"There were a lot of men running around in the Winter Palace. And sometimes it was completely empty. That meant that things were going badly for the Bolsheviks. The intellectuals were not cooperating, were selling newspapers in the streets, were chopping ice.
Were looking for work.
At one point, they were all making chocolate.
But at first, they merely fried everything fryable in cocoa butter, which was sold right from the factories. Later on, they learned how to make chocolate. They sold pastries. They opened cafés—at least, the richer ones did. All this came later, not until spring.
The main thing, however, is that it was terrible."
—Victor Shklovsky, A Sentimental Journey