5 July 1917. Alfred Knox

Train, Kamenets to Kiev

I said good-bye to the staff of the front last night. I think Gutor and Dukhonin are really far less optimistic than they pretend. Dukhonin protested when I said that the whole operation would be over in four more days. He said : “ My God ! What a pessimist you are ! ” He argued that he could continue for fourteen more days with the strength he now possessed. Selivachev has been given command of the 7th Army, vice Byelkovich, and after he has studied the position for a few days a decision will be come to as to whether the offensive should be continued in both armies or only by the 11th !Both Gutor and Dukhonin absolutely deny the possibility of a separate peace. They think that the Russian army can and will fight a fourth winter. Gutor, however, said that on economic grounds it would be better if we could make peace sooner.

I asked Dukhonin what steps he considered necessary in order to restore the army to something of its old morale. He said that Kerenski should be pressed to restore their power to officers in order to raise their prestige, to do away with committees and to give courts-martial in the area of armies engaged in offensive operations the power of inflicting the death penalty.

Gutor asked for a military law as opposed to civil law—- that military courts in time of war, whether at the front or in rear, should have power to inflict the death penalty. He suggested that I should see Tseretelli or perhaps Chkheidze, point out the actual condition of tilings and ask them to help. Kerenski has no longer the power; the change must come from the Sovyet.

Gutor thinks that the socialisation of the terms of peace would make little difference. The people who do not want to fight use the formula “ Without annexations and without contributions ” as an excuse without the faintest idea of its meaning.

The thing that strikes one most in these operations is the extraordinary passivity of the Boche. He could take the offensive and knock the Russians into a cocked hat!

General Denikin was appointed to command the Western Front, vice General Gurko, and General Ivlembovski to command the Northern Front, vice General Abram Dragomirov resigned. At Supreme Headquarters General Brusilov appointed General Lukhomski to be his Chief of Staff, and General Romanovski from Chief of Staff of the 8th Army to be General Quartermaster.

General Kaledin was elected Ataman of the Don Cossacks.

The war in Russia was coming more and more to be regarded as a secondary matter.

In a speech at Kiev in June, Kerenski, then Minister of War, told his audience that the Constituent Assembly could not be summoned before October, because the people would be at work in the fields. It did not occur to him to mention the war, which had been sufficient to prevent all elections even in a small country like England.

General Prjevalski, the new Commander-in-Chief in the Caucasus, in taking leave of his corps committee, thanked them for their co-operation and told them that they had two tasks before them in the future: first the preparation of the army for the Constituent Assembly, and secondly the restoration of discipline !

General Klembovski, the Commander-in-Chief of the Northern Front, said in a speech at Riga that the present offensive was all- important, because a winter campaign was impossible and all the combatants would soon begin negotiations for peace.

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Elizaveta Naryshkina

The Great Tsarskosel'skiy Palace, Tsarskoe Selo, Russian Empire

The offensive appears to have stopped. So many hostile forces act against honour and duty. A kingdom of cowardice and backstabbing cruelty!

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Nicholas II

Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

It was a nice day with a refreshing wind. From 10 o'clock until 11 o'clock I gave Alexis a geography lesson. I took a walk. I began the second volume of Merezhkovski, Christ and Anti-Christ, "Leonardo da Vinci." During the day all of us worked in the park across from the Arsenal. We cut down and sawed up an enormous fir tree. During the evening we continued doing the same thing until 8 o'clock. We watered the garden.

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Alexander Kolchak

Petrograd, Russian Empire

There was a time, I wanted to go to the front and be assigned to command a heavy battery, but I decided to give up this idea after the disgraceful offensive at the southwestern front. After that, in light of it being impossible to wage war in Russia yet saw it necessary for the war to continue, a group of officers asked me to form a legion of volunteers and take it to France. See more

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Nadezhda Teffi

Petrograd, Russian Empire

The Bolsheviks were flummoxed. They didn’t expect what had happened. They didn’t expect an offensive.

But it doesn’t matter, and there is nothing to lose hope over. After all, this is fully consistent with the psychology of Bolshevism: the Bolsheviks never expect what going to happen. They never feel or anticipate the twists and turns of history and are deprived of any political intuition for the rare and astounding. See more

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Alexandre Benois

Petrograd, Russian Empire

Akitsa and Kolya tried to stand up for Kerensky, but I’m almost convinced that he has already crumbled. This is a vain (and unambitious) person, and therefore at the right time he won’t dare to take the upper hand and raise a stick against his comrades. He’s consoled by popularity, and it also helps him mislead himself down the path of false heroism and to play as Bonaparte.

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The New York Times

With the sanction of Hergert C. Hoover, who is the head of new food administration, Government employes in Washington began a campaign of conservation of food. It is hoped by promoters of the movement that the steps which have been taken will develop into a nationwide movement which, in effect, will put the people of the United States on “voluntary rations”. There will be no effort at present to enforce such conditions by legislation. See more

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4 July

"The more blood is spilt, the greater chance the bourgeoisie has to find its feet again"

"Newspapers write about the 10,000 prisoners, about the battles - but it does not please me"

"Even the most humane soul has to admit that Russia cannot live without a stick"