11 May 1917. Alfred Knox

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

Alfred Knox

Petrograd, Russian Empire

Khlopotov, M. Guchkov’s private secretary, and Blair lunched. Khlopotov was very vigorous

in his assertion that the French and the British were making a great mistake in regarding the

Russian army as a “ wash-out ” (placing a cross on the Russian army). I allowed that an

offensive, if successful, would bring everything right, but entirely disagreed with him when

he argued that an unsuccessful offensive would not hasten the end of the Russian army. I told

him that I gave the Russian army two months to exist if the offensive proved unsuccessful.

He evidently imagines we do not read the Russian papers ! Last night in the Duma the

Minister of War said that the forces weakening and disintegrating the Russian army were

moving more rapidly than the forces of healthy reconstruction, and Alexyeev, when asked by

a Press interviewer whether he thought that the Entente would win, replied that the Allies

thought so, but “ the Russians unfortunately only dreamed of a quiet and peaceful life.

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A Marxist should tell the people the truth.

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Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris, France

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