Merry Christmas to you, my dear Iza! I kiss you tenderly and wish you all the very best. May the Lord send you good health and provide you with that spiritual world which is the greatest gift for us mortals.
We must pray to God for patience as well, for we so direly need it in this world of suffering (and insanity of the highest order)-- and for solace, strength, and happiness. It may be that the words “a joyful Christmas” sound like a mockery these days, but this joy comes from the birth of our Lord, He who died to save all of us-- and isn’t that surely enough to restore our faith in the endless mercy of our Lord? He is above all, and He is in all: He will show His mercy when the time comes, and until then, we must wait patiently.
I think about you every day when I get the news from Russia. It worries me to imagine how nervous you must become over every insane telegram. However, the greater part of this news, especially the news from the South, is about the Tatars. See more
Every direct or indirect attempt to consider the question of the Constituent Assembly from a formal, legal point of view, within the framework of ordinary bourgeois democracy and disregarding the class struggle and civil war, would be a betrayal of the proletariat’s cause, and the adoption of the bourgeois standpoint. See more
I am reading some memoirs from the French Revolution. A most appropriate reading at the present time, in view of what is happening in Russia and may perhaps come throughout Europe. See more
Gone for ever was the Empire of Peter the Great, and the long-dreamed-of liberal Russia, and the Duma, and the already summoned Constituent Assembly. Cast into outer darkness with the Czarist Ministers were the Liberal and Radical politicians and reformers. See more
On Christmas night we gave what will be our last entertainment at the Embassy to over a hundred members of our staff and of the various military missions. We began with a concert and variety entertainment, arranged by Colonel Thornhill, and ended up with a sit-down supper. In spite of the prevailing scarcity of provisions, my cook gave us a most sumptuous repast.