30 July 1917. Leon Trotsky

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

Leon Trotsky

Tauride Palace, Petrograd, Russian Empire

The route to the canteen of the Executive Committee was a little Golgotha in those days. Tea was dispensed there, and sandwiches of black bread and cheese or red caviar; the latter was plentiful in the Smolny and later in the Kremlin.

For dinner, the fare was a vegetable soup with a chunk of meat. The canteen was in charge of a soldier named Grafov. When the baiting of the Bolsheviks was at its worst, when Lenin was declared a German spy and had to hide in a hut, I noticed that Grafov would slip me a hotter glass of tea, or a sandwich better than the rest, trying meanwhile not to look at me. He obviously sympathized with the Bolsheviks but had to keep it from his superiors. I began to look about me more attentively. Grafov was not the only one: the whole lower staff of the Smolny — porters, messengers, watchmen — were unmistakably with the Bolsheviks.

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Nicholas II

Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire

Wonderfully warm weather began. I took a walk with Tatiana. The guard from the First Infantry Regiment is in good order, and today the guard from the Second Infantry Regiment is changing places with them. See more

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Alexandra Kollontai

Vyborg female convict prison, Vyborg side, Russian Empire

I asked for some books, for a notebook to write my thoughts in. I filed a report. The wardresses are coolly polite. You can clearly sense they disapprove of a "Bolshevik". They are "patriots", they support total war. They used to serve here under the old regime. They were very unhappy with the "destruction" of the prison during the February revolution. See more

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Maria Feodorovna

Ai-Todor, Crimea, Russian Empire

It got warmer, the wind spent itself a little. I'm feeling rather bad. How much humiliation do we endure from our inspectors! How much trouble do they cause! I went for a little walk with my daughters in the garden. A doctor arrived right after breakfast to take a look at the boys. See more

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