1898 map of St. Petersburg, the Russian capital, from a German atlas. Central St Petersburg, or Petrograd, is on the Neva River. Key landmarks include the Peter and Paul Fortress, which served as a prison, Nevski Prospect, a primary boulevard south of the Fortress, the Finland Train Station, east of the Fortress, where Lenin made his triumphal return, the Tauride (Taurisches) Palace, which housed the Duma and later the Petrograd Soviet.

St Petersburg (Petrograd); Neva River, Peter and Paul Fortress; Nevski Prospect, Finland Bahnhof (Train Station); Taurisches (Tauride) Palace

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Monday, April 12, 1915

". . . there was a terrific explosion which shook all the windows of the room and made the chandeliers quiver. At the same time a huge cloud of purple smoke rose across the Neva, east of Petrograd. . . .

A few less violent explosions followed. The flames of the conflagration illuminated the horizon. There could be no doubt; the great Okhta works — the most important of the factories for the manufacture of explosives, catridges, propellants, fuses, and grenades from which the Russian army is supplied — had been destroyed."

Quotation Context

Excerpt from the entry for Monday, April 12, 1915 from the memoirs of Maurice Paléologue, French Ambassador in Russia. The Ambassador was about to dine with one of his military attachés and two French officers with the munitions mission to Russia when Russia's Okhta munitions plant was blown up. Russia had inadequate munitions to support its offensives against the Central Powers, and was planning one against Silesia in southeastern Germany.

Source

An Ambassador's Memoirs Vol. I by Maurice Paléologue, page 329, publisher: George H. Doran Company, publication date: 1925

Tags

1915-04-12, 1915, April, Petrograd, St. Petersburg, Petersburg, munitions, St. Petersburg (Petrograd)