19 April 1917. Vladimir Lenin

Petrograd, Russian Empire

Capitalist newspapers like Rech and Novoye Vremya have published articles attacking our passage through Germany and insinuating that the new arrivals were aiding the German imperialists.

Izvestia of the Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies reprints in full the report published in yesterday’s Pravda which was presented to the Executive Committee of the Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies on the very first day after our arrival.

In addition to the report, Izvestia publishes the resolution of the Executive Committee, which it gives in the following words: "Having heard the report of Comrades Zurabov and Zinoviev, the Executive Committee decided to take the matter up immediately with the Provisional Government and to take steps towards securing the immediate return to Russia of all emigrants, irrespective of their political views and their attitude towards the war. The results of the negotiations with the government will be published in the near future.—Editors.”

Here you have a small—a very small, but very characteristic—picture of two worlds. One, the world of the capitalists, Rech, Russkaya Volya, Novoye Vremya, dark hints, vile insinuations against the socialists; the other, the world of the revolutionary democrats, of the workers’ and soldiers’ deputies, who in a calm, consistent, and dignified manner have decided to “take steps”. Steps leading to what? Steps leading to what was not done by the Provisional Government!

Is this not tantamount to a censure of the Provisional Government?

And is not this censure warranted?

Mind you, the Executive Committee, in passing this resolution, was fully aware of the political dissensions that existed between it and the Bolsheviks. For capitalists this would be a pretext for insinuations. Human dignity is something one need not look for in the world of capitalists.

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Nicholas II

Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

It was very cold, the weather was gray. Walked at the same time as Alexei. I don't undeerstand why 6 riflemen and an officer accompanied us everywhere during the day Alexei chopped ice in the airlock under the bridge and then at the stream!

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Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich with Alexandra Feodorovna

Kiev, Russian Empire

In all likelihood, some of our good friends, touched by our situation, managed to influence the Provisional Government and as a result we were visited by a commissioner, who gave us the order to immediately go to Crimea. The local council fully approved this plan, because it believed that the “presence of enemies of the people so close to the front is a great danger for revolutionary Russia.” See more

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Aleksei Brusilov

headquarters of the South-Western Front, Kamianets-Podilsk, Russian Empire

Soldiers, officers, generals and officials of the Southern-Western Army during a meeting decided to bring to the attention of the Provisional Government their deep conviction that the first capital of the Russian land should be the place of convocation of the Constituent Assembly. Moscow is consecrated in the people’s consciousness through the most important acts of our national history; Moscow is originally Russian and infinitely dear to the Russian heart. See more

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Pavel Milyukov

Mariyinsky Palace, Petrograd, Russian Empire

In spite of the coup, we preserved the main objective and purpose of this war. The Government will combat German militarism with redoubled force, for our ideal is to destroy the possibility of all war in the future.

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Alexander Kerensky

We decided to, once and for all, curb any tendencies towards imperialism and hostile takeovers… The enthusiasm that permeates Russian democracy has its roots in… not even the idea of a fatherland, as that idea was understood by old Europe, but from the idea that the dream of a brotherhood of all nations will become a reality.

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Elizaveta Naryshkina

Alexander Palace, Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

I read speeches from the zionist congress. “We (the jews) have undertaken the revolution not only to achieve equal rights (this is not enough); - we must achieve the ownership of the holy land, Palestine, and form an independent nation there”. Isn’t it astounding that the ancient prophecy is realised; See more

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Romola Nijinsky

Madrid, Spain

The intimate side of our relationship was still taking place perfectly happily. Sometimes I was struck by a strange feeling, probably the same feeling experienced by women in Greek mythology when the Gods descended in order to love them. There existed in me an inexpressibly happy awareness that my husband was more than an earthly being. The ecstasy that he would create in love, as well as in art, had a cleansing effect. See more

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Alfred Knox

Riga, Russian Empire

The position of the officers has been so shaken that the efficiency of the army is utterly ruined. The officers have lost heart and the army therefore will do no good. The enthusiasm which carried the French through the short battles of the revolutionary period will not occur here, and, even if it did, it would not be sufficient to sustain the Russian peasant soldier through the long strain of the modern battle. He formerly fought because he was afraid of his officers and of punishment. Now he has lost all respect for his officers and he knows he cannot be punished.

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18 April

"The evil spirits that Gogol saw have broken free and are having an orgy"

Picasso on prostitutes

Kerensky: "We, Russian democrats, don't want anyone's enslavement, don't want any seizures"