22 May 1917. Alfred Knox

Petrograd, Russian Empire

Kerenski came to see the Ambassador at 6 p.m. yesterday. Young Lockhart interpreted during the first part of the interview, I being only called up later, because, I fancy, the Ambassador thought I might “ go for Kerenski.”

Kerenski said that he would go often to the front. We insisted on the necessity of his speaking to the troops detailed for the attack on the eve of the offensive. He is working by propaganda. “ The best orators and literature are being sent to the army. The Sovyet is exhorting the army to carry out all the orders of the Provisional Government and not opposing the latter, as it formerly did.”

Kerenski calmly says that the great difficulty he has to contend with is the “ fright ” of the officers, who “ do not realise the position and are not rising to the occasion.” This comes well from him. It is his duty to restore the April-May, 1917 officers’ prestige. Has he taken any steps to do this ? He will fail as Guchkov failed.

At Helsingfors, according to Kerenski, all is well. The fleet is working well. The U-boats have gone out to the German zone, the torpedo-boats are preparing to go out, and in a few days the battleships will leave for their firing practice ! According to him all is for the best in this best of all possible worlds. We will wait and see whether his eloquence and the adventurer and convict whom he is placing in charge of the District here will be able to induce the troops to work and the dvorniks to sweep the streets.

Regarding the formation of Polish units, Kerenski said he was opposed to the idea of separate Polish regiments, first because the mass of the Polish people were not Socialists, and secondly because such a formation would cause disorganisation in the Russian army. The second objection is a natural one, but it was characteristic of the speaker that he placed it only second. I pointed out that in many regiments at the front the Russians had run away and had left the Poles to fight alone. He said: “ Let them fight!

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Lev Tikhomirov

Sergiev Posad, Russian Empire

Nowadays, as is obvious, we have already seen the emigration of the propertied classes abroad, specifically to Sweden. With the end of the war this emigration can only increase.

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Nikolai Berdyaev

Bol'shoy Vlasyevskiy Lane, 4, Moscow, Russian Empire

We can criticise our Provisional Government from different points of view, but there is no doubt that it has a highly developed sense of responsibility. It assumed responsibility for the great whole, called Russia, at the most difficult moment of Russian history and is ready to bear this responsibility to the end. It has no self-sufficient love of power, no self-assertion, no dictatorship.

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Kazimir Malevich

Moscow, Russian Empire

All Governments are concerned with creating a menu, under what freedom sauce to fry in front of the people a different tribe, so that it was both, eaten and free. A menu of an arrested messiah has been revised. Unanimously, it was decided to leave in the menu regions that looked like Siberian prisons (and arrests for those who did not want to eat according to the drawn up menu); to the menu were added words, “freedom of conscience, speech and press.”

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Maxim Gorky

23, Kronversky ave., Petrograd, Russian Empire

Yes, we are living in a disturbing, dangerous time—to this, with gloomy certainty, testify the pogroms in Samara, Minsk, Yuriev, the savage escapades of soldiers at railroad stations and a whole myriad of other instances of debauchery, stupefaction, and impudence. See more

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Nadezhda Krupskaya

Petrograd, Russian Empire

Went to a Central Committee hearing. Got to know the crowd a bit better from up close, observed the Petersburg Committee at work. I also found myself very interested in the adolescents, the working youth. Those kids are all caught up in the movement. Among them were supporters of a range of different parties—Bolsheviks and Mensheviks, SRs and anarchists. See more

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Maximilian Voloshin

Voloshin's house, 43, Marine street, Koktebel, Crimea

Bernard Shaw was right when he remarked 'how popular socialism would be, if there were no socialists!'

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Leon Trotsky

Petrograd, Russian Empire

Not only the boys, but my wife and I as well felt startled in the streets of Petrograd at the sounds of the Russian language and the Russian signs on the walls. We fled the capital ten years ago. Back then, our oldest was just over a year old, and our youngest was born in Vienna. See more

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Nicholas II

Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

It was a very nice sunny day. I took a walk for almost an hour with Alexis. During the day we again worked on the vegetable garden; to dig up the beds was difficult because of the dampness of the soil after the snow. I read Kuropatkinsky book with interest until dinner and during the evening a French book aloud to the girls.

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21 May

Gorky: "Here, in Russia, you should always talk about culture - you should talk endlessly"

Poet Alexander Blok applied for a job of investigator

Cocteau: "Critics have become angry with us, even though they have not seen or heard the work"