2 February 1917. The New York Times

Non-fiction

Project 1917 is a series of events that took place a hundred years ago as described by those involved. It is composed only of diaries, letters, memoirs, newspapers and other documents

The New York Times

WASHINGTON, Jan. 31. When the Associated Press dispatches telling of the German note began arriving at the White House today President Wilson was in his office talking with a friend. Secretary Tumulty hurried to him with the news. The President could not believe it until he was assured that the information was contained in a formal note already before the State Department.

The President went to bed at 11 o’clock after spending the evening alone in his study with a copy of the German note. This apparently disposed of suggestions that some action might be taken before morning.

The President saw no callers, but is understood to have used the telephone freely.

As far as could be learned, no plans have been laid for him to go before Congress, as he did to announce the sending of the Sussex note threatening to break off diplomatic relations.

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✍ Also today

Vasily Shulgin

Shulgin's house, 22, Bol'shaya Monetnaya street, Petrograd, Russian Empire

Things have got even worse since Rasputin’s murder. Before everything was blamed on him, but now that his murder has changed nothing, people have realised that Rasputin was not the problem.

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Alexander Guchkov

Petrograd, Russian Empire

We need to steer a course for a coup d’état. All the elements necessary to trigger an explosion are already in place: the condition of the decaying regime itself; the deep mistrust of, and contempt for, that regime on the part of all strata of Russian society; external failures; and, finally, grave material hardships behind the lines—in a word, a comprehensive recipe for an explosion.

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Mikhail Zoshchenko

16th Mingrelia Grenadier Regiment

I promise myself to drink no more. I’m being taken off to the hospitalZoshchenko discovered he had a heart condition. in the slushy February snow.

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Vladimir Lenin

Zurich, Switzerland

We oldsters won’t live to see the decisive battles of the impending revolution.

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Romain Rolland

Grand Hotel Chateau Bellevue, Sierre, Switzerland

A policy of submarine warfareIn January 1917, Germany declared the use of "unrestricted submarine warfare" as a tactic, which meant the sinking all enemy ships, including civilian vessels. has been announced with the intention of starving Europe, which is already short of coal and which will soon be short of grain. For a few weeks Europe stood on the brink, wavering between utter destruction and salvation. It seems that her pathetic pride has prevented her from seeking the latterRolland intends to abandon the principle of “peace without victory” for European powers, which was proposed by Wilson..

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Pathe News

Coal shortage in England.

Tamara Karsavina

Kiev, Russian Empire

I went to perform at Kieff. No suite of balletomanes followed me, as it had a few years ago on a similar occasion. Their ranks had thinned, their traditions slackened ; spirited escapades were now out of place. My self-constituted knight and factotum, Vinogradoff, alone went to Kieff after me. Simple and illiterate man, his frantic devotion to the Ballet, and the fact that he had seen the glory of Virginia Zucchi alone qualified him as a leader of the gallery. He was fervently attached to me. Purple and apopleptic he used to rush from one end of the gallery to another shouting my name as a war-cry.

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1 February

Kafka’s neighbours were no better than yours

The allies cannot count on the Russian Army

“But now, in less than three years the lid has been torn off the whited sepulchre of Europe and within we see”

Nightmare before Christmas

Death of Rasputin. Murder conspiracy and its consequences

-24

in Petrograd

-21

in Moscow