Like
Comment
Share
Boris Pasternak
Ushakovs' chemical plant, Tykhie Gory, Vyatsk guberniya, Russian Empire
I sprang to my feet in the middle of night, having seen the whole thing from beginning to end. Unable to sleep any further, I got up and began to write; I wrote for two days straight, sleeping no more than a couple of hours each night and reprising my work immediately on awaking. But, the holidays being over, I needed to go into the office, and had to put the thing aside. I stopped work on the 20th and spent three days reworking the thing. I haven’t yet given it a name.
Elena Kl
Like
Comment
Share
Nicholas Roerich
at work on "Upinniemi"
Relander's, Yuhinlahti Bay, Russian Empire
Like
Comment
Share
23 January
Rasputin’s murderer is venerated as if he were a saint
“The Jews shall dictate their own rules to all other peoples”
The day-to-day cares of a revolutionary in exile – to buy galoshes, or not to buy them?
Mikhail Rodzianko
32, Kirochnaya street, Petrograd, Russian Empire
The time has come to speak the truth, however unpleasant it may be.
Like
Comment
1 Share
Maxim Gorky
23, Kronversky ave., Petrograd, Russian Empire
I’m in Piter- the weather is good here, it doesn’t feel like Piter at all.
Like
Comment
1 Share
Nikolai Pokrovsky with Maurice Paleologue
Petrograd, Russian Empire
Maurice Paléologue, the French ambassador, is a very lively and affable man. An old bachelor and lover of the fair sex, he’s a jovial fellow, just like all Frenchmen. He knows but little of the affairs of the country in which he has resided for several years.
Like
Comment
Share
Elizaveta Naryshkina with Woodrow Wilson
Petrograd, Russian Empire
Wilson is proposing peace (for a second time), as well as an accord between all countries including America: an international army or some kind of international institution for global security. What sort of institution would this be? It would, of course, consist entirely of Jews. Which would enable them to dictate their laws to all other nations.
Rotaru Vlad Matei
Like
Comment
Share
Edvard Munch
Achill villa, Oslo, Norway
In a therapy session
Giovanna Henrique Marcelino
Like
Comment
1 Share
Julius Martov
Zurich, Switzerland
I firmly resolved not to buy any galoshes this winter, having previously acquired some warm woollen stockings; now that much of the winter is behind us, there’s probably no point.
Like
Comment
1 Share
Nicholas Roerich
at work on "Holy Lake"
Relander's, Yuhinlahti Bay, Russian Empire
Like
Comment
1 Share
Maurice Paleologue
10, Kutuzova embankment, Petrograd, Russian Empire
I have dined at Tsarskoïe-Selo with the Grand Duke Paul's family party.
When we rose from table, the Grand Duke took me into a distant room so that we could talk as man to man. He made me the confidante of all his griefs and anxieties.
From his emotion and the tone of his words I could see that he is terribly upset that his son Dimitri should have been involved in the prologue of the drama. . He continued umprompted:
"Isn't it dreadful that, all over the Empire, candles are being lit before the ikon of Saint Dimitri and my son is being styled the liberator of Russia!"
The notion that his son might be proclaimed Tsar at any time does not seem to have entered his head. He is what he has always been, a paragon of loyalty and chivalry.
He then told me that when he heard at Mohilev of Rasputin's murder, he immediately returned to Tsarskoïe-Selo.
Next morning the Grand Duke Paul went to Petrograd to see his son at the palace on the Nevsky Prospekt. He asked him:
"Did you kill Rasputin?
"No."
"Are you prepared to swear it on the holy ikon of the Virgin and your mother's photograph?"
"Yes."
The Grand Duke Paul then handed him an ikon of the Virgin and a photograph of the late Grand Duchess Alexandra:
"Now: swear that you didn't kill Rasputin."
"I swear it."
As he told me this incident, the Grand Duke made a really touching picture of nobility, truth and dignity.
Like
Comment
1 Share
22 January
Charlie Chaplin is injured in a workplace accident
Gorky begs Bunin to write something for a new paper
The Chairman of the Russian Parliament insists that the Empress stop interfering in politics
Rurik Ivnev
Near the church at Semenovskaya, Russian Empire
From what I heard of a conversation: he said “I’ll slit my throat”, to which she replied “Be my guest”’.
Letitia Rydjeski, Stephan Wintner
Like
Comment
Share
Charlie Chaplin
Edendale, Los Angeles, USA
While I was pulling a street-lamp over the big bully to gas him, the head of the lamp collapsed and its sharp metal edge fell across the bridge of my nose, necessitating two surgical stitches.
Like
Comment
1 Share
Maxim Gorky Ivan Bunin
23, Kronversky ave., Petrograd, Russian Empire
Dear Ivan Alekseyevich!
Allow me to request your collaboration on the newspaper Luch [Ray]. I shall say only that the newspaper promises to be really rather respectable and literary-oriented. Conditions? Whatever you see fit. I would be most happy if you could contribute some poetry or a short story towards the end of January.
You are a good friend and have never refused me your help. I hope you shall not refuse it on this occasion either.
Rotaru Vlad Matei
Like
Comment
Share
Mikhail Rodzianko
32, Kirochnaya street, Petrograd, Russian Empire
As you will have gleaned from my report, Your Highness, I believe the situation to be more perilous and critical than ever before. Sentiments across the country are such that we can expect the gravest of shocks. It is no secret that the Empress, acting in parallel with you, is issuing orders regarding the administration of the country, and that undesirables are quickly dismissed from their posts whenever she wills it – to be replaced by utterly unprepared individuals.
Nicholas II
Give me facts: there are no facts as would confirm your statements.
1 more comment
Like
Comment
Share
Aleksey Tolstoy
Minsk, Russian Empire
Literature — pure art — is the clear wine of life. What then will I do when this wine is stirred up and wanders about, when the devil himself cannot grasp whether it is tar or honey.
Like
Comment
Share
Alexandra Kollontai
Atlantic ocean, aboard the steamer Bergensfjord
The Atlantic News reports that the United States has entered the war on the side of the allies… one cannot believe the Atlantic News. Rumours are reported as authoritative. But the fact remains. A constant watch is kept from the mast. The passengers are anxious. They’re afraid to go to bed… As for me, I’d actually like to live through something “serious”. As a matter of curiosity. And I feel “unafraid of anything”.
Like
Comment
Share
21 January
Grand Duchess Anastasia: “The King of Romania came to see us. Nothing interesting happened.”