16 May 1917. Alexander Blok → Lyubov Mendeleeva-Blok

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 Blok Lyubov Mendeleeva-Blok

57, Ofitserskaya street, Petrograd, Russian Empire

As you left, you told me of the threat of Lenin’s followers. Can it really be that you do not understand, that the worst thing is not Lenin’s followers, but the dreadful profanities which persist in the hearth of every Russian home?

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✍ Also today

Vasily Kravkov

7th Siberian army corps

The humanising influence of the revolution is beginning to be felt. Little by little the arbitrariness of the strong and the herd-like mentality of the weak are beginning to fade away, the entire mentality of society is slowly reorganizing itself on principles of citizenship, the strong are already not quite so quick to strike the weak, and the weak in turn, having realised their strength, are beginning to demand greater respect.

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Anton Denikin

Mogilev, Russian Empire

I bear my cross silently. Sometimes it is heavy, not so much as a result of the military situation, as of the cravenness and depravity of the civilian front. Politics is always a dirty business. I must now delve into it, yet still come out untainted.

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Elizaveta Naryshkina

Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

Milyukov is resigning. His place has been taken by Tereschenko, and Kerensky has replaced Guchkova as War Minister. The ministry has been expanded by the addition of two socialists. A new current to the sea of senselessness and madness in which we are drowning.

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Viktor Chernov

Tavrichesky Palace, rooms of the Provisional Committee, Petrograd, Russian Empire

“Either the revolution will swallow up the war, or the war will swallow up the revolution”. I fear that this really is the way in which history has posed the question. See more

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Pablo Picasso

Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris, France

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Sketch of the curtain of the ballet "Parade". Pablo Picasso. 1917

Together with assistants we paint the curtain for the premiere of the ballet Parade.

Georgi Plekhanov

Tavrichesky Palace, rooms of the Provisional Committee, Petrograd, Russian Empire

If the rot has reached such proportions in the army, that it can no longer offer resistance, why not say so openly, that the Russian revolutionary people may lay out its neck for the yoke of German militarism. Yet while you have but an ounce of powder left to you, youmust fight on! You have no right to raise the white flag of the German Emperor.

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Felix Yusupov

the estate of Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich, Ai-Todor, Crimea, Russian Republic

The residents of Ai-Todor are daily exposed to insults. Twenty five soldiers and sailors, beasts and savages to a man, have taken up residence in the manor. The commissar has announced to my parents-in-law that they are under arrest.

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George Buchanan

4, Dvortsovaya embankment, Petrograd, Russian Empire (British Embassy)

One unfortunate result of the reconstruction of the Government was the cancelling of Sazonoff's appointment as Ambassador in London. Sazonoff was so identified with the policy of the Imperial Government, more especially as regarded the question of Constanti- nople, that he was no longer considered a suitable representative of the new Russia. In telling me this, Tereschenko explained that, as he hoped to retain his services for the final peace negotiations, he was anxious that Sazonoff should not undertake a mission that might sooner or later discredit him in the eyes of the Russian public. See more

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Maurice Paleologue

Beloostrov, Petrogradskaya gubernia, Russian Empire

When I reached the Finland Station this morning, I found Sazonov by the carriage which had been reserved for us. In grave tones he said to me:

"All our plans are changed; I'm not coming with you. . ... Read this!"

He gave me a letter, dated the same night and just put in his hands, in which Prince Lvov asked him to postpone his departure as Miliukov had sent in his resignation.

"I go and you stay behind," I said. "Isn't it symbolical?" See more

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The New York Times

Capitalists give pledge of unity with labor in war

There was a dramatic climax for the general meeting of the Committee on Labor of the Advisory Commision of the Council of National Defense, when men whose combined fortunes represent many millions of dollars offered in person to work hand in hand with Samuel Gompers, President of the American Federation of Labor, in an effort to bring about full co-operation between this Government, capital, and labour, for the more efficient prosecution of the war. See more

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15 May

The Minister of Foreign Affairs resigns

Lenin: “A change of personnel won’t be of any consequence – it’s politics itself that must be changed”

“All the generals have fled. The soldiers are deserting”

1917. Zombies, drugs, and progress

Why did the Russian Empire collapse

1916: Year in Review.

in Petrograd

+14

in Moscow