Alexander Kerensky

Alexander Fyodorovich Kerensky (; – June 11, 1970) was a Russian revolutionary leader who was instrumental in toppling the Russian monarchy. He served as the second Prime Minister of the Russian Provisional Government until Vladimir Lenin seized power following the October Revolution.

Early life and activism

Kerensky, the 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-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 fight. Kerensky offensive

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 primary problem in office was that Russia was exhausted after three years of war and the Russian people wanted nothing but peace. Lenin and his Bolshevik party were promising "peace, land, and bread" under a communist system, and the army was disintegrating as the peasant and worker soldiers deserted. But Kerensky and the other political leaders felt obliged by their commitments to Russia's allies to continue involvement in World War I - especially as the economy, already under huge stress from the war effort, would likely crumble 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 is exactly what the Germans did demand). The dilemma of whether or not to withdraw was a great one, but Kerensky's decision to continue the war proved his undoing.

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 the Bolsheviks launched a Coup d'état. 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. It took less than 20 hours before the Bolsheviks had taken over the government - in what is known as the October Revolution.

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 former Australian journalist Lydia ‘Nell' Tritton. 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 travelled 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 organised a group called the Union for the Liberation of Russia, but this achieved little.

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), The Catastrophe (1927), The Crucifixion of Liberty (1934) and Russia and History's Turning Point (1966).

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.

Trivia

His son Olef Kerensky, who with his mother fled from Leningrad at the age of 10 and entered the UK on a false passport, supervised the construction process of the Mulberry Harbour sections at Conwy Morfa in North Wales http://www.combinedops.com/Mulberry%20Harbours.htm

Fictional references

General Aleksandr Kerensky from BattleTech is stated in several sourcebooks to be a descendant of the historical Kerensky.

References

R. Abraham, Kerensky: First Love of the Revolution, Columbia University Press: 1987

External links

An account of Kerensky at Stanford in the 1950s

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