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