6 July 1917. Alexandre Benois → Igor Stravinsky

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

Alexandre Benois Igor Stravinsky

38, 1st line of Vasilyevsky Island, Petrograd, Russian Empire

Where you are, you imagine that we are living in a kingdom of freedom, but in actual fact, it is a kingdom of nonsense without freedom, or at any rate, without any effective sense of freedom. My dear friend, it is very bad here and very bleak, and Akitsa and I envy you more than ever, for being too far away to see this nightmare in its entirety.

The most awful thing of all is that it is an orgy of imbecility and mediocrity. All-pervasive mediocrity. There is still some sort of hope in that mystical essence known as “the people”, but one clings to this hope more out of habit than anything else. Where you are, I am sure, it is all being portrayed in a different light. Perhaps it is seen as being a little bit more terrible than is actually the case, but also as more tragic and impressive. Think yourselves lucky, and thank heaven with all your souls for the good fortune that has been granted to you.

Dearest Igor, I beseech you, write me a line or two, so that we know you have not forgotten us. And I want to know how things are with you, how you’re feeling, what you’re thinking and what you’re working on.

, and others

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✍ Also today

Nicholas II

Alexander Palace, Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

It was a nice, cool day. I took a long walk. I gave Alexis a history lesson. During the day we worked in the same place as yesterday. We cut down another two fir trees. A light rain fell for a while. After tea I read until dinner time.

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Leonid Andreyev

1, Moyka embankment, Petrograd, Russian Empire

I saw anarchists marching along Nevsky Prospect with a banner that read “Death to the Bourgeoisie”. From my study, these marching anarchists seem like rabble, imbeciles, pitiful two-legged animals; but when I had a look at their faces, something primordial rose before me. Yes, they were slaves, with their sunken cheeks and eyes, with the eternal sense of injury, their eternal anger and their rebellion. See more

, and others

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Ilya Ehrenburg

London, United Kingdom

I have been searched many times in my life, but no one has displayed such mastery in that art as the English. They forced me to take off my boots and carried them off somewhere; they examined all the seams on my jacket and my pants; they took away my notebook for inspection. And yet the Englishman who did all this perpetually wore a kindly smile—one could not even get angry at him. See more

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Elizaveta Naryshkina

The Great Tsarskosel'skiy Palace, Tsarskoe Selo, Russian Empire

The postal and telegraph services do not work. I am afraid that in spite of all the strength leant in support of the offence, our useless soldiers have been stopped.

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5 July

A kingdom of cowardice and backstabbing cruelty!

"A Russian name in France was akin to a reviled race"

"Kerensky is a vain (and unambitious) person, and therefore at the right time he won’t dare to take the upper hand"

1917. Zombies, drugs, and progress

Why did the Russian Empire collapse

1916: Year in Review.

+12

in Petrograd

+14

in Moscow