8 February 1917. Vladimir Lenin

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

Vladimir Lenin

from the article “The Swamp: Real or Imagined?”

Zurich, Switzerland

How to transform and reshape a party that is currently incapable of conducting a systematic, stubborn and, no matter what the circumstances, genuine revolutionary struggle, into a party such as would be capable of this task?

That is the most important question!

, and others

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✍ Also today

Vladimir Korolenko

1, Malo-Sadovaya st., Poltava, Russian Empire

Events succeed one another thick and fast. The ministerial leapfrog is continuing. Everyone there is clearly jumping about as if there was a fire. Things that were once spoken of in whispers are now discussed openly by all.

, and others

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Alexandre Benois

38, 1st line of Vasilyevsky Island, Petrograd, Russian Empire

A biting frost, and not only outside, but indoors as well. My nose has started running and I can feel the beginnings of that particular fatigue which heralds the approach of influenza (or, as it is fashionable to say, “la grippe”).

, and others

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Andrey Bely

21, Nikolsky lane, Moscow, Russian Empire

I already have a ticket, and I’m on my way out from Moscow; I am afraid of one thing: that a slight cold is taking hold of me.

, and others

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Elizaveta Naryshkina

Alexander Palace, Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

We had breakfast in the palace today in honour of the Romanian prince, who is going back to Romania and will be leaving for Moscow this evening. I sat next to his Highness, of which I was glad. His Highness enlivened the conversation greatly. The Empress is tense and silent all the time, and the grand duchesses were in their nurses’ uniforms, which constrains them; the atmosphere was very cold. After breakfast the Empress sat with me. His Highness stood speaking with the prince and the other men, while the grand duchesses spoke among themselves separately. There is no sign of a rapprochement. They are so remote from everything it is impossible to speak to them about anything: reading, art, society, people, or anything.

, and others

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Filippo Marinetti

73d sector of artillery battery, Gorizia, Italy

On the front line

, and others

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Franklin D. Roosevelt

Washington, D.C., United States

How Can I Serve My Country? What can I do in case of war? Well, what would you do? The whole question of how a man can best serve the United States in a war is difficult to answer, because the Government has made no comprehensive plan for the utilization of the country’s various kinds of abilities.

, and others

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7 February

The horrors of war: no pineapples for sale in Petrograd

A childhood friend of Tsar Nicholas II warns him that the country is about to hurtle into an abyss

Lenin’s lover has stopped writing to him

1916: Year in Review.

-20

in Petrograd

-23

in Moscow