Alfred Knox. Project1917

Petrograd, Russian Republic

07.01.18

We left Petrograd on the morning of January 7th. The party consisted of the Ambassador, Lady Georgina and Miss Meriel Buchanan, Admiral Stanley, Commander Spenser-Cooper and Paymaster Collis, Majors Scale, Neilson and myself. See more

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Alfred Knox

Petrograd, Russian Republic

03.01.18

There has been a hitch in the peace negotiations. The Pravda (“Truth’’) publishes articles such as “ The Mask Torn Off,” and as the Novaya Jizn ("The New Life”) says, makes big eyes ofinnocence!! The hitch has come over the interpretation of the principle, “No annexations”. See more

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Alfred Knox

Petrograd, Russian Republic

23.12.17

Lunching with some friends one day, I was given some excellent Madeira, and noticed that the bottle came from the Imperial cellar. My hostess’s little boy of five, while playing in the Alexandrovski garden with his nurse, had found two bottles in the snow.

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Alfred Knox

21.12.17

This was, however, only a local remedy. “ The freest army in the world ” turned its attention to private cellars, and for weeks there was drunken shooting every day in one district or another. The Left Press wrote that this cellar-looting was the result of bourgeois propaganda, which of course was nonsense. It was simply the natural result of removing all control from armed men, of continuing to feed them, and of giving them nothing to do.

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Alfred Knox

Petrograd, Russian Republic

05.12.17

The Germans categorically refused to accept terms which they said could only be applied to a beaten country. They then put up their own terms. See more

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Alfred Knox

Petrograd, Russian Republic

04.12.17

Both Manikovski and Marushevski were arrested at 5 a.m. yesterday (Monday).

Manikovski’s offence is that when released by the Bolsheviks to take charge of the office of the Minister of War he sent a circular telegram telling his subordinates that they could only be removed from their posts with his consent. See more

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Alfred Knox

Petrograd, Russian Republic

03.12.17

I dined with the W-s. They say that Smolni talks of arresting the Ambassador, Thornhill and me. Thornhill “ because he pushes his nose in everywhere,” and me as the " ame damnee ” of the Embassy. See more

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Alfred Knox

02.12.17

I saw Marushevski to-day. He told me that he had gone to the Smolni at 3 p.m. on Saturday. Trotski threatened him with the “ Trubelskoe Bastion ” (that is, with imprisonment in the Fortress of Peter and Paul) if he did not at once detail General Staff officers to take part in the negotiations for a separate armistice. See more

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Alfred Knox

Petrograd, Russian Republic

01.12.17

Little Proctor has arrived from Arkhangel in a deuce of a panic. He says that the Ambassador and his family and all British subjects should at once go home via Bergen, and that the Embassy should move to Arkhangel to escape the massacre that will take place when the northern armies descend in hunger on Petrograd to loot and murder. See more

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George Buchanan

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

27.11.17

Trotsky has communicated to the Allied military attaches a note asserting that his Government never desired a separate but a general peace, but that it was determined to have peace. It will, the note concluded, be the fault of the Allied Governments if Russia has after all to make a separate peace. See more

I have come to the conclusion that the only thing for us to do is to faire bonne mine a mauvais jeu. Acting on an idea originally suggested by Knox, I have telegraphed to the Foreign Office as follows:

"I share the view, already expressed by General Knox, that the situation here has become so desperate that we must reconsider our attitude.

In my opinion, the only safe course left to us is to give Russia back her word and to tell her people that, realizing how worn out they are by the war and the disorganization inseparable from a great revolution, we leave it to them to decide whether they will purchase peace on Germany's terms or fight on with the Allies, who are determined not to lay down their arms till binding guarantees for the world's peace have been secured. It has always been my one aim and object to keep Russia in the war, but one cannot force an exhausted nation to fight against its will. If anything could tempt Russia to make one more effort, it would be the knowledge that she was perfectly free to act as she pleased, without any pressure from the Allies. There is evidence to show that Germany is trying to make an irreparable breach between us and Russia, so as to pave the way for the German protectorate which she hopes eventually to establish over the latter. For us to hold to our pound of flesh and to insist on Russia fulfilling her obligations, under the 1914 Agreement, is to play Germany's game. Every day that we keep Russia in the war against her will does but embitter her people against us. If we release her from those obligations, the national resentment will turn against Germany if peace is delayed or purchased on too onerous terms. For us it is a matter of life and death to checkmate this latest German move, for a Russo-German Alliance after the war would constitute a perpetual menace to Europe, and more especially to Great Britain.

I am not advocating any transaction with the Bolshevik Government. On the contrary, I believe that the adoption of the course which I have suggested will take the wind out of their sails, as they will no longer be able to reproach the Allies with driving Russian soldiers to the slaughter for their Imperialistic aims."

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Alfred Knox

Petrograd, Russian Republic

18.11.17

Kirilenko’s new Declaration of the Rights of Soldiers was read at the general meeting of the Soviet last night, but was not published as the majority of the Soviet thought it should be first elaborated in detail. See more

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Alfred Knox

14.11.17

Verkhovski came to see the Ambassador, and I interpreted. Incidentally, he said that Kerenski had not wanted to let the Cossacks suppress the rising “ on their own,” as he knew that would be “ the end of the Revolution.” I suggested that “ perhaps it would have saved Russia.” See more

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Alfred Knox

13.11.17

At midday on the 13th, a council of war was held and the opinion of Stankevich that negotiations should be opened with the Bolsheviks prevailed. Savinkov denounced this decision as a crime against the country and left Gatchina that evening to try to obtain help from the XVIIth Corps, then at Nevel. See more

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Alfred Knox

08.11.17

It was truly said that the Russian sailors killed many more Russian officers during the eight months after the Revolution than they had killed German officers in the preceding three and a half years of war.

#Revolution. Online

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Alfred Knox

06.11.17

About 1,000 women marched past the Embassy this morning on their way to be inspected by Kerenski on the Palace Square. They made the best show of any soldiers I have seen since the Revolution, but it gave me a lump in the throat to see them, and the utter swine of “ men " soldiers jeering at them.

#Revolution. Online