The Rise and Fall of Kerensky

Aleksandr Kerensky

Born in 1881 in Simbirsk, Russia, Aleksandr Fedorovich Kerensky died in 1970 in New York City. A moderate Socialist Revolutionary, he served as head of the Russian Provisional government from July to October 1917 (Julian). While studying law at the University of St. Petersburg, Kerensky was attracted to the Narodniki (populist) revolutionary movement. After graduating in 1904, he joined the Socialist Revolutionary Party and became a prominent lawyer, frequently defending revolutionaries accused of political offenses. In 1912 he was elected to the Duma, and in the next several years he gained a reputation as an eloquent, dynamic politician of the moderate left.

Unlike more radical socialists, he supported Russia’s participation in World War I. He became increasingly disappointed with the tsarist regime’s conduct of the war effort, however, and, when the February Revolution broke out in 1917, he urged the dissolution of the monarchy. He instituted basic civil liberties—e.g., the freedoms of speech, press, assembly, and religion; universal suffrage; and equal rights for women—throughout Russia and became one of the most widely known and popular figures among the revolutionary leadership.

In May, when a public uproar over the announcement of Russia’s war aims (which Kerensky had approved) forced several ministers to resign, Kerensky was transferred to the posts of minister of war and of the navy and became the dominant personality in the new government. However, h 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 Lavr 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.

Kerensky Visiting the Troops Before
the 1917 Offensive

The Kerensky Offensive of July 1917 was the last made by the Russian army during the Great War and finally broke its cohesion.  Kerensky's failure to end the war made it impossible for him to deal with any of the pressing internal problems of Russia. He became inclreasingly isolate between the counter-revolutionary forces of the right and and the revolutionary forces led by Lenin.  His attempt to arrest the Bolshevik leaders on 5 November failed and two days later they overthrew his government.

Kerensky escaped and tried to rally loyal forces but was quickly defeated.  After hiding for several weeks, he managed to make his way to France. He remained neutral during the Russian Civil War. When Germany invaded France in 1940, Kerensky emigrated to the United States,  moved to Australia for six years with his second wife, and—with her death in 1946—eventually settling back in the U.S.  He split his time between New York and California, where he was a fellow at the Hoover Institution and lecturer at Stanford University. He died in New York in 1970.

The One-Time Revolutionary Became
a Respected Academic

Sources:  "Revolution in Real Time: The Russian Provisional Government, 1917," Old Dominion University; Who's Who in World War One