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El Lissitzky
Moishe Broderzon’s book "The Prague Legend", illustraded by Lissitzky, is published
Moscow, Russian Empire
Elenaabout Gurdjieff
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Olga Rozanova
Becman's house, ap. 29, 5, Patriarshiye pound, Moscow, Russian Empire
I now prefer to work on my paintings of a morning instead of preparing for lectures. Come Easter, a Suprematist exhibition is slated to take place in a private house. If I have enough time, I’ll produce some paintings featuring “transfigured colouration” for this event. You do, of course, wish me success?
Elenaabout Gurdjieff
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Sigmund Freud
19, Berggasse, Vienna, Austro-Hungarian Empire
There is nothing, nothing except stasis, inertia, withdrawal, and, at best, a suffocating sense of expectation. In ten days at the surgery I have spoken with only two patients, neither of them new. My days, consequently, are almost entirely void of activity. Two weeks of cold and darkness have forced me to abandon my habit of never working in the evening.
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Filippo Marinetti
is wounded in the groin during the fighting at Monte Cucco
Gorizia, Italy
I was in a pitch-black, earth-covered trench when I really began to apprehend the objects surrounding me for the first time. I would handle them in an effort to fathom out their inner essence.
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Mathilde Kschessinska
Kshessinska mansion, Petrograd, Russian Empire
Finally, on February 2nd, Countess Mathilde Ivanovna Witte organised, with the Tsar's approval, a charity performance in aid of
the Disabled Soldiers' Work-house, which was run by a special Commission of the Supreme Council and was under the patronage of Her Majesty the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna.
Сountess Witte, with whom I was on excellent terms, had asked me to help her organise the performance, and I secured the services of our leading artists.
M. N. Kousnetzova sang the second act of Manon and danced Spanish dances. Lidia Lipkovska sang the lesson scene from the third act of The Barber of Seville. D. A. Smirnov sang Lensky's aria from the duel scene of Eugene Onegin. Finally, Fokine and I appeared as Harlequin and Columbine in his ballet Le Carnaval. Next we danced the first act of Don Quixote, and Tamara Karsavina performed the waltz from the same ballet.
The evening was a triumphant success. It was a very elegant and select audience, and Fokine was delighted with my interpretation of the role of Columbine, which he had wanted me to dance. It was my first performance in this ballet in St. Petersburg.
After the performance Countess Witte gave a supper party to which the leading artists and various members of high society were invited. It was served at little tables, and I remember that my neighbour was Stanislas Poklevsky, Russian Minister in Roumania. I was on excellent terms with Countess Witte, who was a woman of high intelligence, and Andre, who had closely followed the lectures on political economy given by the Count, held them both in very high esteem.
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Grand Duchess Olga with Anna Vyrubova
Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire
At around 4 I went for a walk with father. It is cold, -12 degrees, and it is snowing. At 5 we four went together to Anna’s for her name day.
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15 February
“It’s Russia that has lapsed into such ignominy. And what else will befall her?”
Leo Tolstoy’s widow takes pity on the workers
The food situation in Petersburg grows ever more perilous: the city is threatened by famine due to the poor organisation of deliveries.
Dmitry Merezhkovsky with Zinaida Gippius
Returned to Petrograd from Kislovodsk
Katerina Startseva
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Zinaida Gippius
Sergievskaya 83, Petrograd, Russian Empire
We’re back at home. The snow is deep, the cold bitter. But the morning skies gleam pink over the Tauride Gardens, as does the dead round dome of the Duma.See more
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Sofia Tolstoy
Yasnaya Pol'yana, Tul'skaya guberniya, Russian Empire
Paid the workers their wages. I often pity the working folk; you want to clothe them in better outfits, feed them up and show them all affection – especially the children.
Zhenglei Shi
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Ilya Ehrenburg
5th military hospital, Julien Michelet st., Paris, France
In the military hospital at Vanves, Paris, Russian lance corporal Stepan B. is being seen to by a French nurse. She tells him about what the Germans did to her home town of Lunéville. A Russian nurse translates:
“…And an entire block was burnt to the ground. Thirty-two houses. The men were taken out of town and shot. The Église Saint-Jean was torched, as was the Jewish synagogue; and they went round to the neighbours and grabbed the old woman…”
She explains everything at length, and the soldier sighs:
“That isn’t good, the poor woman!”
Then the French nurse says, smiling, “But when you Russians get to Germany you’ll show them what’s what. I only want one thing – I want all the Germans slaughtered.”
The Russian nurse translates. Stepan looks at her, bewildered, flummoxed.
“How’s that, then?.. What, are we animals?.. Oh no, young miss, that simply isn’t on…”
Vitor de Vile
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Vladimir Lenin Inessa Armand
Clarens, Switzerland
Dear Friend,
I am sending you a leaflet. Will you please translate it into French and English...
Please translate it in vigorous language, in short sentences. Please write it in duplicate on thin paper as clearly as possible to avoid misprints.
Yours, Lenin
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Lilya Brik
Angry
ap. 42, 7, Zhukovskogo street, Petrograd, Russian Empire
We played whist, poker, baccarat, sevens – for money, of course, as Mayakovsky demanded.
Darine Elzein
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Pathe News
Thousands demonstrate in London in support of the war.
Zhenglei Shi
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Andrei Shingarev
Shingarev's apartment, 22, Bolshaya Monetnaya street, Petrogradskaya side, Petrograd, Russian Empire
The situation is getting worse with every day. We are heading towards the abyss. A revolution would be our undoing, but we are surely heading for one. And even without a revolution everything is coming undone at a dizzying rate. The supply situation in Petrograd is already critical. If not today then tomorrow we will run out of bread. The soldiers are grumbling, and the garrison is unreliable. At least, as you know, our military power and technical capabilities have grown to unprecedented levels. Our spring offensive will be supported by a hitherto inconceivable quantity of shells. If we can just hang on till the spring…
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Raymond Poincare
Montdidier, Compiegne, Viller Cotre, France
Were gathering forces that shall enable us to fight back and advance with confidence.
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14 February
Rumours about a palace coup won’t die away
The celebrated Russian dance Nijinsky develops schizophrenia
The housing issue of Franz Kafka
Maxim Gorky
23, Kronversky ave., Petrograd, Russian Empire
Life is increasingly becoming a nightmare, and especially difficult for those who have no personal life. Personal life is, at any rate, that moderately dirty and uncomfortable place where one can rest.