Kerensky, Aleksandr

Kerensky, Aleksandr (Fyodorovich)

Aleksandr Kerensky.

(credit: EB Inc.)

(born May 2, 1881, Simbirsk, Russia—died June 11, 1970, New York, N.Y., U.S.) Russian political leader. A prominent lawyer, he joined the Socialist Revolutionary Party and was elected to the fourth Duma (1912), where he became a noted orator. After the start of the Russian Revolution of 1917, he held posts in both the Petrograd soviet and the provisional government and became a popular figure. He became minister of war in May and prime minister in July. A moderate socialist, he sought to unify the factions but lost the support of the moderates and officers by dismissing the army commander in chief, Lavr Kornilov, and of the left by refusing to implement their radical programs. When the Bolsheviks seized power in October, he was unable to gather forces to defend his government. He went into hiding, then emigrated to western Europe in 1918. In 1940 he moved to the U.S., where he lectured at universities and wrote books on the revolution.