18 July 1917. Anatoliy Lunacharskiy → Anna Lunacharskaya

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

Anatoliy Lunacharskiy Anna Lunacharskaya

apt.17, 25/20, Lakhtinskaya, Petrograd, Russian Empire

I’ve just sent you a telegram so that you’d know at the very least that I’m alive. You’ll know all the details already from the newspapers of course, by the time you receive this letter. I’ve had to show solidarity with the Bolsheviks. But… they ignore my advice. True, the movement sprang up spontaneously, but it was nevertheless right in fighting against the partially armed uprisings prompted by the anarchists and the awful state of Petrograd’s underbelly, in keeping with our prior agreement.

You know what happened, how all this overflew the banks. The Black Hundreds, hooligans, provocateurs, anarchists, desperate people; they turned the demonstration increasingly absurd and chaotic. I foresaw it. I warned of this in number of meetings, and recently in the article “Forward” which I sent to you, that the Petrograd proletariat and the revolutionaries in the garrison are dying, having detached from the outdated Russian democracy, and the revolution will surely perish. Now, courage lies in enlightening the masses and keeping them from the excessive pressure, which is relatively light in Petrograd, but fatal overall. What am I to do?

Trotsky and the Bolsheviks agree with each other in words, but in reality, they give way to the chaos. And behind them, I give way too. Maybe a bad experience will make the people look back, or no one will be able stop us ploughing into the abyss. The root of everything, of course, is war.

I really need you. You’d advise me. I have formidable trust in your instincts. You would be my sacred refuge too. Will this letter reach you? When? Will we see each other? Yesterday, death ran rampant through Petersburg.

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✍ Also today

Nicholas II

Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

All morning it rained, but at 2 o'clock the weather cleared up; by evening it had become cool. The day went as usual. In Petrograd, these days, there is much confusion and gunfire. Yesterday a lot of soldiers and sailors from Kronstadt started to go against the Kerensky government. See more

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Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich

Gatchina, Russian Empire

After lunch we went to the cinema—“The Vampires.”

In Petrograd they are restoring order, only about 1000 people were hurt, counting women and children, the Cossacks had 20 killed and 70 wounded.

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Grigory Zinoviev

Petrograd, Russian Empire

What stands out in my mind, is a small, fleeting meeting in a choir gallery of the Tavrichesky Palace (by the cafeteria): Vladimir Ilyich, Trotsky, and the one who is writing these lines. “Shouldn’t we try now,” laughing, said Lenin, but immediately added, “no, we cannot take power now, because those on the front are not yet with us. Now, a soldier, deceived by liberals would come and slaughter Petersburg workers.”

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Elizaveta Naryshkina

Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

Today is St. Sergius memorial day. There was a procession, an annual tradition commemorating the eradication of cholera in 1830. They held a prayer service in front of the main entrance. They brought me there in an armchair. There was a mass of people; lots of soldiers and students. They prayed wholeheartedly like in the old days, despite the revolution, and despite the fact that at that very moment in Petrograd, people were killing each other. I heard that yesterday was a very bad day.

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Ariadna Tyrkova-Williams

Petrograd, Russian Empire

The third day of unrest. Everything that the left called for, they got. Bolshevik hooligans, Germans, they’re all running the show. Today the authorities ordered everyone to stay at home, to give them the opportunity to “clean up Petrograd”. Thank God. Let them clean up. See more

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Marina Tsvetaeva

Borisoglebsky lane, 6, Moscow, Russian Empire

Yesterday I was on Tverskaya Street. A huge crowd was chasing away the Bolsheviks with a well-orchestrated whistling. There were shouts from among the soldiers “They’ve been bribed! They want Nicholas II!” “Comrades, shout louder, “Down with the Bolsheviks!””. Cars rushed by, bristling with rifles. The mood was ominous. See more

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+17

in Petrograd

+18

in Moscow