East Front, 1917; a pencil portrait sketch of a pipe-smoking German soldier, on a postcard with a printed border in the colors of the German flag. The message on the reverse is dated February 4, 1917. In the upper left the reverse is numbered '4)'.
Osten 1917.The East, 1917
"The results of this conference, which has been the subject of so much mystery—and likewise so much talk—are very poor. We have exchanged views about the blockade of Greece, the inadequacy of Japan's help, the prospective value of intervention by America, the critical position of Rumania and the necessity of closer and more practical allied co-operation; we have ascertained the colossal requirements of the Russian army in matériel and made joint arrangements to provide for them as soon as possible. That is all. . . .'Please tell the President of the Republic and the President of the Council that you have left me very anxious. A revolutionary crisis is at hand in Russia; it nearly broke out five weeks ago and is only postponed. Every day the Russian nation is getting more indifferent towards the war and the spirit of anarchy is spreading among all the classes and even in the army.'"
Excerpts from the entry for Wednesday, February 21, 1917 from the memoirs of Maurice Paléologue, French Ambassador to Russia in the Russian capital Petrograd. The conference had included French, Russian, and Romanian representatives. Greece was ostensibly neutral, but was occupied by over 500,000 French, British, Serbian, Russian, and Italian soldiers. Japan had seized territory such as Tsingtao and Samoa from Germany in the Pacific in 1914, and helped arm Russia, but did not provide combat troops. Romania, at the time of the conference, was reeling from its defeat by the Central Powers in the last months of 1916. The United States broke relations with Germany on February 3, but remained neutral. The Ambassador saw clearly Russia's approaching crisis.
An Ambassador's Memoirs Vol. III by Maurice Paléologue, page 196, publisher: George H. Doran Company
1917-02-21, 1917, February, Russia, anarchy, Osten Soldat
