17 March 1917. Bruce Lockhart

Non-fiction

Project 1917 is a series of events that took place a hundred years ago as described by those involved. It is composed only of diaries, letters, memoirs, newspapers and other documents

Bruce Lockhart

Moscow, Russian Empire

The revolution had begun on a Monday. On the Saturday I took part in my official capacity in a grand review of the revolutionary troops on the Red Square. It was an inspiring sight –40,000 troops celebrating a newly-won freedom by a march-past executed with perfect precision and order. And yet in spite of the cloudless sky and sparkling air I had a feeling as though I were in a prison. That vast Red Square, which has witnessed so much repression of freedom from the time of the executions of Ivan the Terrible that grim background of high red wall furnished by the Kremlin – these are no symbols of liberty… And if there was any tendency to over-enthusiasm on my part (and I am a romanticist who hates all governments by instinct), there were the generals – Liberal patriots like Obolesheff, who had just returned from the front – to supply the necessary correction. Discipline had disappeared. Men no longer saluted their officers. Deserters were seeking the villages in their thousands. The floodgates of three hundred years had been swept away. The tide was not to be stemmed by any individual effort until it had spent itself. Guided skilfully into less dangerous channels it might have been. But that was not the method of the Allies, who had greeted the revolution first with feigned enthusiasm and then with increasing alarm. They wanted – and on the part of the military advisers the wish was natural – things to be put back where they were before. And, unfortunately, there is no "as you were" either in time or in revolution.

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Summoned into their presence, I found Maria Fyodorovna weeping uncontrollably in her seat; he, meanwhile, was on his feet, stock-still, gaze fixed on the floor, cigarette (naturally) in hand. We embraced. I didn’t know what service I could render him. His calmness testified to the fact that he was firmly convinced of the rectitude of his decision, although he did reproach his brother Mikhail Alexandrovich for leaving Russia without an Emperor when he refused the throne. See more

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Yakub Ganetsky

Stockholm, Sweden

Receiving in the post a book from Switzerland, I guessed that I’d find a letter inside the cover… And so it proved. I found a little note penned by Ilyich... as well as a photograph of him. See more

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Alexander Kerensky

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

The third session of the Provisional Government. We met at the ministry of internal affairs, the location of Prince Lvov’s residence. We sat, sensing the grave glances of a dozen of former ministers of the old regime, whose portraits were hanging on the walls. I believe that it was there, surrounded by the portraits of former rulers and not by the excited mob in the Duma, that each of us suddenly realised for the first time the full degree of his involvement in what has happened in Russia in the last couple of days, and the horrible weight of responsibility that lay on us. See more

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Kazimir Malevich

on the new government

Moscow, Russian Empire

The meeting of artists at the Gorky's place

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Alexandra Kollontai Vladimir Lenin

«Turisthotell», Holmenkollen, Norway

Dear friends, what an exciting time! . . . We’re all "going crazy" here. We don’t sleep. We don’t sit still. We run around encouraging the Norwegians to rebel. It's hard not to immediately go to Russia! Your slogan "civil war" has fully paid off! I see it everywhere. I want to tightly, firmly shake your hand. Anyway, you must be high spirits. Rejoice! All the best to both of you!

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Nadezhda Krupskaya with Vladimir Lenin

Spiegelgasse, 14, Zurich, Switzerland

From the very first minutes, as soon as the news of the February Revolution came, Ilyich began to rush to Russia. It is necessary to go illegally, there are no legal ways. But how?Ilyich couldn’t sleep from the moment the news of the revolution came, and at night the most improbable of his plans were built. You can fly on an airplane. But this could only be conjured up in a sleepless, hallucinating state of mind. When it was said out loud, the impossibility, the unreality of this plan became clear. It is necessary to get a passport of some foreigner from a neutral country, a Swede is the best: a Swede will cause less suspicion. See more

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Alexandra Feodorovna

Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

Sweet, beloved Treasure.

What relief and joy it was to hear your precious voice only one heard so badly and one listens now to all our conversations. This morning only read the manifest and later another from M. People are beside themselves with misery and adoration for my Angel. A movement is beginning amongst the troops. Fear nothing from Sunny, she does not move -- does not exist. Only I feel and foresee glorious sunshine ahead. See more

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16 March

“Our great-grandchildren will speak of these days as of the beginning of a new era in the history of humanity”

The Empress learns of her husband’s abdication

Nicholas II’s brother refuses the throne

1917. Zombies, drugs, and progress

Why did the Russian Empire collapse

From one revolution to another

Russia in 1917

-14

in Petrograd

-14

in Moscow