Biography

Alexander Fedorovich Kerensky - Russian political and statesman; Minister, then Minister-Chairman of the Provisional Government (1917), one of the leaders of Russian political Freemasonry.

Childhood, education, upbringing, origin

On the paternal side, the ancestors of Alexander Kerensky come from among the Russian provincial clergy. His grandfather Mikhail Ivanovich served as a priest in the village of Kerenki in the Gorodishchensky district of the Penza province since 1830. The surname Kerensky comes from the name of this village, although Alexander Fedorovich himself associated it with the county town of Kerensk in the same Penza province.

The youngest son of Mikhail Ivanovich - Fedor, although he graduated with honors from the Penza Theological Seminary (1859), did not become a priest, like his older brothers Grigory and Alexander. After working for six years in theological and district schools, he received his higher education at the Faculty of History and Philology of Kazan University (1869) and then taught Russian literature, pedagogy and Latin in various educational institutions in Kazan.

In Kazan, F. M. Kerensky married Nadezhda Adler, the daughter of the head of the topographical bureau of the Kazan military district. On her paternal side, N. Adler was a noblewoman of Russian-German origin, and on her mother’s side, she was the granddaughter of a serf, who, even before the abolition of serfdom, managed to redeem himself and later became a wealthy Moscow merchant. He left his granddaughter a considerable fortune. Rumors about the Jewish origin of Kerensky on the maternal side periodically arose in anti-Semitic circles both in the pre-revolutionary period, and during the years of the Civil War and in exile. Especially popular was the version that “Kerensky, the son of the Austrian Jewess Adler, who was married (first marriage) to the Jew Kirbis, and before baptism bore the name of Aron. Having been widowed, his mother remarried the teacher Kerensky. But all these rumors are not true.

In 1877-1879, Fyodor Mikhailovich Kerensky was the director of the Vyatka men's gymnasium and, in the rank of collegiate adviser, was appointed director of the Simbirsk men's gymnasium. The most famous pupil of Fyodor Kerensky was Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Lenin) - the son of his boss - the director of the Simbirsk schools - Ilya Nikolaevich Ulyanov. It was Fyodor Mikhailovich Kerensky who gave him the only four (logically) in the certificate of the gold medalist in 1887. The Kerensky and Ulyanov families in Simbirsk had friendly relations, they had much in common in their way of life, position in society, interests, and origin. Fedor Mikhailovich, after Ilya Nikolaevich Ulyanov died, took part in the life of the Ulyanov children. In 1887, after Alexander Ilyich Ulyanov was arrested and executed, he gave the brother of the revolutionary Vladimir Ulyanov a positive reference for entering Kazan University.

In Simbirsk, two sons were born in the Kerensky family - Alexander and Fedor (before them only daughters appeared in Kazan - Nadezhda, Elena, Anna). Sasha, the long-awaited son, enjoyed the exclusive love of his parents. As a child, he suffered tuberculosis of the femur. After the operation, the boy was forced to spend six months in bed and then for a long time did not take off his metal, forged boot with a load.

In May 1889, the actual State Councilor Fyodor Mikhailovich Kerensky was appointed chief inspector of schools in the Turkestan region and moved to Tashkent with his family. According to the "table of ranks", his rank corresponded to the rank of major general and gave the right to hereditary nobility. At the same time, eight-year-old Sasha began to study at the Tashkent gymnasium, where he was a diligent and successful student. In high school, Alexander had a reputation as a well-mannered young man, a skilled dancer, and a capable actor. He took part in amateur performances with pleasure, playing the role of Khlestakov with special brilliance. In 1899, Alexander graduated from the Tashkent gymnasium with a gold medal and entered the law faculty of St. Petersburg University.

Appearance and character

Alexander Kerensky was remembered as an extremely stubborn, intractable person. He was smart, able to articulate his thoughts clearly, but he lacked tact. Although he had an excellent education, he lacked the knowledge of all secular manners.

Kerensky was not in good health; in 1916, his kidney was removed, which for that time was an extremely dangerous operation. However, this did not prevent him from living to 89 years.

Outwardly, Alexander could be called handsome: tall, black-haired, with large, clear features. His eyes were dark - brown, Kerensky's nose was "eagle", slightly long. He was somewhat thin, but with age he became the owner of a dense figure.

Political career

In December 1904, he became an assistant to barrister N. A. Oppel. Participated in the Committee for Assistance to Victims on January 9 (22), 1905, created by the association of lawyers. From October 1905, Kerensky wrote for the revolutionary socialist bulletin Burevestnik, which the Organization of an Armed Uprising began to publish. Burevestnik became one of the first victims of police repression: the circulation of the eighth (according to other sources - the ninth) issue was confiscated. On December 23, a search was carried out in Kerensky's apartment, during which leaflets of the "Armed Insurrection Organization" and a revolver intended for self-defense were found. As a result of the search, an arrest warrant was signed on charges of belonging to the Socialist-Revolutionary fighting squad. Kerensky was in pre-trial detention in Kresty until April 5 (18), 1906, and then, due to lack of evidence, was released and deported with his wife and one-year-old son Oleg to Tashkent. In mid-August 1906 he returned to St. Petersburg.

In October 1906, at the request of the lawyer N. D. Sokolov, Kerensky began his career as a political defender in a lawsuit in Revel - he defended peasants who plundered the estates of the Baltic barons. Participated in a number of major political processes. On December 22, 1909 (January 4, 1910), he became a barrister in St. Petersburg, and before that he was an assistant barrister. In 1910, he was the main defender at the trial of the Turkestan organization of socialist revolutionaries accused of anti-government armed actions. The process for the Socialist-Revolutionaries went well, the lawyer managed to prevent the imposition of death sentences.

At the beginning of 1912, Kerensky defended terrorists from the Armenian Dashnaktsutyun party at a trial in St. Petersburg. In 1912, he participated in a public commission (the so-called "commission of lawyers") to investigate the execution of workers at the Lena gold mines. He spoke in support of M. Beilis, in connection with which he was prosecuted in the course of the case of 25 lawyers.

In June 1913 he was elected chairman of the IV All-Russian Congress of Trade and Industry Workers. In 1914, in the case of 25 lawyers for insulting the Kyiv Court of Justice, he was sentenced to 8 months in prison. On appeal, the imprisonment was replaced by a ban on practicing law for 8 months.

He was elected a deputy of the IV State Duma from the city of Volsk, Saratov province; since the Socialist-Revolutionary Party decided to boycott the elections, he formally left this party and joined the Trudoviks faction, which he headed from 1915. In the Duma, he made critical speeches against the government and gained fame as one of the best orators of the left factions. He was a member of the budget committee of the Duma.

In 1915-1917 - General Secretary of the Supreme Council of the Great Orient of the Peoples of Russia - a paramasonic organization, the founding members of which in 1910-1912 left the Renaissance lodge of the Great Orient of France. The Great East of the Peoples of Russia was not recognized by other Masonic Grand Lodges as a Masonic organization, since it set political activity as a priority for itself. In addition to Kerensky, the Supreme Council of the VVNR included such political figures as N. S. Chkheidze, A. I. Braudo, S. D. Maslovsky-Mstislavsky, N. V. Nekrasov, S. D. Urusov and others.

In June-July 1915 he made a trip to a number of cities in the Volga region and the South of Russia.

In 1916, on the orders of the Chairman of the Council of Ministers B. V. Stürmer, mobilization of 200,000 indigenous people for rear work began in Turkestan. Prior to that, according to the laws of the Russian Empire, the indigenous population was not subject to conscription into the army. The decree on the "requisition of indigenous people" caused a riot in Turkestan and the Steppe region. To investigate the events, the State Duma created a commission headed by Kerensky. Having studied the events on the spot, he laid the blame for what had happened on the tsarist government, accused the Minister of the Interior of exceeding his powers, and demanded that corrupt local officials be brought to justice. Such speeches created for Kerensky the image of an uncompromising exposer of the vices of the tsarist regime, brought popularity among liberals, and created a reputation as one of the leaders of the Duma opposition. By 1917, he was already a fairly well-known politician, who also led the Trudoviks faction in the State Duma of the 4th convocation. In his Duma speech on December 16 (29), 1916, he actually called for the overthrow of the autocracy, after which Empress Alexandra Feodorovna declared that "Kerensky should be hanged" (according to other sources - "Kerensky should be hanged along with Guchkov").

Sukhanov N. N. in his fundamental work “Notes on the Revolution” reports that before the revolution, Kerensky was under the supervision of the Security Department under the nickname “Fast” because of the habit of running through the streets, jumping into a tram on the go, and jumping back. To spy on him, the police had to hire a cab. The historian S.V. Utekhin, who personally knew Kerensky well, noted as an important fact that “in 1916 he had a kidney cut out and in 1917 he had severe pain almost all the time. You probably remember that he was hysterical and fainted? So he fainted from the disease, he could not stand the pain.

February Revolution

Kerensky's ascent to power began already during the February Revolution, which he not only accepted enthusiastically, but from the first days was an active participant in it. He instigated this revolution in many ways. Kerensky on February 14 (27), 1917, in his speech in the Duma, declared: “The historical task of the Russian people at the present moment is the task of destroying the medieval regime immediately, by all means ... How can legal means be used to fight those who have turned the law itself into weapon of mockery of the people? There is only one way to deal with violators of the law - their physical elimination.

The presiding Rodzianko interrupted Kerensky's speech by asking what he had in mind. The answer was immediate: "I mean what Brutus did in ancient Rome."

The French ambassador in Petrograd, Maurice Palaiologos, in his diary, in an entry dated March 2 (15), 1917, characterizes Kerensky as follows: new regime" [source not specified 1656 days].

After the session of the Duma was interrupted at midnight from February 26 to 27 (March 12), 1917, by decree of Nicholas II, Kerensky, at the Council of Elders of the Duma on February 27, urged not to obey the tsar's will. On the same day, he became a member of the Provisional Committee of the State Duma formed by the Council of Elders and a member of the Military Commission, which led the actions of the revolutionary forces against the police. During the February days, Kerensky repeatedly spoke to the insurgent soldiers, received from them the arrested ministers of the tsarist government, received money and secret papers confiscated from the ministries. Under the leadership of Kerensky, the guards of the Tauride Palace were replaced by detachments of rebellious soldiers, sailors and workers [source not specified 1656 days].

At the beginning of the February Revolution, Kerensky joined the Socialist-Revolutionary Party and was appointed representative of the Petrograd Soviet in the revolutionary Provisional Committee created in the Duma. On March 3, as part of the Duma representatives, he contributes to the renunciation of power by Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich.

Thus, during the February Revolution, Kerensky finds himself simultaneously in two opposing bodies of power: as a comrade (deputy) chairman of the executive committee in the first composition of the Petrograd Soviet and in the first composition of the Provisional Government, formed on the basis of the Provisional Committee, as Minister of Justice.

Minister of Justice

On March 2, he took up the post of Minister of Justice in the Provisional Government. In public, Kerensky appeared in a military-style jacket, although he himself had never served in the army. He initiated such decisions of the Provisional Government as an amnesty for political prisoners, the recognition of Poland's independence, and the restoration of the Finnish constitution. By order of Kerensky, all the revolutionaries were returned from exile. The second telegram sent to the post of Minister of Justice was an order to immediately release the "grandmother of the Russian revolution" Ekaterina Breshko-Breshkovskaya from exile and send her to Petrograd with all honors. Under Kerensky, the destruction of the former judicial system began. Already on March 3, the institute of justices of the peace was reorganized - the courts began to be formed from three members: a judge and two assessors. On March 4, the Supreme Criminal Court, special offices of the Governing Senate, judicial chambers and district courts with the participation of class representatives were abolished. He stopped the investigation into the murder of Grigory Rasputin, while the investigator - the director of the Police Department A. T. Vasiliev (arrested during the February Revolution) was transferred to the Peter and Paul Fortress, where he was interrogated by the Extraordinary Investigative Commission until September.

Under Kerensky, judicial figures were dismissed en masse from service without any explanation, sometimes on the basis of a telegram from some barrister who claimed that such and such was unacceptable in public circles.

War and Naval Minister

In March 1917, Kerensky again officially joined the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, becoming one of the most important leaders of the party. In April 1917, Foreign Minister P. N. Milyukov assured the Allied Powers that Russia would unconditionally continue the war to a victorious end. This step caused a crisis in the Provisional Government. On April 24, Kerensky threatened to withdraw from the government and the Soviets go into opposition if Milyukov was not removed from his post and a coalition government was created, including representatives of the socialist parties. On May 5 (18), 1917, Prince Lvov was forced to comply with this demand and set up the first coalition government. Milyukov and Guchkov resigned, socialists entered the government, and Kerensky received the portfolio of military and naval ministers.

The new minister of war appoints little-known but close to him generals, who received the nickname "Young Turks", to key positions in the army. Kerensky appointed his brother-in-law V. L. Baranovsky to the post of head of the cabinet of the Minister of War, whom he promoted to colonel, and a month later to major general. Kerensky appointed Colonels of the General Staff G. A. Yakubovich and G. N. Tumanov as assistants to the Minister of War, people not sufficiently experienced in military affairs, but active participants in the February coup. On May 22 (June 4), 1917, Kerensky appointed General Brusilov A.A. to the post of Supreme Commander-in-Chief instead of the more conservative General Alekseev M.V.

As Minister of War, Kerensky made great efforts to organize the offensive of the Russian army in June 1917. Kerensky traveled around the front-line units, spoke at numerous rallies, trying to inspire the troops, after which he received the nickname "Chief Persuader". However, the army was already seriously weakened by the post-revolutionary purges of generals and the creation of soldiers' committees (see Democratization of the Army in Russia in 1917). On June 18, the offensive of the Russian troops began, which, however, quickly ended in complete failure. According to some assumptions, it was this shameful defeat that served as the main reason for the overthrow of the Provisional Government [source not specified 1284 days].

"March" hype around Kerensky

The peak of Kerensky's popularity begins with his appointment as Minister of War after the April crisis. Newspapers refer to Kerensky in such expressions: "knight of the revolution", "lion heart", "first love of the revolution", "people's tribune", "genius of Russian freedom", "sun of Russia's freedom", "people's leader", "savior of the Fatherland", "prophet and hero of the revolution", "good genius of the Russian revolution", "the first people's commander in chief", etc.

In May 1917, the Petrograd newspapers were even seriously considering the establishment of the Foundation named after the Friend of Mankind A. F. Kerensky.

Kerensky tries to maintain an ascetic image of a "people's leader" by wearing a paramilitary jacket and a short haircut.

As a young man, Kerensky considered a career as an opera singer, and even took acting lessons. Nabokov V. D. describes his performances in the following way: ““I say, comrades, with all my heart ... from the depths of my heart, and if you need to prove it ... if you don’t trust me ... I’m right there, before your eyes ... I’m ready to die ...“. Carried away, he illustrated the "readiness to die" with an unexpected, desperate gesture. Already in his old age, Kerensky notes with regret that "if there had been television then, no one would have been able to defeat me!" Kerensky manages to “charm” even the deposed tsar: in July, Nikolai writes in his diary about Kerensky “This man is positively in his place at the present moment; the more power he has, the better."

The failure of Kerensky's first major political project, the June offensive of 1917, was the first noticeable blow to his popularity. The ongoing economic problems, the failure of the surplus appropriation policy initiated by the tsarist government at the end of 1916, the ongoing collapse of the army in the field are increasingly discrediting Kerensky.

As minister of the Provisional Government, Kerensky moved to the Winter Palace. Over time, rumors appear in Petrograd that he allegedly sleeps on the former bed of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, and Alexander Kerensky himself begins to be ironically called "Alexander IV" (the last Russian tsar with the name Alexander was Alexander III).

Chairman of the Provisional Government

On July 7 (20), 1917, A.F. Kerensky replaced Georgy Lvov as Prime Minister, retaining the post of Minister of War and Navy. Kerensky tried to reach an agreement on the support of the government by the bourgeois and right-wing socialist parties. On July 12, the death penalty was restored at the front. New banknotes were issued, called "Kerenki". On July 19, Kerensky appointed a new Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the General Staff, Infantry General Lavr Georgievich Kornilov. In August, Kornilov, with the support of Generals Krymov, Denikin and some others, refused Kerensky (after the latter's provocation with the mission of Lvov) to stop the troops moving on Petrograd on the orders of the Provisional Government and with the knowledge of Kerensky. As a result of the actions of agitators, Krymov's troops in his absence (a trip to Petrograd to see Kerensky) were propagated and stopped on the outskirts of Petrograd. Kornilov, Denikin and some other generals were arrested.

Kerensky in October 1917

Kerensky, having become the supreme commander, completely changed the structure of the provisional government, creating the "Business Cabinet" - the Directory. Thus, Kerensky combined the powers of the chairman of the government and the supreme commander in chief.

Having concentrated dictatorial powers in his hands, Kerensky carried out another coup d'etat - he dissolved the State Duma, which, in fact, brought him to power, and announced the proclamation of Russia as a democratic republic, without waiting for the convocation of the Constituent Assembly.

To ensure the support of the government, he went on to form an advisory body - the Provisional Council of the Russian Republic (Pre-Parliament) on October 7 (20), 1917. Assessing the situation in Petrograd on October 24 as a "state of insurrection", he demanded from the Pre-Parliament full support for the actions of the government. After the adoption of an evasive resolution by the Pre-Parliament, he left Petrograd to meet the troops called from the front to support his government.

In his own words, Kerensky found himself "between the hammer of the Kornilovites and the anvil of the Bolsheviks"; a popular legend ascribes to General Kornilov the promise "to hang Lenin on the first post, and Kerensky on the second."

Kerensky did not organize the defense of the Provisional Government against the uprising of the Bolsheviks, despite the fact that many drew the attention of the Prime Minister, including representatives of foreign embassies, to this. Until the last moment, he invariably answered that the Provisional Government had everything under control and that there were enough troops in Petrograd to suppress the uprising of the Bolsheviks, which he even looked forward to in order to finally put an end to them. And only when it was already quite late, at 2 hours 20 minutes. On the night of October 25 (November 7), 1917, a telegram was sent to General Dukhonin at Headquarters about sending Cossack units to Petrograd. In response, Dukhonin asked why this telegram had not been transmitted earlier, and called Kerensky several times by direct wire, but he did not come up. Later, in exile, Kerensky tried to justify himself that, allegedly, “in the last days before the Bolshevik uprising, all my orders and the headquarters of the St. Petersburg Military District on the expulsion of troops from the Northern Front to Petrograd were sabotaged on the ground and on the way.” The historian of the Russian revolution Melgunov, S.P., on the basis of documents, proves that there were no such orders.

At the same time, by October 1917, there was practically no sufficient military force left on which Kerensky could rely. His actions during the Kornilov speech repelled the army officers and Cossacks from him. In addition, during the fight against Kornilov, Kerensky is forced to turn to the Bolsheviks as the most active left, thereby only hastening the events of November 1917. Kerensky's indecisive attempts to get rid of the most unreliable units of the Petrograd garrison only led to them drifting "to the left" and going over to the side of the Bolsheviks. Also, units sent to Petrograd from the front in July gradually went over to the side of the Bolsheviks. The dissolution of the unpopular police after the February Revolution also contributed to the growing chaos. The "people's militia" that replaced it turned out to be unable to perform its functions. [source not specified 1420 days]

There is a widespread version that Kerensky escaped from the Winter Palace, disguised as a nurse (another version is a maid). It has been suggested that this version was created by Bolshevik propaganda or by the people. This version was first expressed by the brother of the head of the cadet school guarding the Winter Palace in October 1917. According to the memoirs of the journalist G. Borovik, who met with Kerensky in 1966, this version “burned his heart even after 50 years”, and the first phrase he said at the meeting was: “Mr. Borovik, well, tell me there in Moscow - do you have smart people! Well, I didn’t run away from the Winter Palace in a woman’s dress!”

Kerensky himself claimed that he left Zimny ​​in his usual jacket, in his car, accompanied by the American ambassador's car with the American flag offered to him by American diplomats. Oncoming soldiers and Red Guards recognized him and habitually saluted.

Probably, a second after my passage, not one of them could explain to himself how it happened, that he not only let this "counter-revolutionary", "enemy of the people" pass, but also saluted him.

Kerensky emphatically and in certain tones distorts reality in his memoirs: in fact, his departure from the Winter Palace had a different character, even in small things. Thus, David Francis, who was the American ambassador to Russia at that time, writes in his book “Russia from the Window of the American Embassy” that the American car was not “offered” to Kerensky, but seized by his adjutants. The American flag was also forcibly appropriated. The secretary of the American embassy only bowed to the inevitable and limited himself to protesting against the use of the US flag. (There is also evidence to the contrary.) In general, it cost Kerensky great effort to leave Petrograd, since all the stations were already controlled by the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee.

The campaign of the Krasnov-Kerensky detachment against Petrograd was not successful. After a series of battles, Krasnov's Cossacks signed a truce with the Soviet troops on October 31 in Gatchina. The 3rd cavalry corps of General Krasnov did not show much desire to defend Kerensky, while the Bolsheviks developed a vigorous activity in organizing the defense of Petrograd. Dybenko, who arrived for negotiations, jokingly suggested to the Cossacks of the 3rd Corps "to exchange Kerensky for Lenin", "if you want, we will exchange ear for ear." According to the memoirs of General Krasnov, after the negotiations, the Cossacks clearly began to be inclined to extradite Kerensky, and he fled from the Gatchina Palace, disguised as a sailor.

The writer Somerset Maugham, who was in Petrograd from August to November 1917 and met with Kerensky, described him as follows:

The situation in Russia was deteriorating every day ... and he removed all the ministers, as soon as he noticed in them abilities that threatened to undermine his own prestige. He made speeches. He made endless speeches. There was a threat of a German attack on Petrograd. Kerensky made speeches. The shortage of food became more and more serious, winter was approaching, there was no fuel. Kerensky made speeches. Behind the scenes, the Bolsheviks were active, Lenin was hiding in Petrograd ... He made speeches.

One of the leaders of the Cadet Party, Ivan Kutorga, in his book “Orators and the Masses” characterizes Kerensky as follows: “... Kerensky was the true personification of February with all its upsurge, impulse, good intentions, with all its doom and frequent political childish absurdity and state crime. The hatred of Kerensky personally is explained, in my opinion, not only by his indisputably huge political mistakes, not only by the fact that “Kerensky” (a word that has become common in all European languages) failed to offer serious resistance to Bolshevism, but, on the contrary, cleared the ground for it but also by other, broader and more general reasons.

In the Soviet history textbooks for a comprehensive school, a reproduction of the painting by the artist Grigory Shegal “Flight of Kerensky from Gatchina” was cited, in which he is depicted changing into the clothes of a nurse.

After the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks

In the 20th of November, Kerensky appeared in Novocherkassk to General A. M. Kaledin, but was not received by him. He spent the end of 1917 wandering through remote villages near Petrograd and Novgorod. At the beginning of January 1918, he secretly appeared in Petrograd, wishing to speak at the Constituent Assembly, but the Socialist-Revolutionary leadership apparently considered this inappropriate. Kerensky moved to Finland. On January 9 (22), 1918, a resolution of the Council of People's Commissars dated January 4 (17), 1918 "On the confiscation of amounts held in banks on the current accounts of A.F. Kerensky" was published: in the State Bank - 1,157,714 rubles, in the International Commercial - RUB 317,020 In the resolution, the Council of People's Commissars appealed to everyone "who could give instructions on the source of these amounts, their purpose, etc., with a request to provide comprehensive information about this." At the end of January 1918, Kerensky returned to Petrograd, in early May - to Moscow, where he established contact with the Union for the Revival of Russia. When the performance of the Czechoslovak corps began, the Union of the Renaissance suggested that he make his way abroad to negotiate the organization of military intervention in Soviet Russia.

Life in exile

In June 1918, under the guise of a Serbian officer, Kerensky, accompanied by Sidney Reilly, traveled through northern Russia outside the former Russian Empire. Arriving in London, he met with British Prime Minister Lloyd George and spoke at a Labor Party conference. After that, he went to Paris, where he stayed for several weeks. Kerensky tried to win support from the Entente for the Ufa directory, which was dominated by the Social Revolutionaries. After the coup in Omsk in November 1918, during which the directory was overthrown and Kolchak's dictatorship was established, Kerensky agitated in London and Paris against the Omsk government. He lived in France, participating in constant splits, quarrels and intrigues of Russian exiles [source not specified 266 days].

Kerensky tried to continue active political activity in Paris. In 1922-1932, he edited the newspaper Dni, gave harsh anti-Soviet lectures, and called on Western Europe to embark on a crusade against Soviet Russia.

In 1939 he married former Australian journalist Lydia Tritton. When Hitler occupied France in 1940, he left for the USA.

When his wife became terminally ill in 1945, he went to her in Brisbane, Australia, and lived with her family until her death in February 1946, after which he returned to the United States and settled in New York, although he also spent much time at Stanford University in California . There he made a significant contribution to the archive on Russian history and taught students.

In 1968, Kerensky tried to get permission to come to the USSR. A favorable resolution of this issue depended on the fulfillment by him of a number of political conditions, and this was directly indicated in the draft document submitted by the employees of the Central Committee apparatus on August 13, 1968. The document said: “... to receive his (Kerensky's) statement: on the recognition of the laws of the socialist revolution; the correctness of the policy of the government of the USSR; recognition of the successes of the Soviet people achieved over the 50 years of the existence of the Soviet state. According to the memoirs of the priest of the Russian Orthodox Patriarchal Church in London, A.P. Belikov, through whom these negotiations began, “Kerensky recognized that the events that took place in October 1917 are the logical conclusion of the social development of Russia. He does not regret at all that it happened exactly the way it was and what it led to after 50 years.” For unclear reasons, Kerensky's visit to Moscow was unexpectedly removed from discussion (probably due to the invasion of Czechoslovakia on 08/21/1968).

In December 1968, the Center for Humanitarian Research at the University of Texas at Austin (USA) acquired the Kerensky archive with the consent of the owner from his son Oleg and personal secretary E.I. F. Kerensky". The archive was valued at $100,000 with payments of $20,000 a year for five years.

Kerensky fell seriously ill. Deciding not to be a burden to anyone, he refused to eat. Doctors at a New York clinic administered a nutrient solution through a dropper; Kerensky pulled the needle out of a vein. This struggle continued for two and a half months. In a sense, Kerensky's death can be considered suicide. He died on June 11, 1970 at his home in New York from cancer. The local Russian and Serbian Orthodox churches refused to bury him, considering him responsible for the fall of Russia. The body was transferred to London, where his son lived, and buried in the non-denominational Putney Vale Cemetery.

Religious views and attitudes towards the church

Kerensky was a socialist, but apparently loyal to the Orthodox Church. A. Kartashev, who under the Provisional Government would be involved in religious policy, in November 1915 brought Kerensky to a meeting of the Petrograd Religious and Philosophical Society, where Kerensky delivered a speech on the need to reform the church, since “equality, freedom and brotherhood ... are preached not only by Christian thinkers, but socialist thinkers.

The famous beaver haircut was recommended to Kerensky by his young wife. "Beaver" he remained faithful to old age.
On his first visit to the Ministry of Justice in March 1917, Kerensky made a symbolic gesture - he shook hands with the porter. This act of his gave rise to many disapproving comments.
36-year-old A.F. Kerensky became the youngest non-hereditary ruler of Russia in the 20th century. He also became the longest-lived ruler of Russia (89 years); only the Soviet statesman Vasily Vasilyevich Kuznetsov (February 13 (26), 1901 - June 5, 1990) lived longer than Kerensky for 75 days, who served three times during 1982-1985 as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and was thus a nominal head the Soviet state.
"In honor" of Kerensky, the money Kerenka and the political concept Kerenshchina were named, which, according to the Soviet explanatory dictionary of the Russian language, published in 1935, meant "the policy of the petty-bourgeois revolutionary government, covering up its conciliation with the big bourgeoisie with loud phrases."
In May 1917, Kerensky, as Minister of War, visited the front and received from the soldiers and officers a cross of the 4th degree with an engraving “From the 8th Zaamursky burial. infantry regiment", but handed it over to General A. A. Brusilov, since he did not fight at the front. Another cross (on a red ribbon; 2nd degree) Kerensky received from the Knights of St. George - delegates of the 3rd Caucasian Army Corps; moreover, the cross was someone else's, it was handed over to the defense fund by soldier D. A. Vinogradov. Both crosses have survived. At the end of May 1917, delegates from the Siberian Rifle Regiments presented Kerensky with the St. George Cross, 1st Class.

Kerensky Alexander Fedorovich Kerensky Alexander Fedorovich

(1881-1970), Russian politician and statesman. Advocate. Participant in the Revolution of 1905-07. Since 1915, the leader of the Trudoviks faction in the 4th State Duma. He was a member of the Supreme Council of Freemasons of Russia. During the February Revolution of 1917 he joined the Social Revolutionaries; became a member of the Provisional Government: Minister of Justice (March - May), Minister of War and Marine (May - September), from July 8, Minister-Chairman. Since August 30, Supreme Commander. After the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks on October 26-31, together with P. N. Krasnov, he undertook a campaign against Petrograd, which ended in failure. Since 1918 in France, since 1940 in the USA. One of the organizers of the League of Struggle for People's Freedom. Author of memoirs, historical research, compiler and editor of documentary publications on the history of the Russian revolution: "The Kornilov Case" (1918), "Gatchina" (1922), "From Far Away" (1922), etc.

Kerensky Alexander Fyodorovich

KERENSKY Alexander Fedorovich, Russian public and political figure, Minister-Chairman of the Provisional Government (cm. PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT) in July-October 1917; author of memoirs, historical research, compiler and editor of documentary publications on the history of the Russian revolution.
Origin. Childhood.
On the paternal side, the ancestors of Alexander Kerensky come from among the Russian provincial clergy. His grandfather Mikhail Ivanovich from 1830 served as a priest in the village of Kerenki, Gorodishchensky district, Penza province. The surname Kerensky comes from the name of this village, although Alexander Fedorovich himself associated it with the county town of Kerensk in the same Penza province. The youngest son of Mikhail Ivanovich - Fedor, although he graduated with honors from the Penza Theological Seminary, did not become a priest, like his older brothers Grigory and Alexander. He graduated from the Faculty of History and Philology of Kazan University (cm. KAZAN UNIVERSITY) and then taught Russian literature in Kazan gymnasiums.
In Kazan, F. M. Kerensky married Nadezhda Adler, the daughter of the head of the topographical bureau of the Kazan military district. On the paternal side, N. Adler was a noblewoman, and on the maternal side, she was the granddaughter of a serf, who, even before the abolition of serfdom, managed to redeem himself and later became a rich Moscow merchant. He left his granddaughter a considerable fortune. Having risen to the rank of collegiate adviser, Fedor Mikhailovich was appointed to Simbirsk, to the post of director of a men's gymnasium and a secondary school for girls. The most famous pupil of F. M. Kerensky was V. I. Ulyanov (Lenin) (cm. LENIN Vladimir Ilyich)- the son of his boss - the director of the Simbirsk schools I. N. Ulyanov (cm. ULYANOV Ilya Nikolaevich). It was F. M. Kerensky who put the only four (logically) in the certificate of the gold medalist in 1887 Volodya Ulyanov.
The Kerensky and Ulyanov families in Simbirsk had friendly relations, they had much in common in their way of life, position in society, interests, and origin. Fedor Mikhailovich, after the death of Ilya Nikolaevich, to the best of his ability, took part in the fate of the Ulyanov children. In 1887, after the arrest and execution of Alexander Ulyanov (cm. ULYANOV Alexander Ilyich), he gave the brother of a political criminal - Vladimir Ulyanov a positive reference for admission to Kazan University.
In Simbirsk, two sons were born in the Kerensky family - Alexander and Fedor (before them only daughters appeared in Kazan - Nadezhda, Elena, Anna). Sasha, the long-awaited son, enjoyed the exclusive love of his parents. As a child, he suffered tuberculosis of the femur. After the operation, the boy was forced to spend six months in bed and then for a long time did not take off his metal, forged boot with a load.
In May 1889, F. M. Kerensky, a real state councilor, was appointed chief inspector of schools in the Turkestan region and moved to Tashkent with his family. According to the "table of ranks", his rank corresponded to the rank of major general and gave the right to hereditary nobility. At the same time, eight-year-old Sasha began to study at the Tashkent gymnasium, where he was a diligent and successful student. In high school, Alexander had a reputation as a well-mannered young man, a skilled dancer, and a capable actor. He, with pleasure taking part in amateur performances, played the role of Khlestakov with special brilliance. In 1899, Alexander graduated from the Tashkent gymnasium with a gold medal and entered the Faculty of History and Philology of St. Petersburg University.
In the capital
In the capital, Kerensky listened to the lectures of the orientalist B. A. Turaev (cm. TURAEV Boris Alexandrovich), went on expeditions to Pskov and Novgorod, led by Professor S. F. Platonov (cm. PLATONOV Sergey Fedorovich). He did not remain aloof from the social life of St. Petersburg students, which experienced an upsurge in the first years of the new century. Even in his gymnasium years, Kerensky developed a critical attitude towards the socio-political structure of tsarist Russia. He was fond of political literature, including illegal, had the opportunity to read the forbidden works of Leo Tolstoy (cm. TOLSTOY Lev Nikolaevich), representatives of various revolutionary movements. The closest to him were the views of the Narodniks, the Socialist-Revolutionaries. Marxism (cm. MARXISM) Kerensky turned out to be alien, he was repelled by the hypertrophied significance that was given in this doctrine to the class struggle.
From February 1900, Kerensky became an active participant in student gatherings, and in his second year he openly delivered a fiery speech, urging students to help the people in the liberation struggle. This performance could have resulted in expulsion from the university, but Kerensky was saved by his father's high position. The rector of the university decided to temporarily isolate Alexander from the radical student environment and, with his authority, sent him on academic leave, to Tashkent to his parents.
The young man, not without pleasure, entered the role of an exiled student - a victim of royal despotism. In the eyes of his peers in Tashkent, he was a true freedom fighter. But his father managed to convince Alexander that the political struggle should be postponed until higher education. Returning to the university, Alexander continued his studies at the Faculty of Law. Fulfilling his promise to his father, he did not get close to revolutionary circles, but was engaged in social activities - he actively worked in the council of the community of Tashkent students. In his senior years, Kerensky became close to the leaders of the Union of Liberation (cm. UNION OF LIBERATION)- organizations of opposition-minded liberal intelligentsia.
In 1904 he successfully graduated from the university, receiving a diploma of the first degree. At the same time, Alexander married Olga Baranovskaya, a student of the Higher Women's Courses, daughter of L. S. Baranovsky, Colonel of the General Staff. The newlyweds spent the summer in the village of Kainki in the Kazan province - the estate of the bride's father, and returned to the capital in the fall. A revolution was brewing in the country, and in November 1904 Kerensky took part in organizing a banquet campaign. (cm. BANQUET CAMPAIGN), during which the leaders of the Liberation Union called for political reforms in Russia.
Political formation
Abandoning the prospect of a scientific career, Kerensky began working as an assistant to a barrister. (cm. ATTORNEY ATTORNEY) at the St. Petersburg Court of Justice and was admitted to the St. Petersburg Bar Association. Becoming a witness to the bloody events of January 9, 1905 (cm. JANUARY 9TH 1905), became a member of the Committee for Assistance to the Victims of the Tragedy, which was created by the Bar Association. Participating in the activities of this committee, the young lawyer got acquainted with the living conditions of the St. Petersburg proletariat, acquired a wide circle of acquaintances in the working environment.
First Russian Revolution (cm. REVOLUTION OF 1905-07 IN RUSSIA) produced a radical revolution in the way of thinking of many intellectuals. The young Kerensky was seized with revolutionary impatience. His sympathies were given to the Socialist Revolutionary Party (cm. SOCIALIST-REVOLUTIONARY PARTY), he closely communicated with the Socialist-Revolutionaries and took part in editing the Socialist-Revolutionary newspaper Burevestnik. Kerensky maintained ties with terrorist SRs and even offered them to kill Tsar Nicholas II. (cm. NICHOLAS II ALEXANDROVICH). However, the head of the Combat Organization (cm. MILITARY ORGANIZATION OF SRs) Party of Socialist Revolutionaries Yevno Azef (cm. AZEF Evno Fishelevich) rejected the projects and requests of Kerensky.
Kerensky's revolutionary activity did not go unnoticed; in December 1905 he was arrested for his connection with the Socialist-Revolutionary fighting squad. In Petersburg Crosses (cm. CROSS) he was held until April 1906, and then, due to lack of evidence, he was released and sent with his wife and one-year-old son Oleg to Tashkent. But already in the autumn of that year, the Kerenskys returned to the capital. In October 1906, Kerensky participated in a lawsuit in Reval - he defended the peasants who plundered the estate of a local baron. This case received wide publicity. After a successful trial, Kerensky joined the St. Petersburg Association of Political Advocates.
By that time, the situation in Russia had stabilized: the revolutionary wave subsided, the police and political detectives successfully pursued radical opponents of the tsarist regime. Under these conditions, Kerensky considered it good to move away from the underground Socialist-Revolutionaries and join the legally operating Trudoviks. (cm. WORKERS). At the same time, he headed the board of the Turkestan community in St. Petersburg, but mainly engaged in the practice of law, worked as a barrister.
Kerensky was a staunch opponent of the monarchy, a supporter of the establishment of a democratic republic in Russia, a profound transformation of all social and economic life on socialist lines. In this he closely linked with the Socialist-Revolutionary Party. Kerensky considered it necessary to fight against the tsarist regime, including by illegal methods, but he considered it best for himself to remain within the limits permitted by law.
Kerensky, a lawyer, showed interest in cases with political overtones. In 1910, he became the main defender in the process of the Turkestan organization of socialist revolutionaries accused of anti-government armed actions. The process for the Social Revolutionaries was quite successful, the lawyer managed to prevent the death penalty. In early 1912, Kerensky participated in the trial of members of the Armenian Dashnaktsutyun party. (cm. DASHNAKTSUTYUN). Together with other Moscow lawyers, Kerensky protested against the anti-Semitic case of Beilis (cm. THE BEILIS CASE) for which he was sentenced to eight months in prison. Widespread fame came to him in 1912 in the case of the Lena execution (cm. LENSKY SHOT). He headed the work of a special commission of the Third State Duma (cm. THIRD STATE DUMA) created on this occasion. The commission came to the conclusion that the main reasons for the strikes of the workers of the Lena gold mines were their lack of rights and poverty, the arbitrariness of the administration. Based on these conclusions, the government eliminated the monopoly position of the Lenzoloto company, the administration of the mines was reorganized, the wages of workers were increased, and measures were taken to improve their life.
The fame of Kerensky, the support he enjoyed among the liberal intelligentsia, allowed him in 1912 to successfully run for deputies of the Fourth State Duma. (cm. ) according to the list of the Labor Group from the city of Volsk, Saratov province. In the same, 1912, he was admitted to the Masonic Lodge (cm. FREEMASONRY)"Great East of the peoples of Russia". From 1916 to February 1917, Kerensky was the secretary of this lodge, was a member of the Duma Masonic lodge, and was a member of the Supreme Council of Masons of Russia.
Duma deputy
In the Duma, Kerensky made critical speeches against the government and gained fame as one of the best orators of the left factions. He openly declared from the Duma rostrum that the revolution is the only method and means of saving the Russian state. This phrase aroused the indignation of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna (cm. ALEXANDRA Fyodorovna (wife of Nicholas II)), who convinced Nicholas II that a glib speaker should be hanged for such speeches.
Kerensky was a member of the budget commission of the State Duma and constantly took part in debates on budgetary issues.
At the start of World War I (cm. WORLD WAR I 1914-18) he signed the pacifist declaration of the Menshevik (cm. MENSHEVIKS) faction of the State Duma, but then moved to the position of the defencists, believing that Russia's defeat in the war threatened her with the loss of economic independence and international isolation. Kerensky considered it necessary to mobilize all the social and economic forces of Russia to fight against Germany. At the same time, he recommended that the government also change its policy: conduct a general political amnesty, restore the constitution of Finland, grant autonomy to Poland, expand the rights of religious and national minorities, including Jews, and stop the persecution of workers and professional organizations.
Kerensky made a lot of efforts to unite the opposition forces of the populist persuasion. In the summer of 1915, he undertook the preparation of the All-Russian Congress of Socialist Revolutionaries, Trudoviks and People's Socialists. (cm. LABOR PEOPLE'S SOCIALIST PARTY). To this end, Kerensky traveled around the Volga region and southern Russia. But he failed to bring the matter to an end: kidney disease put him in a hospital bed for six months. After a successful operation, he was able to return to active political activity.
In 1916, by order of the Chairman of the Council of Ministers B. V. Stürmer (cm. STYURMER Boris Vladimirovich) in Turkestan, the mobilization of 200 thousand local natives for rear work began. Prior to that, according to the laws of the Russian Empire, the native population was not subject to conscription into the army. The general dissatisfaction with the mobilization was exacerbated by the abuses of the local administration and led to riots in which thousands of Russians and local residents suffered. To investigate the events, the State Duma created a commission, which included Kerensky. Having studied the events on the spot, he, recognizing the instigating role of German and Turkish agents, laid the blame for what had happened on the tsarist government, accused the Minister of the Interior of exceeding his powers, and demanded that corrupt local officials be brought to trial. Such speeches created for Kerensky the image of an uncompromising exposer of the vices of the tsarist regime, brought popularity among liberals, and created a reputation as one of the leaders of the Duma opposition.
February to October
February revolution (cm. FEBRUARY REVOLUTION 1917) Kerensky received it enthusiastically and from the first days was an active participant in it. After the session of the Duma was interrupted at midnight from February 26 to 27, 1917 by decree of Nicholas II, Kerensky at the Council of Elders of the Duma on February 27 urged not to obey the tsar's will. On the same day, he became a member of the Provisional Committee formed by the Council of Elders (cm. ) State Duma and the Military Commission, which led the actions of the revolutionary forces against the police. During the February days, Kerensky repeatedly spoke to the insurgent soldiers, received from them the arrested ministers of the tsarist government, received money and secret papers confiscated from the ministries. Under the leadership of Kerensky, the guards of the Tauride Palace were replaced (cm. TAVRICHESKY PALACE) detachments of insurgent soldiers, sailors and workers.
With the direct participation of Kerensky, the future of Russia was determined. A staunch Republican, he made every effort to overthrow the monarchy. Under his direct pressure, Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich (cm. MIKHAIL Alexandrovich (1878-1918)) March 3 decided to give up the rights to the Russian crown. Decisiveness, purposefulness, revolutionary rhetoric of Kerensky won him popularity and authority both among the masses of workers and soldiers, and in the Duma environment, where the Provisional Government was being formed. (cm. PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT). In the early days of the revolution, he became a deputy of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, at the first meeting of which on the evening of February 27, 1917, he was elected Comrade (Deputy) Chairman of the Petrograd Soviet. At the same time, the Provisional Committee of the State Duma (cm. TEMPORARY COMMITTEE OF THE STATE DUMA) offered him the post of Minister of Justice in the Provisional Government. On March 2, Kerensky accepted this proposal, although the day before the Petrograd Soviet had adopted a resolution not to participate in the Provisional Government. On the evening of March 2, Kerensky asked the Petrograd Soviet for permission to enter the government, solemnly promising to protect the rights of the working people.
After becoming a minister, Kerensky moved to the Winter Palace. He tried to maintain the reputation of the people's minister, ordered to remove from his office not only expensive furniture and luxury items, but even curtains. For speeches in the Petrosoviet, the minister dressed in a dark work jacket with a standing collar, and in front of the masses of soldiers he dressed in a khaki paramilitary jacket. But Kerensky's main trump card was his outstanding oratorical skills. He was not afraid to speak in front of an audience of thousands and willingly went to rallies that stirred up revolutionary Petrograd. His improvisational speeches, saturated with emotions and some hysteria, fascinated the listeners. Kerensky's popularity and political weight grew rapidly.
The revolutionary Minister of Justice initiated such decisions of the Provisional Government as an amnesty for political prisoners, the proclamation of freedom of speech, assembly, the press, the activities of political parties, the abolition of national and religious restrictions, the recognition of Poland's independence, and the restoration of the Finnish constitution. Kerensky personally ordered the release from exile of the Bolshevik deputies of the Fourth State Duma (cm. FOURTH STATE DUMA). From the very first days of his tenure as minister, he began judicial reform. On March 3, 1917, the Institute of Justices of the Peace was reorganized (cm. WORLD JUDGE)- local courts began to be formed from three members: a judge and two assessors. The next day, the Supreme Criminal Court was abolished (cm. SUPREME CRIMINAL COURT), special presences of the Government Senate (cm. SENATE), judicial chambers and district courts with the participation of class representatives. On March 17, 1917, the death penalty for criminal offenses was abolished in Russia.
In March 1917, with the beginning of the legal activity of previously banned political parties, Kerensky joined the Socialist Revolutionary Party, becoming one of the most prominent members of this party. In the Provisional Government, Kerensky took an active, offensive position and, according to his contemporaries, completely suppressed the initiative of the Prime Minister, Prince G. E. Lvov, with his energy. (cm. LVOV Georgy Evgenievich). Support for Kerensky was provided by A. I. Konovalov associated with him by Masonic ties (cm. KONOVALOV Alexander Ivanovich (manufacturer)), N. V. Nekrasov (cm. Nekrasov Nikolay Vissarionovich), M. I. Tereshchenko (cm. TERESHCHENKO Mikhail Ivanovich). Kerensky took an ambivalent position with regard to the war. He recognized that hostilities should be continued, but believed that Russia could only fight if the Entente reviewed (cm. ENTENTE) goals of the war, the rejection of annexations and indemnities.
In April 1917, Foreign Minister P. N. Milyukov (cm. MILYUKOV Pavel Nikolaevich) publicly assured the Allied Powers that Russia would unconditionally continue the war to a victorious end. This step caused a crisis in the Provisional Government. On April 24, Kerensky threatened to leave the government and the Soviets go into opposition if Milyukov was not removed from his post, and the government was not replenished with representatives of the socialist parties - Mensheviks, Socialist-Revolutionaries, and Popular Socialists. On May 5, 1917, Prince Lvov was forced to comply with this demand and set up the first coalition government. Milyukov and Guchkov (cm. Guchkov Alexander Ivanovich) resigned, the government included socialists, and Kerensky received the portfolio of military and naval ministers.
At the peak of fame and political career, the family life of the Kerenskys broke down. Olga Kerenskaya did not move to her husband in the Winter Palace, but stayed with her sons Oleg and Gleb in the old apartment. Having taken a key post in the government and introduced his like-minded people into it, Kerensky changed his attitude towards the war. Leaving aside differences with the Allies, he considered it necessary to force Germany into peace negotiations, and for this to carry out extensive offensive operations at the front. This position of Kerensky caused him a conflict with the left wing of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party. At the Third Congress of the Party of Socialist Revolutionaries, held in late May - early June 1917, Kerensky's candidacy was rejected in the elections to the Central Committee of the Party. However, at the First All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Soldiers' and Workers' Deputies (June 3 - 24, 1917), he was nevertheless elected a member of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee.
In May-June, Kerensky made great efforts to strengthen discipline in the army and navy, to increase the combat readiness of military units, and to prepare for the decisive summer offensive. He traveled around the front-line units in a car, spoke at countless army rallies, trying to inspire soldiers to victory by the power of his oratorical gift. On June 18, the offensive of the Russian troops began, which, however, quickly ended in complete failure.
Failures at the front exacerbated the internal political situation. Disagreements on the Ukrainian issue led to the resignation of Cadets ministers (cm. KADETS (political party)) which followed on 2 July. The next day, armed demonstrations began in Petrograd, organized by the Bolsheviks, who tried to use the crisis to seize power. In the July days, the Provisional Government managed to retain power, but on July 7, Prince Lvov resigned and Kerensky set about forming a new coalition cabinet of ministers. On July 8, he becomes Prime Minister, retaining the post of Minister of War and the Navy. As head of state, Kerensky took a number of measures aimed at stabilizing the political situation and strengthening state power. He reintroduced the death penalty at the front (July 12), replaced the royal banknotes with new ones, popularly called "kerenok". The formation of a new government proceeded with great difficulty. On July 21, Kerensky even resigned, but after intense negotiations with the Cadets on July 24, a second coalition government was formed. On July 19, the Prime Minister appointed a new Supreme Commander-in-Chief, the energetic and popular General L. G. Kornilov (cm. KORNILOV Lavr Georgievich). At the same time, the Social Revolutionary B. V. Savinkov became the manager of the military ministry. (cm. Savinkov Boris Viktorovich).
But Kerensky failed to stop the wave of the global crisis in Russia. The army was decomposing before our eyes, the peasants, dressed in soldier's greatcoats, did not want to fight - they were eager to divide the landowners' land home. The lower classes of the city were rapidly radicalized, and the Soviets were saturated with leftist sentiments. Right-wing, conservative forces were recovering from the February shock. Their leader was General Kornilov, who proposed to militarize factories, plants, railways, to introduce the death penalty in the rear, to restore the efficiency and prestige of the authorities by tough measures. Against this background, Kerensky's popularity began to fade.
He played a complicated game with Kornilov, trying with his help to maintain control over the army. From the beginning of August, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief asked Kerensky to subordinate the Petrograd Military District to the headquarters. Kornilov intended to form the Petrograd Front, to introduce martial law in the capital, and to destroy the source of decay and devastation by energetic actions. The transfer of military units to Petrograd began, primarily Cossacks (cm. COSSACKS) capable, according to Kornilov, to restore order in the capital. In words, agreeing with Kornilov, the minister-chairman was against the transfer of power to the commander-in-chief of Petrograd, fearing his excessive strengthening.
But Kornilov was not going to stop. Under the pretext of protecting Petrograd from a possible German landing, he moved the Third Cossack Corps of General Krymov to the capital. On the evening of August 26, at a government meeting, Kerensky qualified the actions of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief as a rebellion. Having granted emergency powers to the Prime Minister, the Provisional Government resigned. To eliminate the Kornilov rebellion (cm. KORNILOV REBELLION) Kerensky was forced to resort to the help of the socialist parties, including the Bolsheviks, the Soviets, and workers' detachments. He ordered to distribute weapons to the workers, to release the arrested Bolsheviks from prisons.
Under the influence of agitators, the Cossacks refused to obey their generals. By August 30, the movement of troops to Petrograd had ceased, General Krymov committed suicide, and Kornilov was arrested. On August 30, Kerensky himself became the new commander-in-chief. The next day, a temporary state governing body was created - the Council of Five, or Directory (cm. DIRECTORY (in Russia)) headed by Kerensky. On September 1, 1917, a republic was proclaimed in Russia, which corresponded to the growth of left-wing sentiments among the masses and was in line with the convictions of Kerensky himself. On September 4, the Prime Minister dissolved the military revolutionary committees formed to fight the Kornilov region, but this order was not actually carried out.
After the Kornilov rebellion, Kerensky continued to pursue his supra-party line, aimed at consolidating democratic forces and forming a government coalition of moderate socialists and Cadets. But the socialists were distrustful of the Kerensky government, they put forward a program of broad social transformations, the redistribution of property, and an end to the war with Germany. In the conditions of a sharp polarization of moods in society, the growth of confrontation between the possessing and non-possessing classes, Kerensky, who occupied centrist positions, was rapidly losing support and authority among the most diverse segments of the population.
Kerensky tried to enlist the support of the All-Russian Democratic Conference (cm. DEMOCRATIC MEETING), held September 14-22. However, the majority of the conference delegates spoke out against a coalition with the Cadets, on which the Prime Minister insisted. The Democratic Conference decided that before the convocation of the Constituent Assembly (cm. CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY) The provisional government should be accountable to the provisional All-Russian Democratic Council (Pre-Parliament) formed on September 20 (cm. PRE-PARLIAMENT)). Kerensky protested against this decision. On September 25, he formed the last, third composition of the coalition government, leaving behind the posts of military and naval ministers, and supreme commander. Formally, exclusive powers of authority were concentrated in his hands, but they had less and less real significance. The situation was constantly worsening due to the decline in production and inflation, unemployment and discontent among the urban population grew. An attempt to solve food problems at the expense of the surplus caused peasant unrest. The army has turned into an amorphous multi-million mass of embittered armed people. The state apparatus was idle. The Bolsheviks, relying on the military revolutionary committees and detachments of the Red Guard (cm. RED GUARD) were ready to seize power by force.
The provisional government was aware of the impending danger, but underestimated the strength of the Bolsheviks. Not wanting to be presented as a counter-revolutionary, Kerensky was opposed to harsh measures aimed at preventing a Bolshevik uprising. The head of the Provisional Government believed that at the decisive moment the majority of the units of the Petrograd garrison would remain loyal to him. In the second half of October, the government only passively watched the developments. Only on the night of October 22-23, when the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee began to take direct control of the military units of the capital's garrison, did Kerensky call for decisive action.
On October 24, at a meeting of the Pre-Parliament, the Minister-Chairman announced the beginning of an armed uprising and demanded that he be given special powers. In response, the meeting adopted a half-hearted resolution. In the evening of the same day, Kerensky announced the intention of the Provisional Government to resign. He spent the day of October 25 at the Winter Palace and at the headquarters of the Petrograd Military District. Detachments of the Red Guard, supported by units of the Petrograd garrison and Baltic sailors, captured the most important buildings of the capital. Kerensky could not organize any resistance and left Petrograd by car to meet the troops called from the front. In Gatchina, he was almost arrested, but in the evening of the same day he arrived in Pskov, at the headquarters of the Northern Front. At this time, the Red Guards captured the Winter Palace. The provisional government was overthrown.
The commander of the Northern Front, General V. A. Cheremisov, refused to withdraw troops from the front to suppress the uprising in St. Petersburg and said that he could not vouch for Kerensky's personal safety. But the commander of the Third Cavalry Corps, Cossack General P. N. Krasnov, turned out to be in Pskov (cm. KRASNOV Petr Nikolaevich). He assured Kerensky that the Cossacks subordinate to him were ready to defend the Provisional Government. On the morning of October 26, Kerensky and Krasnov were already at the location of the corps, in the city of Ostrov. From here the Cossacks began to move towards Petrograd. During the fighting on the outskirts of the capital, the Red Guard managed to stop the advance of the Cossack corps. Under pressure from ordinary Cossacks, on October 31, the command of the corps concluded a truce with the Bolsheviks. Kerensky was forced to go into hiding. Thus ended his tenure at the helm of state power.
After October
For several more months, the former minister-chairman remained in Russia. In the twentieth of November, he arrived in Novocherkassk, where General Kaledin (cm. Kaledin Alexey Maksimovich) organized resistance to the Bolsheviks. But the general refused to cooperate with Kerensky. The end of 1917 Alexander Fedorovich spent in remote villages near Petrograd and Novgorod. In connection with the beginning of the work of the Constituent Assembly (cm. CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY) Kerensky secretly came to Petrograd. He wanted to speak in the Constituent Assembly, but after its dissolution he left for Finland. At the end of January, Kerensky returned to Petrograd, and at the beginning of May 1918 he moved to Moscow, where he established contact with the Union for the Revival of Russia. (cm. UNION OF REVIVAL OF RUSSIA). Kerensky intended to join the anti-Soviet rebellion of the Czechoslovak Corps (cm. CZECHOSLOVAK CORPS REBELLION), but the leadership of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party opposed this. The Union for the Revival of Russia invited him to go abroad to negotiate with the leaders of the Entente countries. In June 1918, Alexander Fedorovich emigrated from Russia through Murmansk.
In Western Europe, Kerensky was received by the heads of government of Great Britain and France D. Lloyd George (cm. LLOYD GEORGE David) and J. Clemenceau (cm. Clemenceau Georges). He did not find a common language with them. The Western allies relied on the reactionary forces of Russia, led by former tsarist generals, and not on the liberal democrats that Kerensky personified. He even spoke out condemning the intervention of the Entente troops in Russia.
In emigration, Kerensky found himself, in essence, in isolation. For the majority of Russian emigrants, he was an odious figure, a symbol of the beginning of the process that led them to the loss of their homeland. Kerensky himself tried to continue active political activity. In 1922-1932. he edited the newspaper "Days", gave sharp anti-Soviet lectures, called on Western Europe to a crusade against Soviet Russia. In the early years of emigration, Kerensky visited Great Britain, Czechoslovakia, Germany, and from 1922 settled in France, where he lived until the outbreak of World War II. (cm. THE SECOND WORLD WAR). In Paris, he entered into a second marriage with a wealthy Australian woman. In the interwar period, Kerensky published the journalistic works The Kornilov Case (1918), The Prelude of Bolshevism (1919), Gatchina (1922), From Afar (1922), Catastrophe (1927), The Death of Freedom (1934). ), in which he tried to comprehend the results of the Russian revolution and its significance for the fate of the world.
Kerensky publicly welcomed the attack of fascist Germany on the USSR, but later, when it became clear that Hitler was waging a war to destroy the East Slavic peoples, he revised his views. From German-occupied Paris, Kerensky and his wife left for England, but the British authorities asked him to leave the country, motivating this decision with the public pro-German statements of the former Russian prime minister. In 1940 Kerensky moved across the ocean to the USA. He lived in New York, taught Russian history for many years at New York and Stanford Universities. (cm. STANFORD UNIVERSITY). In the 1950s-1960s. he worked at the Hoover Institution for War, Revolution, and Peace. In the 1940-1950s. Kerensky wrote a three-volume "History of Russia", which covered the period from ancient times to the beginning of the 20th century. This work did not find a publisher. Since the late 1950s Kerensky worked on the book Russia at the Turn of History, which was published in 1965 and widely used by Western and then Russian historians.
The first family of Kerensky all the years of the Civil War (cm. CIVIL WAR in Russia) spent in Russia. Olga Kerenskaya and her sons were forced to leave for Kotlas, where she lived in poverty and oppression until 1921. Then the Soviet authorities allowed them to emigrate. They settled in the UK. Despite the lack of funds, the sons of Kerensky received an engineering education. Oleg became a bridge builder, and Gleb became a power plant builder. After living in England for more than twenty years, they received British citizenship. In the post-war years, Kerensky repeatedly visited his sons in England. Oleg Alexandrovich Kerensky (April 16, 1905 - June 25, 1984) became a luminary in bridge building, under his leadership a bridge across the Bosphorus was designed and built, connecting Europe and Asia, many bridges in Great Britain and other countries of the world. For his outstanding services, he was awarded the title of Commander of the British Empire. After his death, in the mid-1980s Every two years, "Kerensky Readings" began to be held - scientific conferences dedicated to the memory of Oleg Kerensky, which bring together the most prominent bridge builders from all over the world. The grandson of A. F. Kerensky - Oleg Olegovich Kerensky (1930-1993) - ballet and theater critic, author of the books The World of Ballet (1970), Anna Pavlova (1973), New British Drama (1977). O. O. Kerensky was close to Rudolf Nureyev (Kerensky, Alexander Fyodorovich- Alexander Fyodorovich Kerensky. Kerensky, Alexander Fedorovich Kerensky Alexander Fedorovich (1881-1970), Russian politician. Lawyer, defender at many political trials, including the Bolshevik faction of the 4th State ... ... Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary

- (1881 1970), politician. He graduated from the Faculty of Law of St. Petersburg University (1904). Since 1909, a barrister of the St. Petersburg Court of Justice, acted as a defender in a number of political trials, which brought K. fame. ... ... St. Petersburg (encyclopedia)

Wikipedia

Wikipedia has articles about other people with that last name, see Trepov. Alexander Fedorovich Trepov ... Wikipedia

Alexander Fyodorovich Kerensky(April 22 (May 4), 1881, in Simbirsk. Died June 11, 1970, New York) - Russian public and political figure, Minister-Chairman of the Provisional Government in July-October 1917; author of memoirs, historical research, compiler and editor of documentary publications on the history of the Russian revolution.

Thus was the first part of the cunningly conceived strategic plan of "patriotic" reaction carried out brilliantly. By the hands of the Bolsheviks, the Provisional Government was overthrown and the hated man is no longer in power. It remained to carry out the second, main part - to cope with the Bolsheviks in three weeks and establish a healthy, national, and most importantly, strong power in Russia.

Kerensky Alexander Fedorovich

Origin. Childhood.

On the paternal side, the ancestors of Alexander Kerensky come from among the Russian provincial clergy. His grandfather Mikhail Ivanovich served as a priest in the village of Kerenki in the Gorodishchensky district of the Penza province since 1830. The surname Kerensky comes from the name of this village, although Alexander Fedorovich himself associated it with the county town of Kerensk in the same Penza province. The youngest son of Mikhail Ivanovich - Fedor, although he graduated with honors from the Penza Theological Seminary, did not become a priest, like his older brothers Grigory and Alexander. He received his higher education at the Faculty of History and Philology of Kazan University and then taught Russian literature at Kazan gymnasiums.

In Kazan, F. M. Kerensky married Nadezhda Adler, the daughter of the head of the topographical bureau of the Kazan military district. On her paternal side, N. Adler was a noblewoman, and on her mother's side, she was the granddaughter of a serf, who, even before the abolition of serfdom, managed to redeem himself to freedom and, subsequently, became a wealthy Moscow merchant. He left his granddaughter a considerable fortune. Having risen to the rank of collegiate adviser, Fedor Mikhailovich was appointed to Simbirsk, to the post of director of a men's gymnasium and a secondary school for girls. The most famous pupil of F. M. Kerensky was V. I. Ulyanov (Lenin), the son of his boss, the director of the Simbirsk schools, I. N. Ulyanov. It was F. M. Kerensky who put the only four (logically) in the certificate of the gold medalist in 1887, Volodya Ulyanov.

Fate can sometimes be good at joking.

Kerensky Alexander Fedorovich

The Kerensky and Ulyanov families in Simbirsk had friendly relations, they had much in common in terms of lifestyle, position in society, interests, and origin. Fedor Mikhailovich, after the death of Ilya Nikolaevich, to the best of his ability, took part in the fate of the Ulyanov children. In 1887, after the arrest and execution of Alexander Ulyanov, he gave the brother of a political criminal, Vladimir Ulyanov, a positive reference for entering Kazan University.

In Simbirsk, two sons were born in the Kerensky family - Alexander and Fedor (before them only daughters appeared in Kazan - Nadezhda, Elena, Anna). Sasha, the long-awaited son, enjoyed the exclusive love of his parents. As a child, he suffered tuberculosis of the femur. After the operation, the boy was forced to spend six months in bed, and then for a long time did not take off his metal, forged boot with a load.

In May 1889, F. M. Kerensky, a real state councilor, was appointed chief inspector of schools in the Turkestan region and moved to Tashkent with his family. According to the Table of Ranks, his rank corresponded to the rank of major general and gave the right to hereditary nobility. At the same time, eight-year-old Sasha began to study at the Tashkent gymnasium, where he was a diligent and successful student. In high school, Alexander Kerensky enjoyed the reputation of a well-mannered young man, a skilled dancer, and a capable actor. He took part with pleasure in amateur performances, playing the role of Khlestakov with special brilliance. In 1899, Sasha Kerensky graduated from the Tashkent gymnasium with a gold medal and entered the Faculty of History and Philology of St. Petersburg University.

The Bolsheviks are still in power - people are still alive

Kerensky Alexander Fedorovich

In the capital

In the capital, Alexander Kerensky enthusiastically began to study, listened to the lectures of the orientalist B. A. Turaev, went on expeditions to Pskov and Novgorod, led by Professor S. F. Platonov. He did not remain aloof from the social life of St. Petersburg university students, which experienced an upsurge in the first years of the new century. Even in his gymnasium years, Kerensky developed a critical attitude towards the socio-political structure of tsarist Russia. He was fond of political literature, including illegal, had the opportunity to read the forbidden works of Leo Tolstoy, representatives of various revolutionary movements. The closest to him were the views of the Narodniks, the Socialist-Revolutionaries. Marxism turned out to be alien to Kerensky, he was repelled by the hypertrophied significance that was given in this doctrine to the class struggle.

Since February 1900, Alexander Kerensky became an active participant in student gatherings, and in his second year he openly delivered a fiery speech, urging students to help the people in the liberation struggle. This performance could have resulted in expulsion from the university, but Kerensky was saved by his father's high position. The rector of the university decided to temporarily isolate Alexander from the metropolitan, radical student environment and, with his power, sent him on academic leave, to Tashkent to his parents.

If there had been television then [in 1917], no one would have been able to defeat me!

Kerensky Alexander Fedorovich

The young man, not without pleasure, entered the role of an exiled student, a victim of royal despotism. In the eyes of Tashkent peers, A. Kerensky was a real fighter for freedom. But his father managed to convince Alexander that the political struggle should be postponed until higher education. Returning to the university, Alexander Kerensky continued his studies at the Faculty of Law. Fulfilling his promise to his father, he did not get close to revolutionary circles, but was engaged in social activities - he actively worked in the council of the community of Tashkent students. In his senior years, Kerensky became close to the leaders of the Union of Liberation, an organization of the opposition-minded liberal intelligentsia.

In 1904, Kerensky successfully graduated from the university, receiving a diploma of the first degree. At the same time, Alexander married Olga Baranovskaya, a student of the Higher Women's Courses, daughter of L. S. Baranovsky, Colonel of the General Staff. The newlyweds spent the summer in the village of Kainki in the Kazan province - the estate of the bride's father, and returned to the capital in the fall. A revolution was brewing in the country, and in November 1904, A.F. Kerensky took part in organizing a banquet company, during which the leaders of the Liberation Union called for political reforms in Russia.

Could the victory of the Bolsheviks in 1917 have been avoided?
- It could be. However, for this it was necessary to shoot one person.
- Lenin?
- No, Kerensky.

Kerensky Alexander Fedorovich

Political formation

Having abandoned the prospect of making a scientific career, Alexander Kerensky began working as an assistant to a barrister at the St. Petersburg Court of Justice and was admitted to the St. Petersburg Bar Association. Having witnessed the bloody events of January 9, 1905, he became a member of the Committee for Assistance to the Victims of the Tragedy, which was created by the Bar Association. Participating in the activities of this committee, and by the nature of his main work, the young lawyer had to get acquainted with the living conditions of the St. Petersburg proletariat, acquire a wide circle of acquaintances in the working environment.

The first Russian revolution made a radical change in the way of thinking of many intellectuals. The young Kerensky was seized with revolutionary impatience. His sympathies were given to the Socialist Revolutionary Party, he was in close contact with the Socialist-Revolutionaries and took part in editing the Socialist-Revolutionary newspaper Burevestnik. Alexander Kerensky maintained ties with the terrorist Social Revolutionaries and even suggested that they kill Tsar Nicholas II Alexandrovich. However, the head of the Combat Organization of the Socialist Revolutionary Party, Yevno Azef, rejected the projects and requests of A. Kerensky.

The revolutionary activity of Kerensky did not go unnoticed; in December 1905, he was arrested for his connection with the Socialist-Revolutionary fighting squad. He was kept in St. Petersburg Crosses until April 1906, and then, due to lack of evidence, he was released and sent with his wife and one-year-old son Oleg to Tashkent. But already in the autumn of that year, the Kerenskys returned to the capital. In October 1906, Alexander Fedorovich participated in a trial in Reval - he defended the peasants who plundered the estate of a local baron. This case received wide publicity. After a successful trial, Kerensky joined the St. Petersburg Association of Political Advocates.

By that time, the situation in Russia had stabilized: the revolutionary wave subsided, the police and political detectives successfully pursued radical opponents of the tsarist regime. Under these conditions, Alexander Kerensky considered it good to move away from the underground Socialist-Revolutionaries and join the legally operating Trudoviks. At the same time, he headed the board of the Turkestan community in St. Petersburg, but mainly engaged in the practice of law, worked as a barrister.

A.F. Kerensky was a staunch opponent of the monarchy, a supporter of the establishment of a democratic republic in Russia, a profound transformation of all social and economic life on socialist principles. In this he closely linked with the Socialist-Revolutionary Party. Kerensky considered it necessary to fight against the tsarist regime, including by illegal methods, but he considered it best for himself to remain within the limits permitted by law.

Kerensky, a lawyer, showed himself to be interested in cases containing political overtones. In 1910, he became the main defender at the trial of the Turkestan organization of socialist revolutionaries accused of anti-government armed actions. The process for the Socialist-Revolutionaries went well, the lawyer managed to prevent the imposition of death sentences. In early 1912, Kerensky participated in the trial of members of the Armenian Dashnaktsutyun party. Together with other capital lawyers, A.F. Kerensky protested against the anti-Semitic case of Beilis, in connection with which he was sentenced to eight months in prison. Widely known came to him in 1912 in connection with the Lena massacre. He headed the work of the special commission of the Third State Duma, created on this occasion. The commission came to the conclusion that the main reasons for the strikes of the workers of the Lena gold mines were their lack of rights and poverty, the arbitrariness of the administration. Based on these conclusions, the government eliminated the monopoly position of the Lenzoloto company, the administration of the mines was reorganized, the wages of workers were increased, and measures were taken to improve their life.

The fame of Alexander Kerensky, the support he enjoyed among the liberal intelligentsia, allowed him in 1912 to successfully run for deputies of the Fourth State Duma on the list of the Labor Group from the city of Volsk, Saratov province. In the same year, 1912, he was admitted to the Masonic Lodge "Great East of the Peoples of Russia". From 1916 to February 1917, Kerensky was the secretary of this lodge, was a member of the Duma Masonic lodge, and was a member of the Supreme Council of Masons of Russia.

Duma deputy

In the Duma, Alexander Kerensky made critical speeches against the government and gained fame as one of the best orators of the left factions. He openly declared from the Duma rostrum that the revolution is the only method and means of saving the Russian state. This phrase aroused the indignation of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, who convinced Nicholas II that the glib orator should be hanged for such speeches. Kerensky was a member of the budget commission of the State Duma and constantly took part in debates on budgetary issues.

At the beginning of the First World War, Alexander Kerensky signed the pacifist declaration of the Menshevik faction of the State Duma, but then switched to the position of the defencists, believing that Russia's defeat in the war threatened her with the loss of economic independence and international isolation. Kerensky considered it necessary to mobilize all the social and economic forces of Russia to fight against Germany. At the same time, Alexander recommended that the government also change its policy: conduct a general political amnesty, restore the constitution of Finland, grant autonomy to Poland, expand the rights of religious and national minorities, including Jews, and stop the persecution of workers and professional organizations.

A. F. Kerensky made a lot of efforts to unite the opposition forces of the populist persuasion. In the summer of 1915, he set about preparing the All-Russian Congress of Socialist-Revolutionaries, Trudoviks and People's Socialists. To this end, Kerensky traveled around the Volga region and southern Russia. But he failed to bring the matter to an end: kidney disease put him in a hospital bed for six months. After a successful operation, he returned to active political activity.

In 1916, by order of the Chairman of the Council of Ministers B. V. Stürmer, mobilization of 200 thousand local natives for rear work began in Turkestan. Prior to that, according to the laws of the Russian Empire, the native population was not subject to conscription into the army. The general dissatisfaction with the mobilization was exacerbated by the abuses of the local administration and led to riots in which thousands of Russians and local residents suffered. To investigate the events, the State Duma created a commission consisting of A.F. Kerensky, K. Tevkelev and M. Chokaev. Having studied the events on the spot, Kerensky, recognizing the instigating role of German and Turkish agents, laid the blame for what had happened on the tsarist government, accused the Minister of the Interior of exceeding his powers, and demanded that corrupt local officials be brought to trial. Such speeches created for Alexander Kerensky the image of an uncompromising exposer of the vices of the tsarist regime, brought popularity among liberals, a reputation as one of the leaders of the Duma opposition.

February to October

Alexander Kerensky accepted the February revolution enthusiastically and from the first days was an active participant in it. After the session of the Duma was interrupted at midnight on February 26-27, 1917 by decree of Nicholas II, Kerensky, at the Council of Elders of the Duma on February 27, urged not to obey the tsar's will. On the same day, he became a member of the Provisional Committee of the State Duma formed by the Council of Elders and a member of the Military Commission, which led the actions of the revolutionary forces against the police. In the February days, Alexander Kerensky repeatedly spoke to the insurgent soldiers, received from them the arrested ministers of the tsarist government, received money and secret papers confiscated from the ministries. Under the leadership of Kerensky, the guards of the Tauride Palace were replaced by detachments of insurgent soldiers, sailors and workers.

With the direct participation of Kerensky, the future of Russia was determined. A staunch Republican, he made every effort to overthrow the monarchy. Under his direct pressure, Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich decided on March 3 to renounce his rights to the Russian crown. Decisiveness, purposefulness, revolutionary rhetoric of Kerensky won him popularity and authority both among the masses of workers and soldiers, and in the Duma environment, where the Provisional Government was being formed. In the first days of the revolution, Alexander Kerensky became a deputy of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, at the first meeting of which on the evening of February 27, 1917, he was elected Comrade (Deputy) Chairman of the Petrograd Soviet. At the same time, the Provisional Committee of the State Duma offered him the post of Minister of Justice in the Provisional Government. On March 2, Kerensky accepted this proposal, although the day before the Petrograd Soviet had adopted a resolution not to participate in the Provisional Government. On the evening of March 2, Kerensky asked the Petrograd Soviet for permission to enter the government, solemnly promising to protect the rights of the working people.

After becoming a minister, Alexander Kerensky settled in the Winter Palace. He tried to maintain the reputation of the people's minister, ordered to remove from his office not only expensive furniture and luxury items, but even curtains. For speeches in the Petrosoviet, the minister dressed in a dark work jacket with a standing collar, and in front of the masses of soldiers he dressed in a khaki paramilitary jacket. But Kerensky's main trump card was his outstanding oratorical skills. He was not afraid to speak in front of an audience of thousands and willingly went to rallies that stirred up revolutionary Petrograd. His improvisational speeches, saturated with emotions and some hysteria, fascinated the listeners. The popularity and political weight of Alexander Kerensky grew rapidly.

The revolutionary Minister of Justice initiated such decisions of the Provisional Government as an amnesty for political prisoners, the proclamation of freedom of speech, assembly, the press, the activities of political parties, the abolition of national and religious restrictions, the recognition of Poland's independence, and the restoration of the Finnish constitution. Kerensky personally ordered the release of the Bolshevik deputies of the Fourth State Duma from exile. From the first days of his tenure as minister, Alexander Kerensky began judicial reform. On March 3, 1917, the institute of magistrates was reorganized - local courts began to be formed from three members: a judge and two assessors. The next day, the Supreme Criminal Court, the special presence of the Government Senate, the judicial chambers and district courts with the participation of class representatives were abolished. On March 17, 1917, the death penalty for criminal offenses was abolished in Russia.

In March 1917, with the beginning of the legal activity of previously banned political parties, A.F. Kerensky joined the Socialist Revolutionary Party, becoming one of the most prominent members of this party. In the Provisional Government, Kerensky took an active, offensive position, and, according to his contemporaries, completely suppressed the initiative of the Prime Minister, Prince G. E. Lvov, with his energy. Support for Kerensky was provided by A. I. Konovalov, N. V. Nekrasov, M. I. Tereshchenko, connected with him by Masonic ties. Kerensky took an ambivalent position with regard to the war. He recognized that hostilities should be continued, but believed that Russia could fight only if the Entente reconsidered the goals of the war, renouncing annexations and indemnities. In April 1917, Foreign Minister P. N. Milyukov publicly assured the Allied Powers that Russia would unconditionally continue the war to a victorious end. This step caused a crisis in the Provisional Government. On April 24, Alexander Kerensky threatened to leave the government and the Soviets go into opposition if Milyukov was not removed from his post, and the government was not replenished with representatives of the socialist parties - Mensheviks, Socialist-Revolutionaries, and Popular Socialists. On May 5, 1917, Prince Lvov was forced to fulfill this demand and set up the first coalition government. Milyukov and Guchkov resigned, socialists entered the government, and Kerensky received the portfolio of military and naval ministers.

At the peak of fame and political career, the family life of the Kerenskys broke down. Olga Kerenskaya and her husband did not go to the Winter Palace, but stayed with their sons Oleg and Gleb in an old apartment on Tverskaya Street. Having taken a key post in the government and introduced his like-minded people into it, Alexander Kerensky changed his attitude towards the war. Leaving aside differences with the Allies, he considered it necessary to force Germany into peace negotiations, and for this to carry out extensive offensive operations at the front. This position of Kerensky caused him a conflict with the left wing of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party. At the Third Congress of the Party of Socialist Revolutionaries, held in late May - early June 1917, Kerensky's candidacy was rejected in the elections to the Central Committee of the Party. However, at the First All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Soldiers' and Workers' Deputies (June 3-24, 1917), A. Kerensky was nevertheless elected a member of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee.

In May-June, Alexander Kerensky made great efforts to strengthen discipline in the army and navy, to increase the combat capability of military units, and to prepare for the decisive summer offensive. He traveled around the front-line units in a car, spoke at countless army rallies, trying to inspire soldiers to victory by the power of his oratorical gift. On June 18, the offensive of the Russian troops began, which, however, quickly ended in complete failure.

Failures at the front exacerbated the internal political situation. Differences over the Ukrainian question led to the resignation of the Kadet ministers, which followed on 2 July. The next day, armed demonstrations began in Petrograd, organized by the Bolsheviks, who tried to use the crisis to seize power. In the July days, the Provisional Government managed to retain power, but on July 7, Prince Lvov resigned and Kerensky undertook to form a new coalition cabinet of ministers.

July 8 Alexander Kerensky becomes Prime Minister, retaining the post of Minister of War and Navy. Becoming head of state, Kerensky took a number of measures aimed at stabilizing the political situation and strengthening state power. He reintroduced the death penalty at the front (July 12), replaced the royal banknotes with new ones, popularly called kerenok. The formation of a new government proceeded with great difficulty. On July 21, Kerensky even resigned, but nevertheless, after tense negotiations with the Cadets, on July 24, 1917, the second coalition government was formed. On July 19, the Prime Minister appointed a new Supreme Commander, the energetic and popular General Lavr Kornilov. At the same time, the Socialist-Revolutionary Boris Savinkov became the manager of the military ministry.

But Kerensky failed to stop the wave of the global crisis in Russia. The army was decomposing before our eyes, the peasants, dressed in soldier's greatcoats, did not want to fight - they were eager to divide the landowners' land home. The lower classes of the city were rapidly radicalized, and the Soviets were saturated with leftist sentiments. Right-wing, conservative forces were recovering from the February shock. Their leader was General Kornilov, who proposed to militarize factories, plants, railways, to introduce the death penalty in the rear, to restore the efficiency and prestige of the authorities by tough measures. Against this background, the popularity of Alexander Kerensky began to fade.

Kerensky played a complicated game with Kornilov, trying with his help to maintain control over the army. From the beginning of August, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief asked Kerensky to subordinate the Petrograd Military District to the headquarters. Kornilov intended to form the Petrograd Front, to introduce martial law in the capital, and to destroy the source of decay and devastation by energetic actions. The transfer of military units to Petrograd began, primarily Cossacks, who, according to Kornilov, were capable of restoring order in the capital. In words, agreeing with Kornilov, the minister-chairman was against the transfer of power to the commander-in-chief of Petrograd, fearing his excessive strengthening.

But Kornilov was not going to stop. Under the pretext of protecting Petrograd from a possible German landing, he moved the Third Cossack Corps of General Krymov to the capital. On the evening of August 26, at a government meeting, Kerensky qualified the actions of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief as a rebellion. Having granted emergency powers to the Prime Minister, the Provisional Government resigned. To eliminate the Kornilov rebellion, Alexander Kerensky was forced to resort to the help of the socialist parties, including the Bolsheviks, the Soviets, and workers' detachments. He ordered to distribute weapons to the workers, to release the arrested Bolsheviks from prisons.

Under the influence of agitators, the Cossacks refused to obey their generals. By August 30, the movement of troops to Petrograd had ceased, General Krymov committed suicide, and Kornilov was arrested. On August 30, he himself became the new commander-in-chief A. F. Kerensky. The next day, a temporary state governing body was created - the Council of Five or the Directory, which was headed by Alexander Kerensky. On September 1, 1917, a republic was proclaimed in Russia, which corresponded to the growth of left-wing sentiments among the masses and corresponded to the convictions of Kerensky himself. On September 4, the Prime Minister dissolved the military revolutionary committees that had been formed to fight the Kornilov region, but in reality this order was not carried out.

After the Kornilov rebellion, Kerensky continued to pursue his supra-party line, aimed at consolidating democratic forces and forming a government coalition of moderate socialists and Cadets. But the socialists were distrustful of the Kerensky government, they put forward a program of broad social transformations, the redistribution of property, and an end to the war with Germany. In the conditions of a sharp polarization of moods in society, the growth of confrontation between the possessing and non-possessing classes, Kerensky, who occupied centrist positions, was rapidly losing support and authority among the most diverse segments of the population.

Alexander Kerensky tried to enlist the support of the All-Russian Democratic Conference, which took place on September 14-22. However, the majority of the conference delegates spoke out against a coalition with the Cadets, on which the Prime Minister insisted. The Democratic Conference decided that until the convocation of the Constituent Assembly, the Provisional Government should be accountable to the Provisional All-Russian Democratic Council (Pre-Parliament) formed on September 20. Kerensky protested against this decision.

On September 25, Kerensky formed the last, third composition of the coalition government, leaving behind the posts of military and naval minister, and supreme commander. Formally, exclusive powers of authority were concentrated in his hands, but they had less and less real significance. The situation was constantly worsening due to the decline in production and inflation, unemployment and discontent among the urban population grew. An attempt to solve food problems at the expense of the surplus caused peasant unrest. The army has turned into an amorphous multi-million mass of embittered armed people. The state apparatus was idle. The Bolsheviks, relying on military revolutionary committees and detachments of the Red Guard, were ready to seize power by force.

The provisional government was aware of the impending danger, but underestimated the strength of the Bolsheviks. Not wanting to be presented as a counter-revolutionary, Alexander Kerensky was opposed to harsh measures aimed at preventing a Bolshevik uprising. The head of the Provisional Government believed that at the decisive moment the majority of the units of the Petrograd garrison would remain loyal to him. In the second half of October, the government only passively watched the developments. Only on the night of October 22-23, when the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee began to take direct control of the military units of the capital's garrison, did Kerensky call for decisive action.

On October 24, at a meeting of the Pre-Parliament, the Minister-Chairman announced the beginning of an armed uprising and demanded that he be given special powers. In response, the meeting adopted a half-hearted resolution. In the evening of the same day, Alexander Kerensky announced the intention of the Provisional Government to resign. He spent the day of October 25 at the Winter Palace and at the headquarters of the Petrograd Military District. Detachments of the Red Guard, supported by units of the Petrograd garrison and Baltic sailors, captured the most important buildings of the capital. Kerensky could not organize any resistance and left Petrograd by car to meet the troops called from the front. In Gatchina, he was almost arrested, but in the evening of the same day he arrived in Pskov, at the headquarters of the Northern Front. At this time, the Red Guards captured the Winter Palace. The provisional government was overthrown.

The commander of the Northern Front, General V. A. Cheremisov, refused to withdraw troops from the front to suppress the uprising in St. Petersburg and said that he could not vouch for the personal safety of Alexander Kerensky. But the commander of the Third Cavalry Corps, Cossack General Pyotr Nikolaevich Krasnov, turned out to be in Pskov. He assured Kerensky that the Cossacks subordinate to him were ready to defend the Provisional Government. On the morning of October 26, Kerensky and Krasnov were already at the location of the corps, in the city of Ostrov. From here the Cossacks began to move towards Petrograd. During the fighting on the outskirts of the capital, the Red Guard managed to stop the advance of the Cossack corps. Under pressure from ordinary Cossacks, on October 31, the command of the corps concluded a truce with the Bolsheviks. Kerensky was forced to go into hiding. Thus ended his tenure at the helm of state power.

After October

For several more months, the former minister-chairman remained in Russia. In the twentieth of November, Alexander Kerensky arrived in Novocherkassk, where General Kaledin was organizing resistance to the Bolsheviks. But the general refused to cooperate with Kerensky. The end of 1917, Alexander Fedorovich spent in remote villages near Petrograd and Novgorod. In connection with the beginning of the work of the Constituent Assembly, Kerensky secretly came to Petrograd. He wanted to speak in the Constituent Assembly, but after its dissolution he left for Finland. At the end of January, Kerensky returned to Petrograd, and in early May 1918 he moved to Moscow, where he established contact with the Union for the Revival of Russia. Kerensky intended to join the anti-Soviet rebellion of the Czechoslovak Corps, but this was opposed by the leadership of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party. The Union for the Revival of Russia invited him to go abroad to negotiate with the leaders of the Entente countries. In June 1918, Alexander Fedorovich emigrated from Russia through Murmansk.

In Western Europe, Alexander Kerensky was received by the heads of government of Great Britain and France, David Lloyd George and Georges Clemenceau. He did not find a common language with them. The Western allies relied on the reactionary forces of Russia, led by former tsarist generals, and not on the liberal democrats that Kerensky personified. He even spoke out condemning the intervention of the Entente troops in Russia.

Alexander Kerensky ended up in exile essentially in isolation. For the majority of Russian emigrants, he was an odious figure, a symbol of the beginning of the process that led them to the loss of their homeland. Kerensky himself tried to continue active political activity. From 1922 to 1932 he edited the newspaper "Days", gave sharp anti-Soviet lectures, called on Western Europe to a crusade against Soviet Russia. In the early years of emigration, Kerensky traveled to Great Britain, Czechoslovakia, Germany, and from 1922 he settled in France, where he lived until the outbreak of World War II. In Paris, he entered into a second marriage with a wealthy Australian woman. In the interwar period, A.F. Kerensky published the journalistic works “The Kornilov Case” (1918), “The Prelude of Bolshevism” (1919), “Gatchina” (1922), “From Afar” (1922), “Catastrophe” (1927), “Death Freedom” (1934), in which he tried to comprehend the results of the Russian revolution and its significance for the fate of the world.

Alexander Kerensky publicly welcomed the attack of fascist Germany on the USSR, but later, when it became clear that Hitler was waging a war to destroy the East Slavic peoples, he revised his views. From German-occupied Paris, Kerensky and his wife left for Great Britain, but the British authorities asked him to leave the country, motivating this decision with public pro-German statements by the former Russian prime minister. In 1940, A.F. Kerensky moved across the ocean to the USA. He lived in New York and taught Russian history for many years at New York and Stanford Universities. In the 1950s and 1960s, he worked at the Hoover Institution for War, Revolution, and Peace. In the 1940s and 1950s, Kerensky wrote a three-volume History of Russia, which covered the period from ancient times to the beginning of the 20th century. This work did not find a publisher. From the late 1950s, Alexander Kerensky worked on the book Russia at the Turn of History, which was published in 1965 and widely used by Western and then Russian historians.

The first family of A.F. Kerensky spent all the years of the Civil War in Russia. Olga Kerenskaya and her sons were forced to leave for Kotlas, where she lived in poverty and oppression until 1921. The Soviet authorities then allowed them to emigrate. They settled in the UK. Despite the lack of funds, the sons of Kerensky received an engineering education. Oleg became a bridge builder, and Gleb became a power plant builder. After living in England for more than twenty years, they received British citizenship. In the postwar years, A.F. Kerensky repeatedly visited his sons in England. Oleg Alexandrovich Kerensky (April 16, 1905 - June 25, 1984) became a luminary in bridge building, under his leadership a bridge across the Bosphorus was designed and built, connecting Europe and Asia, many bridges in Great Britain and other countries of the world. For his outstanding services, O. A. Kerensky was awarded the title of Commander of the British Empire. After his death, since the mid-1980s, “Keren Readings” began to be held every two years - scientific conferences dedicated to the memory of Oleg Kerensky, which bring together the most prominent bridge builders from all over the world. The grandson of A. F. Kerensky - Oleg Olegovich Kerensky (1930-1993) - ballet and theater critic, author of the books The World of Ballet (1970), Anna Pavlova (1973), New British Drama (1977). O. O. Kerensky was close to Rudolf Nureyev. Alexander Fedorovich Kerensky himself died at the age of ninety and was buried in London. M. Y. Thessaloniki

Speaking of Kerensky, one involuntarily recalls another surname - Lenin. The fates of these completely different provincial intellectuals are connected by a mystical thread. They really were born on the same day, in the same city - Simbirsk, only Kerensky was eleven years later. They really went to the same high school. The director of the gymnasium was Fyodor Mikhailovich Kerensky, the father of the future prime minister. In general, the Kerensky family twice had the opportunity to curb the violent nature of Vladimir Ulyanov.

When Alexander Ulyanov attempted to assassinate the tsar, the authorities demanded that his younger brother be removed from school. Kerensky Sr. refused. The second time Kerensky Jr. (having by that time managed to make a career as a lawyer and join the Trudovik Party) met Ulyanov thirty years later, and not in the corridors of the Simbirsk district gymnasium, but on the sidelines of the capital's political elite. Soon Kerensky became the prime minister of the Provisional Government, and Vladimir Ulyanov became the leader of a still underground but rapidly gaining weight political party. Almost half a century later, in 1955, Kerensky was asked: "Why didn't you shoot Lenin, after all, then you had power in your hands?" "I didn't consider him an important figure," the former prime minister replied.

Biography

Childhood, education, upbringing, origin

On the paternal side, the ancestors of Alexander Kerensky come from among the Russian provincial clergy. His grandfather Mikhail Ivanovich served as a priest in the village of Kerenki in the Gorodishchensky district of the Penza province since 1830. The surname Kerensky comes from the name of this village, although Alexander Fedorovich himself associated it with the county town of Kerensk in the same Penza province.

The youngest son of Mikhail Ivanovich - Fedor, although he graduated with honors from the Penza Theological Seminary, did not become a priest, like his older brothers Grigory and Alexander. He received his higher education at the Faculty of History and Philology of Kazan University and then taught Russian literature at Kazan gymnasiums.

The Kerensky and Ulyanov families in Simbirsk had friendly relations, they had much in common in their way of life, position in society, interests, and origin. Fedor Mikhailovich, after Ilya Nikolaevich Ulyanov died, to the best of his ability, he took part in the fate of the Ulyanov children. In 1887, after Alexander Ilyich Ulyanov was arrested and executed, he gave the brother of a political criminal, Vladimir Ulyanov, a positive reference for entering Kazan University.

Appearance and character

Alexander Kerensky was remembered as an extremely stubborn, intractable person. He was smart, able to clearly formulate his thoughts, but he lacked tact. Although he had an excellent education, he lacked the knowledge of all secular manners.

Kerensky was not distinguished by good health, but this did not prevent him from living to 89 years old.

Outwardly, Alexander could be called handsome: tall, black-haired, with large, clear features. His eyes were dark - brown, Kerensky's nose was "eagle", slightly long. He was somewhat thin, but with age he became the owner of a dense figure.

Political career

A. F. Kerensky. Second half of 1917

He participated in the committee, created by the Bar Association, to help the victims on January 9, 1905. Since October, Kerensky has been writing for the revolutionary socialist bulletin Burevestnik, which the Organization of an Armed Insurrection began to publish. " Burevestnik" Became one of the first victims of police repression - the circulation of the eighth (according to other sources - the ninth) issue was confiscated. On December 21, a search was carried out in Kerensky's apartment, during which leaflets of the "Organization of an armed uprising" and a revolver intended for self-defense were found. As a result of the search, an arrest warrant was signed on charges of belonging to the fighting squad of the Socialist-Revolutionaries. Kerensky was in pre-trial detention in Kresty until April 5, 1906, and then, due to lack of evidence, was released and deported with his wife and one-year-old son Oleg to Tashkent. In September 1906 he returned to Petersburg.

I received an offer to become a Freemason in 1912, immediately after my election to the Fourth Duma. After serious consideration, I came to the conclusion that my own goals coincided with the goals of society, and I accepted this offer. It should be emphasized that the society I joined was not an ordinary Masonic organization. First of all, it was unusual that the society severed all ties with foreign organizations and allowed women into its ranks. Further, the complex ritual and the Masonic degree system were abolished; only an indispensable internal discipline was preserved, which guaranteed the high moral character of the members and their ability to keep a secret. No written records were kept, no lists of lodge members were made. This maintenance of secrecy did not leak information about the goals and structure of society. When I studied the circulars of the Police Department, I did not find in them any data on the existence of our society, even in those two circulars that concern me personally.

Kerensky A.F. Russia at the historical turn. Memoirs. M., 1993. S. 62-63.

After the session of the Duma was interrupted at midnight from February 26 to 27, 1917 by decree of Nicholas II, Kerensky at the Council of Elders of the Duma on February 27 urged not to obey the tsar's will. On the same day, he became a member of the Provisional Committee of the State Duma formed by the Council of Elders and a member of the Military Commission, which led the actions of the revolutionary forces against the police. During the February days, Kerensky repeatedly spoke to the insurgent soldiers, received from them the arrested ministers of the tsarist government, received money and secret papers confiscated from the ministries. Under the leadership of Kerensky, the guards of the Tauride Palace were replaced by detachments of insurgent soldiers, sailors and workers.

During the February Revolution, Kerensky joins the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, takes part in the work of the revolutionary Provisional Committee of the State Duma. On March 3, as part of the Duma delegation, he contributes to the renunciation of power by Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich.

As a result of the February Revolution, Kerensky finds himself simultaneously in two opposing bodies of power: in the first composition of the Provisional Government as Minister of Justice, and in the first composition of the Petrograd Soviet as Comrade (Deputy) Chairman.

Minister of Justice

War and Naval Minister

As Minister of War, Kerensky made great efforts to organize the offensive of the Russian army in June. Kerensky traveled around the front-line units, spoke at numerous rallies, trying to inspire the troops, after which he received the nickname "chief-persuader." However, the army was already seriously weakened by the post-revolutionary purges of generals and the creation of soldiers' committees ( see Democratization of the army in Russia in 1917). On June 18, the offensive of the Russian troops began, which, however, quickly ended in complete failure. According to some assumptions, it was this shameful defeat in the war that served as the main reason for the overthrow of the Provisional Government.

"March" hysteria around Kerensky

The peak of Kerensky's popularity begins with his appointment as Minister of War after the April crisis. Newspapers refer to Kerensky in such expressions: "knight of the revolution", "lion heart", "first love of the revolution", "people's tribune", "genius of Russian freedom", "sun of Russia's freedom", "people's leader", "savior of the Fatherland", "prophet and hero of the revolution", "good genius of the Russian revolution", "the first people's commander in chief", etc. Contemporaries describe the "March" hysteria around the personality of Kerensky in the following terms:

Kerensky's path is thorny, but his car is entwined with roses. Women throw him lilies of the valley and lilac branches, others take these flowers from his hands and divide them among themselves as talismans and amulets.<…>He is carried in his arms. And I myself saw how a young man with enthusiastic eyes prayerfully reached for the sleeve of his dress, just to touch. So they are drawn to the source of life and light!<…>Kerensky is a symbol of truth, it is the key to success; Kerensky is that beacon, that beacon to which the hands of swimmers who have lost their strength reach out, and from his fire, from his words and calls, they receive an influx of new and new forces for a difficult struggle.

In May 1917, the Petrograd newspapers were even seriously considering the establishment of the Fund named after the Friend of Mankind A.F. Kerensky.

Kerensky tries to maintain an ascetic image of a "people's leader" by wearing a paramilitary jacket and a short haircut.

As a young man, Kerensky considered a career as an opera singer, and even took acting lessons. Nabokov V. D. describes his performances in the following way: ““I say, comrades, with all my heart ... from the depths of my heart, and if you need to prove it ... if you don’t trust me ... I’m right there, before your eyes ... I’m ready to die ...“. Carried away, he illustrated the "readiness to die" with an unexpected, desperate gesture. Already in his old age, Kerensky notes with regret that "if there had been television then, no one would have been able to defeat me!" Kerensky manages to “charm” even the deposed tsar: in July, Nikolai writes in his diary about Kerensky “This man is positively in his place at the present moment; the more power he has, the better."

The failure of Kerensky's first major political project, the June offensive of 1917, was the first noticeable blow to his popularity. The ongoing economic problems, the failure of the surplus-appropriation policy initiated by the tsarist government at the end of 1916, the ongoing collapse of the army in the field are increasingly discrediting Kerensky.

As minister of the Provisional Government, Kerensky moved to the Winter Palace. Over time, rumors appear in Petrograd that he allegedly sleeps on the former bed of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, and Alexander Kerensky himself begins to be ironically called "Alexander IV" (the last Russian tsar with the name Alexander was Alexander III). The Soviet poet Mayakovsky satirizes the life of former barrister Kerensky in the palace:

Chairman of the Provisional Government

A. Kerensky in the 20s

From July 8 (21) A.F. Kerensky replaced Georgy Lvov as Minister-Chairman, retaining the post of Minister of War and Navy. Kerensky tried to reach an agreement on the support of the government by the bourgeois and right-wing socialist parties. On July 12, the death penalty was restored at the front. New banknotes were issued, called "kerenki". On July 19, Kerensky appointed a new Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the General Staff, Infantry General Lavr Georgievich Kornilov. In August, Kornilov, supported by Generals Krymov, Denikin and some others, refused Kerensky (after the latter's provocation with Lvov's mission) to stop the troops moving on Petrograd on the orders of the Provisional Government and with Kerensky's knowledge. As a result of the actions of agitators, Krymov's troops in his absence (a trip to Petrograd to see Kerensky) were propagated and stopped on the outskirts of Petrograd. Kornilov, Denikin and some other generals were arrested.

Kerensky and the Kornilov rebellion (the point of view of the Kornilovites)

A.F. Kerensky, who had effectively concentrated government power in his hands, found himself in a difficult position during the Kornilov speech. He understood that only the harsh measures proposed by L.G. Kornilov, they could still save the economy from collapse, the army from anarchy, free the Provisional Government from Soviet dependence and, in the end, establish internal order in the country. But A.F. Kerensky also understood that with the establishment of a military dictatorship, he would lose all the fullness of his power. He did not want to give it up voluntarily even for the good of Russia. This was joined by personal antipathy between the Minister-Chairman A.F. Kerensky and commander-in-chief General L.G. Kornilov, they did not hesitate to express their attitude towards each other.

On August 26, 1917, State Duma deputy V.N. Lvov handed over to the Prime Minister the various wishes in terms of increasing power. Kerensky takes advantage of this interference situation for his own purposes and commits a provocation in order to denigrate the Supreme Commander in the eyes of the public and thus eliminate the threat to his personal (Kerensky's) power.

“It was necessary,” says Kerensky, “to prove immediately the formal connection between Lvov and Kornilov so clearly that the Provisional Government was able to take decisive measures that very evening ... by forcing Lvov to repeat his entire conversation with me in the presence of a third person.” For this purpose, the assistant chief of police, Bulavinsky, was invited, whom Kerensky hid behind a curtain in his office during Lvov's second visit to him. Bulavinsky testifies that the note was read to Lvov and the latter confirmed its content, but to the question "what were the reasons and motives that forced General Kornilov to demand that Kerensky and Savinkov come to Headquarters," he did not give an answer. Lvov categorically denies Kerensky's version. He says: " Kornilov did not present me with any ultimatum demand. We had a simple conversation during which various wishes were discussed in terms of strengthening power. I expressed these wishes to Kerensky. I did not and could not present any ultimatum demand (to him), but he demanded that I put my thoughts on paper. I did it, and he arrested me. I did not even have time to read the paper I had written, when he, Kerensky, tore it from me and put it in my pocket.

On the evening of August 26, 1917, at a government meeting, Kerensky qualified the actions of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief as a rebellion. Having granted emergency powers to the Prime Minister, the Provisional Government resigned. On August 27, Kerensky declared General Kornilov a rebel and the whole country:

On August 27, Kerensky told the country about the uprising of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, and the message of the Minister-Chairman began with the following phrase: by the fact that he will, at his own discretion, form a new government to govern the country. Subsequently, Kerensky, the triumvirate of Savinkov, Avksentiev and Skobelev, the Petrograd Duma headed by A. A. Isaev and Schreider, and the Soviets began to take measures to stop the movement of Krymov’s troops ...

Kerensky is trying to appoint a new Supreme Commander, but both generals - Lukomsky and Klembovsky - refuse, and the first of them, in response to an offer to take the post of Supreme Commander, openly accuses Kerensky of provocation.

General Kornilov comes to the conclusion that...

(From the testimony of General Kornilov subsequently to the commission of inquiry.)

... and decides not to obey and not to surrender the post of Supreme Commander.

Offended by the lies of various government appeals that began to come from Petrograd, as well as by their unworthy external form, General Kornilov, for his part, responds with a series of ardent appeals to the army, people, Cossacks, in which he describes the course of events and the provocation of the Chairman of the Government.

On August 28, General Kornilov refuses Kerensky's demand to stop the movement to Petrograd, sent there by decision of the Provisional Government and with the consent of the Kerensky Corps, General Krymov. This corps was sent to the capital by the Government with the aim of finally (after the suppression of the July rebellion) to put an end to the Bolsheviks and take control of the situation in the capital:

(Savinkov. "On the case of Kornilov.")

As a result, General Kornilov, seeing the full depth of Kerensky's provocation directed against him, with the accusation of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of treason and the alleged ultimatum demand that "the fullness of civil and military power be transferred to him" decides:

come out openly and, having put pressure on the Provisional Government, force it: 1. exclude from its composition those ministers who, according to the information available (to him), were obvious traitors to the Motherland; 2. reorganize so that the country is guaranteed a strong and firm government

... using for this the corps of General Krymov, already moving at the direction of Kerensky to Petrograd, in order to put pressure on the Government and gives General Krymov the appropriate instruction.

On August 29, Kerensky issues a decree on dismissal from office and bringing to trial "for rebellion" of General Kornilov and his senior associates.

The method applied by Kerensky with the "Lvov mission" was successfully repeated in relation to General Krymov, who shot himself immediately after his personal audience with Kerensky in Petrograd, where he went, leaving the corps in the vicinity of Luga, at the invitation of Kerensky, which was transmitted through a friend General - Colonel Samarin, who served as assistant to the head of Kerensky's cabinet. The meaning of the manipulation was the need for a painless removal of the commander from among the troops subordinate to him - in the absence of the commander, the revolutionary agitators easily propagandized the Cossacks and stopped the advance of the 3rd Cavalry Corps on Petrograd.

General Kornilov refuses offers to leave Headquarters and "escape". Not wanting bloodshed in response to assurances of loyalty from parts devoted to him

the general replied:

Kerensky's victory in this confrontation was prelude to Bolshevism because it meant the victory of the soviets, among which the Bolsheviks already occupied a predominant position, and with which the Kerensky government was only capable of pursuing a conciliatory policy.

Kerensky in October 1917

Kerensky, having become the supreme commander, completely changed the structure of the provisional government, creating the "Business Cabinet" - the Directory. Thus, Kerensky combined the powers of the chairman of the government and the supreme commander in chief.

Having concentrated dictatorial powers in his hands, Kerensky carried out another coup d'etat - he dissolved the State Duma, which, in fact, brought him to power and announced the proclamation of Russia as a democratic republic, without waiting for the convocation of the Constituent Assembly.

To ensure the support of the government, he went on to form an advisory body - the Provisional Council of the Russian Republic (Pre-Parliament) on October 7. Assessing the situation in Petrograd on October 24 as a "state of insurrection", he demanded from the Pre-Parliament full support for the actions of the government. After the adoption of an evasive resolution by the Pre-Parliament, he left Petrograd to meet the troops called from the front to support his government.

In his own words, Kerensky found himself "between the hammer of the Kornilovites and the anvil of the Bolsheviks"; a popular legend ascribes to General Kornilov the promise "to hang Lenin on the first post, and Kerensky on the second."

Kerensky did not organize the defense of the Provisional Government from the inevitable uprising of the Bolsheviks, which had become obvious to everyone, despite the fact that many drew the attention of the Prime Minister, including representatives of foreign embassies, to this. Until the last moment, he invariably answered that the Provisional Government had everything under control and that there were enough troops in Petrograd to suppress the uprising of the Bolsheviks, which he even looked forward to in order to finally put an end to them. And only when it was already quite late, at 2 o'clock. 20 minutes. On the night of October 25, 1917, a telegram was sent to General Dukhonin at Headquarters about sending Cossack units to Petrograd. In response, Dukhonin asked why this telegram had not been transmitted earlier and called Kerensky several times by direct wire, but he did not come up. Later, in exile, Kerensky tried to justify himself that, allegedly, “in the last days before the Bolshevik uprising, all my orders and the headquarters of the St. Petersburg Military District on the expulsion of troops from the Northern Front to Petrograd were sabotaged on the ground and on the way.” The historian of the Russian revolution, on the basis of documents, proves that Kerensky is lying, and that such orders simply did not exist at all.

At the same time, by October 1917, there was practically no sufficient military force left on which Kerensky could rely. His actions during the Kornilov speech push the army officers and Cossacks away from him. In addition, during the fight against Kornilov, Kerensky is forced to turn to the Bolsheviks as the most active left, thereby only bringing the events of November 1917 closer. In the words of Richard Pipes, "Yesterday's arsonists have become the fire brigade." Kerensky's indecisive attempts to get rid of the most unreliable units of the Petrograd garrison only lead to them drifting "to the left" and going over to the side of the Bolsheviks. Also, units sent to Petrograd from the front in July are gradually moving over to the side of the Bolsheviks. The dissolution of the unpopular police after the February Revolution also contributed to the growing chaos. The "people's militia" that replaced it was unable to fulfill its functions.

There is a myth that Kerensky escaped from the Winter Palace, disguised as a nurse (another option is a maid), which allegedly does not correspond to reality and, presumably, was created by Bolshevik propaganda or even by the people (According to the memoirs of journalist Genrikh Borovik in the newspaper Arguments and Facts, No. 24 of June 2010, this lie was launched by the younger brother of the head of the cadet school that guarded the Winter Palace in October 1917, who hated A. F. Kerensky).

Kerensky himself claims that he left Zimny ​​in his usual jacket, in his car, accompanied by the American ambassador's car offered to him by American diplomats, with the American flag. Oncoming soldiers habitually saluted. Kerensky emphatically and in certain tones distorts reality in his memoirs: in fact, his departure from the Winter Palace was of a different nature, even in small things. So David Francis, who was the American ambassador to Russia at that time, writes in his book “Russia from the Window of the American Embassy” that the American car was not “offered” to Kerensky, but captured by his adjutants. The American flag was also forcibly appropriated. The secretary of the American embassy only bowed to the inevitable and limited himself to protesting against the use of the US flag. In general, it cost Kerensky great effort to leave Petrograd, since all its stations were already controlled by the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee.

The agent who was in Petrograd from August to November 1917 and met with Kerensky " Somerville"The British secret service, which was the writer Somerset Maugham, gave him the following description:

The situation in Russia was deteriorating every day, ... and he removed all the ministers, as soon as he noticed in them abilities that threatened to undermine his own prestige. He made speeches. He made endless speeches. There was a threat of a German attack on Petrograd. Kerensky made speeches. The shortage of food became more and more serious, winter was approaching, there was no fuel. Kerensky made speeches. Behind the scenes, the Bolsheviks were active, Lenin was hiding in Petrograd ... He made speeches.

One of the leaders of the Cadet Party, Ivan Kutorga, in his book “Orators and the Masses” characterizes Kerensky as follows: “... Kerensky was the true personification of February with all its upsurge, impulse, good intentions, with all its doom and frequent political childish absurdity and state crime. The hatred of Kerensky personally is explained, in my opinion, not only by his indisputably huge political mistakes, not only by the fact that “Kerensky” (a word that has become common in all European languages) failed to offer serious resistance to Bolshevism, but, on the contrary, cleared the ground for it but also by other, broader and more general reasons.

In Soviet times, history textbooks for general education schools cited a reproduction of a painting allegedly falsifying Kerensky's behavior - the work of the artist Grigory Shegal "Flight of Kerensky from Gatchina", in which he is depicted changing into a nurse's uniform.

After the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks

In the 20th of November, Kerensky appeared in Novocherkassk to General A. M. Kaledin, but was not received by him. He spent the end of 1917 wandering through remote villages near Petrograd and Novgorod. At the beginning of January 1918, he secretly appeared in Petrograd, wishing to speak at the Constituent Assembly, but the Socialist-Revolutionary leadership apparently considered this inappropriate. Kerensky moved to Finland, at the end of January 1918 he returned to Petrograd, at the beginning of May - to Moscow, where he established contact with the Union for the Revival of Russia. When the speech of the Czechoslovak corps began, the Union of the Renaissance suggested that he make his way abroad to negotiate the organization of military intervention in Soviet Russia.

Life in exile

When his wife became terminally ill in 1945, he went to her in Brisbane in Australia, and lived with her family until his death in February 1946, after which he returned to the United States and settled in New York, although he also spent a lot of time at Stanford University in California. There he made a significant contribution to the archive on Russian history and taught students.

Kerensky fell seriously ill. Deciding not to be a burden to anyone, he refused to eat. Doctors at a New York clinic administered a nutrient solution through a dropper; Kerensky pulled the needle out of a vein. This struggle continued for two and a half months. In a certain sense, Kerensky's death can be considered suicide. He died on June 11, 1970 at his home in New York from cancer. The local Russian Orthodox Church refused to bury him, considering the culprit of the fall of Russia [source?] . The body was taken to London, where his son lived, and buried in the non-denominational cemetery en:Putney Vale Cemetery.

Descendants of A. F. Kerensky

• sons Oleg Alexandrovich and Gleb Alexandrovich Kerensky. Oleg Aleksandrovich (1905-1984), bridge engineer. Under his leadership, many bridges were designed in the UK and around the world, including the famous Sydney Harbor Bridge and the Bosphorus Suspension Bridge in Istanbul. For outstanding services, O. A. Kerensky was awarded the title of Commander of the British Empire. Since the mid-1980s, international scientific conferences, the Keren Readings, have been held every two years.
• grandson - Oleg Olegovich Kerensky(1930-1993) - writer, publicist, ballet and theater critic, author of The World of Ballet (1970), Anna Pavlova (1973), New British Drama (1977). He was a close friend of Rudolf Nureyev. In 1981, he starred as a grandfather in the American film The Reds.

Fashion of 1917 - "Kerensky" style

Movie incarnations

• Francis Chapin (The Fall of the Romanovs, USA, 1917)
• Nikolai Popov ("October", 1927)
• A. Kovalevsky ("Lenin in October", 1937)
• Yaroslav Gelyas ("Truth", 1957)
• Sergey Kurilov ("In the days of October", 1958)
• Nikita Podgorny (Volley "Aurora", 1965; Syndicate-2, 1981)
• Mikhail Volkov ("The Kotsiubinsky Family", "The Collapse of the Empire", 1970)
• John McEnery "Nicholas and Alexandra" Nicholas and Alexandra, )
• Oleg O. Kerensky ("Reds", USA, 1981)
• Bogdan Stupka (Red Bells, 1983)
• Nikolai Kochegarov ("White Horse (TV series)", 1993)
• Mikhail Efremov ("Romanovs. Crowned family", 2000)
• Alexey Shemes ("Mustafa Shokay", 2008)

Addresses in Petrograd

1916-1917 - tenement house (Tverskaya street, 29).

Compositions

• From afar, a collection of articles. Russian publishing house of Povolotsky
• Catastrophe (1927)
• Death of Freedom (1934)
• Kerensky A.F. Russian Revolution. 1917. M.: Tsentrpoligraf, 2005. 384 p.
• Kerensky A.F. The tragedy of the Romanovs. M.: Tsentrpoligraf, 2005. 207 p.
• Kornilov case

Notes

1. Kerensky: Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1969-1978)
2. In the modern reign of A.F. Kerensky Russian poetry, the pronunciation is common Kerensky, and only in isolated cases - Kerensky: Leonid Kannegiser."View": " In the sun, flashing bayonets - Infantry. Behind her, in the depths - Donets-Cossack and . In front of the shelves - Ker e nsky on a white horse. He raised his tired eyelids, He speaks. Silence. Oh voice! Remember forever: Russia. Freedom. War.(June 27, 1917). Boris Pasternak."Spring rain": " This is not night, not rain, and not in unison e nsky, hurray!“, This is a blinding exit to the forum From the catacombs, hopeless yesterday.(May 1917). Pasternak B. Works: In 2 volumes. Tula: Filin, 1993. Osip Mandelstam. “When the October one was preparing a temporary worker for us”: “ - Ker e crucify him! - the soldier demanded, And the evil mob applauded ...(November 1917). Osip Mandelstam. Favorites. World Poetry Library. Rostov-on-Don, "Phoenix", 1996. Velimir Khlebnikov."Coast of Slaves": " Factories roar: "Help". Small? Ker e will you break him?"(1921). Sergey Yesenin . The poem "Anna Snegina": " Freedom surged wildly. And in a pink-stinking fire Then Ker caliphed over the country e nsky on a white horse. War "to the end", "to victory". And the same homespun army Scoundrels and parasites Drove to the front to die.» (1925). Baku Worker, 1925, NN 95 and 96, May 1 and 3. Vladimir Mayakovsky. The poem "Vladimir Ilyich Lenin": " Bourgeois teeth bared at once. / - The slave rebelled! Whips, but in his blood! - / And Ker handle e nsky is led by order - / at Lenin's front sight! to the Zinoviev Crosses!» « The tummies back up / with a weighty argument - / they will show them already / Dukhonin with Kornilov, / they will show them already / Guchkov with Ker e nskim.» (1924) Vladimir Mayakovsky."Lenin with us": " Bathed Ker e nsky in his victory, setting a lawyerly tone for the revolution. But then it went around the plant: - Rides! Rides! - Who's going? - He!» (1927) Vladimir Mayakovsky. The poem "Good!": " That thunder, then a whisper, this murmur slipped from Ker e nsky prison-sieve. He went to the villages along the grasses and paths, In the factories he gnashed his teeth with steel.» « Wiping away his tears with his sleeve, the mustachioed nanny roared: - In whom? Yes, you speak openly! - „In Ker e nskogo…“ - In what? To Sasha? - And from the recognition of such a face Milyukov blurred.» « Tomorrow, that is. Well, don't hurt them! Be Ker e nsky bit and skinned! We will raise this same Alexandra Feodorovna from the king's bed."(1927). Maximilian Voloshin."Matros": " Under Kerensky, like the rest of the fleet, He was a stronghold for the government ...» (1918).
3. Horsey01
4. Savely Dudakov. Lenin as the Messiah. 2007.
5. List of sworn attorneys of the district of the St. Petersburg Court of Justice and their assistants by January 31, 1914. St. Petersburg, 1914. - P. 121.
6. The Great East of the Peoples of Russia in 1912-1916. Freemasons and the Police Department. Archived from the original on August 22, 2011. in V. S. Brachev, Freemasons in Russia: from Peter I to the present day.
7. Serkov A.I. History of Russian Freemasonry 1845-1945. - St. Petersburg: Publishing house im. N. I. Novikova, 1997. - S. 115 - ISBN 5-87991-015-6
8. Sergey Karpachev. Secrets of Masonic Orders. - M.: "Yauza-Press", 2007. - p. 49.
9. Romanov A. F. Emperor Nicholas II and His Government (according to the data of the Extraordinary Commission of Inquiry). // Russian chronicle. Book. 2. Paris, 1922. S. 7.
10. V. Lyulechnik The Kerensky Phenomenon. . Archived
11. Vladimir Fedyuk Kerensky. Part three "The first love of the revolution". Archived from the original on August 22, 2011. Retrieved January 27, 2011.
12. www.school.edu.ru:: Kornilov rebellion. August 25-31, 1917. A. F. Kerensky's radiogram with an appeal to the people. August 27, 1917
13. MILITARY LITERATURE - [ Memoirs ] - Denikin A. I. Essays on Russian Troubles
14. MILITARY LITERATURE - [ Memoirs ] - Denikin A. I. Essays on Russian Troubles
15. Melgunov, S. P. ISBN 978-5-8112-2904-8, p.151
16. A. Kerensky. Russian Revolution 1917. M., 2005. S. 337
17. Melgunov, S. P. How the Bolsheviks seized power. "The Golden German Key" to the Bolshevik Revolution / S. P. Melgunov; foreword by Yu. N. Emelyanov. - M.: Iris-press, 2007. - 640 p. + insert 16 p. - (White Russia). ISBN 978-5-8112-2904-8, p.158
18. Comparative memoirs - Kerensky's escape from Zimny ​​and Gatchina in the description of different persons
19. Krasnov P. N. On the internal front // Archive of the Russian Revolution, Berlin, 1922.
20. There. S. 362
21. William Somerset Maugham. Collected works in 5 volumes. Volume 4. "Ashenden, or the British Agent" (1928), p. 275. M: "Fiction", 1993
22. Korotkevich V.I. The Composition and Fate of the Members of the Last Provisional Government // Leningrad Journal of Law. 2007. No. 3-9. pp. 138-169.
23. : The first wife of Kerensky - Olga, together with her sons at the beginning of the civil war, left for Kotlas, where they lived, experiencing need and oppression, until 1921. Then, when the Soviet authorities allowed them to emigrate, they left for permanent residence in the UK.
24. E. Ulko, No Opportunity Presented, Rodina, 1992, No. 5
25. there
26. TsKhSD, f. 4, op. 20, d. 1126, l. 10-13
27. A. F. Kerensky archive at the University of Texas Humanitarian Research Center
28. Krechetnikov A. Kerensky - "hero of the smiling revolution" (Russian) . BBC Russian service (March 6, 2008). Archived from the original on December 19, 2012. Retrieved December 17, 2012.
29. Double emphasis: see Explanatory dictionary of the Russian language: In 4 volumes / Ed. D.N. Ushakova .. - M .: Soviet encyclopedia; OGIZ; State publishing house of foreign and national dictionaries, 1935-1940.

Education: Imp. SPb. university (1904, faculty of law) Deputy of the 4th State. Duma (1912-17), before, the faction of the Trudoviks. During World War I, he was a social chauvinist. After Feb. revolution Socialist-Revolutionary Party, deputy. prev. Petrograd Soviet, member. Time, Committee of the State. thoughts. In the compositions of the Time, pr-va K. was the Minister of Justice (March - May 1917), military. and sea. Minister (May - September), and from July 8 (21) at the same time as the Minister-Chairman (Prime Minister). From 30 Aug. (12 ssnt.) top, commander-in-chief of the Russian. army. K. actively pursued antinar. politics, direction the continuation of the imperialist! war, the preservation of power in the hands of the big bourgeoisie and landowners, the suppression of the revolution. mass movements. Being a military minister, in June 1917 issued a "Declaration of the rights of a soldier", which actually abolished all the rights of a soldier-citizen won during Feb. revolution. On the initiative of K., an unsuccessful Russian offensive was launched. armies in the Southwest. front in June 1917, the death penalty was introduced, massacres of workers and soldiers were organized in the July days of 1917, and the persecution of the Bolshevik party was undertaken. On the day of Oct. armed uprisings in Petrograd)