19 February 1917. Vladimir Lenin → Inessa Armand

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 Inessa Armand

Zurich, Switzerland

Dear Friend,

The other day we had a gratifying letter from Moscow (we shall soon send you a copy, although the text is uninteresting). They write that the mood of the masses is a good one, that chauvinism is clearly declining and that probably our day will come. The organisation, they say, is suffering from the fact that the adults are at the front, while in the factories there are young people and women.

There is also a letter from Kollontai, who has returned to Norway from America. N. Iv. and Pavlov had won Novy Mir, she says (I get this paper very irregularly), but ... Trotsky arrived, and this scoundrel at once ganged up with the Right wing of Novy Mir against the Left Zimmerwaldists!! That’s it!! That’s Trotsky for you!! Always true to himself = twists, swindles, poses as a Left, helps the Right, so long as he can....

Nadya is ill: she has caught bronchitis and has a temperature. It looks as though she will be in bed for some time. I called in the doctor today.

Yours, Lenin

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It’s Maslenitsa. And there’s no food to be had. We barely managed to get ourselves some milk. As for meat, Masha’s attempt to get hold of some proved wholly unsuccessful. Marfusha was next to be sent, and after spending an age in the queue she got four pounds of the stuff (bones included). See more

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Pathe News

Alpine ski squad on patrol.

Carl Mannerheim

Petrograd, Russian Empire

The general mood in Petrograd is subdued. People are openly criticising the tsar. Due to heavy snowstorms, tens of thousands of freight cars are stuck on the tracks, with the bread and fuel situation in the capital and other major cities becoming particularly severe as a result.

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Alla Nazimova

New York, USA

Premiere of the play "Admission of a mistake”

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Pablo Picasso

Italy, Roma, Via del Babuino, 9, Hotel de Russie

We’re on our way from Paris to Rome to work on the ballet "Parade".

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Jean Cocteau

Rome, Italy

About to head off for the baths. Street by street we’re getting to know the city, wandering around without coats. Picasso arrives soon.

Rome is bewitching. I succumbed to the charms of its streets on the very first morning. We arrived by train following a journey accompanied by countless adventures, the very least of which was yesterday’s sleepless night.

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Grand Duchess Olga

Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

Sat at home with Alexei in the playroom with Mama and Anya. Uncle Mimi drank tea. Clearly it was very cold. Papa read "August Cadets" about grandpapa. It was awfully sweet.

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