15-21 January 1917
- By Mark Sutcliffe
- •
- 20 Jan, 2017
- •
(photo State Archive of the Russian Federation)
Letter from the poet Nikolai Gumilyov to Larisa Reisner
My dear Lerichka,
You will of course be cross with me, I’m writing to you for the first time since I left, and have already received two wonderful letters from you. But on the very first day I got here I found myself in the trenches, firing a machine gun at the Germans as they fired back at me, and two weeks have gone by in this pursuit. Only the most fervent scribbler can write from the trenches: there are no chairs, the ceiling leaks, the table is inhabited by several huge rats that growl at you if you approach. And for entire days I’ve been lying in the snow looking at the stars and drawing a line between us in my head, tracing the outline of your face looking down at me from the heavens. It’s a delightful way to spend time. You must try it somehow … How I now regret those wasted years when I listened to ignorant critics and sought something sincere and heartfelt in my poems rather than practising rondeaus, rondels, lays, virelays and so on … I must act more like the cavalryman, with impudent daring, and believe, as in wartime, in my hussar happiness. And in any case I am happy, because the joy of creativity is mixed with the realisation that without my love for you I couldn’t hope to write such a thing even from this great distance.
I kiss your dear, dear little hands unceasingly,
Your Hafiz
The artist and architect Foma Railyan writes
The general atmosphere today is too depressing for creativity, too oppressive for the poet's soul ... All around is just barbarism and pandemonium, the past is destroyed, there is no present.'
(F. Railyan, 'On the influence of war on creativity', Petrogradaskii Listok)
16 January
Letter from Lenin in Geneva to the French-born revolutionary Inessa Armand
Dear Friend!
If Switzerland gets dragged into the war, the French will immediately occupy Geneva. So being in Geneva will mean being in France and having relations with Russia. Therefore I’m thinking of handing over to you the party funds (which you should keep in a little bag, sewn up, on your person, because the bank won’t issue money in wartime) … This is only planning, for the moment it’s between us.
I think that we’ll stay in Zurich, that war is unlikely.
Best wishes and handshake!
Your Lenin
18 January
Diary entry of James L. Houghteling, Jr, attaché at the American Embassy, Petrograd
There is no doubt that a revolution is coming. G- says that in the provinces it is regarded as certain, and that people think it will be very bloody. The Tsar's actions alone are enough to provoke a revolt. Last fall he put into office the pro-German Stürmer. The latter immediately attacked the Zemstvo Union as a detriment to the war, but his own Ministers of War and Marine, acting upon representations from Generals Alexeieff, Ruzsky, and Brusiloff, reported that they could not get along without the Union. This fiasco and Miliukoff's denunciation of Stürmer in the Duma, drove him from office, the first time popular opinion has been able to exert such strength. The Tsar is said to have asked for the recall of Sir George Buchanan, the British Ambassador, as an accomplice of Miliukoff, but to have met with a prompt refusal from Great Britain. Then Trepoff went in as a liberal, but the Tsar saddled him with Protopopoff, the worst reactionary of all, as Home Minister controlling the police and the press. While the Premier was expostulating and Nikolas vacillating, Rasputin was killed and the Tsar immediately grew stubborn, confirmed Protopopoff and forced Trepoff out. Now we have a nice old reactionary philanthropist as nominal head of ministry, with Protopopoff as the real government. The Duma has been adjourned and while it is scheduled to assemble on February 27th [14th], the wise ones say it will never meet. Meanwhile the throne has fewer adherents every day.
(James L. Houghteling, Jr, A Diary of the Russian Revolution, New York 1918)
Diary entry of Alexander Benois, artist and critic
Dinner with the Nabokovs and some dismal, taciturn English military man (a Captain Mortimer, if I'm not mistaken). Tried to touch on the war but failed completely ... The Englishman kept quiet and just smoked his pipe, then muttered something lugubriously about the boches, who obviously should be annihilated to the last man. Elena Ivanovna [Nabokov] has a very sweet new dachshund, the successor to her grouchy old cat. Maybe the cat was more interesting but I have a soft spot for dachshunds.
(Alexander Benois, Diary 1916-1918, Moscow 2006)
19 January
On 19 January an official announcement of imminent bread rationing - as little as one pound per person a day - sparked panic buying. People were now standing so long in line at the bakers' shops that they were suffering from hypothermia. If they were lucky enough to get any, they would hurry off, 'hugging close to themselves the warm piece of bread they had bought, in a vain attempt to receive from it a little heat' ... Hunger was made worse by the continuing sub-zero temperatures affecting the supply of fuel to the city by rail. Rowing boats on the Neva were chopped up for firewood, and even more desperate measures were resorted to: 'at dead of night' people slunk into the nearest cemetery 'to fill whole sacks with the wooden crosses from the graves of poor folk' and take them home for their fires.
(Helen Rappaport, Caught in the Revolution: Petrograd 1917, London 2016)
20 January
Diary entry of Lev Tikhomirov, revolutionary and later conservative thinker
I'm constantly racking my brains as to how the monarchy can be saved. And truth to tell, I can't see a remedy. The main point is that the Sovereign cannot, of course, become a new person and change his character. With huge force of will and a strong adherence to one plan, one course of behaviour, generally speaking he could rescue everything, and escape this most desperate situation. But this is precisely what he will not do and what he cannot do. He will continue to hesitate and lurch from one plan to the next. And this being the case - in such a muddled situation - it can only end in collapse ... unless there is some providential intervention.
(L.A. Tikhomirov, Diary 1915-1917, Moscow 2008)
21 January
Great Britain's ambassador, Sir George Buchanan, tells of the Allied Mission that came to Petrograd in January/February 1917 to boost Russia's morale in the war effort
... on [January 21] we were all invited to a gala dinner at the palace at Tsarskoe. As doyen of the diplomatic body, I had the honour of being placed on the Emperor's right, and His Majesty talked to me during the great part of the dinner. The only questions, to which I called his attention, were the food crisis and Russia's man power. As regarded the first, I told him that, according to my reports, there was such a scarcity of foodstuffs in some provinces that the supplies were not expected to last more than a fortnight. With regard to the second question, I observed that Russia was not making the most of her vast man power ... For myself, personally, a melancholy interest attaches to this dinner, for it was the last occasion on which I ever saw the Emperor. At the same time it is some satisfaction to me to remember his marked friendliness at what, unsuspected by either of us, was to be our last interview. It was as if His Majesty wished to show me that not only did he not resent my outspoken language at my recent audience, but that he appreciated the motives which prompted me to speak so frankly to him.
(Sir George Buchanan, My Mission to Russia, London 1923)
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21 January 2017
A politically charged week with the UK outlining its approach to leaving the European Union, and a new president in the White House. As Russia's involvement in the US presidential elections comes under the microscope and everyone wonders exactly what sort of new world order will emerge under the stewardship of Messrs Putin and Trump, it's interesting to look back a hundred years to the state of Russo-American relations then. In an article in The Atlantic Monthly a few years after the Revolution, President Woodrow Wilson wrote that it 'was against "capitalism" that the Russian leaders directed their attack. It was capitalism that made them see red; and it is against capitalism under one name or another that the discontented classes everywhere draw their indictment.' In words that have resonance today in debates over globalisation and workers' rights, he continues: 'Is it not ... too true that capitalists have often seemed to regard the men whom they use as mere instruments of profit, whose physical and mental powers it was legitimate to exploit with as slight cost to themselves as possible, either of money or sympathy? ... [Justice] must include sympathy and helpfulness and a willing to forgo self-interest in order to promote the welfare, happiness, and contentment of others and of the community as a whole. This is what our age is blindly feeling after in its reaction against what it deems the too great selfishness of the capitalistic system.' More Obama than Trump, perhaps... An excellent commentary on the contemporary political scene in Russia can be found at The Open Wall weekly blog.
as per the Gregorian calendar. 5 November 2017
8 October
Letter from Lenin to the Bolshevik Comrades attending the Regional Congress of
the Soviets of the Northern Region
Comrades, Our revolution is passing through a highly critical period …
A gigantic task is being imposed upon the responsible leaders of our Party,
failure to perform which will involve the danger of a total collapse of the
internationalist proletarian movement. The situation is such that verily,
procrastination is like unto death … In the vicinity of Petrograd and in
Petrograd itself — that is where the insurrection can, and must, be decided on
and effected … The fleet, Kronstadt, Viborg, Reval, can and must advance
on Petrograd; they must smash the Kornilov regiments, rouse both the capitals,
start a mass agitation for a government which will immediately give the land to
the peasants and immediately make proposals for peace, and must overthrow
Kerensky’s government and establish such a government. Verily, procrastination
is like unto death.
(V.I. Lenin and Joseph Stalin, The Russian Revolution: Writings and Speeches
from the February Revolution to the October Revolution, 1917, London 1938)
9 October
Report in The Times
The Maximalist [Bolshevik], M. Trotsky, President of the Petrograd Soviet,
made a violent attack on the Government, describing it as irresponsible and
assailing its bourgeois elements, ‘who,’ he continued, ‘by their attitude are
causing insurrection among the peasants, increasing disorganisation and trying
to render the Constituent Assembly abortive.’ ‘The Maximalists,’ he declared,
‘cannot work with the Government or with the Preliminary Parliament, which I am
leaving in order to say to the workmen, soldiers, and peasants that Petrograd,
the Revolution, and the people are in danger.’ The Maximalists then left the
Chamber, shouting, ‘Long live a democratic and honourable peace! Long live the
Constituent Assembly!’
(‘Opening of Preliminary Parliament’, The Times)
10 October
As Sukhanov left his home for the Soviet on the morning of the 10th, his
wife Galina Flakserman eyed nasty skies and made him promise not to try to
return that night, but to stay at his office … Unlike her diarist husband,
who was previously an independent and had recently joined the Menshevik left,
Galina Flakserman was a long-time Bolshevik activist, on the staff of Izvestia.
Unbeknownst to him, she had quietly informed her comrades that comings and
goings at her roomy, many-entranced apartment would be unlikely to draw
attention. Thus, with her husband out of the way, the Bolshevik CC came
visiting. At least twelve of the twenty-one-committee were there … There
entered a clean-shaven, bespectacled, grey-haired man, ‘every bit like a
Lutheran minister’, Alexandra Kollontai remembered. The CC stared at the
newcomer. Absent-mindedly, he doffed his wig like a hat, to reveal a familiar
bald pate. Lenin had arrived.
(China Miéville, October: The Story of the Russian Revolution, London 2017)
Memoir by the Menshevik Nikolai
Sukhanov
Oh, the novel jokes of the merry muse of History! This supreme and decisive
session took place in my own home … without my knowledge … For such a
cardinal session not only did people come from Moscow, but the Lord of Hosts
himself, with his henchman, crept out of the underground. Lenin appeared in a
wig, but without his beard. Zinoviev appeared with a beard, but without his
shock of hair. The meeting went on for about ten hours, until about 3 o’clock
in the morning … However, I don’t actually know much about the exact
course of this meeting, or even about its outcome. It’s clear that the question
of an uprising was put … It was decided to begin the uprising as quickly
as possible, depending on circumstances but not on the Congress.
(N.N. Sukhanov, The Russian Revolution 1917: a Personal Record, Oxford 1955)
11 October
British Consul Arthur Woodhouse in a letter home
Things are coming to a pretty pass here. I confess I should like to be out
of it, but this is not the time to show the white feather. I could not ask for
leave now, no matter how imminent the danger. There are over 1,000 Britishers
here still, and I and my staff may be of use and assistance to them in an
emergency.
(Helen Rappaport, Caught in the Revolution: Petrograd 1917, London 2017)
Memoir of Fedor Raskolnikov, naval
cadet at Kronstadt
The proximity of a proletarian rising in Russia, as prologue to the world
socialist revolution, became the subject of all our discussions in
prison … Even behind bars, in a stuffy, stagnant cell, we felt instinctively
that the superficial calm that outwardly seemed to prevail presaged an
approaching storm … At last, on October 11, my turn [for release]
came … Stepping out of the prison on to the Vyborg-Side embankment and
breathing in deeply the cool evening breeze that blew from the river, I felt
that joyous sense of freedom which is known only to those who have learnt to
value it while behind bards. I took a tram at the Finland Station and quickly
reached Smolny … In the mood of the delegates to the Congress of Soviets
of the Northern Region which was taking place at that time .. an unusual
elation, an extreme animation was noticeable … They told me straightaway
that the CC had decided on armed insurrection. But there was a group of
comrades, headed by Zinoviev and Kamenev, who did not agree with this decision
and regarded a rising a premature and doomed to defeat.
(F.F. Raskolnikov, Kronstadt and Petrograd in 1917, New York 1982, first
published 1925)
12 October
Sir George Buchanan, British Ambassador to Russia
On [Kerensky] expressing the fear that there was a strong anti-Russian
feeling both in England and France, I said that though the British public was
ready to make allowances for her difficulties, it was but natural that they
should, after the fall of Riga, have abandoned all hope of her continuing to
take an active part in the war … Bolshevism was at the root of all the
evils from which Russia was suffering, and if he would but eradicate it he
would go down to history, not only as the leading figure of the revolution, but
as the saviour of his country. Kerensky admitted the truth of what I had said,
but contended that he could not do this unless the Bolsheviks themselves
provoked the intervention of the Government by an armed uprising.
(Sir George Buchanan, My Mission to Russia, London 1923)
13 October
Diary entry of Louis de Robien, attaché at the French Embassy
Kerensky is becoming more and more unpopular, in spite of certain grotesque
demonstrations such as this one: the inhabitants of a district in Central
Russia have asked him to take over the supreme religious power, and want to
make him into a kind of Pope as well as a dictator, whereas even the Tsar was
really neither one nor the other. Nobody takes him seriously, except in the
Embassy. A rather amusing sonnet about him has appeared, dedicated to the beds
in the Winter Palace, and complaining that they are reserved for hysteria
cases … for Alexander Feodorovich (Kerensky’s first names) and then
Alexandra Feodorovna (the Empress).
(Louis de Robien, The Diary of a Diplomat in Russia 1917–1918, London 1969)
14 October 2017
The BBC2 semi-dramatisation of how the Bolsheviks took power, shown this week,
was a curious thing. Talking heads in the form of Figes, Mieville, Rappaport,
Sebag-Montefiore, Tariq Ali, Martin Amis and others were interspersed with
moody reconstructions of late-night meetings, and dramatic moments such as
Lenin’s unbearded return to the Bolshevik CC (cf Sukhanov above). The programme
felt rather staged and unconvincing, with a lot of agonised expressions and
fist-clenching by Lenin, but the reviewers liked it. Odd, though, that
Eisenstein’s storming of the Winter Palace is rolled out every time, with a
brief disclaimer that it’s a work of fiction and yet somehow presented as
historical footage. There’s a sense of directorial sleight of hand, as if the
rather prosaic taking of the palace desperately needs a re-write. In some
supra-historical way, Eisenstein’s version has become the accepted version.
John Reed’s Ten Days that Shook the World
, currently being
serialised on Radio 4, is also presented with tremendous vigour, and properly
so as the book is nothing if not dramatic. Historical truth, though, is often
as elusive in a book that was originally published — in 1919 — with an
introduction by Lenin. ‘Reed was not’, writes one reviewer, ‘an ideal observer.
He knew little Russian, his grasp of events was sometimes shaky, and his facts
were often suspect.’ Still, that puts him in good company, and Reed is
undoubtedly a good read.