Kerensky , Aleksandr Fyodorovich (1881 - 1970)

He was revolutionary leader , who headed the provisional Russian government before the Bolshevik takeover in November 1917 .

Kerensky was born on May 4, 1881 in Simbirsk and educated at the University of Sait Petersburg . In his youth he secretly joined the Socialist Revolutionary party , at that time officially banned as subversive . Publicly he declared himself a member of the Group of Toil , a moderate legal political party ; and in 1912 , as a representative of that group , he was elected a deputy to the emperor and the establishment of a provisional republican government , Kerensky was appointed minister of justice , and two months later he became minister of war . In June he attempted to rally troops for an offensive against the Germans , but large numbers of soldiers refused to obey their officers , left their pasts , and returned to their homes . In the reorganization of the government that followed , Kerensky became provisional prime minister of Russia .

One of Kerensky’s first acts as prime minister was the suppression of the Bolshevik party led by Lenin . Lenin went into hiding in Finland ; other Bolshevik leaders ; including Leon Trotsky , were arrested . Kerensky’s failure to counteract the steady deterioration in the economic and military situation of the country , however , enabled the Bolsheviks to undermine his government and to usurp power for the soviets , or councils , of workers , soldiers , and peasants , establishing a governmental structure parallel to that of the provisional government.

On the political right , Kerensky was beset by monarchists and other counterrevolutionaries , who sought to crush the revolution . In September , when the commander in chief of the Russian arms , Gen , Lavr Georgyevich Kornilov , attempted to march on the capital and establish himself as a military dictator , Kerensky failed to take decisive measures ; the attempted coup was aborted by the action of the Bolsheviks , who vitalized the aduant ages accruing to them from that initiative to seize power on Nov . 7 , 1917 . Kerensky , who in the meantime had gone to the front in an effort to win support among the troops , organized a military force and attempted to capture Petrograd , but the troops refused to fight . He fled to Paris , where he led several anti - Bolshevik organization and for some years edited the newspaper Dni . He eventually settled in the US where he lectured on political and social science . He died in New York City on June 11, 1970 .