“St Petersburg gripped by the uprising. We lived in a state of daily terror and in an atmosphere of inquisition. Police arrested people at random. People on the street were searched, passports repeatedly verified- Day and night Cossack squads guarding Nevsky Prospckt made frequent use of their knouts. I stayed at the Hotel de France near the Winter Palace. The hotel had been closed but the Owners, Renault Freres, permitted a few correspondents to stay . . The workers of the Putilov factory struck and began political action. On January 22nd, about Noon, a crowd swept along the Morskaya right under the windows of the Hotel de France. My camera hidden behind a window on the first floor. Through the black curtain it could see without being seen. Suddenly the tide of demonstrators ( I was told they were close to a hundred thousand) flowed into the Prospekt moving towards the Triumphal Arch, preceded by ikons and religious banners. They were headed toward the square in front of the Winter Palace where strong detachments of Cossacks and artillery had been posted. A bugle sounded. A squadron of cavalry, swords unsheathed, rode down on the crowd. I heard a terrible fusillade, then the screams of the crowd, trapped by the soldiers and trying to escape. It was a frightful debacle. I heard the horses’ hooves on the cobbles. Blood reddened the snow. Night fell; the strike of the electric workers threw the city into darkness. Campfires were lit at the street corners. The wounded were removed in stretchers.- hundreds had been killed.”