Progress was, however, much interfered with by the indiscipline and stupidity of the men. The left regiment of the 16th Division had been allotted a passive task. While the artillery preparation was in progress, the Divisional Commander was informed by the regimental committee that the men refused to move because only two passages had been prepared for them through the wire, while eight passages had been prepared for the neighbouring regiment. To destroy the wire that worried these men much shell had to be wasted that would have been otherwise used against the enemy’s trenches. The extra passages were not required, and the enemy’s trenches being insufficiently destroyed the regiment that had raised the objection suffered more heavily than it need have done in the attack.
Further to the right in the XLIXtli Corps, the 24th Regiment of the 6th Finland Division refused to attack, and so exposed the 6th and 8th Regiments of the 2nd Finland Division to heavy counter-attacks in which they lost twenty-five and thirty officers respectively.
Today is the great triumph of the revolution. The Russian revolutionary army went with tremendous enthusiasm on the offensive.
Heat. The earth is like a stone. Nothing grows. I went to Medvedka and piled some manure.
During the night it continued to rain, reviving the air. The day started wonderfully. We walked to Ifess. At 2 o'clock we went to the park to get good soil and then worked in the vegetable garden. Before dinner I helped the gardener water the flower beds. Towards evening the temperature dropped to 9 degrees and there was a light breeze.
And what if Russia has lain too long frozen in the mire of slavery? What if she froze solid, and now, having thawed out, is decomposing rather than coming back to life? I cannot, I don’t want to believe that this is so. But the era is singularly arduous. See more
An unfathomable and unnecessary demonstration of the strength of the “proletariat” is once again set to take place today. The business life of the city has died off, and tens of thousands of people will take to the streets without a clear understanding of why and for what sake they’re doing so... See more
Today in Petrograd there is a large demonstration: they are carrying posters with writings, “Down with the government!”, “Down with war!” Same here: accompanied by the sounds of the Marseillaise they marched through the whole yard to the tombs of the “victims of the revolution”!!! I think that the demonstration was mostly manifested in silly speeches.
I am terribly worried about all the Cadet and many Jewish, worried about the welfare, ineptness and unwillingness to radically reorganize the structure of the soul and head. Here, at the heart of the Revolution, this, of course, is especially noticeable: eternal rumors and eternal panic (in the Cadets it is expressed in clever irony, and among the homeowners and petty bourgeois like servants, officials, etc., in departures to the dacha, Entrances, etc., but, in fact, there is no difference). See more
Serge Basset, a distinguished French war correspondent attached to the British armies, was killed by rifle fire while watching the fighting about the Lens salient. Although several correspondents have been wounded, Basset is the first journalist to be killed in the field during the present war. He had been awarded the Legion of Honor for literary and dramatic work. He will be buried with military honors.