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Originally published in 1923 - translated from the French by F. A. Holt, O.B.E.
Main Menu - Table of Contents
Volume 1:
I. JULY 20-23, 1914 | II. JULY 24-AUGUST 2, 1914 | III.AUGUST 3-17, 1914 | IV. AUGUST 18-SEPTEMBER 11, 1914 | V. SEPTEMBER 12-OCTOBER 28, 1914 | VI. OCTOBER 29-NOVEMBER 30, 1914 | VII. DECEMBER 1-31, 1914 | VIII. JANUARY 1-FEBRUARY 13, 1915 | IX. FEBRUARY 14-MARCH 31, 1915 | X. APRIL 1-JUNE 2, 1915
Volume 2:
I. JUNE 3-AUGUST 24, 1915 | II. AUGUST 25-SEPTEMBER 20, 1915 | III.SEPTEMBER 21-NOVEMBER 8, 1915 | IV. NOVEMBER 9-DECEMBER 31, 1915 | V. JANUARY 1-26, 1916 | VI. JANUARY 27-FEBRUARY 24, 1916 | VII. FEBRUARY 25-MARCH 22, 1916 | VIII. MARCH 23-MAY 3, 1916 | IX. MAY 4-JUNE 15, 1916 | X. JUNE 16-JULY 18, 1916 | XI. JULY 19-AUGUST 18, 1916
Volume 3
I. AUGUST 19-SEPTEMBER 18, 1916 | II. SEPTEMBER 19-OCTOBER 25, 1916 | III. OCTOBER 27-NOVEMBER 22, 1916 | IV. NOVEMBER 23-DECEMBER 24, 1916 | V. DECEMBER 25, 1916-JANUARY 8, 1917 | VI. JANUARY 9-28, 1917 | VII. JANUARY 29-FEBRUARY 21, 1917 | VIII. FEBRUARY 22-MARCH 11, 1917 | IX. MARCH 12-22, 1917 | X. MARCH 23-APRIL 6, 1917 | XI. APRIL 7-21, 1917 | XII. APRIL 22-MAY 6, 1917 | XIII. MAY 7-17, 1917
Volume III
CHAPTER X
MARCH 23-APRIL 6, 1917.
The British Government offers
the Tsar and Tsarina an asylum on British soil. - A forecast
of the development of the revolution. - Rasputin's body is exhumed
by night and burned in the forest of Pargolovo: a scene from
Dante. - The Soviet opposes the departure of the sovereign. - Official
recognition of the Provisional Government, Kerensky, Minister
of Justice, comes to the front. - A reflection of the opinions
prevailing in informed circles: - "We cannot continue
the war." - Indiscipline spreading in the fighting armies:
Prihaz No. 1. - Agitation among the subject nationalities:
symptoms of national disintegration. - The new Military Governor
of Petrograd tries to regain control of the garrison. - French
opinion goes astray on the subject of the Russian revolution.
Vital differences between the psychology of the Latin and Slav
revolutionary. - The Government of the Republic sends Albert
Thomas on a mission to Petrograd. - The sovereigns in captivity
at Tsarskoe Selo. - Funeral service for the victims of
the fighting; the interment on the Champ de Mars; the clergy
absent. The moral of this day. - On the frontiers of Kurdistan;
a last exploit of the Russian army.
Friday, March 23, 1917.
This morning Buchanan has announced that King George, with
the advice and approval of his ministers, offers the Emperor and
Empress the hospitality of British territory; but he refuses to
guarantee their safety and confines himself to a hope that they
will remain in England until the end of the war.
Miliukov is obviously greatly touched by this announcement,
but he added sadly:
"But I fear it comes too late!"
It is certainly true that from day to day - I could almost
say from hour to hour - the tyranny of the Soviet, the
despotism of the extreme parties and the domination of Utopians
and anarchists are becoming increasingly evident.
And so., as the latest press telegrams show me that people
in Paris are cherishing curious illusions about the Russian revolution,
I have telegraphed to Ribot in the following terms:
Notwithstanding the importance of all that has happened in
the last twelve days, it is my opinion that the events we are
witnessing are only a prelude. The forces which are destined to
be the determining factor in the final result of the revolution
(I mean the rural masses, the priests, the Jews, the subject nationalities,
the bankruptcy of the State, the economic débâcle,
etc.), have not even entered the field. So at the moment it
is impossible to give any logical and practical forecast of the
future of Russia. The best proof of this lies in the hopelessly
contradictory prophecies offered me by people in whose judgment
and open-mindedness I have the greatest confidence. Some regard
the proclamation of a republic as a certainty. Others think the
restoration of the Empire, under constitutional forms, is inevitable.
But if your Excellency will be good enough to rest content
for the time being with my impressions, which are wholly dominated
by the thought of the war, I see the course of events in the following
light:
1. When will the forces to which I have just referred begin
to make themselves felt? - Hitherto, the Russian nation has attacked
the dynasty and the administrative caste, nothing else. We shall
now be faced with economic, social, religious and ethnical problems.
These problems are very formidable, from the point of view of
the war; for the Slav imagination, far from being constructive
like that of the Latin or Anglo-Saxon, is essentially anarchical
and dispersive. Until these problems are solved the public mind
will be wholly taken up with them. Yet we cannot want the solution
to be precipitate, for it cannot be realized without severe upheavals.
We must therefore expect that for a considerable time to come
Russia's effort will be weakened and uncertain.
2. Is the Russian nation determined to continue the war
to final victory? Russia implies so many different races, and
ethnical antagonisms are so acute in certain regions, that the
national idea is far from being universal. The conflict of social
classes has a similar effect on patriotism. The working masses,
the Jews and the inhabitants of the Baltic provinces, for instance,
merely regard the war as senseless butchery. On the other hand,,
the fighting armies and the genuinely Russian populations have
in no way abandoned their hope of m victory and their determination
to achieve it. If I wanted to express my idea somewhat extravagantly
to make it more intelligible, I should be tempted to say that
"In the present phase of the revolution Russia cannot make
peace or war."
In yesterday's Petrograd Gazette the Grand Duke Cyril
Vladimirovitch has had a long interview published in which he
attacks the fallen sovereigns:
I have often wondered, he says, whether the ex-Empress were
not in league with William II; but each time I have forced myself
to dismiss so horrible a suspicion.
Who can tell whether this treacherous insinuation will not
before long provide the foundation for a terrible charge against
the unfortunate Tsarina? The Grand Duke Cyril should know or be
reminded that the most infamous calumnies which Marie Antoinette
had to meet when she faced the Revolutionary Tribunal first took
wing at the elegant suppers of the Comte d'Artois.
About five o'clock I went to call on Sazonov at the Hôtel
de l'Europe where he has been suffering from a stubborn attack
of bronchitis for the last three weeks. I found him in a very
melancholy frame of mind, though not despairing. As I expected,
he sees the hand of Providence in the present misfortunes of Russia:
"We deserved chastisement. I did not think it would be
so severe ... But God cannot mean Russia to perish ... . A
purified Russia will emerge from this trial."
Then he spoke in strong terms of the conduct of the Emperor:
"I needn't tell you of my love for the Emperor, and with
what devotion I have served him. But as long as I live I shall
never forgive him for abdicating for his son. He had no shadow
of right to do so! ... Is there a body of law in the world which
allows the rights of a minor to be abandoned? And what's to be
said when those rights are the most sacred and august on earth?
Fancy destroying a three-hundred-year-old dynasty and the stupendous
work of Peter the Great , Catherine II and Alexander I! What a
tragedy! What a disaster!"
His eyes were full of tears.
I asked him if his health would allow him to leave for London
in the near future as I had no doubt that he would consider it
his duty to take up his ambassadorial post.
"I'm horribly perplexed," he said. "What line
of policy can I follow in London? I shall certainly not refuse
my help to honest men like Lvov and Miliukov. But will they stay
in power? ... In any case, my doctor doesn't think I shall be
fit to travel for at least three weeks."
I was certainly struck by his deathly pallor, his haggard features
and all the signs of physical and mental suffering he betrayed.
Last night Rasputin's coffin was secretly exhumed from its
resting-place in the chapel at Tsarskoe Selo and taken away
to the Forest of Pargolovo, fifteen versts north of Petrograd.
In the midst of a clearing there, a number of soldiers, commanded
by an engineer officer, had piled up a large quantity of pine
logs. After forcing off the coffin lid they drew the corpse out
with sticks; 'they dare not touch it with their hands, owing to
its putrefying condition, and they hoisted it, not without difficulty,
on to the heap of logs. Then they drenched it in petrol and set
it on fire. The process of cremation lasted until dawn, more than
six hours.
In spite of the icy wind, the appalling length of the operation
and the clouds of pungent and fetid smoke which rose from the
pyre, several hundred moujiks crowded round the fire all
night; silent and motionless, they gazed in horror-stricken stupor
at the sacrilegious holocaust which was slowly devouring the martyred
staretz, friend of the Tsar and Tsarina, the Bojy tchelloviek,
"Man of God."
When the flames had done their work, the soldiers collected
the ashes of the corpse and buried them under the snow.
The authors of this gruesome epilogue were anticipated by Italy
in the Middle Ages; the human imagination cannot go on indefinitely
renewing the forms in which its passions and visions find expression.
In the year 1266 Manfred (bastard of the Emperor Frederick
II, usurper-King of the Two Sicilies) murderer, perjurer, simoniac,
heretic, with every crime on his soul and excommunicated by the
Church, perished while warring with Charles of Anjou on the banks
of the Calore, near Beneventum.
His captains and soldiers, who worshipped him for his youth,
beauty, open-heartedness and charm, buried him with touching affection
on the very spot where he fell.
But a year later, Pope Clement IV decreed that the pontifical
process of execration and excommunication should be continued
against a monster unworthy to rest in consecrated ground. On his
orders,, the Archbishop of Cosenza had the body exhumed and over
the unrecognizable remains pronounced the pitiless sentences which
consign the outcast to Hell: In ignem æturnum
judicamus. ... The ceremony took place at night, by the
light of torches which were extinguished one by one until darkness
was complete, when what was left of Manfred was cut in pieces
and scattered far and wide.
This tragic and picturesque scene deeply moved contemporary
Italy and in fact gave Dante the inspiration for one of the finest
passages in the Divina Commedia. Ascending the steep mountain
of. Purgatory, the poet sees the phantom of the young prince approaching
him. It calls to him and says: "I am Manfred. My sins were
horrible. But the infinite goodness of God has arms long enough
to clasp all who turn towards it. If the spiritual father of Cosenza
who was sent by Clement to scatter my bones had seen God's face
of pity, my bones would be still at the end of the bridge near
Beneventum, guarded by a heavy stone. And now the rains soak them
and the winds play with them on the banks of the river where the
Archbishop and his priests had them tossed after the torches were
extinguished. But their denunciations make no man so lost that
the divine love cannot restore him, so long as hope retains a
single green branch within him."
I should like to offer that quotation to the poor captive Tsarina.
Saturday, March 24, 1917.
The Soviet has heard that the King of England is offering
the Emperor and Empress the hospitality of British territory.
At the bidding of the "Maximalists" the Provisional
Government has had to pledge its word to keep the fallen sovereigns
in Russia. The Soviet has gone further and appointed a
commissary to "supervise the detention of the imperial family."
Yesterday evening, the Central Committee of the Soviet adopted
the following motions:
1. Negotiations with the working-men of the enemy countries
to be opened at once;
2. "Systematic fraternization" between Russian and
enemy soldiers at the front;
3. Democratization of the army
4. All schemes of conquest to be abandoned.
What a fine time we are in for!
At six o'clock I went to the Marie Palace with my colleagues
Buchanan and Carlotti to go through the official recognition of
the Provisional Government.
The appearance of the beautiful building which was once presented
by Nicholas I to his favourite daughter, the Duchess of Leuchtenburg,
and subsequently became the seat of the Council of Empire, has
already changed. In the vestibule, where the lackeys, resplendent
in their Court livery, used to lounge, unkempt, unwashed soldiers
were sprawling over the seats, smoking with an insolent leer.
The great marble stair-cases have never been swept since the revolution.
Here and there a broken window or the mark of a bullet on a panel
showed that there had been hot work on Saint Isaac Square.
No one was there to receive us, though what we were about to
do was an act of state.
Then and there I could not help thinking of a ceremony "in
the august presence of His Majesty the Emperor." How perfect
the arrangements! What pomp and pageantry! What a turn-out of
the official hierarchy! If Baron Korff, Grand Master of the Ceremonies,
or his acolytes, Tolstoy, Evreïnov and Kurakin, could have
seen us at that moment, they would have fainted with shame.
Miliukov came forward; he took us to a room, then another,
then a third, not knowing where to stop and groping, for the switch
to turn on the light.
"Here we are at last... I think this will suit us all
right."
He went off to find his colleagues, who came at once. They
were all in working dress, carrying their portfolios under their
arms.
Following Buchanan and Carlotti, who are senior to me, I made
the sacramental declaration:
"I have the honour to tell you, gentlemen, that the Government
of the French Republic recognizes in you the Provisional Government
of Russia."
I then followed the example of my English and Italian colleagues
by addressing a few heartfelt words to the new ministers; I emphasized
the necessity of continuing the war to the bitter end.
Miliukov replied with a most reassuring declaration.
His speech was long enough to give me an opportunity of studying
these improvised masters of Russia on whose shoulders rests such
a terrible burden of responsibility. Patriotism, intelligence
and honesty could be read on every face; but they seemed utterly
worn out with physical fatigue and anxiety. The task they have
undertaken is patently beyond their powers. Heaven grant that
they do not collapse under it too soon! One alone among them appeared
to be a man of action - the Minister of Justice, Kerensky. He
is thirty-five, thin, of medium height, clean shaven; with his
bristling hair, waxen complexion and half-closed eyes (through
which he darted sharp and uneasy glances) he struck me all the
more because he kept apart, standing behind all his colleagues.
He is obviously the most original figure of the Provisional Government
and seems bound to become its main spring.
One of the most characteristic features of the revolution which
has just overthrown tsarism is the immediate and total void created
around the threatened sovereigns.
The moment collisions with the mob took place, all the regiments
of the Guard, including the magnificent Cossacks of the Escort,
betrayed their oath of fealty. Nor has a single Grand Duke risen
to defend the sacred person of the monarchs: one of them actually
placed his unit at the service of the rebels even before the Emperor's
abdication. In fact, with a few exceptions which are all the more
creditable, there has been wholesale desertion on the part of
the court crowd and all those pridvorny, high officers
and dignitaries who, amidst the pomp and pageantry of ceremonies
and processions, seemed to be the natural guardians of the throne
and the appointed defenders of imperial majesty. Yet many of them
were under not only a moral but a military obligation of the strictest
sort to rally round their threatened sovereigns at once, devote
their lives to their safety and at least to stand by them in their
hour of adversity.
This was all brought home to me again when I was dining privately
with Madame R - - this evening. By birth or employment all the
guests, a dozen or so, held high positions under the vanished
regime.
At table the conversations à deux very quickly
petered out and a general discussion on the subject of Nicholas
II began. In spite of his present misery and the terrifying prospects
of his immediate future, the company passed the severest judgments
upon all the acts of his reign; he was overwhelmed with a torrent
of reproach, for old and recent grievances. And when I expressed
regret at seeing him so speedily abandoned by his family, guard
and court, Madame R - - fired up:
"But it's he who has abandoned us! He has betrayed
us; he has failed in all his obligations, and he alone has made
it impossible for us to defend him! Neither his family, nor his
guard nor his court has failed him: it is he who has failed all
his people!"
The French émigrés talked in exactly the same
strain in 1791; they too considered that Louis XVI, having betrayed
the royal cause, had only himself to blame for his misfortunes.
His arrest, after the flight to Varennes, affected them hardly
at all. To one of the exceptions, who was much upset by the occurrence,
a Brussels inn keeper made the following remark:
"Don't worry, Sir; this arrest is not such a great misfortune
after all. Monsieur le Comte d'Artois certainly looked rather
unhappy this morning, but the other gentlemen in his carriage
seemed quite pleased."
Sunday, March 25, 1917.
I had recently been thinking of giving a luncheon to the Provisional
Government, with an idea of getting into more personal touch with
its members and giving public proof of our approval.
But before issuing my invitations I thought it prudent to have
some of the ministers discreetly sounded on the subject. How thankful
I am that I did!
P - -, who was commissioned to do the reconnoitring, told
me to-day that ministers were much touched by my kindly intentions
but they feared they might be misinterpreted in extremist quarters
and begged me to leave the matter over for the present.
This detail will suffice to show how timid the Provisional
Government is in dealing with the Soviet and how reluctant
to commit itself in favour of the Alliance and the war!
I must add that to the glowing and patriotic appeal which the
French socialists addressed to their Russian comrades on the 18th
March, Kerensky has just replied with a telegram which I hope
will cure the "French democracy " of any illusion whatever
as to the "Russian democracy's" ideas on the subject
of the Alliance and the war.(1)
The Provisional Government have informed the Soviet that, with
the approval of Buchanan, they have not given the Emperor the
telegram in which King George offers the imperial family the hospitality
of British territory.
But the executive committee of the Soviet still has
its doubts and has posted "revolutionary" guards at
Tsarskoe Selo and on the roads leading from it, to prevent
any surreptitious abduction of the sovereigns.
Monday, March 26, 1917.
Alexander Nicolaïevitch Benois, the painter and historian
of art and a friend of whom I see quite a good deal, has given
me an unexpected call.
Descended from a French family which settled in Russia somewhere
about 1820, he is the most cultivated man whom I know here. and
one of the most distinguished.
I have spent many a delightful hour in his. Vassili-Ostrov
studio, talking with him de omni re scibili et quibusdam aliis.
Even from a political point of view, his conversation has
often been valuable to me, as he is on terms of close friendship
not only with the élite of the artists, men of letters
and university professors but also with the chief leaders of the
liberal opposition and the "Cadet" party. Many a time
have I obtained from him interesting information about those circles
the entrée to which was formerly very difficult,. and in
fact almost closed to me. His personal opinions, which are always
judicious and far-sighted, are all the more valuable in my eyes
because he is eminently representative of that active and well-informed
class of professors, savants, doctors, artists, men of letters
and publicists which is styled the intelligentzia.
He came to see me about three o'clock, just as I was preparing
to go out.
He looked grave and sat down with a weary sigh:
"Forgive me if I inconvenience you, but yesterday evening
some of my friends and I were indulging in such gloomy reflections
that I couldn't help coming to tell you about them."
Then he gave me a vivid and, alas, only too accurate picture
of the effects of anarchy on the people, the prevailing apathy
of the governing classes and the loss of discipline in the army.
He ended with the observation:
"However painful such an admission must be to me, I feel
I'm only doing my duty in coming to tell you that the war cannot
go on. Peace must be made at the earliest possible moment. Of
course, I realize that the honour of Russia is involved in her
alliances, and you know me well enough to allow that I appreciate
the full meaning of that aspect. But necessity is the law of history.
No one is compelled to do the impossible!"
My answer was as follows:
"This is a very serious statement you are making. In disproving
it I will adopt a strictly practical point of view - as any impartial
and disinterested third party might do - and leave out of account
the moral judgment France would have the right to pass on Russia.
In the first place, you should know that, whatever. may happen,
France and England will carry on the war to complete victory.
Defection on the part of Russia would probably prolong the struggle,
but would not change the result. However rapid the dissolution
of your army might be, Germany would not dare to strip your front
at once; she would also require a substantial force to secure
further pledges on your territory. The twenty or thirty divisions
she might be in a position to withdraw from the eastern front
to reinforce her western front would not be sufficient to save
her from defeat. Secondly, you may be quite sure that the moment
Russia betrays her allies, they will repudiate her. Germany will
thus have full license to seek compensation at your expense for
the sacrifices imposed on her elsewhere. I certainly do not imagine
that you are founding any hopes on the magnanimity of William
II... . You will therefore lose-as a minimum - Courland, Lithuania,
Poland, Galicia and Bessarabia, to say nothing of your prestige
in the East and your designs on Constantinople. And don't forget
that France and England have in hand some tremendous "pledges"
for bargaining purposes with Germany: the mastery of the seas,
the German colonies, Mesopotamia and Salonica. Your allies also
have the power of the purse which is about to be doubled, if not
tripled by the help of the United States. We shall thus be in
a position to continue the war for as long as is necessary. So,
whatever the difficulties that face you at the moment, summon
up all your energy and think of nothing but the war. What is at
stake is not only the honour of Russia but her prosperity, her
greatness and possibly her national existence itself."
He continued:
"There's no reply to you, alas! Yet we simply cannot continue
the war! Honestly, we simply cannot!"
And with those words he left me, the tears standing in his
eyes. I have met with the same pessimism on all sides during the
last few days.
Tuesday, March 27, 1917.
As early as the 14th March, i.e., even before the abdication
of the Emperor and the formation of the Provisional Government,
the Soviet issued under the form of a prikaz an
Order of the Day to the army, inviting the troops to proceed at
once to the election of representatives to the Council of Deputies
and Soldiers. This prikaz further decreed that in each
regiment a committee should be elected to seize and supervise
the use of all arms, rifles, guns, machine guns, armoured cars,
etc... .; in any case, the use of these arms was no longer to
depend upon the will of the officers. The prikaz wound
up by abolishing all outward signs of rank and prescribing that
"any difference of opinion between officers and men"
should henceforth be settled by the company committees. This fine
document, which bore the signatures of Sokolov, Nachamkitz and
Skobelev, was telegraphed the same evening to all the armies at
the front. As a matter of fact, it would not have been possible
to send it had not the mutineers seized the military telegraph
offices at the very outset.
The moment Gutchkov was installed at the War Ministry, he tried
to persuade the Soviet to withdraw the extraordinary prikaz
which involved nothing less than the destruction of all discipline
in the army.
After prolonged negotiations, the Soviet has consented
to declare that for the time being the prikaz shall not
apply to the fighting armies. But the moral effect of its publication
still remains, and judging by the latest telegrams from General
Alexeiev indiscipline is spreading to an alarming degree
among the troops at the front.
How grievous to think that the Germans are only eighty kilometres
from Paris
Wednesday, March 28, 1917.
There is a fresh manifesto from the Soviet, addressed
this time "to the peoples of the universe." It is a
long rigmarole of emphatic statements, one long messianic dithyramb:
We, the workmen and soldiers of Russia, announce to you the
great event of the Russian revolution, and we send you greetings
of fire... Our victory is a great victory of universal freedom
and democracy... . And we address ourselves first to you, proletarian
brothers of the Germanic coalition. Follow our example and shake
off the yoke of your semi-autocratic power; refuse to be any
longer an instrument of conquest in the hands of your kings,
landlords, bankers, etc.
I await the reply of the Teutonic proletariat.
Thursday, March 29, 1917.
Since the wreck of tsarism. all the metropolitans, archbishops,
archimandrites, abbots, archpriests. and hieromonachs of whom
Rasputin had formed his ecclesiastical clientèle have been
having a very uncomfortable time. They have everywhere seen not
only the revolutionary gang but their own flocks, and often enough
even their subordinates, rise up against them. Most of them have
resigned their offices, more or less spontaneously: many are in
flight or in prison.
After being under arrest for a short time, the Metropolitan
of Petrograd, Monsignor Pitirim, has obtained leave to go and
expiate his offences in a Siberian monastery.
The same fate has befallen the Metropolitan of Moscow, Monsignor
Macarius; the Archbishop of Kharkov, Monsignor Antoine; the Archbishop
of Tobolsk, Monsignor Varnava; the Bishop of Tchernigov, Monsignor
Basil, and others.
Friday, March 30, 1917.
The most dangerous germ involved in the revolution has been
developing during the last few days with the most alarming rapidity.
Finland. Livonia, Esthonia, Poland, Lithuania, the Ukraine,
Georgia and Siberia, are demanding their independence, or, failing
that, complete autonomy.
That Russia is doomed to federalism is highly probable.
She is predestined to that development by the enormous size
of her territories, the diversity of her races and the increasing
complexity of her interests. But the present movement is separatist
much more than particularist; secessionist rather than federalist;
it tends to nothing less than national disintegration. So the
Soviet gives it its full blessing. As if the visionaries
and lunatics of the Tauride Palace would not be tempted to destroy
in a few weeks the historic work of ten centuries 1
The French Revolution began by proclaiming the Republic
one and indivisible. To that principle it sacrificed
thousands of heads, and French unity was saved. The Russian revolution
has taken for its motto Russia dissolved and dismembered.
Saturday, March 31, 1917.
Anarchist propaganda has already contaminated the larger part
of the front.
From all quarters I am receiving re ports of scenes of mutiny,
the murder of officers and wholesale desertion. Even in the front
line bands of private soldiers are leaving their units to go and
see what is happening in Petrograd or at home in their villages.
Sunday, April 1, 1917.
General Kornilov, the new Military Governor of Petrograd, is
endeavouring gradually to resume control of the troops of the
garrison. The task is all the more arduous because most of the
officers have been killed, degraded or forced to fly. He has ordered
a review on the Winter Palace Square for this morning and, very
judiciously, has selected only the best elements, those units
in which discipline has suffered least. Since the fall of the
imperial regime, it is the first time that a substantial force
has been assembled in regular formation.
From the windows of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs I saw
the review with Buchanan and Neratov.
The troops - ten thousand men or so - had a tolerable soldierly
bearing and marched past in good order. There were very few officers.
All the bands played the Marseillaise, but at a slow pace
which made it sound sinister. In each company and squadron I noticed
several red banners bearing inscriptions Land and Liberty!
. . The Land for the People! . Long live the Social Republic!
... On a very small number I read: The War until
Victory! Above the Winter Palace floated an enormous
red flag.
The spectacle was singularly instructive. From the military
point of view, I could condense my ideas thus: a force in which
the spirit of. discipline has not wholly disappeared but which
is thinking less of its military duties than of its hopes of political
and social reform.
From the historical and picturesque aspect, I was obsessed
by a vivid contrast. I reminded Buchanan and Neratov of the afternoon
of the 2nd August, 1914, and that majestic scene when the Emperor
appeared on the balcony of this same palace after swearing on
the gospel and the holy ikons that he would not sign peace so
long as a single enemy soldier stood on Russian soil. In that
solemn hour I was at his side: he was grave but smiling. The great
square was packed with people - even more so than this morning - soldiers,
bourgeois, workmen, moujiks, women, children: and the whole
crowd on its knees to receive the blessing of its father
the Tsar, sang the hymn, Bojé tsaria kranié.
O temps évanouis, ô splendeurs éclipsées,
O soleils descendus derrière l'horizon!
A consignment of newspapers, the latest of which is eleven
days old, has reached me from Paris and strengthens me in a view
I took on reading the daily résumés transmitted
by telegraph. The French public is enthusiastic for the Russian
revolution! Once again our press will have been found wanting
in moderation and judgment. I admit of course that as the disappearance
of Tsarism is an accomplished fact, we were unquestionably obliged
to adapt ourselves to the new state of affairs and to "put
a good face on a bad business." It was therefore right and
proper that French opinion should appear to receive the Russian
revolution with confidence and sympathy. But for Heaven's sake
no hosannahs! The Soviet is quite puffed
up enough already. These pæons of praise and admiration
will turn its head completely. The main fault is evidently that
of the censorship which ought to have moderated the zeal of the
sycophants.
From a personal letter which the same messenger has brought
me I also learn that in the corridors of the Chamber and newspaper
offices - and among polite society - the honour of having brought
about the revolution is attributed to Sir George Buchanan his
purpose being to put an end to German intrigues. The suggestion
is false. Criticisms of myself are appended, as might be expected;
men recall that in the old days French diplomacy did not hesitate
to resort to great methods on great occasions and did not allow
itself to be checked by any vain respect for the principle of
legitimacy. My behaviour is being contrasted with the example
of my famous predecessor the Marquis de la Chétardie, who
in 1741 had no hesitation in associating himself boldly with the
national party in destroying German influence and placing Elizabeth
Petrovna on the imperial throne.
Before long it will be realized that the revolution is the
most damaging blow that could have been inflicted on Russian nationalism.
This evening, one of my guests at dinner was Prince Scipio
Borghese, formerly a radical deputy at the Monte-Citorio, who
has just arrived in Petrograd with his daughter, pretty Princess
Santa; both are very open-minded and of many-sided intellect and
they are anxious to see a revolution - and what a revolution! - at
close quarters. My other guests were M. and Madame Polovtsov,
Princess Sophie Dolgorouki, Count Sergei Kutusov, Count Nani Mocenigo,
Poklevski, etc... .
I spoke of the favourable impression made upon me by this morning's
review. On the other side of the scale, Polovtsov and Poklevski
told me of the deplorable news they have received from the front.
Prince Borghese, with whom I had a long talk after dinner,
asked me what characteristics had struck me most in the Russian
revolutions, meaning the characteristics which in my opinion distinguish
it most forcibly from Western revolutions. I replied:
"First of all you must realize that the Russian revolution
has barely begun and that certain forces which are destined to
play a tremendous part in it, forces such as land hunger, ethnical
antagonisms, social disintegration, the economic débâcle
and anti-Jewish passion, are so far at work only in theory.
With that reservation, what strikes me most is this":
And I illustrated the following points with various examples:
(1) The fundamental psychological difference between the Latin
or Anglo-Saxon revolution and the Slav revolution. The imagination
of either of the former is logical and constructive; he destroys
to build a new edifice, every part of which he has contemplated
and thought out. The imagination of the latter is simply destructive
and dispersive; his visions are the very essence of the indefinite.
(2) Eight-tenths of the Russian population cannot read or
write, a fact which makes the audiences at public meetings and
gatherings particularly responsive to the power of eloquence
and the action of the leaders.
(3) Weakness of will is endemic in Russia; all Russian literature
goes to prove it. Russians are incapable of persevering in any
one course. The war of 1812 was comparatively short. The present
war, with its length and its horrors, is too much for the staying
power of the national temperament.
(4) Anarchy, with all that it implies in the way of extravagance,
sloth and vacillation, is an inebriating passion to a Russian.
It also gives him an excuse for endless public demonstrations,
in which he satisfies his craving for spectacular and emotional
display and his keen instinct for poetry and beauty.
(5) Lastly, the enormous area of the country makes each province
a centre of separatism and each town a nucleus of anarchy; the
slight authority still possessed by the Provisional Government
is thereby totally paralysed.
"But What is the remedy?" Borghese asked.
"The socialists of the allied countries must show their
comrades of the Soviet that the political and social conquests
of the revolution are lost unless Russia is first saved."
Monday. April 2, 1917.
A telegram from Paris informs me that Albert Thomas, the Minister
of Munitions, is about to be sent to Petrograd on a special mission.
His patriotism, brains, application, sense of practical reality
and instinct of orderliness, combined with his socialist convictions,
seem to me to make him better fitted than anyone else to impress
certain home truths on the Provisional Government and the Soviet.
He will also see the Russian revolution at close quarters and
will damp down the strange chorus of flattery and praise it has
called forth in France.
This evening I dined quite quietly with Princess Gortchakov.
Low spirits prevailed. The conversation halted. We were all
absorbed in our own thoughts which were depressing enough. B - -
alone was talkative, and as usual he translated his pessimism
into sarcasm.
"What joy and pride is mine when I go for a stroll in
town in these times," he burst out. "I'm always murmuring:
henceforth all these dvorniks, izvochtchiks and rabotchiks
are my brothers! This morning I passed a gang of drunken soldiers:
I wanted to clasp them to my bosom!"
Turning to Prince Gortchakov, he continued:
"Don't lose any time in renouncing your wealth, Michael
Constantinovitch! Enter honestly and wholeheartedly into the holy
state of poverty! Give your estates to the nation and give them
quickly, before it takes them from you! Look to poverty and liberty
for your happiness henceforth!"
This caustic irony was little to the taste of his audience.
Talking more soberly, B - - discussed with me the general situation
in Russia, the broad currents which can gradually be distinguished
and the formidable prospects opening on all sides. We passed in
review the political, social,, economic, religious and ethnical
problems with which the Russian nation is now faced, including
of course the terrifying problem of the war which involves the
very existence of Russia:
"I foresee a long period of anarchy," I said. "And
after that a dictatorship."
"Yes ," replied B - -. "A new era has just
begun in the history of Russia, the Spanish-American ... . Sorfirio
Diaz, when may we expect you?"
I told him incidentally that since Sunday, the 25th March,
the Domine, salvum fac imperatorem nostrum Nicolaum had
ceased to be sung in Notre Dame de France. We ended with the Domine,
salvam fac Rempublicam and were waiting for the new form of
prayer for the Government sprung from the revolution.
"The form is easy enough to draft," B - - replied:
"Domine, salvam fac crapulam nostra ruthenam!"
Tuesday, April 3, 1917.
Miliukov is greatly concerned at what is happening at Cronstadt,
the great naval fortress which commands the approach to Petrograd
from the Gulf of Finland.
The town (its population is about 55,000) refuses to recognize
the authority either of the Provisional Government or the Soviet.
The troops of the garrison, which consists of not less than
20,000 men, are in open revolt.
After massacring half their officers, they are keeping two
hundred of them as hostages and forcing them to do the most degrading
tasks, such as sweeping the streets and heavy navvy work.
Anarchy also reigns at Helsingfors.
At Schlusselburg the town is in the hands of a commune in full
revolt, whose first act has been to make friends with a gang of
German prisoners of war. At the request of this gang, sixty Alsace-Lorraine
prisoners, for whom I had secured special treatment, have been
kept in close confinement.
At five o'clock I went to see the Grand Duke Nicholas Michailovich
in his palace, which is full of Napoleonic relics. It is the first
time I have had the chance of a talk with him since the revolution.
He affected an optimism to which silence was my only reply.
But he certainly carried it no further than the occasion warranted
and, to prevent me thinking that he was entirely hoodwinked by
the course of events, he concluded with this cautious reservation
"As long as sensible and patriotic men like Prince Lvov,
Miliukov and Gutchkov are at the head of the government, I shall
be hopeful enough. If they fall, we are in for a leap into the
unknown."
"In the first chapter of Genesis that 'unknown' is given
a specific name."
"Really! What?"
"The Johu-bohu, which means 'chaos.'"
Wednesday, April 4, 1917.
The Minister of justice, Kerensky, yesterday paid a visit to
Tsarkoïe-Selo to see for himself the arrangements made for
guarding the ex-sovereigns. He found everything in order.
Count Benckendorff, Grand Marshal of the Court; Prince Dolgorukov,
Marshal of the Court; Madame Naryschkin, Mistress of the Robes;
Mlles. de Buxhoevden and Hendrikov, Maids of Honour, and the Tsarevitch's
tutor, Gilliard, are sharing their monarchs' captivity. Madame
Virubova. who was also residing in the Alexander Palace, has been
forcibly removed and confined in the Fortress of SS. Peter and
Paul - in the famous Trubetzkoï bastion.
Kerensky had a talk with the Emperor. In particular he asked
him whether it were true, as the German papers have reported,
that William II had frequently advised him to adopt a more liberal
policy.
"Quite the reverse!" the Emperor protested. The conversation
continued for some time and was marked by greatest courtesy. In
fact, Kerensky ultimately succumbed to the affability which is
Nicholas II's natural charm and several times caught himself addressing
him as Cosoudar (Sire)!
But the Empress was as frigid as she could be.
Madame Virubova's departure has not affected her, at any rate
in the way that might have been expected. After all her passionate
and jealous attachment to her, she has suddenly made her responsible
for all the evils which have overtaken the Russian imperial family:
La détestable Œnone a conduit tout le reste!
Thursday, April 5, 1917.
I have sent Ribot the following telegram:
Some of the Petrograd papers have reproduced an article in
the Radical pointing out the necessity of changing the representative
of the Republic in Russia. It is not for me to take the initiative
in expressing my desires in this matter. Your Excellency knows
me well enough to be sure that in circumstances such as these
personal considerations do not count with me at all. But the
article in the Radical makes it incumbent upon me to tell you
that, having had the signal honour of representing Petrograd
in France for more than three years and being conscious that
I have spared no effort in that service, I should feel it no
hardship to be relieved of my heavy task, and should the Government
of the Republic think it desirable to appoint a successor, I
should do everything in my power to make the change a simple
matter.
The telegram has been inspired by several considerations.
In the first place, there may be an official advantage in my
being relieved of my post: I enjoyed the confidence of the old
regime and I simply do not believe in the new one. And then, even
from here I can guess what a campaign the advanced parties in
the Chamber must be carrying on against me. If I am to be recalled,
I should at least prefer to take the initiative: I have always
seen the force of Sainte-Beuve's aphorism that "You want
to leave things just a little before they leave you."
To-day there has been a great ceremony on the Champ-de-Mars,
where the victims of the revolutionary rising, the "nation's
heroes " and "martyrs to liberty," have been given
a state burial.
A long grave has been dug in the transverse axis of the parade-ground.
In the centre a platform, draped in red, was raised to serve as
vantage-point for the members of the Government.
Since early morning, huge and interminable processions, headed
by military bands and carrying black banners, threaded their way
through the streets of the city to collect from the hospitals
the two hundred and ten coffins destined for revolutionary apotheosis.
On the most modest estimate, the number of demonstrators exceeded
nine hundred thousand. Yet there was neither confusion nor delay
at any point on the route. In their formation, marching, stops
and singing all the processions kept perfect order. In spite of
the icy wind, I was curious to see them manœuvre across the
Champ-de-Mars. Under a snow-laden and wind-lashed sky, these endless
crowds, which filed slowly past with their red coffins, presented
an amazingly impressive spectacle, and to heighten the tragic
effect the guns of the Fortress boomed at one-minute intervals.
The art of mise en scene is native to the Russians.
But what struck me most was the absence of one element from
the ceremony - the clergy. No priests, no ikons, no prayers, no
crosses. The only anthem was The Workmen's Marseillaise.
Since the archaic age of Saint Olga and Saint Vladimir, and
indeed since the Russian people first appeared in the light of
history, it is the first time that a great national act has been
performed without the help of the Church. It is but a short while
since religion was still guiding and controlling all public and
private life; it intervened incessantly with its pomp and pageantry,
its dazzling ascendancy, its unchallenged domination of imagination
and heart, if not of reason and soul. Only a few days ago, all
the thousands of soldiers and workmen whom I saw marching past
me could not see the smallest ikon in the street without stopping,
lifting their caps and crossing themselves fervently. What a contrast
was presented to-day! But why should one be surprised? In the
field of ideas, the Russian always rushes to the extreme and the
absolute.
Slowly the Champ-de-Mars emptied itself. The light waned; a
dismal and icy mist rose from the Neva. The square, deserted once
more, became desolate and sinister. As I returned to the Embassy
by the solitary paths of the Summer Garden, I reflected that I
had perhaps witnessed one of the most considerable events in modern
history. For what has been buried in the red coffins is the Byzantine
and Muscovite tradition of the Russian people, nay the whole past
of orthodox Holy Russia.
Friday, April 6, 1917.
While: the troops at the front are melting away at an increasing
rate, as the result of socialist propaganda, the little army which
is fighting under the orders of General Baratov on the borders
of Kurdistan is valiantly persevering in its stiff task.
After occupying Kirmanshal and Kizilraba, it has just entered
Mesopotamia and effected its junction with the English to the
north-east of Bagdad.
In the general schemes of the war, this brilliant operation
is obviously but an episode; but quite possibly it is the last
exploit which historians will have to record in the military annals
of Russia.
Chapter Footnote
1. Telegram from the Russian Minister of
justice, sent to Jules Guesde, member of the French Chamber of
Deputies, Paris:
I am deeply moved by the fraternal greetings which you, and
comrades Marcel Sembat and Albert Thomas, have just sent me.
We have never doubted that in our struggle we should have
the whole-hearted sympathy and moral support of French socialism.
The Russian people is free. Thanks to the sacrifices made
by the working classes and the revolutionary army, an end has
been made of that Russian tsarism which throughout the ages was
the bulwark of universal reaction. Thenceforth the nation itself
will shape its own destinies.
The Russian socialists. who warmly greet the heroic efforts
of republican and democratic France to defend her native soil,
and being as one man in their determination to continue the war
to a conclusion worthy of democracy, have faith in the power
of the international solidarity of the working classes to triumph
over violent and reactionary imperialism and to bring in its
train that peace which is so necessary to the development of
human personality.
A. KERENSKY,
Minister of Justice, Vice-President of the Council of Workers'
and Soldiers' Deputies.
