The Deputy Minister of War, Savinkov, as a man of action who had fought the old regime by terrorist acts while Iverenski attacked it in floods of speech, stood also for strong measures. It was primarily on his nomination that Kornilov had been appointed Commander-in-Chief of the South-West Front on July 19th, and had been offered the post of Supreme Commander-in- Chief on July goth. Savinkov, however, understood, which many of the officer corps ignored, that in the then political conditions the active co-operation of Kerenski was necessary to enforce the desired reforms.
With delight we sunbathed all day on the balcony and in the garden. During the day I chopped down a dry birch tree and cut it into firewood. During tea a thunderstorm came up and brought a little fresh air. I began to read In the Forest by Pechersky.
That voice, with silence disputing,
Has triumphed a little bit more.
Like sorrow or song in me brooding
Is the winter before the war.
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Hundreds of brave honest officers are dying, while thousands of soldiers - rascals, cowards, disgrace to our country - are fleeing.
There is agitation in the streets (people are huddled on street corners, ladies are inciting panic in trams, everywhere it is said that Germans will come here, everywhere one can hear: “Anyways there will be death from starvation”). See more
The fears expressed by Kerensky of a counter-revolution are to a certain extent justified, as I have since been told that a group of persons, who are said to have the support of prominent financiers and indus- trials as well as of certain regiments, contemplate arresting the Government and dissolving the Soviet. See more
KornilovCommander in Chief of the Petrograd command - from 18 March 1917 had waited all August for the strong measures that the situation demanded. He had waited while Iverenski, who, if he had been a man of action instead of a mere talker, might in July have finally crushed the Bolshevik movement, did nothing. See more