On the night of July 1st the IInd Guard Corps occupied the area formerly held by the XXXIVth Corps. General Skoropadski went into reserve with the 23rd Division. The 19th Siberian Division was handed back to the Vllth Siberian Corps, and the 153rd Division was transferred to the XXIInd Corps. The units of the XLIst Corps gave it to be understood that they would not attack again. The offensive in the 7th Army had come to an end.
On July 2nd the nth Army continued its advance, and the XLIXth Corps, in conjunction with the 35th Division on its right, made good progress. The Commander of the Corps, General Selivachev, was fortunate in being opposed only by Austrians. Airmen had seen the Germans travelling south on the day before by all available roads, in order to resist the advance of the Vlth Corps. General Selivachev confessed the next day with emotion that he owed his success to the Czecho-Slovak Brigade, and the list of captures confirms this view.
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.