24 May 1917. Alfred Knox

Petrograd, Russian Empire

Balaban tells me that the “ General Lieutenant,” as he calls him, did not attempt to teach the eighty commanders of units who met last night and the night before, but sat and listened while they discussed discipline, etc., in the usual manner, without plan and without arriving at any conclusion. Balaban was at his dinner when I went to see him at 3 p.m. Не was constantly interrupted by officers while he ate the usual Russian meal of thick soup, cutlets and tea.

While we talked, a draft company passed with red banners and without any sembance of order. I asked : “ Do you think that men that leave for the front in order like that will fight when they get there ? Do you imagine that the officers at the front will be glad to see them arrive ? ”

An article in the Pravda of the 23rd ends : “ Comrades . . Russian soldiers ! Are you willing to fight for this, that the English capitalists should rob Mesopotamia and Palestine? Are you willing to support the Russian Government of Lvov, Chernov, Tereshchenko, Tseretelli, tied to the interests of the capitalists and afraid to speak the truth ? ”

At the Embassy this morning I saw a telegram to the effect that the War Cabinet was sending out Mr. Henderson at the head of a special mission, as it considered it essential to get into touch with the Russian Socialists. It was suggested that the Ambassador should take some weeks’ leave, returning to England to report on the situation. This will do no good. It is evidently thought that it is possible to appease and to win over the Extreme Party—Lenin and his followers. The Extreme Party is either German-paid or so fanatical that no one, who is in favour of the continuance of the war, has a shadow of a chance of its confidence. The Ambassador’s visit to England will be looked on as a great victory for the German party. Some days previously I had telegraphed pointing out the increase of socialistic and peace influence, and the danger that the anti-Allied agitation might so increase as to make a separate peace a question of weeks. I asked, as the only chance, and even that a poor one, if it were not possible to reconsider our agreements with the Allies in order to show that our vital aims in the war were something that even Russian Socialists could fight for.

Proof that the Entente ideals were something finer than the proposed partition of Asia Minor would have deprived the Internationalists of a useful plank in their platform, but in the light of after events I am now certain that the rot in the Russian army had already gone too far and no appeal to any idealism would have induced the men to fight.

Writers like Mr. Wells, who have attacked the attitude of the Allied diplomatic representatives in Petrograd, have only shewn their complete ignorance of the situation. The few poor overworked British diplomats in Petrograd had no power to dictate the war policy of Great Britain. They only did their best in Petrograd, as their duty was, in the interests of that policy, while England was fighting for her life and Mr. Wells’ friend, Maxim Gorki, was daily attacking England in his paper, the New Life, as effectually as if he were in German pay.

We can claim that we “saw it through,” and our task was a less pleasant one than Mr. Britling’s.

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Lyubov Mendeleeva-Blok Alexander Blok

Pskov, Russian Empire

Today is Ascension, and I got up early at 7 o' clock and went to Detinets; there are birch trees and lilacs there, green grass, on the remains of the wall, far under the legs of Great Pskov, from all sides the white Church and the blue sky merged, and all was well with me. I only desperately wished that you were there and saw it.

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Vladimir Lenin

Petrograd, Russian Empire

Now that “socialists” have become members of the cabinet, things will be different, the defencists have been assuring us. It did not take more than a few days to reveal the falsity of these assurances.

What does Mr. Tereshchenko, the new Minister of Foreign Affairs, the associate of Skobelev and Tsereteli, have to say on this question? See more

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Nikolai Bukharin

Moscow, Russian Empire

How can we find a way out of the current situation? In the first place, we must put an end to the slaughter, and return the factory benches and fields to those who toil in the cities and the countryside. Then we must rebuild Russia’s finances and treasury. And this can only be done by refusing to pay the loans incurred by the old government. This will anger the bankers of the Allied Nations deeply, but the Russian people is not obliged to render service to bankers - either Russian or foreign. See more

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Sergey Prokofiev

Apartment house, 122, Fontanka embankment, Petrograd, Russian Empire

Now, everyone is so busy with the revolution that, rightly, no one is going to new operas.

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Alexander Kerensky

Finland

I travelled to Helsingfors and Sveaborg. Not far from these two ports, our “large” navy (of dreadnoughts, frigates and cruisers) stood anchored in the Gulf of Finland. I spent two days there, attending many meetings, both public and behind closed doors. At the public meetings I was often openly attacked by Bolsheviks; during the private meetings I was given to hear very harsh criticism from a number of officers, whose lives, watched over by the vigilant eyes of the sailors’ committees, have descended into utter nightmare. See more

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Leon Trotsky

Tauride Palace

Lenin calls Kerensky a swaggerer. Kerensky was and always will be an accidental figure, a placeholder for the real men of history. Each new and mighty wave of the revolution, sucking in masses of the untested and inexperienced, invariably throws up such fleeting heroes, only for these to be instantly blinded by their newfound radiance.

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George Buchanan

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

I received a telegram from Lord Robert Cecil, who was then in charge of the Foreign Ofl&ce, informing me that the War Cabinet were impressed with the necessity of creating a more favour- able attitude among Russian Socialists and workmen towards the war, and of rectifying the false impressions that were being circulated in Russia about our aims. Feeling that this could be done with better chance of success by a Labour leader than by anyone else, they had decided to send out Mr. Henderson on a special mission. See more

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The New York Times

The ‘Hymn of Free Russia’, heard for the first time in America yesterday afternoon at a benefit concert for the repatriated Siberian exiles, and overshadowing for the moment some of Russia’s greatest music in the same program, stirred an audience that filled Aeolian Hall, and left it excited as perhaps no other musical event has thrilled this public since the war. See more

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Nicholas II

Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

It was a nice light day. I took a short walk until Mass. After breakfast I went with Alix to visit E. A. Naryshkin, who apparently had pneumonia. We worked in the vegetable garden and perspired a lot. I read until 7:15 and then for the first time I went for a ride with the children on bicycles. It was very pleasant to get out and breathe the evening air.

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23 May

What the Tsar’s family had for luncheon today

Drunk soldiers threaten to rape the Tsarina’s lady-in-waiting

Socialists from all over the world travel to Petrograd