“We are living in a critical time. Today everything was resolved. I see an endless war, and a rapidly “reddening” Europe – or indeed a pure revolution. I am sure that the governments are too weak, too cowardly to put an end to this. And I foresee that a Europe, which is already drowning in blood, will tomorrow go ablaze!
Dear Sir Zweig! I have just finished reading “Jeremiah;” this poem has impressed me deeply and powerfully. Its mood and honesty are seemingly making you closer and dearer to me. I acutely felt its timeliness, and I would really want the individual, fundamentally important points—namely the last scene—to be disseminated widely.
Can we escape this horror? I’m scared of the war that will follow this war. The wars of the classes, nations, and religion, escape from taxes, restrictions, and forced measures. I see only one way: withdrawal into oneself, into nature, away from the big city. This is the first thing I must do after the war.
I met him in the evening with GilbeauxHenri Gilbeaux is a French socialist poet, publicist and politician.. He’d become younger, more energetic. After all, the triumph of the Bolsheviks belonged to him too. He told us unbelievable stories about the Bolsheviks in Bern’s community hall until 2 in the morning. He talked about how the “sealed carriage” travelled across Germany.
The Austrian people suffer greatly. There is a shortage of the most rudimentary supplies. There is no milk anymore. The children die like flies. Tuberculosis is eating at Germany and Austria. The cities are in a dire state. Poverty is even felt in how people are dressed—everything is patched and ragged. Citizens of Berlin and Leipzig are the worst off. Hungary does not suffer at all, thanks to its rich resources. The uneven distribution of food leads to envy and enmity among various provinces. The Holy Alliance of two nations of Austria-Hungary, which impressed the Allies during the first years of the war, no longer exists.
This is a palace coup instigated by English and French diplomats to frustrate the Czar’s attempts to secure peace with Germany, this is not a revolution of the people who seek peace and rights for themselves.
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