20 May 1917. Mikhail Alekseyev

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

Mikhail Alekseyev

Mogilev, Stavka, Russian Empire

In appeals, in orders and in the daily columns of the press, we often come across this short phrase: “The Homeland is in danger”. We are too used to this phrase. We read it as though it were an old chronicle about days gone by and we do not reflect upon the menacing meaning of this short phrase. But unfortunately, gentlemen, this is the hard truth. Russia is dying.

She stands on the brink of the abyss, and with a few more steps forward and she will tumble with all her weight into this abyss. The enemy has occupied an eighth of her territory. It cannot be bribed with the utopian phrase “a world without annexation or indemnity”. It openly declares that it will not abandon our land. It stretches its greedy paw to where the enemy soldiers have never been before – to the rich Volyn, Podolia, Kiev; in other words, to the entire right bank of our Dnieper.

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Leon Trotsky

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The Russian revolution is a prologue to worldwide revolution. However, I can’t deny that I don’t agree with a lot of what is happening right now. I think that entering into the ministry is dangerous. I don’t believe in the miracles that the ministry can work from above. We used to have a diarchy, due to the animosity between the two classes. The coalition ministry will not save us from this duality of power, it will merely transfer it to the ministry.

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Claude Debussy Serge Diaghilev

Paris, France

My dear Diaghilev, I tried to spot you as I left the performance of the ballet, to no avail. I called you on the phone in Chatelet, but I think it would’ve been easier to reach God.

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Kira Allendorf

Moscow, Russian Empire

We were in a zoo.

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Romain Rolland

Byron Hotel, Villeneuve, Switzerland

Speaking to the House of Commons, Lord Robert Cecil said “Making peace now would be ridiculous”. Really. Two million corpses, and you think it is funny?! The discourse of these English statesmen is so tactlessly cynical. What’s the difference between this and the German atrocities? The only difference is that they are colder.

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Maxim Gorky

23, Kronversky ave., Petrograd, Russian Empire

There seems to be no shortage of those who incite animosity towards the intelligentsia; it seems to me that most often it is yard keepers, footmen, cooks, and generally, house staff. See more

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Nicholas II

Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

It was cold, windy weather with snowy squalls. But we went to Mass. I took a walk during the day with Tatiana and Anastasia, while Alexis played on the island. Until and after tea, I read to my heart's content. Towards evening the weather finally turned like winter. Snow fell and the temperature was 2 degrees below frost.

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