I remember Tolstoy having a habit of avoiding any arguments. He liked taking notice of what others were saying and then perplex them with sharp retorts. But he avoided arguments, even though you could tell what he was thinking by his manner of listening. His face was very expressive; he couldn't hide his emotions.
Many people wouldn't dare stirring up arguments, knowing very well how Tolstoy would react. Usually, Countess Sofia Andreevna would come to the rescue, changing the topic to an everyday, general one.
They say two tubs of butter have been stolen from the monastery. Rowdiness. Rowdiness causes great harm. It's everywhere. Nothing can be left out in the street nowadays. Everything is being broken, violated. Everything gets stolen from gardens. All one can hear at night is fowl-language songs. Former Minister of War SukhomlinovFormer Minister of War has been given a life sentence.
A pigeon-spy
On the Southwestern front in the district of Smalat, a postal pigeon flying from our rear in the direction of the enemy positions has been caught. The pigeon was carrying a coded message (with a note in a secret language for the enemy).
I had lunch with Guinot at Francois’s. The maid wants to go and sign up for the women’s brigade. Soldiers in the courtyard are passing the time by shooting at pigeons. Troubling news in the evening: the soldiers of the garrison are discussing how to settle scores with the city’s foreign population.
It's Hindenburg's birthday today. Berlin is full of bright flags, Hindenburg's portraits and giant heads on every corner. In the evening I went to the Headquarters.
Politically, it seems that things have never as troubled and desperate as they are now. All things and all people, no matter how well-inclined they are to state-building, are acting as the agents of its decline. I continue to believe in Kerensky’s sacrificial impulse, but his lack of practical foresight and spiritual flexibility has led to a series of unforgivable historical misjudgments.
A very important meeting is being planned in Petrograd: an assembly of representatives from all the cultural-educational societies, clubs and people’s theatres… Now, during this time of revolution, we need more than ever proper emotional instruction - a school of the passions worthy of the times. See more
Admiral Kemp, the commander of the British naval forces in Arkhangelsk, invited myself and my wife to move in on his yacht, which bears his own pennant, in the expectation that the passenger ship Umtali will soon depart for England.