27 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

A Declaration of the Rights of Soldiers, dated May 24th and signed by Kerenski, is published. This contains no new concession to licence, but confirms those already granted, such as permission to wear mufti when off duty, the abolition of compulsory saluting and of summary punishment, and shows that Kerenski is not going to take any practical steps to restore discipline.

There is also published an “ Order for the Offensive of the Army and Fleet,” dated the 25th, in which Kerenski writes that “ without discipline there can be no safety ” and appeals to the ” freest army and navy in the world ” to prove that “ in freedom there is strength and not weakness.”

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I telegraphed that I feared the situation was desperate. The Ambassador told Tereshchenko that he could not blame me for pessimism when the Assistant Minister of War made such statements.

A battalion commander of the XVIIIth Corps told me that his companies were still 150 strong. None of his men had deserted, but everything in rear ha.d gone, transport drivers, depot units, etc. His men are absolutely without boots and are wasting away from sickness. He said he looked upon the Russian army as finished, and Russia’s existence as an independent power ended.

I dined with R , who threw out dark hints of a

counter-revolution. He asked if we could supply arms for a brigade at Arkhangel, but I reminded him of the fact that we were in alliance with the Provisional Government.

Then he said that he foresaw that Great Britain and France would make peace and would establish joint control over Russia!

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✍ Also today

Alexander Zamaraev

Totma, Vologodskaya guberniya, Russian Empire

Sunday. Finally, the first warm day of the year. Something like spring. 29 rubles have been collected to support the army and the new government.

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Nicholas II

Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

It was in different surroundings that we celebrated the 21st anniversary of my coronation! The weather was 15 degrees in the shade. Until Mass I took a walk with Alexis. During the day from 2:00 until 4:30 we spent the time out in the garden; I went for a ride in the canoe, and in the boat; and I worked for a while in the vegetable garden, where I prepared the new beds, and later we were on the island. After tea and during the evening I read.

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4 Like

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Alexander Blok

57, Ofitserskaya street, Petrograd, Russian Empire

The times are such, the situation is such, that you don’t know what will happen tomorrow; everything is charged with electricity, and so am I.

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3 Like

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Maxim Gorky

23, Kronversky ave., Petrograd, Russian Empire

The true essence and meaning of culture lies in an organic aversion to everything that is dirty, base, false, or rude, that humiliates people and causes them to suffer. We must teach ourselves to hate suffering; only then will we annihilate it. We must teach ourselves at least a bit to love people the way they are, and we must passionately love people the way they will be.

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4 Like

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Vladimir Dzhunkovskiy

Pavlovschina, Russian Empire

The endemic desire I have observed lately to be sent to the infirmary leads me to an extremely sorrowful line of thought: isn’t this a hidden kind of desertion? If open desertion amounts to a crime, then hidden, deceptive desertion, such the simulation of an illness, must amount to a disgrace.

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Petrograd Soviet of Workers and Soldiers Deputies

Tauride Palace, Petrograd, Russian Empire

1/3

Social poster, 1900s

Attention all citizens!

In recent days, both in Petrograd and in many other places in Russia, a rise in drunkenness has been observed. Drunkards have been appearing on the streets, in street wagons, in factories, and in the barracks. Vodka has appeared in the cities and in the countryside, on the home front and on the battlefront. Drunkenness has become a foundation for atrocities: fights, violence, pogroms. See more

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