Aleksandr Kerensky

Alexander Kerensky was born in Simbirsk, Russia, in 1881, the son of a lower-ranking nobleman in the Russian aristocracy. As a law student he gained renown for his skillful defense of socialist activists arrested by the Czarist police, which may well have contributed to his political party, the Socialist Revolution, being outlawed in 1912. That same year he was elected to the Russian Duma (Parliament). After the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the overthrow of the Czar, Kerensky was named Minister of Justice in the Provisional Government. He was appointed Minister of War in May of that year, and since Russia was still involved in World War I, he made preparations for a new offensive against the Germans. Unfortunately, the Russian military had become dispirited, disenchanted and demoralized after a series of crushing defeats and staggering losses (the Battle of Tannenberg alone cost them more than 100,000 dead, brought about mainly because of stupefyingly inept and incompetent leadership), and its soldiers were in no mood or condition to continue fighting for a cause they no longer believed in. In addition, the Russian people themselves were sick of the war and the deprivations that came with it, and the country was being convulsed by strikes, riots and all manner of civil strife. In July of 1917 the Bolsheviks attempted to seize power in the city of Petrograd, and Kerensky sent Cossack troops there to crush the revolt. Later that month he was appointed Prime Minister. He found himself clashing with Gen. Kornilov, commander of the Russian army, who wanted to clamp down on the country and turn it into a military dictatorship. In November of 1917 the Bolsheviks again took advantage of the chaotic conditions in the country and mounted another revolt. This time Kerensky couldn't put it down, and as the revolt spread he was forced to flee Moscow. He sought refuge in London and became part of a Russian "government in exile", but his somewhat heavy-handed methods alienated many of the groups that formed the opposition, especially the White Russians. There was a strong resistance to the Bolsheviks inside Russia itself, and the White Russians had formidable military forces that fought them across Russia, but the resistance finally ended in the 1920s with the Red Army triumphant. Kerensky stayed in England, becoming the editor of a socialist revolutionary newspaper, "Dni", and wrote several books decrying the Communist takeover of his country. In 1940 he moved to the US, where he wrote more books and headed a foundation called the Study of War and Revolution at Stanford University in Palo Alto, CA. He died in New York City in 1970.