Alexander Fyodorovich Kerensky (Russian: Алекса́ндр Фёдорович
Ке́ренский, Aleksandr Fjodorovič Kerenskij) (May 4 [O.S. April 22] 1881 – June
11, 1970) served as the second Prime Minister of the
Russian Provisional Government until Vladimir Lenin was elected by the All-Russian Congress of
Soviets following the October Revolution.
Early life and activism
Kerensky, a son of a headmaster, was born in Simbirsk
(now Ulyanovsk), the same town as Lenin (then Ulyanov). At one point Kerensky's father,
Fyodor, had taught the young Vladimir Ulyanov at Kazan University. Kerensky graduated with a degree in Law from St. Petersburg University in 1904. He showed his political allegiances early on, with
his frequent defense of anti-Tsarist revolutionaries. He was elected to the Fourth Duma in 1912 as a member of the Trudoviks, a
moderate labor party. A brilliant orator and skilled parliamentary leader, he became a
member of the Provisional Committee of the Duma as a Socialist Revolutionary and a leader of the socialist
opposition to the regime of the ruling tsar, Nicholas II.
February Revolution of 1917
When the February Revolution broke out in 1917, Kerensky was one of its most
prominent leaders, and was elected vice-chairman of the Petrograd Soviet. He
simultaneously became the first Minister of Justice in the newly-formed
Provisional Government. When the Soviet passed a resolution prohibiting
its leaders from joining the government, Kerensky delivered a stirring speech at a Soviet meeting. Although the decision was
never formalized, he was granted a de-facto exemption and continued acting in both capacities.
After the first government crisis over Pavel Milyukov's secret note re-committing
Russia to its original war aims on May 2-4, Kerensky became the Minister of War and the
dominant figure in the newly formed socialist-liberal coalition government. Under Allied pressure to continue the war, he
launched what became known as the Kerensky Offensive against the
Austro-Hungarian/German South Army on June 17, Old Style. At first
successful, the offensive was soon stopped and then thrown back by a strong counter-attack. The Russian Army suffered heavy
losses and it was clear - from many incidents of desertion, sabotage, and mutiny - that the Russian Army was no longer willing to
attack.
Kerensky was heavily criticised by the military for his liberal policies, which included stripping officers of their mandate
(handing overriding control to revolutionary inclined "soldier committees" instead), the abolition of the death penalty, and the
presence of various revolutionary agitators at the front. Many officers jokingly referred to commander in chief Kerensky as
"persuader in chief".
On July 2, 1917, the first coalition collapsed over the question of Ukraine's autonomy.
Following widespread unrest in Petrograd and suppression of the Bolsheviks, Kerensky succeeded Prince Lvov as Russia's Prime Minister. Following the
Kornilov Affair at the end of August and the resignation of the other ministers, he
appointed himself Supreme Commander-in-Chief as well. He retained his other posts in
the short-lived Directory in September and the final coalition government in October 1917 until it was overthrown by the
Bolsheviks.
Kerensky's major challenge was that Russia was exhausted after three years of war, while
the provisional government did not offer much motivation for a victory outside of continuing Russia's obligations towards its
allies. Furthermore, Lenin and his Bolshevik party were promising "peace, land, and bread"
under a communist system. The army was disintegrating due to a lack of discipline, which
fostered desertion in large numbers.
Kerensky and the other political leaders continued their obligation to Russia's allies by continuing involvement in
World War I - fearing the economy, already under huge stress from the war effort, may become
increasingly unstable if vital supplies from France and the UK were to stop. Some also feared that Germany would demand enormous territorial concessions as the price for peace (which indeed happened at the
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk). The dilemma of whether or not to withdraw was a great
one, and Kerensky's inconsistent and impractical policies further destabilized the army and the country at large.
Furthermore, Kerensky adopted a policy which isolated the right-wing conservatives, both democratic and monarchist oriented.
His philosophy of "no enemies to the left" greatly empowered the Bolsheviks and gave them a free hand, allowing them to take over
the military arm or "voyenka" of the Petrograd and Moscow Soviets. His arrest of Kornilov and other officers left him without
strong allies against the Bolsheviks, who ended up being Kerensky's strongest and most
determined adversaries as opposed to the right wing, which evolved into the White
movement.
October Revolution of 1917
During the Kornilov Coup, Kerensky had distributed arms to the Petrograd workers, and by October most of these armed workers had gone over to the Bolsheviks. Lenin
was determined to overthrow Kerensky's government before it could be legitimised by the
planned elections for a Russian Constituent
Assembly, and on November 7 [O.S. October 25] 1917 the Bolsheviks launched the
second Russian revolution in that year. Kerensky's government in Petrograd had almost no support in the city. Only one small
force, the First Petrograd Women's Battalion, actually fought for the government
against the Bolsheviks, but this force too crossed over to the revolution without firing a single shot. It took less than 20
hours before the Bolsheviks had taken over the government.
Kerensky escaped the Bolsheviks and went to Pskov, where he rallied some loyal troops for an
attempt to retake the capital. His troops managed to capture Tsarskoe Selo, but were beaten the next day at Pulkovo. Kerensky
narrowly escaped, and spent the next few weeks in hiding before fleeing the country, eventually arriving in France. During the Russian Civil War he supported neither side, as he
opposed both the Bolshevik regime and the White Movement.
Life in exile
Kerensky lived in Paris until 1940, engaged in the endless splits and quarrels
of the exiled Russian democratic leaders. In 1939, Kerensky married the former Australian
journalist Lydia ‘Nell' Tritton.[1] When the Germans overran France at the start of World War II, they escaped to the United States.
In 1945, his wife became terminally ill. He traveled with her to Brisbane, Australia and lived there with her family until her death in February 1946. Thereafter he returned to the
United States, where he lived for the rest of his life.
When Adolf Hitler's forces invaded the Soviet
Union in 1941, Kerensky offered his support to Stalin, but received no reply.
Instead, he made broadcasts in Russian in support of the war effort. After the war he
organized a group called the Union for the Liberation of Russia, but this achieved
little.[citation needed]
Grave of Kerensky in London
Kerensky eventually settled in New York City, but spent much of his time at the
Hoover Institution at Stanford
University in California, where he both used and contributed to the
Institution's huge archive on Russian history, and where he taught graduate courses.
He wrote and broadcast extensively on Russian politics and history. His last public speech was delivered at Kalamazoo College,
in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
Kerensky's major works include The Prelude to Bolshevism (1919) ISBN 0-8383-1422-8 , The Catastrophe (1927),
The Crucifixion of Liberty (1934) and Russia and History's Turning Point (1965).
Kerensky died at his home in New York City in 1970, one of the last surviving major
participants in the turbulent events of 1917. The local Russian Orthodox
Churches in New York refused to grant Kerensky burial, seeing him as being largely responsible for Russia falling to the
Bolsheviks. A Serbian Orthodox Church also refused. Kerensky's body was then
flown to London where he was buried at Putney
Vale non-denominational cemetery.
References
- R. Abraham, Kerensky: First Love of the Revolution, Columbia University Press, 1987. ISBN 0-231-06108-0
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