We [went] to the Church of Our Lady of the Sign and to the hospital. An operation was performed to remove a piece of shrapnel and strengthen the patient’s collarbone with wire. We took round breakfast and helped to make the beds. We and Mother received two American guests. Then Mother lay on the balcony. I went for a walk with Father. It was bright, sunny and warm - real spring weather.
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08 February
Artists and writers are succumbing to a cold and flu
The government is “jumping about as if there were a fire”
Lenin is worried about his party
Vladimir Korolenko
1, Malo-Sadovaya st., Poltava, Russian Empire
Events succeed one another thick and fast. The ministerial leapfrog is continuing. Everyone there is clearly jumping about as if there was a fire. Things that were once spoken of in whispers are now discussed openly by all.
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Alexandre Benois
38, 1st line of Vasilyevsky Island, Petrograd, Russian Empire
A biting frost, and not only outside, but indoors as well. My nose has started running and I can feel the beginnings of that particular fatigue which heralds the approach of influenza (or, as it is fashionable to say, “la grippe”).
Gustav Vernal, Emmanuel Cahour
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Andrey Bely
21, Nikolsky lane, Moscow, Russian Empire
I already have a ticket, and I’m on my way out from Moscow; I am afraid of one thing: that a slight cold is taking hold of me.
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Elizaveta Naryshkina
Alexander Palace, Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire
We had breakfast in the palace today in honour of the Romanian prince, who is going back to Romania and will be leaving for Moscow this evening. I sat next to his Highness, of which I was glad. His Highness enlivened the conversation greatly. The Empress is tense and silent all the time, and the grand duchesses were in their nurses’ uniforms, which constrains them; the atmosphere was very cold. After breakfast the Empress sat with me. His Highness stood speaking with the prince and the other men, while the grand duchesses spoke among themselves separately. There is no sign of a rapprochement. They are so remote from everything it is impossible to speak to them about anything: reading, art, society, people, or anything.
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Vladimir Lenin
from the article “The Swamp: Real or Imagined?”
Zurich, Switzerland
How to transform and reshape a party that is currently incapable of conducting a systematic, stubborn and, no matter what the circumstances, genuine revolutionary struggle, into a party such as would be capable of this task?
That is the most important question!
Spyros Marchetos, Emmanuel Cahour and 3 others
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Filippo Marinetti
73d sector of artillery battery, Gorizia, Italy
On the front line
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Franklin D. Roosevelt
Washington, D.C., United States
How Can I Serve My Country? What can I do in case of war? Well, what would you do? The whole question of how a man can best serve the United States in a war is difficult to answer, because the Government has made no comprehensive plan for the utilization of the country’s various kinds of abilities.
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07 February
The horrors of war: no pineapples for sale in Petrograd
A childhood friend of Tsar Nicholas II warns him that the country is about to hurtle into an abyss
Lenin’s lover has stopped writing to him
Vladimir Lenin Inessa Armand
Zurich, Switzerland
Dearest friend! So long without hearing from you! You promised, almost a week ago, to write “tomorrow”, and since then not a word. Can something in particular have happened? Just write me any old rubbish if you can’t think of anything serious to say, otherwise I’ll start worrying.
Taco Tichelaar, Jakub Horak and 4 others
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Larisa Reisner Nikolay Gumilyov
28, Bol'shaya Zelenina street, Petrograd, Russian Empire (Reisner's apartment)
Will this letter get to you, my Hafiz? I hope not: a warm wind is blowing up the Neva from the sea, which means the year is drawing to an end (I always count years from winter to winter) – the first year of my life which bore no resemblance to those previous: grand, silly, long; somehow too eventful and serious. I can even see it in the mass of freckles on my nose and the way my arms have grown inconceivably long.
My deer Hafiz, how sweet it is to live! That, really, was all I wanted to say to you.
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Elizaveta Naryshkina
Alexander Palace, Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire
It’s just as cold in this residence as it is in the Winter Palace. It’s very important not to forget about our poor soldiers, and of those unfortunates who have no firewood at all; I should think of them and be patient. I was with the Empress today and felt very distant from her. She looked poorly, and we didn’t speak much for lack of time. This cold is making me numb.
Jakub Horak
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Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich Nicholas II
Kiev, Russian Empire
I have been hoping all this time that you would take the course indicated by those people loyal to you, those who love their country not out of a sense of fear but from a belief in what they know to be right. But as events have shown, your advisers have continued to lead Russia - and you - to certain doom. To remain silent in the present circumstances would be a crime before God, before you, and before Russia.
Discontent is growing rapidly; every day that passes brings a widening of the abyss that separates you from your people. Never in the history of the Russian state has the country known such favourable political circumstances: our previous arch-enemy England is on our side, as is Japan and all the other states, all of whom see and feel our power, but who, at the same time, are witness to an utterly inexplicable phenomenon: the complete disarray within our country, which worsens every day. They see that it is not the best, but the worst powers that are now in control of Russia, at a moment when any mistakes we make today will have consequences for our entire history, and they are beginning to doubt us, despite themselves; they see that Russia is blind to her own interests and to the challenges that face her – or rather not Russia herself, but those who rule Russia.
This situation cannot be allowed to continue. In closing, I would like to say that, strange as it may seem, at present it is the government that is preparing the ground for revolution. The people do not want a revolution, but the government is taking every possible step to make as many people dissatisfied as it can, and is succeeding admirably. We are witnessing something unheard-of: a revolution from above, not from below.
Yours faithfully, Sandro.
Anna Arfen, Jakub Horak and 1 other
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Rosa Luxemburg
prison, Wronki, Russian Empire
Today I received a court ruling on a complaint filed by an officer from the criminal investigation department: ten days in jail and court fees:
"The accused is guilty of insulting an officer of the Palma police in word and deed on 22 September 1916 for shouting: "You are the most vulgar pig and mongrel for you to have no soul," and throwing a stamp at him."
Piotr Kaczmarek, Carl Skutsch and 3 others
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