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i9i 7]
I RESIGN
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Since my return to San Sebastian I had set myself
to draw up the telegram which I should send to M.
Kerensky as soon as I had definitely decided to leave
the service. After several erasures I settled on the
wording, and on the 10th and nth September, I imparted
my decision to my colleagues of France and Italy, wi£h
whom I was living in proximity and intimacy at the
Hotel Marie-Christina. They both pressed me to
give up my plan. The day before the news of the
taking up of arms by General Korniloff had appeared in
the papers; my good colleagues wished to extract from
this some arguments to combat my decision by the
hope of an early change in Russia which might alter the
aspect of things. I replied that I did not share their
hope ; that Korniloff’s attempt had come too late, that it
would not succeed, and that this failure would bring
about a still further dissolution of my unhappy country.
On the morning of the 12th September, I sent off the
following telegram in Russian and in plain language to
M. Kerensky :
"The latest events have proved that the Provisional
Government, as at present constituted, does not
correspond either to legality or to the exceptional
circumstances of the terrible epoch we are passing through. The
Duma has been virtually abolished ; by whom no one
knows. On the other hand, the Soviet of the deputies,
soldiers and workmen, of an absolutely despotic nature,
acts side by side with the Government, and the
Government humbles itself before it.
"This illegal state of things is the cause of: the
shameful flight of the Rusian soldiers before the enemy,
the impunity of the most bare-faced and brutal crimes,
the open propaganda of treachery to the country and to
the Allies, the destruction of all the vital functions of
the country, the threatened dismemberment of the sacred
body of the Russian nation.
" I have long awaited some bright spot, some more
favourable turn of affairs, but all my hopes have been
vain. The shame and the misfortunes of Russia only
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