Aleksandr Fedorovich Kerensky

The Russian revolutionary and politician Aleksandr Fedorovich Kerensky (1881-1970) was the central figure around whom the fate of representative government and socialism revolved in Russia during the Revolution of 1917.

Aleksandr Kerensky was born on April 22, 1881, in Simbirsk (now Ulyanovsk), the son of a teacher who also served as a middle-ranked provincial official. He entered St. Petersburg University (1899), where he studied jurisprudence, philology, and history. By 1904 he had completed his formal training and joined the St. Petersburg bar. He gained a reputation for public controversy and civil liberty; among other things, he worked with a legal-aid society and served as a defense lawyer in several celebrated political cases.

Kerensky's formal political career began when he stood successfully for election to the Fourth Duma (legislative assembly) in 1912. As a candidate of the Labor (Trudovik) party, he continued to champion civil rights. By 1914 he had been imprisoned twice for acts considered unfriendly or seditious by the government.

With the outbreak of World War I (1914), Kerensky was one of the few Duma members to speak against it, denouncing, in a public speech, the "devouring, fratricidal war." As Russian defeat followed defeat, support for the government dwindled and then disappeared, setting the stage for the Revolution of 1917 that swept Kerensky to power for a brief time.

During the revolutionary months of 1917, power in the major cities of Russia and at many points of military concentration was effectively divided between the provisional government, which derived its authority from the Duma, and the soviets—or representative councils—of workers' and soldiers' deputies. Among the members of the provisional government, Kerensky had a unique position because, for a time, he bridged the gap between these competing agencies of the revolution. Although a well-known member of the Duma, he was an articulate spokesman for the left and a member of the executive committee of the Petrograd soviet.

Kerensky was minister of justice in the first provisional government, organized by a liberal, Prince Lvov. This government's policy of honoring the war aims and obligations of the czarist government proved sufficiently unpopular that the minister of foreign affairs (Pavel Miliukov) and the minister of war and navy (Aleksandr Guchkov) were forced to resign; Kerensky succeeded to the latter position. He fared little better in this position than had Guchkov, however. In spite of initial successes, a major offensive, which Kerensky inspired, resulted in fresh military disasters (June 1917). Thus, amidst military failure and broadly based, disruptive demonstrations, Lvov resigned as prime minister in July and Kerensky succeeded him.

Kerensky's own view was that in the succeeding weeks the Russian political situation was tending toward stability. Radical leftist agitators (including Lenin and Trotsky) had been imprisoned or forced to flee the country, and Kerensky himself enjoyed a certain amount of popularity. Moreover, the time was thought to be drawing closer when it would be possible to convene a constituent assembly that would formally establish a democratic regime. The stroke that destroyed these hopes came unexpectedly from the right in the form of the Kornilov uprising (September 9-14), which was an attempt to establish a conservatively backed military government. Kerensky managed to halt the attempted coup only by calling upon the radical left for support. Similarly, he was unable from this time forward to count on the military leadership for support against this same radical left. Soon after, Lenin and Trotsky, at large again, planned their own coup, the Bolshevik Revolution of November. When the blow fell, Kerensky was out of Petrograd searching for troops loyal enough to defend the government against the Bolsheviks. Failing in this, he returned to Petrograd and then Moscow, futilely attempting to organize opposition against the revolution.

In the spring of 1918 Kerensky finally fled Russia, and, for a short time thereafter, he strove to rally international opposition against the Bolshevik government. Failing this, he began to write and lecture in Europe on the affairs of his native land. In 1940 he moved to the United States, writing, lecturing, and teaching at Stanford University. He died on June 11, 1970, in New York City.

Further Reading

The most important sources on Kerensky's political work remain his own writings: Prelude to Bolshevism: The Kornilov Rising (1919); The Catastrophe: Kerensky's Own Story of the Russian Revolution (1927); Russia and History's Turning Point (1965). Kerensky also made a significant contribution to the background material on this period by his work, edited with Robert Paul Browder, The Russian Provisional Government, 1917 (3 vols., 1961).

Additional Sources

Abraham, Richard, Alexander Kerensky: the first love of the revolution, New York: Columbia University Press, 1987. □

Kerensky, Aleksandr Fedorovich (b. 4 May 1881, d. 11 June 1970). Prime Minister of Russia 1917 Born in Lenin's home town of Simbirsk, he grew up there and in Tashkent, and obtained a law degree from St Petersburg University in 1904. He was elected to the fourth Duma in 1912. A moderate socialist, he enjoyed the support of the Mensheviks, though he never joined the party. After the Russian Revolution in February 1917, he boosted his own position as deputy leader of the two rival political bodies, the Duma and the Petrograd (formerly St Petersburg) Soviet. He joined the provisional government as Minister of Justice and then Minister of Defence. He was also Prime Minister from 21 July 1917, and took personal command of the armed forces in August 1917. He staked his authority on a renewed military offensive against the Germans. The offensive failed and plunged the country into even greater military and economic chaos. With his authority eroding, he refused to acquiesce to the Bolsheviks' more radical demands of land reforms. He was further weakened by refusing to end the war, refusing a transfer of political power to the Soviets, and for refusing workers' control in industry. All this contributed to his loss of popular support, and left him with no defence when Lenin launched the October Revolution. He went underground, and emigrated in 1918.

Aleksandr Feodorovich Kerensky , 1881–1970, Russian revolutionary. A lawyer, he was elected to the fourth duma in 1912 as a representative of the moderate Labor party. He joined the Socialist Revolutionary party after the February Revolution of 1917 that overthrew the czarist government and became minister of justice, then war minister in the provisional government of Prince Lvov. He succeeded (July, 1917) Lvov as premier. Kerensky's insistence on remaining in World War I, his failure to deal with urgent economic problems (particularly land distribution), and his moderation enabled the Bolsheviks to overthrow his government later in 1917. Kerensky fled to Paris, where he continued as an active propagandist against the Soviet regime. In 1940 he fled to the United States; later he continued to travel and lecture. He wrote The Prelude to Bolshevism (1919).

Bibliography: See R. Abraham, Alexander Kerensky (1987).

Kerensky, Alexander Feodorovich (1881–1970) Russian revolutionary. He was a representative of the moderate Labour Party in the Fourth Duma (1912) and joined the Socialist Revolutionary Party during the RUSSIAN REVOLUTION. After the emperor's abdication in March (February, old style), he was made Minister of War in the Provisional Government of Prince Lvov, succeeding him as Premier four months later. Determined to continue the war against Germany, he failed to implement agrarian and economic reforms, and his government was overthrown by the BOLSHEVIKS in the October Revolution. He escaped to Paris, where he continued as an active propagandist against the Soviet regime.

Kerensky, Alexander Feodorovich (1881–1970) Russian moderate politician. He became prime minister of the provisional government in July 1917, shortly after the overthrow of the Tsar. Deposed by the Bolsheviks, he fled to France. See also Russian Revolution