o’clock we returned for tea. Alexey, thank God, is better. He’s not in pain. I stayed up with Shvybzik [Anastasia] again until 10 reading the papers. Mama doesn’t seem to mind. They’re all absorbed with Papa by a puzzle.

Walid Azar

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Birzhevye vedomosti

At a special session on city supplies, agents from the Ministry of Agriculture raised concerns regarding the failure to meet targets for bread delivery stipulated by the ministry.

The agents testify that the conditions simply do not exist to meet the targets regarding the quantity and quality of bread for delivery laid out in the ministry’s instructions.

Comment

12 February

Life in Petrograd in 1917: “Yet another idiotic banquet”

The Grand Prince Aleksey is prescribed morphine to help him sleep

Don't miss an opportunity to watch famous ballerina Anna Pavlova performing "Giselle" in Havana

Nicholas II

Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

Woke up with a hoarse throat. Went for a walk with Tatyana. The weather was rather pleasant. I sat with Aleksey until tea. At 6 I received Shcheglovitov, and then Protopopov. After reading the evening papers we did a puzzle together.

Julián Huertas

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Alexandre Benois

38, 1st line of Vasilyevsky Island, Petrograd, Russian Empire

Yet another idiotic banquet. Patriotic speeches. Utterings of “Constantinople, Constantinople”. Bloody foolishness! We hear rumours from the kitchen staff that a general strike is in the offing. Most likely the “comrades” are really planning something big this time, but nothing of any decisive significance is likely to come of it; the “hydra” will be easily grinded down by the regularity of our policing methods. Unless, as some are now saying, the police themselves are in a state of collapse. If such is the case, our brother the bourgeoisie ought to watch out…

Kenneth Whyte, Vitor de Vile

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4 Share

Anna Pavlova

performs the ballets "Giselle" and "The Magic Flute" at the National Theatre in Havana

458, Paseo de Martí, La Habana

Kenneth Whyte, Olga Malkova and 4 others

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Aleksei Kruchenykh Mikhail Matushin

Erzurum railway administration, Sarykamysh, Karskiy region

Can it really be that there has been nothing new in art in Petrograd? Where is Filonov living? I received the transfer (75 roubles), and thank you for your troubles.

I am working a lot.

My greetings to everyone.

Comment

Grand Duchess Olga with Tsarevich Alexei

Alexander Palace, Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

Alexei had ½ a syringe of morphine injected and has been sleeping since 6 o’clock.

1 Comment

3 Share

11 February

Eleven workers are arrested for disseminating revolutionary propaganda: the sound of the starting gun?

The wife of Rasputin’s murderer develops an addiction to card games

Listen to an archival recording of Fyodor Chaliapin, the most famous bass of the early 20th century

Maxim Gorky

23, Kronversky ave., Petrograd, Russian Empire

When I finally collapse, many numskulls will be frightfully shocked to learn of how great a capacity I had for work. This, probably, is my best quality; at the very least it is the only one of them that is remotely good.

Kenneth Whyte, Demetri Sophianopoulos

1 Comment

Alexandre Benois

38, 1st line of Vasilyevsky Island, Petrograd, Russian Empire

In the evening a big group of us went to a picture show and we were punished for such self-indulgence; the film was awful.

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Elizaveta Naryshkina with Tsarevich Alexei

The boy has fallen ill - a new worry for the Empress! The weather is very good these days. I’ll take a carriage for some fresh air.

Comment

Grand Duchess Olga with Tsarevich Alexei

Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

Buried myself in magazines again. At 2.30 went for a walk with Father. Six degrees of frost. Aleksey is still bedridden. He feels very poorly. At 6 I went to see Anna, and until 7.45 we sat very comfortably by the fire. Mother is very tired.

Carlos Olaaka

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Feodor Chaliapin

sings an aria as Philippe II in "Don Carlos" by Verdi

Moscow, Russian Empire

Anton Zotov, Manuel Fajardo

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Irina Yusupova

Rakitnoe estate, Kurskaya guberniya, Russain Empire

I can’t bear to look at another deck of cards again, and yet I can’t tear myself away from them! The situation is hopeless. But you shouldn’t think that I spend all my time at solitaire; sometimes I knit scarves. I’ve even finished one.

Anton Zotov, Carlos Olaaka

Comment

The New York Times

PETROGRAD, Feb. 11 (via London). Eleven members of the workmen’s group of the Central Military and Industrial Committee of Petrograd have been arrested, charged with belonging to revolutionary parties and fomenting a labor movement with the ultimate aim of transforming Russia into a Social Democratic republic. This official announcement was made today.

Taco Tichelaar

Comment

10 February

Receiving the chairman of the Russian parliament, the Emperor is unusually cold and abrupt

“The situation is critical. If railway transport is stopped for two weeks there will be a famine. There is already no flour here.”

A chance to hear the voice of Fyodor Chaliapin, the most famous bass opera singer of the early 20th century

Yevgeny Vakhtangov

3, Mansurovsky lane, Moscow, Russian Empire

Whichever university you may have graduated from, whatever you do in life, however rich you are, you will always be poor as long as you do not welcome art.

Kenneth Whyte, Lozz ODozz and 2 others

1 Comment

7 Share

Feodor Chaliapin

performing at the premiere of the opera "Don Carlos"

The Bolshoi Theatre, 1, Teatral'naya ploshchad', Moscow, Russian Empire

1 Comment

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Nikolay Gumilyov

Petrograd, Russian Empire

Is placed under arrest for twenty four hours for failing to salute a superior

Edwin Pace

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Maxim Gorky

23, Kronversky ave., Petrograd, Russian Empire

At yesterday’s meeting on defence in the Mariinsky Palace the minister for transport presented his report: supplies of fuel for the Nikolaevsky Railway will be exhausted in four days, and the situation on other railways is no better; some railways are down to two days’ worth of fuel! This is why goods are not getting into the city. There are 36,000 wagons full of various goods and foodstuffs stranded along the lines, but there are no locomotives to move them, and where locomotives can be found the majority are not in working condition. The situation is critical. If railway transport is stopped for two weeks there will be a famine. There is already no flour here.

Taco Tichelaar

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Alexander Guchkov Nikolai Golitsyn

Petrograd, Russian Empire

I am not going to play games with you. If you suspect us of being engaged in politics, I will not dispute it for a minute. Yes, we are involved in politics, but it is the government that has turned us into a political organisation. We think the question of defence can only be resolved if the political conditions of our work are altered.

Comment

Edvard Munch

paints "Nude in the mirror"

Ekely estate, Norway

Ольга Асафова

Comment

Nadezhda Udaltsova

82 apartment, 65, Smolenskiy blvd, Moscow, Russian Empire

What is it that binds wealth of spirit with poverty? After all, it’s not difficult to obtain a comfortable style of life, but by God is it dull.

I’ve got a large canvas ready, something will come of it, although I’m sick of anything which is not painting in its purest of forms. I’m happy only with pure colours and materials and the like. Well, something will come of it.

Comment

Mikhail Rodzianko

32, Kirochnaya street, Petrograd, Russian Empire

I had an audience with the Emperor again. He received me with such extreme coldness that I could not set out my case in the course of a conversation, as I usually do, but instead began to read out the written report. His Majesty’s reaction was not only indifferent, but even abrupt. All the time I was reading the report, which concerned poor supply of provisions to the army and towns, the issuing of machine guns to the police and the general political situation, his mind was elsewhere. This is the way things are at the moment.

Taco Tichelaar

Comment

Nicholas Roerich

at work on the painting "Karelian landscape"

Izvara estate, Russian Empire

Julián Huertas, Edwin Pace and 1 other

Comment

Maurice Paleologue

10, Kutuzova embankment, Petrograd, Russian Empire

I am told that during his visit to Petrograd, Bratiano has sounded the Emperor as to his ultimate consent to the marriage of the Grand Duchess Olga to Prince Carol, the presumptive heir. The idea of this union has been mooted several times before. The Emperor's answer was quite encouraging: "I shall have no objection to the marriage if my daughter and Prince Carol find they suit each other."

Comment

Nicholas II

Alexander Palace, Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

This evening I read and helped Mary with a puzzle.

Julián Huertas

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09 February

The Grand Duchess Olga helps perform an operation on a wounded man

Trotsky tries to prevent the USA from joining the war

A famous Russian ballerina continues her tour of America

Grand Duke Andrei Vladimirovich

Kislovodsk, Russian Empire

I have been here for six days, far away from earthly cares in the peaceful mountains and valleys of the Caucasus. I am resting, both physically and mentally. It is a selfish feeling, but so pleasant to belong entirely to oneself sometimes, and to live as one wants, and not as one is ordered to do.

Comment

Wassily Kandinsky

Finland

Leaving for his honeymoon

Elena Kl

1 Comment

Anna Pavlova

Cuba

Travelling to Cuba

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Julius Martov with Leon Trotsky

Zurich, Switzerland

I have found out that Trotsky has been rather active in the anti-war campaign which has recently begun in America, writing several articles for newspapers and speaking at meetings. Incidentally, it seems he has started calling himself, in the English manner, “Leo N. Trotzky”.

Comment

Grand Duchess Olga

Alexander Palace, Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

We [went] to the Church of Our Lady of the Sign and to the hospital. An operation was performed to remove a piece of shrapnel and strengthen the patient’s collarbone with wire. We took round breakfast and helped to make the beds. We and Mother received two American guests. Then Mother lay on the balcony. I went for a walk with Father. It was bright, sunny and warm - real spring weather.

Comment

08 February

Artists and writers are succumbing to a cold and flu

The government is “jumping about as if there were a fire”

Lenin is worried about his party

Vladimir Korolenko

1, Malo-Sadovaya st., Poltava, Russian Empire

Events succeed one another thick and fast. The ministerial leapfrog is continuing. Everyone there is clearly jumping about as if there was a fire. Things that were once spoken of in whispers are now discussed openly by all.

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Alexandre Benois

38, 1st line of Vasilyevsky Island, Petrograd, Russian Empire

A biting frost, and not only outside, but indoors as well. My nose has started running and I can feel the beginnings of that particular fatigue which heralds the approach of influenza (or, as it is fashionable to say, “la grippe”).

Gustav Vernal, Emmanuel Cahour

Comment

Andrey Bely

21, Nikolsky lane, Moscow, Russian Empire

I already have a ticket, and I’m on my way out from Moscow; I am afraid of one thing: that a slight cold is taking hold of me.

Comment

Elizaveta Naryshkina

Alexander Palace, Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

We had breakfast in the palace today in honour of the Romanian prince, who is going back to Romania and will be leaving for Moscow this evening. I sat next to his Highness, of which I was glad. His Highness enlivened the conversation greatly. The Empress is tense and silent all the time, and the grand duchesses were in their nurses’ uniforms, which constrains them; the atmosphere was very cold. After breakfast the Empress sat with me. His Highness stood speaking with the prince and the other men, while the grand duchesses spoke among themselves separately. There is no sign of a rapprochement. They are so remote from everything it is impossible to speak to them about anything: reading, art, society, people, or anything.

Comment

Vladimir Lenin

from the article “The Swamp: Real or Imagined?”

Zurich, Switzerland

How to transform and reshape a party that is currently incapable of conducting a systematic, stubborn and, no matter what the circumstances, genuine revolutionary struggle, into a party such as would be capable of this task?

That is the most important question!

Spyros Marchetos, Emmanuel Cahour and 3 others

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Filippo Marinetti

73d sector of artillery battery, Gorizia, Italy

On the front line

Comment

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Washington, D.C., United States

How Can I Serve My Country? What can I do in case of war? Well, what would you do? The whole question of how a man can best serve the United States in a war is difficult to answer, because the Government has made no comprehensive plan for the utilization of the country’s various kinds of abilities.

Comment

07 February

The horrors of war: no pineapples for sale in Petrograd

A childhood friend of Tsar Nicholas II warns him that the country is about to hurtle into an abyss

Lenin’s lover has stopped writing to him

Vladimir Lenin Inessa Armand

Zurich, Switzerland

Dearest friend! So long without hearing from you! You promised, almost a week ago, to write “tomorrow”, and since then not a word. Can something in particular have happened? Just write me any old rubbish if you can’t think of anything serious to say, otherwise I’ll start worrying.

Taco Tichelaar, Jakub Horak and 4 others

1 Comment

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Larisa Reisner Nikolay Gumilyov

28, Bol'shaya Zelenina street, Petrograd, Russian Empire (Reisner's apartment)

Will this letter get to you, my Hafiz? I hope not: a warm wind is blowing up the Neva from the sea, which means the year is drawing to an end (I always count years from winter to winter) – the first year of my life which bore no resemblance to those previous: grand, silly, long; somehow too eventful and serious. I can even see it in the mass of freckles on my nose and the way my arms have grown inconceivably long.

My deer Hafiz, how sweet it is to live! That, really, was all I wanted to say to you.

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Elizaveta Naryshkina

Alexander Palace, Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

It’s just as cold in this residence as it is in the Winter Palace. It’s very important not to forget about our poor soldiers, and of those unfortunates who have no firewood at all; I should think of them and be patient. I was with the Empress today and felt very distant from her. She looked poorly, and we didn’t speak much for lack of time. This cold is making me numb.

Jakub Horak

Comment

Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich Nicholas II

Kiev, Russian Empire

I have been hoping all this time that you would take the course indicated by those people loyal to you, those who love their country not out of a sense of fear but from a belief in what they know to be right. But as events have shown, your advisers have continued to lead Russia - and you - to certain doom. To remain silent in the present circumstances would be a crime before God, before you, and before Russia.

Discontent is growing rapidly; every day that passes brings a widening of the abyss that separates you from your people. Never in the history of the Russian state has the country known such favourable political circumstances: our previous arch-enemy England is on our side, as is Japan and all the other states, all of whom see and feel our power, but who, at the same time, are witness to an utterly inexplicable phenomenon: the complete disarray within our country, which worsens every day. They see that it is not the best, but the worst powers that are now in control of Russia, at a moment when any mistakes we make today will have consequences for our entire history, and they are beginning to doubt us, despite themselves; they see that Russia is blind to her own interests and to the challenges that face her – or rather not Russia herself, but those who rule Russia.

This situation cannot be allowed to continue. In closing, I would like to say that, strange as it may seem, at present it is the government that is preparing the ground for revolution. The people do not want a revolution, but the government is taking every possible step to make as many people dissatisfied as it can, and is succeeding admirably. We are witnessing something unheard-of: a revolution from above, not from below.

Yours faithfully, Sandro.

Anna Arfen, Jakub Horak and 1 other

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Rosa Luxemburg

prison, Wronki, Russian Empire

Today I received a court ruling on a complaint filed by an officer from the criminal investigation department: ten days in jail and court fees:

"The accused is guilty of insulting an officer of the Palma police in word and deed on 22 September 1916 for shouting: "You are the most vulgar pig and mongrel for you to have no soul," and throwing a stamp at him."

Piotr Kaczmarek, Carl Skutsch and 3 others

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Kommersant

There are no fresh lemons to be found anywhere in the market. There are frozen lemons, but these of the most limited quantity and moreover with a price from 65 to 70 rubles for the box. Mandarins are out. No pineapples either.

Marianna Potanovicova

Comment

Mikhail Rodzianko

32, Kirochnaya street, Petrograd, Russian Empire

Our nation has everything it needs, but is not able to make adequate use of its resources. The census has shown that the area of land under cultivation in 1916 was approximately 20-25% more than the area required to meet the needs of the population. Russia has enough grain resources to face the future with equanimity. If all this rich potential not being exploited, it is because the country lacks the appropriate organisation.

Taco Tichelaar, Vitor de Vile

Comment

Maurice Paleologue

10, Kutuzova embankment, Petrograd, Russian Empire

The work of the conference is dragging on to no purpose. No practical result has emerged from all the diplomatic verbiage. To take one example, we are trying to find a formula asking Japan to accelerate her assistance!

The technical munitions and transport committee alone is doing anything useful, but the requirements of the Russian General Staff exceed anything we had anticipated and its demands even exceed its requirements. To my way of thinking, it is not so much a matter of knowing what Russia needs as of ascertaining what she is capable of putting to good use. What point is there in sending her guns, machine-guns, shells and aeroplanes, which would be so valuable to us, if she has neither the means of getting them to the front nor the will to take advantage of them?

Comment

06 February

Trotsky on New York: “Cubism reigns supreme on the streets, and the philosophy of the dollar reigns supreme in people’s hearts.”

Fitzgerald. “To use an exclamation mark is like laughing at your own joke.”

The daughter of Tsar Nicholas II has her hair washed and curled

Elizaveta Kuzmina-Karavaeva

16, Kovensky sidewalk, Petrograd, Russian Empire

All over the vast Russian plain, in stuffy freight vans and comfortable apartments, in the severe northern capital and the endless southern steppes, people have been saying the same thing: “A storm is on its way”. But despite this, they have not let down the ship’s anchor or lowered the sails. And the motley people of Russia, scattered throughout the cities and countryside, have felt no desire to stop the wind, or to fight the storm. Their hearts have been crushed by the suffocating atmosphere of recent years; their reason clouded by the poisonous vapours of blood.

Comment

Francis Scott Fitzgerald

Princeton, USA

Cross out every exclamation mark. To use an exclamation mark is like laughing at your own joke.

Hugo Greenhalgh

Comment

Pathe News

Pleasures Of A Seaside School

Comment

Nicholas Roerich

at work on "Clouds over islands"

Izvara estate, Russian Empire

Marianna Potanovicova, Manuel Fajardo and 1 other

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Leon Bakst with Serge Diaghilev

Paris, France

I’m going to be painting decorations in Rome for two or three weeks with Diagilhev. Thinks could certainly be better as orders are few in these uncertain times. We haven’t heard anything out of Russia for a long time.

Comment

Le Corbusier

Opens the "Society of projects and of research in industrial enterprise"

29, Rue d'Astorg, Paris, France

Comment

Ivan Bunin

26, Povarskaya street, Moscow, Russian Empire

We are all going to Crimea (and we all do so in vain). As soon as we get there, I will immediately sit down to work.

Comment

Konstantin Somov with Alexandre Benois

38, 1st line of Vasilyevsky Island, Petrograd, Russian Empire

1/3

Macaroni sellers. Naples, Italy. Between ca. 1890 and ca. 1900

Had dinner at seven with Benois. Gorky, who I found most agreeable, was also there. He told us the most engaging stories of Naples, Capri and Pompei, and of the morals, traditions and celebrations of the people there.

Spyros Marchetos

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Grand Duchess Olga

Alexander Palace, Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

Went straight to the infirmary. There was not much to do. Wrote, straightened beds, etc. The Romanian king had breakfast with us. Before 3 set off for a walk with father. It was twelve or thirteen degrees below freezing. We went round the garden. After tea Alexei watched a cinematograph film. T and I had our hair washed and curled. Nothing happened. Father wrote in his album. We went to bed at 11 as usual.

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Leon Trotsky

1522, Vyse Ave, Bronx, NY, USA

Here I was in New York, city of prose and fantasy, of capitalist automatism, its streets a triumph of cubism, its moral philosophy that of the dollar. New York impressed me tremendously because, more than any other city in the world, it is the fullest expression of our modern age.

Taco Tichelaar, David Chytil and 1 other

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Arthur Conan Doyle

London, Windlesham, Crowborough, Sussex

Is it not possible in any way to hold in cheek the vile women who at present prey upon and poison our soldiers in London ? A friend of mine who is a Special Constable in harlot-haunted district has described to me how these harpies carry off the lonely soldiers to their rooms, make them drunk often with the vile liquor which they keep there, and finally inoculate them, as likely as not, with one or other of those diseases which, thanks to the agitation, of well-meaning fools, have had free trade granted to them amongst us. Our present policy is to shut the museums — the most pitiful economy ever effected by a great nation — but to keep open the brothels. The lad from over the seas who has for the first and perhaps for the last time in his life a few clear days in the great centre of his race, cannot carry away any recollections of its treasures of art and antiquity, but is forced into contact with what is least reputable in our metropolitan life. All honour to the Union Jack Club, the Y.M.C.A., and all the other associations which try to mitigate this state of affairs, but it is a case for general legislation and not for sporadic individual effort. It will be a poor return for what our Colonies have done for us if we return their splendid lads the worse in body and in Soul.

Yours faithfully,

ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE.

Windlesham, Crowborough, Sussex.

Comment

05 February

Romain Rolland: “One of the saddest days of this terrible epoch”

The weather and lack of fuel may leave Russia’s major cities without bread: where is this all leading?

A major entrepreneur confidentially discloses rumours about a plot in the Imperial Guard

Alexander Spiridovich

Hotel "Continental", Kiev, Russian Empire

Tereshchenko has arrived from Kiev, where he’s been thick with Count Dolgoruky. There, in Kiev, the two friends pleasantly whiled away the time in the Continental Hotel, discussing current events. Tereshchenko took Count Dolgoruky to one side and informed him that he was leaving for Petrograd, where calls would start to be made for the Emperor’s abdication. The Empress, meanwhile, would be confined to a monastery. He told him, too, that officers from His Majesty’s Own Regiment and Convoy were implicated in the plot, naming names and even the name of one commander. The coup had been arranged for February 21. When asked by Count Dolgoruky what would be done if His Majesty refused to abdicate, Tereshchenko replied that he would be removed… Tereshchenko departed.

Comment

Alexandre Benois

38, 1st line of Vasilyevsky Island, Petrograd, Russian Empire

Ahh, why is it that Tolstoy is no longer among us these days?!

Comment

Mikhail Rodzianko

32, Kirochnaya street, Petrograd, Russian Empire

According to the facts, the distribution of bread to the localities will proceed go on schedule throughout February; the thaw begins in March and April, and it won’t be possible to bring bread to the stations; transporting grain to mills can only be expected in late April and early May. The mills, however, lack fuel. As a result, we should expect for at least three months should expect extreme crisis in the food market, verging on a nationwide starvation. The situation with fuel is no better. Almost all of Russia is experiencing an acute shortage of liquid and solid mineral fuels, firewood, and peat.

Taco Tichelaar

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Romain Rolland

Grand Hotel Chateau Bellevue, Sierre, Switzerland

One of the saddest days of this terrible epoch. The United States has ceased negotiations with Germany. A neutral country has joined the funeral dance.

Taco Tichelaar

Comment

Harry Kessler

Bern, Switzerland

It hurts to feel this universal hatred towards Germany.

Comment

Grand Duchess Olga

Alexander Palace, Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

I’ve gone straight to the infirmary. Have written lots, sorted out the flowers, then had my medicine and been fed.

Comment

Maurice Paleologue

10, Kutuzova embankment, Petrograd, Russian Empire

No nation is so easily influenced or so sensitive as the Russian.

Taco Tichelaar

Comment

04 February

America breaks off diplomatic relations with Germany

The manufacture of chocolates using milk and cream is prohibited in Petrograd

Bertrand Russell: “The existing capitalist system is doomed”

Nikolay Gumilyov

Okulovka, Novgorodskaya guberniya, Russian Empire

I’ve started giving serious thought to Persia. Why not really get down to subduing the Bakhtiai? I’ll transfer to the Caucasian Army, order myself a crimson Chokha and become a resident at the court of some restive Khan; by the end of the war, I shall have a marvellous collection of Persian miniatures to add to my glory. After all, my great weakness is for exotic painting.

Brooke McMurray, Hugo Greenhalgh

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Elizaveta Naryshkina

Petrograd, Russian Empire

The political tide is turning in our favour: America, incensed by Germany’s announcement of unlimited warfare, has broken off diplomatic relations and is openly declaring in favour of the Allies. What joy!

Comment

Grand Duke Andrei Vladimirovich

Kislovodsk, Russian Empire

1/2

Near Kislovodsk. Waterfall in Walnut beam. Between 1890 and 1900

Yesterday evening I arrived in Kislovodsk to receive medical treatment. I was glad to get out of Petrograd. First of all, I was feeling very poorly, and, secondly, we’ve descended into such a cesspit of late that things have become truly nauseating. The lies are so widespread and compulsive that it’s simply unbearable. There are, it would seem, no honest people left. The Duma is full of lies, so are the ministers, and the newspapers even more so – in a word, everyone is lying without restraint or conscience. This orgy of mendacity makes living arduous and inspires pity for one’s Motherland. She will certainly be no better off for all this. But how Nicky is to grapple with these lies I simply do not know. It must be hard for him during these times.

Taco Tichelaar

Comment

Petrogradskie Vedomosti

In measures aimed at alleviating the shortage of milk in the capital, a committee headed by the ombudsman for food supply in the city of Petrograd has unanimously ruled to ban the production and sale of milk and cream chocolates.

Comment

Bertrand Russell

London, United Kingdom

The existing capitalist system is doomed. Its injustice is so glaring that only ignorance and tradition could lead wage-earners to tolerate it. And I also feel no doubt that the new order will be either some form of Socialism or a reversion to barbarism and petty war such as occurred during the barbarian invasion.

Harsh Trivedi, Spyros Marchetos

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Bruce Lockhart

A week later Lord Milner, accompanied by Lord Revelstoke and George Clerk, came to Moscow… There was a reception at the Town Duma at which he had to make a speech and to present Chelnokoff with the K.C.M.G., which the King had conferred upon him as a reward for his services to the Anglo-Russian entente. There was an Anglo-Russian luncheon, which lasted five hours , and at which various members of the Imperial Duma were determined to deliver their set speeches even at the risk of prolonging luncheon into dinner. The unfortunate Englishman, who understood no Russian and who, doubtless, would have liked to see something of the Kremlin and the ancient city, was chained to his duty from early morning to late night. I cannot congratulate myself on my staff work on this occasion.

And yet the visit was the occasion of one historical meeting. I arranged a private interview between Prince Lvoff and Chelnokoff on the one side and Lord Milner and George Clerk on the other. I acted as interpreter. Prince Lvoff, a quiet, grey-bearded man, tired out with overwork, spoke with great moderation. But lest there should be any doubt as to his views he brought a written memorandum with him. It was a long document, but the gist of it was that, if there was no change in the attitude of the Emperor, there would he a revolution within three weeks.

My duties were not ended when I had put Lord Milner to bed. I had my report to send to the Embassy. There was George Clerk, determined to see something of Moscow by night, and still young enough to sacrifice his sleep to his determination. Enlisting the services of a young Russian millionaire, we took him to a gipsy party – doubtless one of the last of the great gipsy parties celebrated under the monarchy. Goodness knows what it cost. I could not have paid. There were eight of us: four English and four Russians, and as the guest of honour George Clerk had to bear the brunt of the champagne bombardment. My young Russian millionaire did his best. Maria Nikolaievna sang countless "charochki," and with her own hands offered countless bumpers to George Clerk. As a diplomatist he has had many triumphs, but never has he borne himself more bravely than on that last evening in Moscow. He never refused a toast. He drank each one down in the approved Russian manner, and his monocle never moved. Not a hair of his head was ruffled. There was neither flush nor pallor on his cheeks.

In the early hours of the morning Prochoroff, my young millionaire officer, signed the bill and distributed the necessary largesse, and we set off home; my wife, George Clerk, "Jimmie" Valentine and I in one car; Prochoroff and his Russian friends showing the way in another. A quarter of a mile down the road we passed him. He had pulled up beside a policeman and was standing in the road. For George Clerk's edification we stopped to watch. Prochoroff was fumbling in his pockets. He pulled out his purse and handed a rouble to the policeman, who clicked his heels together and saluted. His hand on his sword, Prochoroff drew himself up to his full height. There was a sparkle in his eye, and he looked as though he were about to lead a charge.

"Boje Tsaria Khraneel" he thundered. "God save the Tsar," repeated the policeman. And "bye Jidoff!" (beat the Jews).

We drove on. Prochoroff did not hate the Jews. In so far as he had any political views he was a Liberal. But he would go on with his "God save the Tsar and beat the Jews" refrain all the way home. It was the prescribed ritual. It was the pre-revolutionary tradition.

Brooke McMurray

Comment

03 February

What food is served at the court of the Russian emperor

Is the brother of Nicholas II planning a coup d’état?

Englishmen, Russians and Frenchmen listening to Strauss together in Bern

Harry Kessler

Bern, Switzerland

In the evening a concert of Strauss’s music: Till Eulenspiegel, Salome, A Hero’s Life. A full half of those present were Frenchmen, Englishmen and Russians, so that each half of the audience would have been perfectly within their rights to torpedo the other half.

Manuel Fajardo

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Elizaveta Naryshkina

Petrograd, Russian Empire

A rush of blood to the head. Sad thoughts: the Empress is abhorred. I believe danger will come from an unexpected source: Mikhail. His wife is “very much a member of the intelligentsia”, and, as such, lacks any constraints. She’s already wormed her way through to Maria Pavlovna. Her box at the theatre is teeming with Grand Dukes; they’ll connive together with Maria Pavlovna. She’ll see to it that she’s accepted by the Empress-Mother and the Emperor. I sense that they’re plotting. Poor Misha will, in spite of himself, be implicated in this plot; first he’ll be regent, then he’ll be emperor. They’ll accomplish everything.

Lisa May Davidson

Comment

Edvard Munch

at work on "Horse and Man in the field"

Ekely estate, Norway

Brooke McMurray

Comment

Alexandre Benois

38, 1st line of Vasilyevsky Island, Petrograd, Russian Empire

An “intimate” lunch at the Gorchakovs’. Delicious food, first-rate wine, a highly well-mannered maitre d’hotel such as are found in the best bonnes maisons, and an ecstatic (if sometimes exhausting) host. Akitsa and I are both terribly fond of these feasts, which extend long into the evening, are executed with great taste and accompanied by countless comforts (such as the oh-so delicious chocolates we enjoy after the meal). Not a word, thank God, was mentioned of the war; most of the time we spoke of friends and acquaintances.

Comment

Max Linder

Premiere of the short comedy “Max and the handbag”

Hollywood, USA

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Vasily Gurko

Alexander Palace, Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

Rumours have been circulating the world over to the effect that the Empress is a German sympathiser, with relevant evidence adduced. These rumours, which resist refutation, will undoubtedly find their way into the field army, and the consequences of their propagation may prove highly deleterious. It has been claimed, for example, that during one of my reports to His Majesty, the Empress entered his office, upon which I discontinued my report. His Highness, so it is alleged, proceeded to tell me that he had no secrets from the Empress, to which I am supposed to have responded that, on the other hand, did have such secrets. But, far from bespeaking the existence of any “fire”, as per the famous proverb, this tittle-tattle is “smoke-free”, too; during my time as Chief-of-Staff, the Empress has not been present at a single one of my reports to the Tsar, conversations at table excepted.

Comment

Alexandra Feodorovna with Nicholas II

Alexander Palace, Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

N. had a big dinner, I received these gentlemen of the conference in the evening.

Comment

Maurice Paleologue

10, Kutuzova embankment, Petrograd, Russian Empire

At eight o'clock state banquet at Alexander Palace. As a matter of fact, the state part of it was displayed only in the liveries, lights and plate, for the menu was simplicity itself, a thoroughly bourgeois simplicity which contrasted forcibly with the ancient and far-famed splendour of the imperial cuisine. The Tsar looked as he does on his good days; he feared, I am told, that the delegates would give him unwanted advice on internal politics; he is now reassured on the point. The Tsarina is not well and remained in her room.

Dinner ended at last and we went into the next room where coffee was served. The Emperor lit a cigarette and passed from group to group. While these dull conversations were in progress, the Empress received the chief delegates in turn in her room.

Comment

02 February

One of the leaders of the Russian opposition: “We need to steer a course for a coup d’état.”

Lenin: “We oldsters won’t live to see the decisive battles of the impending revolution.”

German U-boats threaten Europe-wide hunger

Vasily Shulgin

Shulgin's house, 22, Bol'shaya Monetnaya street, Petrograd, Russian Empire

Things have got even worse since Rasputin’s murder. Before everything was blamed on him, but now that his murder has changed nothing, people have realised that Rasputin was not the problem.

Hugo Greenhalgh

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Alexander Guchkov

Petrograd, Russian Empire

We need to steer a course for a coup d’état. All the elements necessary to trigger an explosion are already in place: the condition of the decaying regime itself; the deep mistrust of, and contempt for, that regime on the part of all strata of Russian society; external failures; and, finally, grave material hardships behind the lines—in a word, a comprehensive recipe for an explosion.

Comment

Mikhail Zoshchenko

16th Mingrelia Grenadier Regiment

I promise myself to drink no more. I’m being taken off to the hospital in the slushy February snow.

Hugo Greenhalgh

Comment

Vladimir Lenin

Zurich, Switzerland

We oldsters won’t live to see the decisive battles of the impending revolution.

Harsh Trivedi, Prashant Reddy and 2 others

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Romain Rolland

Grand Hotel Chateau Bellevue, Sierre, Switzerland

A policy of submarine warfare has been announced with the intention of starving Europe, which is already short of coal and which will soon be short of grain. For a few weeks Europe stood on the brink, wavering between utter destruction and salvation. It seems that her pathetic pride has prevented her from seeking the latter.

Comment

Pathe News

Coal shortage in England.

Comment

Tamara Karsavina

Kiev, Russian Empire

I went to perform at Kieff. No suite of balletomanes followed me, as it had a few years ago on a similar occasion. Their ranks had thinned, their traditions slackened ; spirited escapades were now out of place. My self-constituted knight and factotum, Vinogradoff, alone went to Kieff after me. Simple and illiterate man, his frantic devotion to the Ballet, and the fact that he had seen the glory of Virginia Zucchi alone qualified him as a leader of the gallery. He was fervently attached to me. Purple and apopleptic he used to rush from one end of the gallery to another shouting my name as a war-cry.

Comment

01 February

Kafka’s neighbours were no better than yours

The allies cannot count on the Russian Army

“But now, in less than three years the lid has been torn off the whited sepulchre of Europe and within we see”

Francis Scott Fitzgerald

Princeton, USA

Show me a hero and I'll write a tragedy.

Kenneth Whyte

Comment

Franz Kafka

Prague, Austro-Hungarian Empire

Surely things cannot be like this in every household?.. From time to time, a crash in the kitchen or in the corridor. Yesterday, in the attic above, perpetual rolling of a ball, as if someone for some incomprehensible reason were bowling, then a piano below me in addition.

Harsh Trivedi, Stephan Wintner and 2 others

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Nicholas Roerich

at work on "The Hills" (from the "Northern Landscapes" series of sketches)

Izvara estate, Russian Empire

Comment

Irina Yusupova

Rakitnoe estate, Kurskaya guberniya, Russain Empire

Every day after our tea Felix' Papa reads the newspapers out loud. What a bore! Particularly as he always manages to skip the most interesting parts.

Comment

Vladimir Lenin

Zurich, Switzerland

What course might the revolution follow? What is the dictatorship of the proletariat? Why is it essential? Why is it impossible without the arming of the proletariat? Why is it perfectly compatible with democracy, in its purest, most all-embracing form? (Despite the beliefs of uninformed popular opinion).

Spyros Marchetos, Rotaru Vlad Matei and 2 others

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Morgan Philips Price

Tiflis, Russian Empire

For my part, living as I am on the threshold between east and west, I can look with dispassion on the ruin of European civilization and I am only surprised at the extraordinarily rapid rate at which it totters to its fall. After all, it took the best part of 500 years for Rome and its civilization to decay, and even the Ottoman Empire in Europe has taken four centuries to recede. But now, in less than three years the lid has been torn off the whited sepulchre of Europe and within we see—!

Taco Tichelaar

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Maurice Paleologue

10, Kutuzova embankment, Petrograd, Russian Empire

At three o'clock the conference met at the Marie Palace; we sat in the large rotunda room which looks out on Saint Isaac's Square.

Pokrovski presided; but his lack of experience in diplomatic affairs and his gentleness and modesty prevented him from steering the course of the discussion, which wandered aimlessly. There was talk about Greece, Japan, Serbia, America, Rumania, the Scandinavian countries, and so on; but all without logical sequence, dominating purpose or practical conclusions. Several times, Lord Milner, who was next to me, whispered impatiently in my ear.

"We are wasting time!"

Rotaru Vlad Matei

Comment

Alexander Guchkov

Petrograd, Russian Empire

I am convinced that the army, like one man and with few exceptions, will side with the revolution.

Comment

George Buchanan with Vasily Gurko

Petrograd, Russian Empire

In his speech at the opening of the conference, General Gurko stated that Russia had mobilized fourteen million men, had lost two millions in killed and wounded, as well as two million prisoners, and had at present seven and a half millions under arms and two and a half millions in her reserve depots. He did not hold out any hope of her army being able to take an offensive on a large scale till the new divisions, about to be formed, had been finally constituted, trained and equipped with the necessary guns, rifles and munitions. All that it could do meanwhile was to hold the enemy by actions of secondary importance. The putcome of the conference was a series of recommendations with regard to the war material and credits which it was proposed that the Allied Governments should place at Russia's disposal.

Comment

31 January

The French Ambassador is disappointed by the apathy of the Russian Emperor

Wilhelm II: “The English scoundrels should come to us themselves!"

“There’ll be a revolution and we’ll all be hanged – and as for what streetlamps we shall dangle from, what does it matter?”.

Elizaveta Naryshkina

Petrograd, Russian Empire

I foresee a gloomy future: a consequence of the war will be a Jewish incursion. The Jews will enslave the peasants; the peasants shall revolt and set about routing the Jews and the landowners, whom they’ll heap into the same pile.

Comment

Alexander Spiridovich

Petrograd, Russian Empire

The disturbing rumours had penetrated the walls of Tsarskoe Selo Palace as well. The atmosphere there was heavy. “It’s as if there’d been a death in the family,” remarked a frequent visitor. The Tsarina remained in bed almost the whole time. The children shot nervous glances at their parents. Trepidation reigned in the ranks of the closest courtiers, with certain ladies beset by presentiments of disaster. The faithful servant Admiral Nilov had long since lost faith in everything. Time and time again, he repeated to his friends, “there’ll be a revolution and we’ll all be hanged – and as for what streetlamps we shall dangle from, what does it matter?”.

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Nicholas II

Alexander Palace, Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

Sunny, –14°. Went for a brief stroll. Received conference members at 11; representatives from England, France and Italy – 37 people in total. Talked to them for about an hour. 12 o’clock meeting with Sazanov, appointed ambassador to England. Alexei has sore tonsils, he’s been in bed all day. Did a loop of the grounds. Read.

Taco Tichelaar

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Pavel Milyukov with Georgy Lvov

1 bld, 2/6, Podkopaevskiy sidewalk, Moscow, Russian Empire

Prince Lvov has just returned from St Petersburg and told us in confidence in Chelnokov’s apartments all the latest news from the capital. A palace coup is to be expected in the nearest future, in which leading politicians, grand princes and officers from the highest military circles are expected to take part.It appears that the plan is to dispose of Nikolai II and Alexandra Fedorovna. We must prepare ourselves for the consequences. A number of those in attendance agreed that Lvov should not let the opportunity to head the new government pass him by.

Taco Tichelaar, Charles Roth Mpc

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Vladimir Dzhunkovskiy

near Volno, Belorussia, Russian Empire

In one place, there’s a well right in the middle where the distance between us and German trenches is no more than 30 steps. We and the Germans had to both use it since there wasn’t any other.

The need for it was so great that there was a silent agreement between us and the Germans Every morning the Germans went to fetch water first and then us, and there was never a single shot fired during this time, from our side or theirs.

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Wilhelm II

signed a decree on the renewal of unlimited submarine warfare.

Berlin, German Empire

“The English scoundrels must be made to come before us on their knees. Until then we must continue to hit them where it hurts – to sink them with our submarines. We will force them to agree to our terms!”

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Maurice Paleologue

10, Kutuzova embankment, Petrograd, Russian Empire

At eleven o'clock the Emperor received the members of the conference at the smaller palace at Tsarskoe Selo.

Court etiquette prescribes that ambassadors take precedence of their missions, so that the order of presentation is determined by their seniority.

The three delegations were thus arranged in a circle in the order: English — Italian — French.

After a few pleasant words to the junior officials and officers who form the suite of the French mission, Nicholas II withdrew, and the function was over.

As we were returning to Petrograd, I observed that Milner, Scialoja and Doumergue had been equally disappointed with the ceremony.

I could not help thinking to myself to what good use a monarch who really knew his business — someone like Ferdinand of Bulgaria —would have put such an event.

I can imagine the dexterous interplay of questions and insinuations, allusions and hints, confidences and compliments in which he would have revelled. But Nicholas II, as I have so often said, does not enjoy the exercise of power.

Conscience, humanity, gentleness, honour — these, I think, are the outstanding virtues of Nicholas II. But the sacred spark is not in him.

Taco Tichelaar, Charles Roth Mpc and 3 others

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30 January

Lenin discusses the Ukraine

“The war is just the beginning. There will be something more terrible and more powerful than a revolution.”

Picasso introduces his new friend, Jean Cocteau, to Gertrude Stein

Vasily Shulgin

Peski, Petrograd, Russian Empire

N. told me he that wished to speak me confidentially and in private… I invited him round.

He probed me on what people were chirping about over coffee in every drawing room – in other words, the palace coup…

N. said that the vessel of the state was in danger – that you could practically say it was sinking – and that exceptional measures were therefore required to rescue the ship’s crew and its precious cargo.

I responded to this with a question:

“Have you read Jules Verne?”

“Of course I have – which of his works do you mean, exactly?”

“That doesn't matter – I’m not even sure this is from Jules Verne… Anyhow, there’s this theory that sailors have.”

“What theory?

“Two theories, actually. Or rather, two schools – the ‘onboarders’ and the ‘lifeboaters’…”

“Explain.”

“The ‘lifeboaters’ maintain that when a vessel suffers a shipwreck, you need to transfer everyone to the lifeboats and try and save yourselves that way.”

“Right, that’s clear enough… And what about the ‘onboarders’?”

“Well, the ‘onboarders’ insist you should remain on board…”

“But the ship’s sinking!..”

“Yes, but even so… They say that nine out of ten lifeboats perish at sea…”

“But that leaves a one-in-ten chance.”

“They say the sinking ship has a one-in-ten chance as well, hence there’s no point worrying…”

“And the bottom line here is..?”

“The bottom line is that I’m an ‘onboarder’ – I shall remain on the ship and have no desire to embark any lifeboat…”

He was silent for a moment.

“In that case let’s forget this conversation.”

“Let’s.”

Hugo Greenhalgh

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Larisa Reisner Nikolay Gumilyov

28, Bol'shaya Zelenina street, Petrograd, Russian Empire (Reisner's apartment)

Skis. The ones you want aren’t available anywhere. You could probably order them from Finland, and they’d arrive in two weeks or so. But I don't know whether you’d be happy with that?

Do you remember us discussing the fact that a Renaissance is due to begin in Russia? I’ve spent a lot of time lately thinking about the strange people who, after the refined, transparent, wise quattrocento, became the progenitors of an entirely new century. Just like that – in one fell swoop. Just think, Michelangelo came after Leonardo, after women incapable of even holding up a Swan. And suddenly, all those bodies, all that ponderousness, all those visions.

I’m very much looking forward to your play. Its form will doubtless be wonderful, as you well know yourself. But remember, my dear Hafiz, the Sistine Chapel hasn’t yet been completed – it’s still missing its God, its prophets, its Sybils, its Adam and its Eve. And, most importantly, there’s no sleep there, and no waking; there are no heroes either, no singular gesture of victory, and no singular perfect beauty – the cold, stone, abstract beauty unfeared by that century’s denizens, and which they dared to honour as equal. Well, goodbye. Write your drama and come back, for God's sake.

Charlotte Marsden

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Gertrude Stein with Pablo Picasso

Paris, France

One day, Picasso came round with a slender youth hanging on his shoulder. “This is Jean,” he announced. “Jean Cocteau. And we’re leaving for Italy.”

Picasso was excited at the prospect of designing a set for the Ballets Russes. The music, he says, is currently being written by Erik Satie, and the libretto by Jean Cocteau.

Hugo Greenhalgh

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Natalia Goncharova with Serge Diaghilev

enters into a contract

Italy, Roma, Palazzo Teodolli, Parliament Street, 9

We agreed to produce for S.P. Diaghilev scenery for 27 acts- a curtain counts as one act. We will get 80,000 francs for this work. In every city, S.P. Diagilev will provide us with design studios for writing sets, all the required materials such as canvas, paints, brushes and everything needed for this job. During this period of work, Larionov and Goncharova require two months holiday a year.

Charlotte Marsden

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Vladimir Lenin Inessa Armand

Zurich, Switzerland

We were recently visited by two escaped prisoners of war. It was interesting to see “live” people, not corroded by emigrant life. As types: one is a Jew from Bessarabia, who has seen life, a Social-Democrat or nearly a Social- Democrat, has a brother who is a Bundist, etc. He has knocked about, but is uninteresting as an individual because commonplace. The second is a Voronezh peasant, a man of the soil, from an Old Believers’ family. A breath from the Black Earth. It was extremely interesting to watch him and listen. He spent a year in a German prison camp (a mass of horrors) with 27,000 Ukrainians. The Germans build up camps according to nations, and do their utmost to break them away from Russia; for the Ukrainians they sent in skilful lecturers from Galicia. The results? Only 2,000, according to him, were for “self-rule” (independence in the sense more of autonomy than of separation) after months of effort by the agitators!! The remainder, he says, were furious at the thought of separation from Russia and going over to the Germans or Austrians.

As regards the tsar and God, all the 27,000, he says, have finished with them completely, as regards the big landowners too. They will return to Russia embittered and enlightened.

All the yearning of the Voronezh man is to get back home, to the land, to his farm. He traipsed around the German villages working, kept his eyes open and learned a lot.

They praise the French (in the prison camps) as good comrades. “The Germans also curse their Kaiser.” They hate the English: “Swelled heads; won’t give you a piece of bread if you won’t wash the floor for them” (that’s the kind of swine you get, perverted by imperialism!).

Charlotte Marsden

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Elizaveta Kuzmina-Karavaeva

16, Kovensky sidewalk, Petrograd, Russian Empire

Our time is running out. The war is only the beginning. Something more frightful and stronger than revolution is around the corner. I can make no sense of how those who professed to hold our current system dear could ever have led us into this war.

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Mathilde Kschessinska

Kshessinska mansion, Petrograd, Russian Empire

On the night of the performance all the artists felt uneasy, as if they were afraid of something. The scene represented a revolution with a palace being burnt down.

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Maurice Paleologue

10, Kutuzova embankment, Petrograd, Russian Empire

The Emperor will receive the members of the conference tomorrow. Official luncheon of forty covers at the embassy. The afternoon was spent in drives and calls.

At eight o'clock state banquet at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. Prince Nicholas Golitzin, President of the Council, was present; but simply as a silent figurehead. He carries the heavy burden of responsibility which has been thrust upon him with utter indifference and complete detachment. But so long as politics were not mentioned, his replies were courtesy itself.

Taco Tichelaar

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29 January

Representatives from England, France and Italy meet in Petrograd to discuss the course of military operations

Spontaneous rioting breaks out in the bread queues

Introducing: a former lover of Nicholas II, the finest ballerina of her age

Vasily Gurko

Mogilev, Russian Empire

Having been postponed several times, the Inter-Allied Conference was scheduled for late January 1917. The choice of the Russian capital as its venue represented a fresh attempt to confirm the commonality of the interests of all the Entente Cordiale countries. There was every reason to believe that the summer campaign of 1917 would consolidate the unity of their efforts both in theory and in practice.

Conference delegates travelled to Russia in secret due to the risk of a German U-boat attack.

Comment

Paul Klee

works on paintings from his "City" series

Gersthofen, Bayern, German Empire

Charles Roth Mpc, Krzysztof Hagemejer and 1 other

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Nikolay Gumilyov Larisa Reisner

Field force, Dvina battle site, Koknese, Russian Empire

My dear Lerichka, you’ll be scolding me, of course: I’m writing you for the first time since my departure, yet I’ve already received two enchanting letters from you. But, on the very day of my arrival, I found myself in the trenches, shooting at Germans out of a machine gun and being shot at by them; and two weeks have passed in the same fashion. Only a graphomaniac can write from the trenches, so little reminiscent of trenches as they are : there aren’t any chairs, the ceiling is leaking, and several huge rats perched on the table grumble angrily if you approach them. And I’ve spent whole days lolling in the snow and gazing at the stars; mentally drawing a line between us, I pictured your face looking down at me from the heavens. It’s a delightful pastime – you should give it a go at some point.

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Vasily Shulgin

Petrograd, Russian Empire

It was a large room. “So then” they said before sitting around the table… Something in the air felt peculiar, secretive and important. Conversation began with the matter of how the situation was worsening with every day and that things could go on no further… That something must be done… Must be done at once… That big decisions must be met with courage… serious steps taken… I didn’t follow exactly… But it was possible to deduce… Perhaps, they meant to speak of revolution occurring from above before it came from below. In any case, they hadn’t decided… And, having spoken for a while, they parted. I had the vague sense that something formidable loomed on the horizon… and that these attempts to withstand it were futile… The powerlessness of those who surrounded me, and my own impotence, struck me the first time. It was a cruel and unnerving moment.

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Leonid Sobinov

Toured with Georges Bizet's opera, the "Pearl fishers"

People's house, Kronverkskiy ave., Petrograd, Russian Empire

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Bruce Lockhart

Moscow, Russian Empire

The next day I returned to Moscow, and Lord Milner resumed his place at the conference table. And, while the delegates were discussing Constantinople, Alsace-Lorraine, and the spoils of war, there were riots round the bread-shops, workmen were being arrested by the Ochrana, and in the entourage of the Imperial family frightened women were repeating the prophecy of Rasputin: "If I die or you abandon me, you will lose your son and your throne within six months."

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Nadezhda Udaltsova

82 apartment, 65, Smolenskiy blvd, Moscow, Russian Empire

What’s the good of this endless anxiety? Even if I subsequently find fame and fortune, no glory or wealth could ever be worth the pain of these arduous years.

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George Buchanan

4, Dvortsovaya embankment, Petrograd, Russian Empire (British Embassy)

The Allied delegates arrived, and a preliminary meeting of the conference was held in the afternoon under the presidency of the Foreign Minister, Pokrowski.

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Maurice Paleologue

10, Kutuzova embankment, Petrograd, Russian Empire

The French, British and Italian delegates to the allied conference arrived in Petrograd this morning. At the very outset it appeared that the governments of the western Powers had only given their delegates vague instructions; no directing principle to co-ordinate the allied effort and no joint programme to hasten the common victory. After a prolonged exchange of generalities, the emptiness of which everyone felt, we modestly agreed to say that the recent conferences in Paris and Rome had sufficiently defined the object of the present meeting. We next decided that questions of a political nature should be examined by the chief delegates and ambassadors; plans of operations should be settled by the generals; a technical committee should look into questions of matériel, munitions, transport, etc.; final decisions to be taken by the full conference.

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Mathilde Kschessinska

Kshessinska mansion, Petrograd, Russian Empire

On January 29th, at Liouba Egorova's farewell performance, I danced my favourite Russian dance in the last act. When I had finished, Fokine, who was in the wings, told me that he never remembered the Russian dance better performed. Such praise from him made me very proud.

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28 January

A Russian Feminist Is Thrilled By American Women

Prokofiev Holds A Monstrous Chess Tournament

Gumilev In The Trenches Dreaming Of Skiing

Grand Duchess Anastasia

Alexander Palace, Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

Have you heard that I have a dog. Its former owners gave it the silly nickname Baby. It’s a Japanese breed, and he’s small and black with yellow. He’s two years old. I’m write sitting on a very uncomfortable couch, just to write and read my diary. Everything is so-so with us. We watched the sequel to Exploits of Elaine in the cinema.

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Sergey Prokofiev

122, Fontanka embankment, Petrograd, Russian Empire

We held our usual chess tournament at home today, but I introduced a new idea: all the players should play all their games at the same time. Consequently, six players needed 15 boards, but as we were playing three rounds, we needed 45. Securing such a quantity under our present wartime conditions was not easy, and we ended up buying all the chess boards we could find in Petrograd. On the day of the tournament the boards were laid out in a row, which required 24 arshins worth of tables. When we ran out of tables we took to joining them together with ironing boards into a line which snaked through both the sitting room and the dining room. The tournament began at ten and finished at six in the morning with my victory. No one spoke a word during play, nor took a break to sit, and the only interruptions took the form of occasional murmurs of protest where illegal moves were suspected and I was called upon to referee.

Krzysztof Hagemejer

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Nicholas II

Alexander Palace, Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

At 2 we set off with all the children for Pulkova on snowmobiles; on the way we passed ravines, rode down hills and straight over fields and swamps on a route which ran alongside the Gatchinsky Highway and returned through Babolovo. Despite the deep snow not once did we get stuck, and we returned home by 4, much pleased with the unusual excursion. I also walked a little in the garden.

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Nikolay Gumilyov

Russian army camp near the Dvina river

I live just as before: two weeks fighting in the trenches, two weeks counting time with the cavalry officers. Incidentally, there has been plenty of fine snow, and if I could just get hold of skis and new books, I swear before my Maker that I’ll be born a new man.

Rotaru Vlad Matei

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Alexandre Benois

38, 1st line of Vasilyevsky Island, Petrograd, Russian Empire

Bernstein, the publisher of my monograph, brought round an acquaintance of his today – the Swiss Arthur Hessen, who once purchased one of my watercolours. The poor foreigner was horrified by local mores, and in particular by the attitude of the Russian authorities to the allies, and especially to the French. Concessions are denied; despite pre-existing arrangements, bread isn’t given out in the stipulated quantities; in a real blow to a number of French companies, a ridiculous law banning the import of luxury goods has been enacted; and so on and so forth.

Rotaru Vlad Matei

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Russkoe Slovo

Tsaritsyn, Russian Empire

The Orthodox cemetery has been revealed as the site of a large, clandestine distillery equipped with the latest technology.

A police squad arrived at the cemetery police to find the distillery in full operation. The distillery’s owner – the cemetery watchman – attempted to resist detainment, but was disarmed and arrested. One grave was found to contain 160 bottles of pure alcohol and a bundle of money.

The distillery has been operating for 4 months, with the alcohol sold wholesale and retail to shops and kebab houses.

Taco Tichelaar, Rotaru Vlad Matei

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Alexander Spiridovich

Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

Protopopov was such a case. Putting everything above his personal career, he ultimately did everything to please Their Majesties. In Tsarskoye Selo, he pretended to be energetic, resolute, and a man ready for any fight. He confidently and boldly lied that he knows everything, foresees everything, and, most importantly, warns everyone beforehand. To decisively secure its position among the women, he didn’t hesitate to pretend to be an admirer in the memory of the murdered holy man. He pretended to believe in his prayers from beyond the grave that mysteriously assured him that the Holy Man was guiding him "from beyond."

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Alexandra Kollontai

«Turisthotell», Holmenkollen, Norway

America is a closed chapter. Leaving was hard. I’d started to get used to American life, to glean details and particulars hidden from the eyes of the superficial traveller. I’ve grown to love her literature, her incomparable libraries, and her women. We still have no such women to speak of; they’re creators and doers, women who leave a wave of vitality and activity in their wake. Over the last two months, the uniqueness of the American intelligentsia has become increasingly palpable to me – as a social stratum, I find it very much to my liking. Especially the women, as I say. The men are flatter, earthier and courser.

I wouldn’t stay in America forever, but I know I shall return. Really and truly, heading Stateside is such a trifle! It might have previously seemed that a “voyage” to America was a real step. In actual fact, though, it’s nothing more than a jaunt – at least while the ocean is placid!

Giovanna Henrique Marcelino

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Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin

9, 18th line of Vasilyevsky Island, Petrograd, Russian Empire

One prayer must now be said over and over: people will sooner come to their senses that way – because right now everything is falling apart.

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Mikhail Rodzianko

32, Kirochnaya street, Petrograd, Russian Empire

I was told that the Petrograd police are training to use machine guns. A whole slew of machine guns due to be sent to the front from Petrograd and other cites have instead been transferred into the hands of the police.

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Article

The New York Times

How the Germans rule in Poland

Read all

27 January

New York Times: “Russia has officially given its support to Wilson.”

Stravinsky’s friends draw the composer’s attention to flaws in the ballet “Petrushka”

Trotsky holds forth on the plight of blacks in America

Alexandre Benois with Sergey Prokofiev

38, 1st line of Vasilyevsky Island, Petrograd, Russian Empire

This evening I attended a concert at the Musical Drama Theatre. The symphony by Myaskovsky, who has legions of admirers, struck me as rather run-of-the-mill. When heard side by side with Myaskovsky’s music, the Prokofiev concerto is pure genius! Petrushka, which I’ve not heard in a while, disappoints me somewhat (although I concealed this from my friend), perhaps because of the incomprehensible “shift” that occurs when the “mummers” music comes in. Diaghilev and I have both pointed this out to Igor, but he refused to make any changes whatsoever.

Comment

Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich

Gatchina, Russian Empire

After lunch we went to the cinema at the "Modern" to see "Instituka", a comedy starring F. Bertini.

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Sergey Prokofiev

122, Fontanka embankment, Petrograd, Russian Empire

Today I played my first piano concerto at the Imperial Russian Music Society. Concerts at the IRMS have of late been triumphant affairs played to sell-out audiences. The concerto came off very well at the rehearsal, and sounded even better in the evening. It was a great success, and two admirers, who never miss an opportunity to give me flowers at my concerts, presented me today with a wreath bearing the words “to our young genius”.

Lev Manovich

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John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

Wulverghem – Messines, the Western Front

Was declared unfit for military service.

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Vera Sudeikina

Okhotny Ryad street, Moscow, Russian Empire

Last night we were burning the candle at both ends, and this morning woke with a frightful headache. We spent the entire day on the street, leaning on each other for support and crawling our way through the city. Our beating headaches spoiled most of the day for us, but our spirits restored towards the evening, and we ordered a samovar and food to our room in preparation for Leonid’s visit, who spent the whole evening with us and taught us how to play Japanese Bridge.

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Petrogradskaya Gazeta

Petrograd, Russian Empire

Where are the city’s potatoes? The rascals have raised their prices to 55 kopecks for two ounces. With the rascals exasperating the populace with their prices for this produce and prepared to transform it into a delicacy inaccessible to the poor, people have the right to ask: “City potatoes bought in bulk from Estland [Estonia], where are you?” Why do you lie idly under wraps, why do you not go on sale to the public? It’s high time, city potatoes, for you to provide some competition to the potatoes being sold by the rascal greengrocers. Or could it be that you became a casualty of your winter journey from Estland to Petrograd? Or have you sprouted or rotted? Respond, then! Where are you, and what has befallen you?

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Alexandra Kollontai

«Turisthotell», Holmenkollen, Norway

The war’s borders have extended yet again. The world is filled with the blood and tears of mothers and wives. And there is no end in sight ...

Rotaru Vlad Matei

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Julius Martov

Zurich, Switzerland

There’s a fierce cold in the air and, even when ensconced in a café, you still can’t quite warm up properly. I’m still hatching plans to “abscond” to Geneva for a couple of weeks once I’ve got all this urgent work finished.

Comment

The New York Times

The first official expression of Russia’s attitude toward the address of President Wilson before the Senate was made today in the form of the following statement from the Foreign Office:

“Russia always has been in full sympathy with the broad humanitarian principies expressed by the President of the United States, and his message to the Senate , therefore, has made a most favorable impression upon the Russian Government. Russia will welcome all suitable measures which will help prevent a recurrence of the world war. Accordingly we can gladly indorse President Wilson’s communication.

“President Wilson’s views on free access to the seas find an advocate in Russia, because she considers it necessary to have free access to the seas''

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Leon Trotsky

1522, Vyse Ave, Bronx, NY, USA

We rented an apartment in a workers’ district, and furnished it on the instalment plan. That apartment, at eighteen dollars a month, was equipped with all sorts of conveniences that we Europeans were quite unused to: electric lights, gas cooking- range, bath, telephone, automatic service-elevator, and even a chute for the garbage. These things completely won the boys over to New York. For a time the telephone was their main interest; we had not had this mysterious instrument either in Vienna or Paris. The janitor of the house was a negro. My wife paid him three months’ rent in advance, but he gave her no receipt because the landlord had taken the receipt-book away the day before, to verify the accounts. When we moved into the house two days later, we discovered that the Negro had absconded with the rent of several of the tenants. Besides the money, we had intrusted to him the storage of some of our belongings. The whole incident upset us; it was such a bad beginning. But we found our property after all, and when we opened the wooden box that contained our crockery, we were surprised to find our money hidden away in it, carefully wrapped up in paper. The janitor had taken the money of the tenants who had already received their receipts; he did not mind robbing the landlord, but he was considerate enough not to rob the tenants. A delicate fellow, indeed. My wife and I were deeply touched by his consideration, and we always think of him gratefully. This little incident took on a symptomatic significance for me – it seemed as if a corner of the veil that concealed the “black” problem in the United States had lifted.

Rafael Padial, Stephan Wintner and 1 other

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26 January

Bertrand Russell: “The world is too ugly, and Wilson the only bright spot – a very bright one - on the horizon.”

Trotsky on New York. “Here Cubism reigns supreme on the streets, and the philosophy of the dollar reigns supreme in people’s hearts. “

A drug den is closed in Petrograd

Rosa Luxemburg

prison, Wronki, Russian Empire

When the whole world is falling to pieces, I only seek to comprehend what happened and why it happened. Beyond that, I still have everything that gives me joy: music and painting and clouds and doing botany in the spring and Mimiand you and much more besides. In short, I am immensely rich and intend to remain so until the end. Surrendering oneself to sorrow is intolerable and incomprehensible to me.

Harsh Trivedi, Marc Adam and 1 other

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Alexandre Benois with Vladimir Nabokov

38, 1st line of Vasilyevsky Island, Petrograd, Russian Empire

I tried to induce him (Nabokov) to give me some decisive answers on the question of war and peace. But in vain. Nabokov is in thrall to the idea of pacifism while simultaneously believing it “necessary to see the war through to the end”. As if this “end” were not also the end of everyone of his own ilk, and more generally speaking, the end of a culture which, berate it though we might, we ultimately love. At any rate, we cannot expect that the madman propelled by fate to the country’s very zenith will heed the voice of reason, or even simply the imperative of self-preservation – his own no less than that of the entire country with which he has been entrusted!

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Bertrand Russell

London, United Kingdom

I feel quite played out –– I don't suppose I shall come to life again till after the war. The world is so beastly –– Wilson is the one bright spot –– and he is very bright.

Greg Morrone

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Konstantin Somov

Petrograd, Russian Empire

For the first time since the New Year I painted today at the Zvantseva School. Petrov-Vodkin led the day’s session. He corrected a number of paintings, but not mine. After the session finished and the students left we argued.

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Elizaveta Naryshkina

Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

It’s bitterly cold again, so I didn’t venture out. Paid a visit to the wounded. The Latvians fought excellently and would have pushed on to Mitava, were it not for the fact that in one of our regiments, which had taken their place in the trenches, everyone ended up drinking themselves silly! Everyone without exception, starting with the officers. The soldiers wanted to continue the offensive, but there was no one to command them; they followed the example of their superiors, and the Latvians were forced to retreat!!!

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Nikolai Wrangel

Petrograd, Russian Empire

There is no real military presence in the capital. The Petrograd Garrison consists of many, too many, men, but instead of disciplined soldiers one finds only a dissolute, undisciplined, and leaderless mass of untested recruits and reservists.

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Leon Trotsky

1522, Vyse Ave, Bronx, NY, USA

Harsh Trivedi, Henry Lin and 3 others

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Maurice Paleologue

10, Kutuzova embankment, Petrograd, Russian Empire

Old Prince Kurakin, a master of necromancy, has had the satisfaction of raising the ghost of Rasputin the last few nights.

He immediately sent for Protopopov, the Minister of the Interior, and Dobrovolski, the Minister of justice; they came at once. Since then, the three of them have been in secret conclave for hours every evening, listening to the dead man's solemn words.

What an extraordinary creature old Prince Kurakin is!

With his bowed frame, bald head, hook nose, pallid complexion, piercing and haggard eyes, hollow features, halting, sepulchral voice and sinister expression, he is the typical spiritualist.

At Count Witte's funeral two years ago, he was seen gazing fixedly for several minutes at the dead man's haughty features (the coffin being open in accordance with orthodox rites). Then the sepulchral voice was heard "We'll compel you to come to us to-night!"

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Russkie Vedomosti

Moscow, Russian Empire

The Tea Shop on Bolshoi Uregshskoi Street was shut down yesterday on the orders of the governor. The tea shop, which belongs to Mr Dodesh and had been shut down once before on 17 November for failure to prevent the smoking of opium on the premises, was found to have opened again under a different name. Declaring the continuing existence of a tavern at the address to be undesirable, the governor once again ordered the tea house to be shut down and gave further instructions to ensure the establishment remained closed.

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25 January

Diaghilev finds a good assistant for Leon Bakst. His name is Pablo Picasso

“The government appears to be doing deliberately all it can to sow discontent”

The Tsar’s closest friend is horrified by his politics

Leonid Andreyev

1, Moyka embankment, Petrograd, Russian Empire

It would seem that there’s a way of getting drunk without resorting to vodka: exhaustion and autosuggestion. Throughout these days I have been positively, genuinely drunk. I find it rather agreeable.

By my reckoning, 1917 will be my death year.

George Sarl

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Serge Diaghilev Leon Bakst

Paris, France

I have found you a terrific atelier. Boards, wood, and canvas have already been purchased. I have found you an artist who will make a good assistant. It is of the utmost importance that you leave Paris together with me on 7 February.

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Nikolai Wrangel

Petrograd, Russian Empire

Ceaseless anti-war propaganda is sapping the will to fight. Many factories have been evacuated; in others, the workers are on strike. The government, which seems to be doing everything in its power to spread popular discontent, is widely despised. The Tsar’s authority is all but lost.

Rotaru Vlad Matei

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Anton Denikin

Romanian front, 4 Army, 8 Corps

Things have become extremely bad at home in Russia. They are cutting down the branch upon which they've been sitting since time immemorial.

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Vladimir Lenin

Zurich, Switzerland

At the root of the question of pacifism (a question of utmost importance for Switzerland) is the idea that the war is somehow not connected with capitalism, that it is somehow not a continuation of pre-war politics. This idea is a theoretical falsehood.

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Mikhail Rodzianko

32, Kirochnaya street, Petrograd, Russian Empire

We had hoped the murder wouldn’t be for naught – that Tsarskoye Selo would finally come to its senses, heed the warnings, or simply grow afraid. But things went in precisely the opposite direction. As if by perverse design, it was Rasputin’s supporters who were promoted.

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Nikolai Pokrovsky

Petrograd, Russian Empire

When I entered the ministry, there was still no Japanese ambassador, since the previous ambassador, Motono, had been appointed minister of foreign affairs. Incidentally, I’d been acquainted with him before, but only very slightly; despite his extremely unsightly, almost simian appearance, he came across as a very intelligent man possessed of a great deal of knowledge about Russian affairs. Motono was succeded by Viscount Uchida. He’d previously served as Minister of Foreign Affairs: a robust fellow, he struck me as a very energetic character. Of course, he was not yet familiar with Russian life. But the staff of the Japanese embassy seemed to be more adept than others at familiarising themselves with Russian affairs. This was obvious from Uchida’s dealings with people, and from the dispatches he sent to Japan, and which we intercepted. He saw, with a clear and sober eye, our internal degeneration, and saw, too, that a revolution was approaching.

Rotaru Vlad Matei

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Maurice Paleologue

10, Kutuzova embankment, Petrograd, Russian Empire

The most devoted servants of tsarism, and even some of those who form the monarch's ordinary entourage, are beginning to be alarmed at the pace of events.

I have just learned from a very reliable source that Admiral Nilov, A.D.C. General to the Emperor and one of his closest personal friends, quite recently had the courage to point out to him the whole peril of the situation; he actually went so far as to beg him to send the Empress away---as being the only thing which could still save the empire and the dynasty. Nicholas II, who is chivalrous and worships his wife, rejected the suggestion with intense scorn.

Admiral Nilov's intervention is particularly impressive because until quite recently he has always sided with the Empress. He was a close friend of Rasputin and intimately associated with the gang and is therefore largely responsible for the discredit and disgrace into which the imperial court has now fallen. But at bottom, he is honest and patriotic. At long last he has seen the abyss which is opening at Russia's feet, and he is trying---too late---to clear his conscience.

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24 January

England and France fear that Russia will betray them

Malevich holds forth on the subject of beauty

Pasternak takes advantage of the holidays by writing for two days without a break

Julius Martov

Zurich, Switzerland

The storm-clouds over Russia seem thicker than ever before. Something must emerge from this situation: either a turbulent mass movement of some kind, or else a separate peace. If the papers are anything to go by, the prospect of the latter has never been so greatly feared in England and France.

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Maria Feodorovna

Mariyinsky Palace, Kiev, Russian Empire

I enjoyed a stroll through the garden. The weather is gorgeous. It’s warm in the sun.

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Paul Klee

at work on "Gaze of a demon"

Gersthofen, Bayern, German Empire

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Kazimir Malevich

56 Reserve Infantry Division Camp, Smolensk, Russian Empire

A painting can never be based on the word "beauty", just as saying ‘2x2 = 4’ can never be beautiful.

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Elizaveta Naryshkina

Petrograd, Russian Empire

I had a visit from State Council Chairman Scheglovitov. He believes it necessary to support the government and to postpone the principal reforms until the end of the war; if they’re instigated now, he says, “everything will fall apart”. I told him I was of the same opinion, but that, in my view, certain compromises should be sought as well.

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Boris Pasternak

Ushakovs' chemical plant, Tykhie Gory, Vyatsk guberniya, Russian Empire

I sprang to my feet in the middle of night, having seen the whole thing from beginning to end. Unable to sleep any further, I got up and began to write; I wrote for two days straight, sleeping no more than a couple of hours each night and reprising my work immediately on awaking. But, the holidays being over, I needed to go into the office, and had to put the thing aside. I stopped work on the 20th and spent three days reworking the thing. I haven’t yet given it a name.

Elena Kl

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Nicholas Roerich

at work on "Upinniemi"

Relander's, Yuhinlahti Bay, Russian Empire

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23 January

Rasputin’s murderer is venerated as if he were a saint

“The Jews shall dictate their own rules to all other peoples”

The day-to-day cares of a revolutionary in exile – to buy galoshes, or not to buy them?

Mikhail Rodzianko

32, Kirochnaya street, Petrograd, Russian Empire

The time has come to speak the truth, however unpleasant it may be.

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Maxim Gorky

23, Kronversky ave., Petrograd, Russian Empire

I’m in Piter- the weather is good here, it doesn’t feel like Piter at all.

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Nikolai Pokrovsky with Maurice Paleologue

Petrograd, Russian Empire

Maurice Paléologue, the French ambassador, is a very lively and affable man. An old bachelor and lover of the fair sex, he’s a jovial fellow, just like all Frenchmen. He knows but little of the affairs of the country in which he has resided for several years.

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Elizaveta Naryshkina with Woodrow Wilson

Petrograd, Russian Empire

Wilson is proposing peace (for a second time), as well as an accord between all countries including America: an international army or some kind of international institution for global security. What sort of institution would this be? It would, of course, consist entirely of Jews. Which would enable them to dictate their laws to all other nations.

Rotaru Vlad Matei

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Edvard Munch

Achill villa, Oslo, Norway

In a therapy session

Giovanna Henrique Marcelino

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Julius Martov

Zurich, Switzerland

I firmly resolved not to buy any galoshes this winter, having previously acquired some warm woollen stockings; now that much of the winter is behind us, there’s probably no point.

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Nicholas Roerich

at work on "Holy Lake"

Relander's, Yuhinlahti Bay, Russian Empire

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Maurice Paleologue

10, Kutuzova embankment, Petrograd, Russian Empire

I have dined at Tsarskoïe-Selo with the Grand Duke Paul's family party.

When we rose from table, the Grand Duke took me into a distant room so that we could talk as man to man. He made me the confidante of all his griefs and anxieties.

From his emotion and the tone of his words I could see that he is terribly upset that his son Dimitri should have been involved in the prologue of the drama. . He continued umprompted:

"Isn't it dreadful that, all over the Empire, candles are being lit before the ikon of Saint Dimitri and my son is being styled the liberator of Russia!"

The notion that his son might be proclaimed Tsar at any time does not seem to have entered his head. He is what he has always been, a paragon of loyalty and chivalry.

He then told me that when he heard at Mohilev of Rasputin's murder, he immediately returned to Tsarskoïe-Selo.

Next morning the Grand Duke Paul went to Petrograd to see his son at the palace on the Nevsky Prospekt. He asked him:

"Did you kill Rasputin?

"No."

"Are you prepared to swear it on the holy ikon of the Virgin and your mother's photograph?"

"Yes."

The Grand Duke Paul then handed him an ikon of the Virgin and a photograph of the late Grand Duchess Alexandra:

"Now: swear that you didn't kill Rasputin."

"I swear it."

As he told me this incident, the Grand Duke made a really touching picture of nobility, truth and dignity.

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22 January

Charlie Chaplin is injured in a workplace accident

Gorky begs Bunin to write something for a new paper

The Chairman of the Russian Parliament insists that the Empress stop interfering in politics

Rurik Ivnev

Near the church at Semenovskaya, Russian Empire

From what I heard of a conversation: he said “I’ll slit my throat”, to which she replied “Be my guest”’.

Letitia Rydjeski, Stephan Wintner

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Charlie Chaplin

Edendale, Los Angeles, USA

While I was pulling a street-lamp over the big bully to gas him, the head of the lamp collapsed and its sharp metal edge fell across the bridge of my nose, necessitating two surgical stitches.

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Maxim Gorky Ivan Bunin

23, Kronversky ave., Petrograd, Russian Empire

Dear Ivan Alekseyevich!

Allow me to request your collaboration on the newspaper Luch [Ray]. I shall say only that the newspaper promises to be really rather respectable and literary-oriented. Conditions? Whatever you see fit. I would be most happy if you could contribute some poetry or a short story towards the end of January.

You are a good friend and have never refused me your help. I hope you shall not refuse it on this occasion either.

Rotaru Vlad Matei

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Mikhail Rodzianko

32, Kirochnaya street, Petrograd, Russian Empire

As you will have gleaned from my report, Your Highness, I believe the situation to be more perilous and critical than ever before. Sentiments across the country are such that we can expect the gravest of shocks. It is no secret that the Empress, acting in parallel with you, is issuing orders regarding the administration of the country, and that undesirables are quickly dismissed from their posts whenever she wills it – to be replaced by utterly unprepared individuals.

Nicholas II

Give me facts: there are no facts as would confirm your statements.

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Aleksey Tolstoy

Minsk, Russian Empire

Literature — pure art — is the clear wine of life. What then will I do when this wine is stirred up and wanders about, when the devil himself cannot grasp whether it is tar or honey.

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Alexandra Kollontai

Atlantic ocean, aboard the steamer Bergensfjord

The Atlantic News reports that the United States has entered the war on the side of the allies… one cannot believe the Atlantic News. Rumours are reported as authoritative. But the fact remains. A constant watch is kept from the mast. The passengers are anxious. They’re afraid to go to bed… As for me, I’d actually like to live through something “serious”. As a matter of curiosity. And I feel “unafraid of anything”.

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21 January

Grand Duchess Anastasia: “The King of Romania came to see us. Nothing interesting happened.”

The Empress’s maid of honour gives an account of a mishap at a festive dinner

The Tsar’s brother discusses the situation in the country with the leader of the opposition

Mikhail Larionov

finished making mechanical costumes for the ballet “Natural Histories" by Jules Renan with music by Maurice Ravel

Italy, Roma, Piazza della Minerva, Hotel Minerva

Greg Morrone

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Alexander Blok

The 13th engineering and construction squad of the Union of Zemstvos and Towns, Pinsk marshes, Minsk guberniya, Russian Empire

All day I’ve sat at work, almost completely alone.

Rafal Redeloveski

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Nicholas II

Alexander Palace, Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

After liturgy I went to meet Karol – the Romanian crown prince – and brought him home. He breakfasted with us, then I conversed with him at length. Went for a stroll with Maria and Anastasia. A slight frost in the air.

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Grand Duchess Anastasia

Alexander Palace, Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

Life goes on as before. Lessons started today. The Romanian king has arrived. No happenings of note. I sit and stare out of the window.

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Mathilde Kschessinska

Kshessinska mansion, Petrograd, Russian Empire

The opera chorus had chosen Fenella for its benefit performance, and asked me to take the leading dumb role in the opera.

I practised with Fokine, who did away with the conventional mime and gave new life to the heroine. It was the first production of this work on the Imperial stage, and there was a great deal of talk about it in theatrical circles. Some said that Fenella brought bad luck, and quoted numerous precedents to support their claim, including one which I remember very well. Fenella was being performed in a private theatre, and Grimaldi had invited me to come to see her in the part.The performance was quite uneventful, and I returned to Strelna. But when I opened the newspaper next morning, I read that the theatre had been burnt down during the night.

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Sophie Buxhoeveden

Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

During this second stay a slight stir was caused at Court by the visit ofthe Crown Prince Carol of Roumania—his second visit to Russia. This was the last time a State dinner was given. It was marked by the first official appearance of the Grand Duchess Marie, the Emperor's third daughter. She looked extremely pretty in her pale blue dress, wearing the diamonds that her parents gave to each of their daughters on her sixteenth birthday. Poor child! she felt that the world was coming to an end and that she was disgraced in its eyes for ever, when she slipped in her new high-heeled shoes and fell down as she was entering the dining-hall, on the arm of a tall Grand Duke.

Rotaru Vlad Matei

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Filippo Marinetti

promoted to a second lieutenant

Udine, Italy

Now commands a group of armoured vehicles

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Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich

32, Kirochnaya street, Petrograd, Russian Empire

I should like to talk to you about what’s going on, and to ask your advice as to how I ought to proceed. We understand the situation all too well.

Monica Cullinan, Rotaru Vlad Matei

Mikhail Rodzianko

The Government and Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna are leading Russia towards a separate peace, dragging her into infamy, and delivering us into the hands of Germany. The nation shall not tolerate this; were it to be confirmed – and the circulation of rumours to that effect is already bad enough – the most terrible revolution would break out: a revolution that would sweep away the throne, the dynasty, all of you and all of us. There’s still time to remedy the situation and save Russia, and, even now, your brother’s tsardom could yet reach unprecedented heights and glory, but, for this to be the case, the entire direction of government policy must be transformed. We must appoint such ministers as would be trusted by the country at large and would not offend national sentiments. Lamentably, I am obliged to tell you that this would become a possibility only if the Tsarina were eliminated. She exerts an adverse influence on all appointments , including even those in the army. As the Tsar’s only brother, Your Highness, you must tell him the whole truth; you must draw his attention to the damaging interference of Alexandra Fyodorovna, popularly regarded as a Germanophile far removed from Russia’s interests.

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