Russia in 1916

In going to Russia I certainly did not intend to publish my impressions in book form, but I have been asked to do so, and I recognise the value of keeping in contact with our Ally from day to day. The requirement of the moment seems to be not so much books on Russia, of which there are now a great many, but diaries or volumes of impressions, keeping the peoples of the two countries in touch during the war. I returned to London at the beginning of October, 1916, and I should be glad to think that some one returning at the beginning of January, 1917, would follow on with another small volume of this type. Again for April, 1917. We need such volumes of personal impressions, and there would not be the need to apologise for them. They are letters between friends both engaged in the same vital task. It is extremely difficult to keep in touch with Russia by reading newspapers only. The newspapers are, on the whole, difficult to follow. They are concerned with the news-aspect of events and the scope for sensational appeals. Good quiet correspondence tends to be lost in them. Hence my little book of the hour.