KERENSKY SAVES RUSSIA FROM HERSELF

On May 9, 1917, the situation was intensified when the council issued an appeal to the working classes of the world to come together in a general congress to discuss terms of peace. This meant naturally an international Socialist conference. There was really no disloyalty behind this move. The majority of the deputies no doubt considered it a means of forcing the hands of the Socialists of the Central Empires, perhaps to force them to overthrow their autocracies. The idea was to formulate a peace program which would come close to demanding universal democracy the world over and, by having the Teuton Socialists subscribe to it, force them to bring pressure to bear on their governments which might even develop into revolution. But this was not understood abroad, and created much ill feeling.

On May 13, 1917, General Kornilov, commanding the Petrograd garrison, gave up his efforts in despair and handed in his resignation, on account of "the interference of certain organizations with the discipline of his troops." Generals Gurko and Brussilov also sent in their resignations, and a few days later Minister of War and Marine Gutchkov, wishing to precipitate the impending crisis, also resigned.

Complete anarchy now threatened, for the council still insisted on its right to guard the interests of democracy in the army as well as among the civil population. It was then that Minister of Justice Kerensky rose and saved the situation with an impassioned speech, in which he declared that he wished he had died two months before when democracy seemed such a promising dream. He then appealed to his associates in the council, of which he was a vice president, to set aside their Utopian fantasies for the time being and consider the needs of the present. His oratory carried the day. The council agreed to a coalition cabinet which should have full control of affairs.

After a joint session between the executive committee of the council and the Duma committee, the new cabinet was formed on May 19, 1917.

Paul Milukov retired as Foreign Minister, for his nationalistic utterances in regard to Constantinople had aroused against him all the radicals. Prince Lvov remained as premier. Kerensky became Minister of War. The Minister of Finance, Terestchenko, became Minister of Foreign Affairs. Shingarev, a Social Revolutionist, became Minister of Finance. Altogether the new cabinet included six radicals. Immediately afterward the council passed a resolution of confidence in the new government and urged all its constituents to support it. Kerensky then stated that he would immediately leave for a tour of the front for the purpose of exhorting the soldiers to submit to military organization and that an iron discipline would be instituted. The generals at the front now withdrew their resignations, which had not been accepted, and returned to their posts.

During this period two important conventions were held in Petrograd; a national congress of the Cossacks and a national congress of peasants. The former declared itself for a strong offensive against the enemy but passed no political resolutions other than to support the Provisional Government. The peasants' congress did likewise and also showed itself strongly Socialistic in its election of officers. Lenine, however, who was one of the candidates, received only 11 votes, as against 810 polled by Tchernov, a Social Revolutionist, and 809 by Catherine Breshkovskaya, the "grandmother of the revolution."

During the month of June, 1917, the Provisional Government made distinct progress, considering the almost insurmountable obstacles inherent in such a situation as it had to face. From now on there was very little friction between the cabinet and the council; they worked together with comparative harmony. The fact that the radical elements were now so well represented in the ministry probably was the chief reason, but the personality of Kerensky was now beginning to rise as the dominating figure of the new Russia. A fairly extreme radical himself, with the confidence of his associates, he was also respected by the more conservative elements on account of his sanity and practical abilities. On June 1, 1917, A. I. Konovalov, Minister of Commerce and Trade, resigned on account of friction with his associates over what he considered the Government's interference with private industries, but this incident passed quietly.

On this same date there occurred another incident which, on account of its highly dramatic aspect, attracted wide attention in the press of the Allied countries, and was therefore considered more significant than it has since proved to be. The local council of the Workingmen's and Soldiers' Council of Deputies in Kronstadt, the location of the naval arsenal and the headquarters of the Baltic fleet, declared Kronstadt an independent republic. The president of this council, a young student by the name of Anatole Lamanov, was apparently an anarchist of the extreme type; extreme in that he believed that anarchist principles could be put into immediate practice, and he at once issued a proclamation calling on all other communities in Russia to declare their independence. His idea was that all the communities should be knit together very loosely for specific purposes, such as the war against the Germans, of which he was still heartily in favor. Later dispatches, if true, would indicate that the real instigator of this comic-opera scene was a woman, possibly in the pay of the German Government, since she was the companion of Robert Grimm, a Swiss Socialist, later expelled from Russia by the Socialists themselves on account of pro-German activities.

With its usual tolerance the Provisional Government made no attempt to suppress this act of secession by armed force. The council itself in Petrograd, representing the whole country, immediately denounced the Kronstadt proclamation, and sent two deputies to Kronstadt to reason with Lamanov and his associates. The whole incident seemed to be largely a matter of paper proclamations, since no violence on either side ever occurred, and the Kronstadt situation finally faded from public attention. Nevertheless it caused Kerensky to cut short his tour of the various fronts and return to Petrograd two days later.

In the public speeches which he then made he spoke very encouragingly of the situation on the firing lines, but two days later it was announced that General Alexiev's resignation as commander in chief had been accepted and that Brussilov had been appointed in his place.

On the 10th President Wilson issued his famous note, prepared in response to the radical formula of the council, declaring for a peace "without annexation and without indemnities." In spirit it was in perfect accord with what the council had demanded: that no people should be annexed against their will, that democracy should be the guiding principle, etc. Certainly it was in accord with his previous declaration made before the war; a "peace without oppressive victories," a principle quite as radical as anything the Petrograd radicals had ever formulated. There was then, and has been ever since, every indication that the Provisional Government and the big majority of the members of the council accepted this declaration as being in harmony with their own sentiments. Nevertheless, it became the object of a very noisy attack by those extreme elements known as the Maximalists, best represented by Lenine and his type.[Back to Contents]