17 March 1917. Alexander Kerensky

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

Alexander Kerensky

Shpalernaya, 47, the Tauride Palace, Petrograd, Russian Empire

The third session of the Provisional Government. We met at the ministry of internal affairs, the location of Prince Lvov’s residence. We sat, sensing the grave glances of a dozen of former ministers of the old regime, whose portraits were hanging on the walls. I believe that it was there, surrounded by the portraits of former rulers and not by the excited mob in the Duma, that each of us suddenly realised for the first time the full degree of his involvement in what has happened in Russia in the last couple of days, and the horrible weight of responsibility that lay on us.

By the end of the meeting, we have agreed that in order to create a new machine of government we needed to first of all establish a connection with dependable people in the provinces and to allow them to take the places of former governors to reform the mechanism of local governance. Where such people could not be found, to immediately send appropriate representatives from Petrograd.

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The meeting of artists at the Gorky's place

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Alexandra Feodorovna

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16 March

“Our great-grandchildren will speak of these days as of the beginning of a new era in the history of humanity”

The Empress learns of her husband’s abdication

Nicholas II’s brother refuses the throne

From one revolution to another

Russia in 1917

-14

in Petrograd

-14

in Moscow