Early life and activism Alexander Kerensky was born in Simbirsk (now
Ulyanovsk) on the
Volga river on 4 May 1881 and was the eldest son in the family. His father, Fyodor Mikhailovich Kerensky, was a teacher was the granddaughter of a former
serf who had managed to purchase his freedom before
serfdom was abolished in 1861. He subsequently embarked upon a mercantile career, in which he prospered. This allowed him to move his business to Moscow, where he continued his success and became a wealthy Moscow merchant. Members of the Kerensky and Ulyanov families were friends; Kerensky's father was the teacher of
Vladimir Ulyanov (Lenin), and had even secured him acceptance into the University of Kazan. In 1889, when Kerensky was eight, the family moved to
Tashkent, where his father had been appointed the superintendent of public schools. Kerensky graduated with honours in 1899. The same year he entered
St. Petersburg University, where he studied history and
philology. The next year he switched to law. He earned his law degree in 1904 and married Olga Lvovna Baranovskaya, the daughter of a Russian general, the same year. Kerensky joined the
Narodnik movement and worked as a legal counsel to victims of the
Revolution of 1905. At the end of 1904, he was jailed on suspicion of belonging to a militant group. Afterwards, he gained a reputation for his work as a defence lawyer in a number of political trials of revolutionaries. In 1912, Kerensky became widely known when he visited the goldfields at the
Lena River and published material about the
Lena massacre. In the same year, Kerensky was elected to the
Fourth Duma as a member of the
Trudoviks, a socialist, non-Marxist
labour party founded by
Alexis Aladin that was associated with the
Socialist-Revolutionary Party, and joined a
Freemason society uniting the anti-monarchy forces that strived for democratic renewal of Russia. In fact, the Socialist Revolutionary Party bought Kerensky a house, as he otherwise would not be eligible for election to the Duma, according to the Russian property laws. During the 4th Session of the Fourth Duma in spring 1915, Kerensky appealed to
Mikhail Rodzianko with a request from the Council of elders to inform the tsar that to succeed in the war he must: • change his domestic policy, • proclaim a General Amnesty for political prisoners, • restore the Constitution of
Finland, • declare autonomy of
Poland, • provide national minorities autonomy in the field of culture, • abolish restrictions against Jews, • end religious intolerance, • stop the harassment of legal trade union organizations. In August, he became a significant member of the
Progressive Bloc, which included several socialist parties,
Mensheviks, and Liberals – but not
Bolsheviks. Kerensky was an active member of the irregular
Freemasonic lodge the
Grand Orient of Russia's Peoples, which derived from the
Grand Orient of France. Kerensky was Secretary-General of the Grand Orient of Russia's Peoples and stood down following his ascent to the government in July 1917. He was succeeded by a Menshevik,
Alexander Halpern.
Rasputin In response to bitter resentments held against the imperial favourite
Grigori Rasputin in the midst of Russia's failing effort in
World War I, Kerensky, at the opening of the Duma on 2 November 1916, called the imperial ministers "hired assassins" and "cowards", and alleged that they were "guided by the contemptible Grishka Rasputin!" Grand Duke
Nicholas Mikhailovich, Prince
Georgy Lvov, and General
Mikhail Alekseyev attempted to persuade the Tsar to send away the Empress
Alexandra Feodorovna, Rasputin's steadfast patron, either to the
Livadia Palace in
Yalta or to
Britain. Lvov,
Zinaida Yusupova (the mother of
Felix Yusupov), Alexandra's sister
Elisabeth, Grand Duchess
Victoria and the empress's mother-in-law
Maria Feodorovna also tried to influence and pressure the imperial couple to remove Rasputin from his position of influence within the imperial household, but without success. According to Kerensky, Rasputin had terrorised the empress by threatening to return to his native village. Members of the nobility murdered Rasputin in December 1916, and he was buried near the imperial residence in
Tsarskoye Selo. Shortly after the
February Revolution of 1917, Kerensky ordered soldiers to re-bury the corpse at an unmarked spot in the countryside. However, the truck broke down or was forced to stop because of the snow on Lesnoe Road outside of St. Petersburg. It is likely the corpse was incinerated (between 3 and 7 in the morning) in the
cauldrons of the nearby boiler shop of the
Saint Petersburg State Polytechnical University, including the coffin, without leaving a single trace.
Russian Provisional Government of 1917 When the
February Revolution broke out in 1917, Kerensky – together with
Pavel Milyukov – was one of its most prominent leaders. As one of the
Duma's most well-known speakers against the monarchy and as a lawyer and defender of many revolutionaries, Kerensky became a member of the
Provisional Committee of the State Duma and was elected vice-chairman of the newly formed
Petrograd Soviet. These two bodies, the Duma and the Petrograd Soviet, or – rather – their respective executive committees, soon became each other's antagonists on most matters except regarding the end of the tsar's autocracy. The Petrograd Soviet grew to include 3000 to 4000 members, and their meetings could drown into a blur of lengthy speeches. At the meeting of to the executive committee of the Petrograd Soviet, or
Ispolkom, formed a self-appointed committee, with (eventually) three members from each of the parties represented in the Soviet. Kerensky became one of the members representing the
Socialist Revolutionary Party (the SRs). On , without any consultation with the government, the Ispolkom of the Soviet issued the infamous
Order No. 1, intended only for the 160,000-strong Petrograd garrison, but soon interpreted as applicable to all soldiers at the front. The order stipulated that all military units should form committees like the Petrograd Soviet. This led to confusion and "stripping of officers' authority"; further, "Order No. 3" stipulated that the military was subordinate to Ispolkom in the political hierarchy. The ideas came from a group of socialists and aimed to limit the officers' power to military affairs. The socialist intellectuals believed the officers to be the most likely counterrevolutionary elements. Kerensky's role in these orders is unclear, but he participated in the decisions. But just as before the revolution he had defended many who disliked the tsar, he now saved the lives of many of the tsar's civil servants about to be lynched by mobs. Additionally, the Duma formed an executive committee which eventually became the
Russian Provisional Government. As there was little trust between Ispolkom and this government (and as he was about to accept the office of Attorney General in the Provisional Government), Kerensky gave a most passionate speech, not just to the Ispolkom, but to the entire Petrograd Soviet. He then swore, as minister, never to violate democratic values, and ended his speech with the words "I cannot live without the people. In the moment you begin to doubt me, then kill me." The huge majority (workers and soldiers) gave him great applause, and Kerensky now became the first and
the only one who participated in both the Provisional Government and the Ispolkom. As a link between Ispolkom and the Provisional Government, Kerensky stood to benefit from this position. After the first government crisis over Milyukov's secret note re-committing Russia to its original war-aims on 2–4 May, Kerensky became the
Minister of War and the dominant figure in the newly formed socialist-liberal coalition government. On 10 May (
Julian calendar), Kerensky started for the front and visited one division after another, urging the men to do their duty. His speeches were impressive and convincing for the moment, but had little lasting effect. Under
Allied pressure to continue the war, he launched what became known as the
Kerensky Offensive against the Austro-Hungarian/German South Army on . At first successful, the offensive soon met strong resistance and the
Central Powers riposted with a strong counter-attack. The Russian army retreated and suffered heavy losses, and it became clear from many incidents of desertion, sabotage, and mutiny that the army was no longer willing to attack. The military heavily criticised Kerensky for his liberal policies, which included stripping officers of their mandates and handing over control to revolutionary-inclined "soldier committees" () instead; abolition of the death penalty; and allowing revolutionary agitators to be present at the front. Many officers scornfully referred to commander-in-chief Kerensky as the "persuader-in-chief". On 2 July 1917 the Provisional Government's first coalition collapsed over the question of
Ukraine's autonomy. Following the
July Days unrest in Petrograd (3–7 July [16–20 July, N.S.] 1917) and the official suppression of the Bolsheviks, Kerensky succeeded Lvov as Russia's prime minister on . Following the
Kornilov Affair, an attempted military
coup d'état at the end of August, and the resignation of the other ministers, he appointed himself Supreme
Commander-in-Chief, as well. On 15 September Kerensky proclaimed Russia a republic, which was contrary to the non-socialists' understanding that the Provisional Government should hold power only until a
Constituent Assembly should meet to decide Russia's form of government, but which was in line with the long-proclaimed aim of the Socialist Revolutionary Party. He formed a five-member Directory, which consisted of himself, Minister of Foreign Affairs
Mikhail Tereshchenko, Minister of War General
Aleksandr Verkhovsky, Minister of the Navy Admiral
Dmitry Verderevsky and Minister of Posts and Telegraphs . He retained his post in the final coalition government in October 1917 until the Bolsheviks overthrew it on . Kerensky faced a major challenge: three years of participation in World War had exhausted Russia, while the provisional government offered little motivation for a victory outside of continuing Russia's obligations towards its allies. Russia's continued involvement in the war was not popular among the lower and middle classes, and especially not popular among the soldiers. They had all believed that Russia would stop fighting when the Provisional Government took power, and subsequently felt deceived. Furthermore, Lenin and his
Bolshevik party were promising "peace, land, and bread" under a communist system. The
Russian army, war-weary, ill-equipped, dispirited and ill-disciplined, was disintegrating, with soldiers deserting in large numbers. By autumn 1917, an estimated two million men had unofficially left the army. Kerensky and other political leaders continued Russia's involvement in World War I, thinking that a glorious victory was the only way forward, and fearing that the economy, already under huge stress from the war effort, might become increasingly unstable if vital supplies from
France and from the
United Kingdom ceased flowing. The dilemma of whether to withdraw was a great one, and Kerensky's inconsistent and impractical policies further destabilised the army and the country at large. Furthermore, Kerensky adopted a policy that isolated the right-wing conservatives and nationalists, both democratic and monarchist-oriented. His philosophy of "no enemies to the left" greatly empowered the Bolsheviks and gave them a free hand, allowing them to take over the military arm or "voyenka" () of the Petrograd and Moscow Soviets. His arrest of
Lavr Kornilov and other officers left him without strong allies against the Bolsheviks, who ended up being Kerensky's strongest and most determined adversaries, as opposed to the right wing, which evolved into the
White movement. portrait by
Georges Chevalier, 1921
October Revolution of 1917 During the Kornilov Affair, Kerensky had distributed arms to the Petrograd workers, and by November most of these armed workers had gone over to the Bolsheviks. On 1917, the Bolsheviks launched the
second Russian revolution of the year. Kerensky's government in Petrograd had almost no support in the city. Only one small force, a subdivision of the 2nd company of the
First Petrograd Women's Battalion, also known as The Women's Death Battalion, was willing to fight for the government against the Bolsheviks, but this force was overwhelmed by the numerically superior pro-Bolshevik forces, defeated, and captured. The Bolsheviks overthrew the government rapidly by seizing governmental buildings and the Winter Palace. Kerensky escaped the Bolsheviks and fled to
Pskov, where he rallied some loyal troops for an
attempt to re-take the city. His troops managed to capture Tsarskoye Selo but were beaten the next day at
Pulkovo. Kerensky narrowly escaped, and he spent the next few weeks in hiding before fleeing the country, eventually arriving in France. During the
Russian Civil War, he supported neither side, as he opposed both the Bolshevik regime and the
White Movement. Meanwhile, viewed by
Woodrow Wilson as the spokesman for Russian democracy, he strongly influenced Wilson on Russian matters. Kerensky sought to discredit
Alexander Kolchak in Western eyes, telling American diplomats that if Kolchak succeeded, he would "inaugurate a regime hardly less sanguinary and repressive than that of the Bolshevists."
Later life Marriages and children in 1938 Kerensky was married to Olga Lvovna Baranovskaya and they had two sons,
Oleg (1905–1984) and Gleb (1907–1990), who both went on to become engineers. Kerensky's grandson (also named Oleg), according to
the Internet Movie Database, played his grandfather's role in the 1981 film
Reds. Kerensky and Olga were divorced in 1939 soon after he settled in Paris. In 1939, while visiting the United States, he met and secretly married Australian journalist
Lydia Ellen "Nell" Tritton (1899–1946), who became his press secretary and translator. The marriage took place in
Martins Creek, Pennsylvania. When
Germany invaded France in 1940, they emigrated to the United States.
Life in the United States During the
Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, Kerensky expressed his willingness to support the Russian people's defense against
Hitler, despite his long-standing opposition to the Soviet regime. In a published article, he criticized both Lenin and
Stalin but stated that the survival of Russia as a nation took precedence over political differences. When his wife Nell became terminally ill in 1945, Kerensky travelled with her to
Brisbane, Australia, and lived there with her family. She suffered a stroke in February 1946, and he remained there until her death on 10 April 1946. Kerensky then returned to the United States, where he spent the rest of his life. Kerensky eventually settled in New York City, living on the
Upper East Side on
91st Street near
Central Park but spent much of his time at the
Hoover Institution at
Stanford University in California, where he both used and contributed to the Institution's huge archive on
Russian history, and where he taught graduate courses. He wrote and broadcast extensively on Russian politics and history. His last public lecture was delivered at Kalamazoo College in Kalamazoo, Michigan, in October 1967. == Death ==