22 February 1917. Leon Trotsky

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

Leon Trotsky

1522, Vyse Ave, Bronx, NY, USA

In ideas the Socialist party of the United States lagged far behind even European patriotic Socialism. In the United States there is a large class of successful and semi-successful doctors, lawyers, dentists, engineers, and the like who divide their precious hours of rest between concerts by European celebrities and the American Socialist party.

Their attitude toward life is composed of shreds and fragments of the wisdom they absorbed in their student days. Since they all have automobiles, they are invariably elected to the important committees, commissions, and delegations of the party. It is this vain public that impresses the stamp of its mentality on American Socialism. My first contact with these men was enough to call forth their candid hatred of me. My feelings toward them, though probably less intense, were likewise not especially sympathetic. We be longed to different worlds. To me they seemed the rottenest part of that world with which I was and still am at war.

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Alfred Knox

Petrograd, Russian Empire

I talked to Polivanov. He said the Ministry of Ways had been haggling over two years about the price of coal, and hence the miserable stuff that is ruining the engines. I asked him what he would do if dictator. He said he would call the best traffic managers together to consult. He would then place each main line under a dictator, who would have full powers on his line to hang or to do as he liked. See more

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Evening star

An appeal to French peasants of both sexes to help in solving the food problem has been issued by the ministry of agriculture and will be placarded in every country district. The appeal calls on the country people to sow as much grain as they can and wherever they can. so that "the sowings of the spring of 1917 may prepare the harvest of victory.” The document concludes: "To work then with all your energies. You are working for French victory and French peace. The country counts on”.

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Edvard Munch

paints "Nude from the back"

Ekely estate, Norway

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Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich

Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

Mikhail Alexandrovich and I spoke to his Majesty again. It was a waste of time. When it was my turn to speak I was so agitated I could not a say a word.

“Thank you, Sandro, for the letter you brought me from Kiev” – this was the only reply his Majesty gave to my many pages of advice.

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Arthur Conan Doyle

London, United Kingdom

Consider the awful condition of the world before this thunder-bolt struck it. Could anyone, tracing back down the centuries and examining the record of the wickedness of man, find anything which could compare with the story of the nations during the last twenty years! Think of the condition of Russia during that time, with her brutal aristocracy and her drunken democracy, her murders on either side, her Siberian horrors, her Jew baitings and her corruption.

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Julius Martov

Zurich, Switzerland

Trotsky is already in New York. I’d wager that within three months he’ll have quarrelled with the American socialists and gone off to form his own splinter group.

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Benito Mussolini

Ronchi, Italy

It happened during the bombardment of enemy trenches in Sector 144 – The Karst Sector, under a deafening hail of shells. Here, I experienced something that is commonplace in the trenches. A group of twenty of our men were hit by one of our own grenades. We were showered with mud, smoke and torn metal. See more

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Carl Mannerheim

Petrograd, Russian Empire

Of course it was impossible to keep track of the situation within the country while fighting on the front. Now, having spent a few days in the capital, I have heard of the most curious happenings. The State Duma, which was called up once again in November 1916, has been reverberating with revolutionary speeches. See more

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21 February

Trotsky describes pogroms in New York

Kerensky visits Zinaida Gippius

The Emperor sends his relatives away from Petrograd

Map of the Royal dynasties of Europe

Romanovs dangerous liaisons

1916: Year in Review.

-17

in Petrograd

-16

in Moscow