I've started to paint two pictures at the same time: a realistic one and a suprematist one. I am unable to finish the first work: it is so extraneous to paint from memory, without nature. I gave it up and won't change my mind. The second one is almost finished.
There are mornings when it seems to be as difficult to do my toilet as to perform one of the twelve feats of Hercules! And I'm still waiting for something - revolution or earthquake - something that would spare me from this difficult routine.
On the streets, deserters were caught; The patrols who checked the documents themselves were like deserters. Two officers took away from a woman a bag of sugar. "Herods!": she yelled. When she was left, one of officers shouted that soon she would be executed. Kerensky indulges the bag-makers, but sooner or later he will be put to justice.
Then the officers, not being shy of passers-by, divided the catch among themselves. In shops it was possible to buy Havana cnigars, Sevres vases, verses of Countess de Noah. Then the officers, not being shy of passers-by, divided the catch among themselves. In shops it was possible to buy Havana cnigars, Sevres vases, verses of Countess de Noah. In confectioneries coffee was served with honey (sugar was gone) and instead of cakes - thin slices of white bread and jam. The cabmen did not talk about the oats anymore, only they sulked sullenly.
I refuse to blame Russian soldiers, even now, considering the current situation. Only heroes fight, or those who are forced to. It is impossible to make everyone be a hero.
I consider the unauthorised withdrawal of regiments from their positions to be an action equivalent to treason and betrayal. Therefore, I categorically demand that all combatant commanders in such cases do not hesitate to use their machine guns and artillery against the traitors. I take full responsibility for all deaths. Inactivity and wavering on the part of the commanders I will consider as a failure of their official duty and will immediately dismiss them from command and hand them over the courts.
In the middle of the night I was awoken by terrible screams. Through the window you could see the sky, embraced by the glow of a fire. Cries rang out from the street, you could hear some kind of crackling and noise, the breaking of glass and occasional shots. Hastily dressed, I went out into the corridor, where I met by my orderly officer. “Your Excellency, there is a pogrom in the city. The retreating troops are breaking stores,” he reported to me. I went down into the hotel lobby. Leaning against the wall stood an old man, pale as death, with blood flowing down his long grey beard. See more
Without a doubt, riots in Petrograd were organized with a help of German state agents. As of now, all disturbances are completely put to an end. Leaders and others who stained themselves in brotherly blood and crimes against fatherland and revolution are arrested. Moreover, there are arrests among navy ranks who violated their civilian and military duty. I call upon true sons of democracy to unite around the Provisional Government and State democracy organs for the salvation of our fatherland and revolution from the outer enemy and its allies.