In our carriage, which was packed full of soldiers, suspicions were aroused by the fact that I had been lying for so long on the top bunk, and talk started up below.
“He’s been lying there half the day. Hasn’t poked his nose out once. Maybe it’s Kerensky himself?” (This was followed by some appalling cursing).
“We should wring his neck!”
Somebody tugged at my sleeve. I turned over and hung my head over the side. Clearly there was no resemblance. The soldiers laughed, and offered me some tea to make up for disturbing me.
It's very cold.
In defense of the Constituent Assembly:
Reports have come in from the front that some armies are forming a special joint team to come to Petrograd on the 11th of December in order to defend the Constituent Assembly from attack by the Bolsheviks. The team will be made up of ten regiments of all branches of the service.
I infinitely and easily surrender, when it comes to my soul. I fear that I will not get a ticket for the train, and incidentally, I do not fear at all that this train takes me away from humanity, who… human, of whom… See more
Now everyone is blaming Kerensky, that he was weak and did not take steps to counter the Bolsheviks and the impending revolt in time. This is correct, Kerensky in his weakness and his compliance is guilty before Russia—and what had they, all these democrats, done to prevent the revolt? Nothing! See more
In the morning, soldiers from the aviation school came and impressed, rather confiscated, wine, 80 bottles, and sugar. All this they’ve done according to the decree of the Soviet. Notably, they have broken some bottles right there and drank their contents.
Trotzky has published a reply to the effect that the Allied Governments had been made aware of his intention to propose a general armistice by the appeal, which the Soviet had addressed to the democracies of the world on November 8. If his note had reached the Embassy rather late, this was entirely due to secondary causes of a technical character. I hear that the Soviet disapproves of Trotzky's recent attitude towards me.
I felt a little better and was without fever; I did not go outside into the air. From a book I made a list of my roles for our coming presentation of the French play, "Les Deux Timides." Toward evening I finished that task — it took one and a half writing tablets.
With every day the Bolshevik “government” that consists of criminal riffraff (with the exception of scoundrel-ringleaders and other adherents) gradually pulls in the security forces. A thug, Orlov-Kievskiy, is now a commissar. See more