17 November 1917. Alexander Vertinsky

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

Alexander Vertinsky

Москва

Я не знаю, зачем и кому это нужно,
Кто послал их на смерть недрожавшей рукой,
Только так беспощадно, так зло и ненужно
Опустили их в Вечный Покой!

Осторожные зрители молча кутались в шубы,
И какая-то женщина с искаженным лицом
Целовала покойника в посиневшие губы
И швырнула в священника обручальным кольцом.

Закидали их елками, замесили их грязью
И пошли по домам – под шумок толковать,
Что пора положить бы конец безобразью,
Что и так уже скоро, мол, мы начнем голодать.

Но никто не додумался просто стать на колени
И сказать этим мальчикам, что в бездарной стране
Даже светлые подвиги – это только ступени
В бесконечные пропасти к недоступной Весне!

Я не знаю, зачем и кому это нужно,
Кто послал их на смерть недрожавшей рукой,
Только так беспощадно, так зло и ненужно
Опустили их в вечный покой.

, and others

Comment

✍ Also today

Zinaida Gippius

Sergievskaya 83, Petrograd, Russian Republic

It’s all the same. It’s disgusting to write. The newspapers are utter lies. Moscow is gunned down and submitted to the Bolsheviks. The capitals have been seized by the enemy - and barbaric - troops. There’s nowhere to run. There is no homeland.

, and others

2 Like

Comment

Maria Feodorovna

Ai-Todor, Crimea, Russian Republic

Our commissar Vershinin and Zhorzheliani returned from Sevastopol and told us a few things, including the fact that the Winter Palace has been half destroyed and looted, with the chambers of my beloved Nicky and Alika particularly afflicted by the latter – what infamy! See more

, and others

5 Like

Comment

Auguste Rodin

Meudon, France

Dies

, and others

Comment

Harry Kessler with Auguste Rodin

Berlin, German Empire

Rodin is dead. He was one of my oldest and most respected friends. I ferried him from London to Paris just eight days before the war. “Goodbye, and I shall see you on Wednesday at the countess’” – these were his last words at the Gare du Nord. See more

, and others

Comment

George Buchanan

4, Dvortsovaya embankment, Petrograd, Russian Republic (British Embassy)

The situation is now hopeless, as the Bolsheviks are masters in the north and at Moscow; and though Kaledin holds the south, there is no chance of his making headway in the north.

, and others

Comment

Sofia Tolstaya

Yasnaya Polyana, Tul'skaya guberniya, Russian Republic

The cavalry left today, tomorrow one hundred infantry soldiers will leave. Life is all the more terrible in the countryside, and there is nowhere else to go.

, and others

Comment

Nikolay Gumilyov

137, St. Faubourg St. Denis, Paris, France

We’re receiving no books from Russia. But literature is the most nation-specific of the arts. Music, painting, scientific discoveries – all this represents an Esperanto of sorts for the whole world. See more

, and others

Comment

John Reed

Petrograd, Russian Republic

In front of Smolny, one day, I saw a ragged regiment just come from the trenches. The soldiers were drawn up before the great gates, thin and grey-faced, looking up at the building as if God were in it. Some pointed out the Imperial eagles over the door, laughing…. See more

, and others

3 Like

Comment

Anna Pavlova

Caracas, Venezuela

is performing in the City Theatre in Caracas

Vladimir Lenin

Petrograd, Russian Republic

For the bourgeoisie, freedom of the press meant freedom for the rich to publish and for the capitalists to control the newspapers, a practice which in all countries, including even the freest, produced a corrupt press. See more

, and others

4 Like

1 Comment

16 November

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-1

in Petrograd

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