27 September 1917. Olga Paley

Alexander Palace, Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Republic

Now that we were free it was the moment to take flight from Tsarskoe, after this first warning which showed that even the Grand Duke, who had been so popular formerly with the troops and who had not been disquieted until then, was no longer safe. . . . Alas! there was no lack of opportunities for flight.

A number of faithful officers, brought to us by my son Alexander, offered to get us away. One of them named Brigguer, whom I had met with the young Youssoupoffs, was sent by his chief to the Grand Duke, said to him: "Monseigneur, the danger is becoming greater every day for you and yours. I beg of you to listen to me, to have confidence in me, I am an aviator and my chief, Colonel Sikorsky, the inventor of the IIie-Mourometz, is informed of my plans. I shall come down one night on one of the lawns in the Tsarskoe Park, which we shall choose with you. You will come there with the Princess, your three children and some luggage. My machine is like a regular room with arm-chairs in it. In four hours we shall be in Stockholm. . ."

The Grand Duke looked at him sadly: "My dear friend," he replied, "you see me touched to the bottom of my heart but what you propose is out of Jules Verne! How could we disappear without being seen, even with the fewest possible preparations? We are under watch, spied upon, kept in sight by our servants. We should be caught in the act and our fate and yours would be still harder than at present..." Brigguer went off heart-broken. The mission, with which Sikorsky had charged him, had failed. I saw him again only once after his visit; two months later he was fleeing from the Bolshevist invasion.

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Claude Debussy

Chalet Aba, Saint-Jean-de-Luz, France

My dear Jacques, if you have any insight into what on Earth’s going on in Russia, do be so kind as to fill me in. These people have the most curious understandings of responsibility! You know this common way of speaking of “mysterious Russia”... If mysterious means insane, then I am in full agreement. See more

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Felix Dzerzhinsky

Petrograd, Russian Republic

Attends the All-Russia Democratic Conference

Also attending: Kerensky, Trotsky, Maugham, Chkheidze, Nabokov, Kamenev, Avksentiev and others.

Pierre Pascal

Petrograd, Russian Republic

The All-Russia Democratic Conference has opened. There's a sacred procession in town, people are praying for Russia.

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Boris Nikolsky

Ofitserskaya street, Petrograd, Russian Republic

What I think lies behind all of events which are now taking place is an age-old drunkenness among the people and a sudden sobering-up. Everything that is happening is the fruits of a long, defiling drunkenness and an awful hangover.

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Alexander Kerensky

Mariinsky Palace, Petrograd, Russian Republic

I bring to the attention of the Petrograd Soviet of the R.S.D.P. (Russian Social Democratic Party) the decision that I, and my also my comrades – former members of the Presidium of the Petrograd Soviet – have taken: to renounce my rank and relinquish my authority as comrade representative of the Petrograd Soviet of the R.S.D.P.

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Joseph Stalin

Petrograd, Russian Republic

While the Democratic Conference in Petersburg drowns in its own verbiage, and the initiators of the conference come up with ridiculous formulas concerning the “redemption” of the revolution, while those in Kerensky’s government, encouraged by Buchanan and Milyukov, continue to tread “their own” path, a defining historical element, a new power, genuinely from the people, genuinely revolutionary, engaged in a desperate struggle for its very existence, is growing in Russia. See more

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Trud i volya

Tokyo, Japan

All the Japanese papers are featuring an English telegram describing Japanese-American talks, as a result of which Japan is supposed to enter the war in Russia’s place. The telegram shows that the state of affairs within Russia and, above all, the possibility of power passing to the Bolsheviks is causing serious concern among the Allies. See more

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Vladimir Vernadsky

Petrograd, Russian Republic

I kindly ask the Provisional Government to release me from the post of the Comrade Minister of Education.

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Harry Kessler

Berlin, German Empire

In the afternoon I spoke to Nasse, who has come back from Stockholm, where he has been observing the situation in Russia. He says that the Russian government is afraid of ending the war because of demobilization The government is afraid that the entire army will collapse and overrun the country, observing no order whatsoever - a situation fraught with unforeseeable but catastrophic consequences. See more

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Paul Klee

works on «Harbour at night»

Summer school, Gersthofen, Bavaria, German Empire

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Nicholas II

Tobolsk, Russian Republic

In order to avoid the crowds of people in the streets and at the church we asked for Mass to be held at 8 o'clock. Everything went well; the sentries were arranged along the fence of the village park. The weather became bad — cold and damp — but we still took a lot of walks. They permitted Kola Derevenko to come to see Alexis.

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Rurik Ivnev

Back from Pesochnaya

Moscow, Russian Republic

Having returned from Pesochnaya, I was in Matyushin’s home. I saw his amazing drawings of “large expanses”.

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Nikolai Aseev

Moscow, Russian Republic

When all the fences became plastered with election lists from the extremely various parties that had suddenly announced their ambition to participate in this country’s leadership, the most dominant ones were still the old parties, the ones whose names had long been popular. But now the Cadets and the Renovationists and the Anarchists and the Chefs’ Union and who knows who else have been posted up there with them. See more

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Pitirim Sorokin

Petrograd, Russian Republic

This country is approaching total anarchy, and I have no certainty that we will find a fortunate outcome. We continue to revel in words, in resolutions—we have closed our eyes to everything. This country is already on the path to an anarchy that no one can restrain. Witnesses say the peasants are tired, have stopped going to the voting booths, thirst for order from any source. Monarchist and ant-Semitic propaganda is spreading through the countryside. See more

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26 September

John Reed on Russian political forces

Gaudi designs the Passion Façade of Sagrada Familia

Swedish border is about to be closed because of the Russians