19 SEPTEMBER 1941, Page 10

Then one day, when I was driving with my father,

heard a loud bang in the middle of the afternoon. On rennin! home we learnt that a bomb had been thrown into Stolypifn villa on the Apothecary Island and that some of his famill had been killed. I went round there immediately. In td trees which lined the canal-side opposite the villa welt entangled the lace curtains of the upper bedrooms ; the who: front of the house was blowii in ; and in the roadway were tIT landaus tilted sideways with their horses lying in a pool blood. They were carrying stretchers out from the gard and loading them into ambulances. I felt very sick and horn away. My disbelief in the reality of St. Petersburg soci was not diminished by this episode.