Alexander
Kerensky was born in Simbirsk, Russia, on
22nd April, 1881. The son of a headmaster, Kerensky studied law at
the University of St. Petersburg.
In
1905 Kerensky joined the Socialist Revolutionary
Party (SR) and became editor of the radical newspaper, Burevestik.
He was soon arrested and sent into exile. He returned to St. Petersburg
in 1906 and found work as a lawyer. Over the next few years he developed
a reputation for defending radicals in court who had been accused
of political offenses.
Kerensky
joined the Russian Labour Party and in 1912 was elected to the State
Duma. A socialist, Kerensky developed a strong following amongst industrial
workers. He also played an important role in the exposure of Roman
Malinovsky, one of the leaders of the Bolsheviks,
as an undercover agent of the Okhrana.
In
February, 1917, Kerensky announced he had rejoined the Socialist
Revolutionary Party and called for the removal of Nicholas
II. When Alexandra Fyodorovna heard
the news she wrote to her husband and demanded that he be hung as
a traitor.
When
the Tsar abdicated on 13th March, a Provisional
Government, headed by Prince George Lvov,
was formed. Kerensky was appointed as
Minister of Justice in the new government and immediately
introduced a series of reforms including the abolition of capital
punishment. He also announced
basic civil liberties such as freedom of the press, the abolition
of ethnic and religious discrimination and made plans for the introduction
of universal suffrage.
In
May, 1917, Kerensky became Minister of War and appointed General Alexei
Brusilov as the Commander in Chief of the Russian
Army. He toured the Eastern Front
where he made a series of emotional speeches where he appealed to
the troops to continue fighting. On 18th June, Kerensky announced
a new war offensive. Encouraged by the Bolsheviks,
who favoured peace negotiations, there were demonstrations against
Kerensky in Petrograd.
The
July Offensive, led by General Alexei
Brusilov, was an attack on the whole Galician sector. Initially
the Russian Army made advances and on the first day of the offensive
took 10,000 prisoners. However, low morale, poor supply lines and
the rapid arrival of German reserves from the Western
Front slowed the advance and on 16th July the offensive was brought
to an end.
The
Provisional Government made no real
attempt to seek an armistice with the Central
Powers. Lvov's unwillingness to withdraw Russia from the First
World War made him unpopular with the people and on 8th July,
1917, he resigned and was replaced by Kerensky.
Kerensky
was still the most popular man in the government because of his political
past. In the Duma he had been leader of
the moderate socialists and had been seen as the champion of the working-class.
However, Kerensky, like George Lvov, was
unwilling to end the war. In fact, soon after taking office, he announced
a new summer offensive.
Soldiers
on the Eastern Front were dismayed at
the news and regiments began to refuse to move to the front line.
There was a rapid increase in the number of men deserting and by the
autumn of 1917 an estimated 2 million men had unofficially left the
army.
Some
of these soldiers returned to their homes and used their weapons to
seize land from the nobility. Manor
houses were burnt down and in some cases wealthy landowners were murdered.
Kerensky and the Provisional Government issued warnings but were powerless
to stop the redistribution of land in the countryside.
After the
failure of the July
Offensive
on the Eastern
Front,
Kerensky replaced General Alexei
Brusilov
with General Lavr Kornilov, as Supreme
Commander of the Russian
Army.
The two men soon clashed about military policy. Kornilov wanted Kerensky
to restore the death-penalty for soldiers and to militarize the factories.
On 7th
September, Kornoilov demanded the resignation of the Cabinet and the
surrender of all military and civil authority to the Commander in
Chief. Kerensky responded by dismissing Kornilov from office and ordering
him back to Petrograd.
Kornilov
now sent troops under the leadership of General Krymov to take control
of Petrograd. Kerensky was now in danger and so he called on the Soviets
and the Red Guards to protect Petrograd.
The Bolsheviks, who controlled these
organizations, agreed to this request, but in a speech made by their
leader, Vladimir Lenin, he made clear they
would be fighting against Kornilov rather than for Kerensky.
Within
a few days Bolsheviks had enlisted
25,000 armed recruits to defend Petrograd. While they dug trenches
and fortified the city, delegations of soldiers were sent out to talk
to the advancing troops. Meetings were held and Kornilov's troops
decided to refuse to attack Petrograd. General Krymov committed suicide
and Kornilov was arrested and taken into custody.
Kerensky
now became the new Supreme Commander of the Russian
Army.
His continued support for the war effort made him unpopular in Russia
and on 8th October, Kerensky attempted to recover his left-wing support
by forming a new coalition that included more Mensheviks
and Socialist
Revolutionaries.
However, with the Bolsheviks controlling
the Soviets, and now able to call on 25,000
armed militia, Kerensky was unable to reassert his authority.
On 7th
November, Kerensky was informed that the Bolsheviks
were about to seize power. He decided to leave Petrograd and try to
get the support of the Russian
Army
on the Eastern Front. Later that day
the Red Guards stormed the Winter Palace
and members of the Kerensky's cabinet were arrested.
Kerensky
assembled loyal troops from the Northern Front but his army was defeated
by Bolshevik forces at Pulkova. He
remained underground in Finland until
escaping to London in May 1918. He later
moved to France where he led the propaganda campaign against the communist
regime in Russia. This included editing the Russian newspaper, Dni,
that published in Paris and Berlin. In 1939 Kerensky urged the western
democracies to intervene against both communism in the Soviet
Union and fascism in Germany.
On the
outbreak of the Second World War Kerensky moved
to the United States. He worked at the Hoover Institution in California
and wrote his autobiography, The Kerensky
Memoirs: Russia and History's Turning Point (1967).
Alexander Kerensky
died of cancer in New York on 11th June,
1970.
(1) As a student Alexander Kerensky was deeply
influenced by the writings of Peter Struve.
One day in the fall of 1902, someone brought into
the university the second issue of the weekly publication Osvobozhdeniye
(Liberation), which had first been published in Stuttgart the year
before and was edited by the young Marxist, Peter Struve. We were
amazed and excited, because until that moment we had been completely
unaware of the secret work that had been going on since the mid-1890s
to organize the movement of which this journal was the official organ,
a movement which combined zemstvo liberalism with the ideas of the
intellectual, liberal, radical, and socialist circles.
(2)
Alexander Kerensky was a young man when the Social
Democratic Labour Party was formed. He wrote about his impressions
of the party in Russia and History's Turning Point (1965)
The Marxists (Social Democrats) propagated their economic
doctrine, which demanded alienation from the bourgeois and petty bourgeois
student body and called for the marshaling of all efforts to achieve
the victory of the industrial proletariat. Very few of the students
sympathies with this idea. To most of us in Russia the exclusive regard
for the industrial proletariat and the contemptuous disregard for
the peasantry was utterly absurd.
(3)
Alexander Kerensky, The Kerensky
Memoirs (1967)
On January 18, 1917, Goremykin, who had now lost the
last vestges of restraining influence in Tsarskoye Selo, was dismissed.
On January
19, he was replaced by Sturmer, an extreme reactionary who hated the
very idea of any form of popular representation or local self-government.
Even more important, he was undoubtedly a believer in the need for
an immediate cessation of the war with Germany.
Goremykin's
ominous prediction had come true - "When I go they will make
peace." Preparations for a peace settlement were soon in full
swing.
(3)
Alexander Kerensky, speech in the Duma (27th
February, 1917)
There are people who assert that the Ministers are
at fault. Not so. The country now realizes that the Ministers are
but fleeting shadows. The country can clearly see who sends them here.
To prevent a catastrophe the Tsar himself must be removed, by force
if there is no other way.
(4)
Alexander Kerensky, speech in the Duma (1st
March, 1917)
Comrades, in entering the Provisional Government I
remain a Republican. In my work I must lean for help on the will of
the people. I must have in the people my powerful support. May I trust
you as I trust myself? I cannot live without the people, and if ever
you begin to doubt me, kill me. I declare to the Provisional Government
that I am a representative of the democracy, and that the Government
must especially take into account the views I shall uphold as representing
the people, by whose efforts the old Government was overthrown.
(5)
John Reed interviewed Alexander Kerensky soon
after he formed his new government on 8th July, 1917.
The Russian
people are suffering from economic fatigue and from disillusionment
with the Allies! The world thinks the Russian Revolution is at an
end. Do not be mistaken. The Russian Revolution is just beginning.
(6)
Harold Williams, Daily
Chronicle (22nd March, 1917)
Kerensky
is a young man in his early thirties, of medium height, with a slight
stoop, and a quick, alert movement, with brownish hair brushed straight
up, a broad forehead already lined, a sharp nose, and bright, keen
eyes, with a certain puffiness in the lids due to want of sleep, and
a pale, nervous face tapering sharply to the chin. His whole bearing
was that of a man who could control masses.
He was
dressed in a grey, rather worn suit, with a pencil sticking out of
his breast pocket. He greeted us with a very pleasant smile, and his
manner was simplicity itself. He led us into his study, and there
we talked for an hour. We discussed the situation thoroughly, and
I got the impression that Kerensky was not only a convinced and enthusiastic
democrat, ready to sacrifice his life if need be for democracy - that
I already knew from previous acquaintance - but that he had a clear,
broad perception of the difficulties and dangers of the situation,
and was preparing to meet them.
(7)
Alfred Knox believed that Alexander Kerensky
was a vital member of the Provisional
Government.
There is
only one man who can save the country, and that is Kerensky, for this
little half-Jew lawyer has still the confidence of the over-articulate
Petrograd mob, who, being armed, are masters of the situation. The
remaining members of the Government may represent the people of Russia
outside the Petrograd mob, but the people of Russia, being unarmed
and inarticulate, do not count. The Provisional Government could not
exist in Petrograd if it were not for Kerensky.
(8) John Reed, Ten Days That Shook the
World (1919)
The
policy of the Provisional Government alternated between ineffective
reforms and stern repressive measures. An edict from the Socialist Minister
of Labour ordered all the Workers' Committees henceforth to meet only
after working hours. Among the troops at the front, 'agitators' of opposition
political parties were arrested, radical newspapers closed down, and
capital punishment applied - to revolutionary propagandists. Attempts
were made to disarm the Red Guard. Cossacks were spent order in the
provinces.
In September
1917, matters reached a crisis. Against the overwhelming sentiment
of the country, Kerensky and the 'moderate' Socialists succeeded in
establishing a Government of Coalition with the propertied classes;
and as a result, the Mensheviki and Socialist Revolutionaries lost
the confidence of the people for ever.
Week by
week food became scarcer. The daily allowance of bread fell from a
pound and a half to a pound, than three-quarters, half, and a quarter-pound.
Towards the end there was a week without any bread at all. Sugar one
was entitled to at the rate of two pounds a month - if one could get
it at all, which was seldom. A bar of chocolate or a pound of tasteless
candy cost anywhere from seven to ten roubles - at least a dollar.
For milk and bread and sugar and tobacco one had to stand in queue.
Coming home from an all-night meeting I have seen the tail beginning
to form before dawn, mostly women, some babies in their arms.
(9)
Arthur Ransome was in Russia during the
October Revolution.
Before the end of August it was obvious that there would be
a Bolshevik majority in the Soviets that would be reflected in the
composition of the Executive Committee. During the 'July Days' the
weakness of the Government had been manifest. Kerensky had been weakened
by the double failure, military and diplomatic, disasters in Galicia
and failure to bring the warring powers together in conference at
Stockholm. Both these failures had brought new strength to the Bolsheviks,
and a swing to the left was inevitable.
(10) Rabochi Put, a newspaper published
by the Bolsheviks (17 October, 1917)
The
fourth year's campaign will mean the annihilation of the army and the
country. There is a danger for the safety of Petrograd. Counter-revolutionaries
rejoice in the people's misfortunes. The Kerensky Government is against
the people. He will destroy the country. This paper stands for the people
and by the people - the poor classes, workers, soldiers and peasants.
The people can only be saved by the completion of the revolution and
for this purpose the full power must be in the hands of the Soviets.
(11) Alexander Kerensky, order issued on 24th October, 1917.
I order
all military units and detachments to remain in their barracks until
further orders from the Staff of the Military District. All officers
who act without orders from their superiors will be court-martialled
for mutiny. I forbid absolutely any execution by soldiers of instructions
from other organizations.
(12)
Alexander Kerensky, speech made at the Council of the Republic
( 24th October, 1917)
I will
cite here the most characteristic passage from a whole series of articles
published in Rabochi Put by Lenin, a state criminal who is in hiding
and whom we are trying to find. This state criminal has invited the
proletariat and the Petrograd garrison to repeat the experience of
16-18 July, and insists upon the immediate necessity for an armed
rising. Moreover, other Bolshevik leaders have taken the floor in
a series of meetings, and also made an appeal to immediate insurrection.
Particularly should be noticed the activity of the present president
of the Petrograd Soviet, Trotsky.
The policy
of the Bolsheviki is demagogic and criminal, in their exploitation
of the popular discontent. But there is a whole series of popular
demands which have received no satisfaction up to now. The question
of peace, land, and the democratization of the army ought to be stated
in such a fashion that no soldier, peasant, or worker would have the
least doubt that our Government is attempting, firmly and infallibly,
to solve them.
The Provisional
Government has never violated the liberty of all citizens of the State
to use their political rights. But now the Provisional Government
declares, in this moment those elements of the Russian nation, those
groups and parties who have dared to lift their hands against the
free will of the Russian people, at the same time threatening to open
the front to Germany, must be liquidated.
(13) In his book, Ten Days That Shook
the World, John Reed described Alexander
Kerensky and the Cossacks entry into Tsarkoye Selo on 29th October,
1917.
The Cossacks
entered Tsarskoye Selo, Kerensky himself riding a white horse and
all the church-bells clamouring. There was no battle. But Kerensky
made a fatal blunder. At seven in the morning he sent word to the
Second Tsarskoye Selo Rifles to lay down their arms. The soldiers
replied they would remain neutral, but would not disarm. Kerensky
gave them ten minutes in which to obey. This angered the soldiers;
for eight months they had been governing themselves by committee,
and this smacked of the old regime. A few minutes later Cossack artillery
opened fire on the barracks, killing eight men. From that moment there
were no more 'neutral' soldiers in Tsarskoye.
(14)
E. H. Wilcox was very impressed with Alexander
Kerensky and praised him in his book, Russia's Ruin (1919)
Kerensky
became the personification of everything that was good and noble in
Russia. He was no longer the leader of the political Party, but the
prophet of a new faith, the high priest of a new doctrine, which were
to embrace all Russia, all mankind. Whatever he may have been before
or after, during this dazzling and intoxicating interlude he had in
him true elements of greatness.
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