In the Hallways of the Tauride Palace during the February Days of 1917: Memoirs of a Veteran Staffer of the Duma Chancellery А. А. Kondrat’ev

Abstract

This publication presents an autobiographical account of the February Days in Petrograd by a long-standing mid-level staffer of the Duma Chancellery, Aleksandr Alekseevich Kondrat’ev (1876–1967). The author spent the first days of the February Revolution inside the Tauride Palace and diligently recorded his impressions, some of which he also shared in letters to his contemporaries. Later, he systematized what he had remembered and turned it into a cohesive narrative published below. His reflections on the revolution’s key moments offer a unique perspective of a well-informed insider who at the same time remains detached from party politics and allegiances. It is from inside the Tauride Palace, from its offices and hallways that the author witnessed the meteoric rise (and soon, the precipitous downfall) of the propertied but nevertheless revolutionary Fourth Duma, as well as the breakdown of the old political and social order. His testimony augments some of the established views on the attitudes and behavior of contemporaries caught up in the revolutionary whirlwind. Of special interest is the author’s testimony about his fellow Duma Chancellery staffers who — unlike insurgents and Duma politicians who flocked into the revolutionary headquarters in the wake of the unprecedented popular uprising that engulfed the capital city — came to the Tauride Palace on 27 February to fulfill their bureaucratic duty, that is to ensure orderly functioning of the Duma apparatus. The text below is supplemented by textual and contextual annotations incorporating the most up-to-date scholarship.