30 March 1917. Lili Dehn

Alexander Palace, Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

I returned to the Empress, almost heartbroken, but I endeavoured to appear cheerful. The interminable day wore away, evening fell, and I assisted at what had now become a sort of nightly routine. Every evening the Emperor wheeled the Empress in her invalid-chair across the Palace in order to visit the suite. It was a melancholy pilgrimage. She first stopped to talk with the Benckendorffs, and afterwards passed from group to group of her faithful adherents, taking Anna’s room on the way back—Anna, so to speak, representing the last word in dejection, as she was ever full of terrors and presentiments. That night I was glad to seek refuge in the red drawing-room and find myself alone, and able to indulge in what is described as “a good cry.”

As I left the mauve boudoir, the Emperor and the Empress kissed me, and made the Sign of the Cross. I felt instinctively that they loved me, and were sorry for me. A bright fire was burning in the red drawing room, but I did not undress—I sat in front of the fire thinking of Titi. Yet even the knowledge that my son was seriously ill did not suffice to make me feel that my place was not here. I knew in my soul that the Empress came first, and would always be first where my duty was in question. I was well aware that I might never see my husband or my child again… but I knew that I should follow the Imperial Family wherever Destiny might beckon me. I confess I had my moments of weakness, when I longed for the security of home, and the peaceful existence which had hitherto been mine. Tonight I felt more than usually despondent. The fire burnt low, and I sought to read the future in the red embers, just as I had done at Revovka in the long ago. Suddenly I heard the door of the salon open very softly, and a line of light pierced the darkness… someone was coming in! I turned quickly to face the person who dared intrude upon the privacy of the apartments occupied by the Imperial Family… Was it some fresh assumption of power on the part of the Revolutionaries? But my visitor was no emissary of the Revolution —the slender figure standing in the doorway was that of the Empress. She looked more than usually fragile… she breathed with difficulty, her face was pale with fatigue, and, when I remembered the arduous ascent of the stairs, I was terrified lest a heart attack would ensue.

“Madame, Madame,’’ I cried, “is anything amiss? Are you in danger?”

“Hush, Lili,’’ said the Empress. “The Emperor and I are quite safe. But I couldn’t rest without coming to see you. I know all about Titi, I quite realise what you feel.” She took me in her arms just as a tender mother might have done, and she soothed me and caressed me. “My poor, dear child,” she said. “Only God can help you. Trust in Him as I do, Lili.”

We mingled our tears, and she stayed with me for some considerable time. It was a strange scene, but I wish that those who revile the memory of the Empress could have seen her then, and experienced the pity, love and understanding which were so essentially her prerogatives. She strengthened and consoled me as no other could have done, and her last words of comfort before she left me were:

“Perhaps they’ll let us bring Titi from Petrograd to the Red Cross Hospital opposite the Palace, then you could always see him through one of the windows.”

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Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich

Kiev, Russian Empire

All these freedoms are all very well, but meanwhile we, for some reason, are obliged to suffer more than any other citizens. It seems we are heading, rapidly and irrevocably, towards a republican regime. I fear that we are not ready for this, and Russia will fall apart. Already, Ukraine wishes to become an independent republic. And above all, the Yids will now gain a great deal of power, as we’ve already seen in Kiev, but if they continue in this way, a pogrom is inevitable, and they are terribly afraid of this.

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Felix Yusupov

Rakitnoe estate, Kurskaya guberniya, Russain Empire

I have been allowed out of exile and we are returning to Petersburg. Just before my departure, there was a service in Rakitnoe. Peasants came flooding into the church. They were all weeping. “How will we live now?” they kept saying. “They’ve taken away our little Father Tsar!” In Kharkov we got off the train to take some refreshment at the station buffet. It was difficult to force our way through the crush. People were calling one another “comrade”. Somebody recognised me and called out to me by name. There was excitement in the crowd. We were surrounded; there was pushing from all sides and it was hard to breathe. People came to welcome us. Soldiers came to our rescue and escorted us to the buffet. The crowd followed. We had to close the doors to the cafe. People demanded that I give a speech, but I refused, explaining I was not good at public speaking.

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Ivan Bunin

on the way to the European Hotel

Nikolaevsky railway station, Petrograd, Russian Empire

I arrived in Petersburg, got off the train and set off through the station. Here, in Petersburg, it seemed things were even more terrible than in Moscow; it seemed there were even more people without the slightest idea what to do loitering around all the station buildings with no purpose whatsoever. I came out of the station and tried to hail a cab driver. The driver, too, seemed to have no idea what to do – whether to take me or not, or how to name his price.

“To the European Hotel” I told him.

“Twenty silver roubles.”

That, in those days, was still a ridiculous price. But I agreed; I got into the cab and we set off. I didn’t recognise Petersburg. In Moscow, life had ground to a halt, although the new leaders were engaged in an insanely stupid, feverish imitation of something like a new regime, a new order and even a parade of life. It was the same in Petersburg, but to an even more excessive degree. There were endless conferences, meetings and demonstrations; proclamations and decrees were being issued one after the other. Nevsky Prospekt was submerged in a grey crowd: soldiers with their greatcoats thrown over their shoulders, workers not at work, idle servants and all sorts of riffraff hawking cigarettes, red armbands, filthy postcards, sweets and whatever you cared to buy. And the pavements were littered with rubbish. There were sunflower seeds everywhere and frozen horse manure on the roads, forming mounds and pits. Half way to the hotel, the driver suddenly said something to me, something I had already heard from several bearded peasants at the time.

“Now the people are like cattle without a herdsman. They’ll make a mess of everything and it’ll be the end of them.”

I asked him:

“So what should we do?”

“Do?” he said. “We can’t do anything now. That’s it. Now we don’t have a government.”

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Yakub Ganetsky

Stockholm, Sweden

When it seemed all hopes that the Provisional Government would help ensure passage through England were in vain, the expatriates in Switzerland decided to enter into negotiations with the German government. It was our Swiss comrade Platten who led the negotiations. The conditions, worked out by the entire expatriate colony, were accepted by the German government.

The conditions were as follows.

1) All expatriates are to travel regardless of their views on the war.

2)The railway carriage in which the expatriates are to travel will enjoy extra-territorial rights. Nobody has the right to enter the carriage without the permission of comrade Platten. There shall be no inspection of passports or luggage.

3) Those who travel to Russia are obliged, once there, to campaign for the exchange of a corresponding number of Austro-Hungarian internees.

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Nadezhda Krupskaya

It is a bold step, not only because it carried the risk of defamation and accusations of treason, but because there is no guarantee that Germany really will allow passage, and will not intern the Bolsheviks

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Maxim Gorky

23, Kronversky ave., Petrograd, Russian Empire

There are rumours in the press that I am one of the organisers of the radical democratic party. I should like to declare that I remain what I was before, a social democrat.

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Anton Denikin

Romanian front, 4 Army, 8 Corps

A long telegram from General Alekseev was read to us. It was full of hopeless pessimism and detailed the beginnings of disorganisation of the government apparatus and the disintegration of the army. Countervailing measures to prevent the disintegration of the army included… the dispatching of pro-government minded delegates from the Duma and the Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies to the frontlines for the purposes of persuasion… The telegram made a similar impression on us all: the ability to control the army slipped through the fingers of the General Headquarters.

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Julius Martov with Vladimir Lenin

Zurich, Switzerland

The bolsheviks, personally, became exceedingly courteous and I restored my personal relationships with Zinoviev and Lenin. On the referat Lenin also managed to avoid any vehement “expressions”, however, the chasm between us remains deep, and the drivel he spouts regarding our goals is outrageous.

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Mathilde Kschessinska

38, Liteiny ave., Petrograd, Russian Empire

Fortunately for me, one of my old friends, Vladimir Pimenovitch Krymov, editor and publisher of the famous review, Stolitsa and
Oussadba, came soon afterwards to see me. A talented writer and journalist, Krymov was also a sincere man, with firm, unshakable opinions both before and after the Revolution. He was an intimate of our house, where he had met Andre, who thought highly of his clear intelligence and moderation. When I told him how I stood, he at once dictated a letter to Kerensky for me, which we immediately took to the Ministry ofJustice.

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Maurice Paleologue

10, Kutuzov embankment, Petrograd, Russian Empire

The most dangerous germ involved in the revolution has been developing during the last few days with the most alarming rapidity.

Finland. Livonia, Esthonia, Poland, Lithuania, the Ukraine, Georgia and Siberia, are demanding their independence, or, failing that, complete autonomy.

That Russia is doomed to federalism is highly probable.

She is predestined to that development by the enormous size of her territories, the diversity of her races and the increasing complexity of her interests. But the present movement is separatist much more than particularist; secessionist rather than federalist; it tends to nothing less than national disintegration. So the Soviet gives it its full blessing. As if the visionaries and lunatics of the Tauride Palace would not be tempted to destroy in a few weeks the historic work of ten centuries 1

The French Revolution began by proclaiming the Republic one and indivisible. Tothat principle it sacrificed thousands of heads, and French unity was saved. The Russian revolution has taken for its motto Russia dissolved and dismembered.

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29 March

Their Highnesses still don’t realise that they were the exact reasons for the collapse

Kerensky: “I will do everything to not let this slide into Jacobinian terror”

Gorky: “We won’t soon get over this chaos, this fever of passions and illusions”