Now, everyone is so busy with the revolution that, rightly, no one is going to new operas.
Today is Ascension, and I got up early at 7 o' clock and went to Detinets; there are birch trees and lilacs there, green grass, on the remains of the wall, far under the legs of Great Pskov, from all sides the white Church and the blue sky merged, and all was well with me. I only desperately wished that you were there and saw it.
Now that “socialists” have become members of the cabinet, things will be different, the defencists have been assuring us. It did not take more than a few days to reveal the falsity of these assurances.
What does Mr. Tereshchenko, the new Minister of Foreign Affairs, the associate of Skobelev and Tsereteli, have to say on this question? See more
How can we find a way out of the current situation? In the first place, we must put an end to the slaughter, and return the factory benches and fields to those who toil in the cities and the countryside. Then we must rebuild Russia’s finances and treasury. And this can only be done by refusing to pay the loans incurred by the old government. This will anger the bankers of the Allied Nations deeply, but the Russian people is not obliged to render service to bankers - either Russian or foreign. See more
I travelled to Helsingfors and Sveaborg. Not far from these two ports, our “large” navy (of dreadnoughts, frigates and cruisers) stood anchored in the Gulf of Finland. I spent two days there, attending many meetings, both public and behind closed doors. At the public meetings I was often openly attacked by Bolsheviks; during the private meetings I was given to hear very harsh criticism from a number of officers, whose lives, watched over by the vigilant eyes of the sailors’ committees, have descended into utter nightmare. See more
Lenin calls Kerensky a swaggerer. Kerensky was and always will be an accidental figure, a placeholder for the real men of history. Each new and mighty wave of the revolution, sucking in masses of the untested and inexperienced, invariably throws up such fleeting heroes, only for these to be instantly blinded by their newfound radiance.
I received a telegram from Lord Robert Cecil, who was then in charge of the Foreign Ofl&ce, informing me that the War Cabinet were impressed with the necessity of creating a more favour- able attitude among Russian Socialists and workmen towards the war, and of rectifying the false impressions that were being circulated in Russia about our aims. Feeling that this could be done with better chance of success by a Labour leader than by anyone else, they had decided to send out Mr. Henderson on a special mission. See more
The ‘Hymn of Free Russia’, heard for the first time in America yesterday afternoon at a benefit concert for the repatriated Siberian exiles, and overshadowing for the moment some of Russia’s greatest music in the same program, stirred an audience that filled Aeolian Hall, and left it excited as perhaps no other musical event has thrilled this public since the war. See more
It was a nice light day. I took a short walk until Mass. After breakfast I went with Alix to visit E. A. Naryshkin, who apparently had pneumonia. We worked in the vegetable garden and perspired a lot. I read until 7:15 and then for the first time I went for a ride with the children on bicycles. It was very pleasant to get out and breathe the evening air.