Alexander Fedorovich Kerensky, a prominent Russian politician of the early 20th century, head of the Provisional Government.

He was born in 1881 in Simbirsk. His father was the director of the gymnasium. When Sasha was eight years old, the family moved to Tashkent. In this city, Alexander Fedorovich received his education, graduating from the local gymnasium.

Upon completion of his studies, he goes to the capital of the Russian Empire, where he enters the University. At first he studied at the Faculty of History, but later transferred to the Faculty of Law.

There is an interesting point in his student biography. During one of the gatherings, Alexander gave a speech in which he called on students to participate in revolutionary activities.

For his words, he was sent back to his parents in Tashkent for some time. According to him, he was flattered that he was now an exiled student.

Kerensky completed his studies in 1904. After receiving his diploma, he worked as an assistant to a sworn attorney. During these years, he finds friends among the members of the Liberation Union. This organization professed liberal views and fought for the rights of the intelligentsia.

At the end of 1905, Alexander Fedorovich was arrested by the police. He was accused of possessing banned Socialist Revolutionary leaflets. He was released from custody in the first ten days of next year, and begins to try out a new role as a lawyer. He defends people in political trials, and soon fame will come to him in this field.

In 1912, Alexander Kerensky became a deputy of the State Duma, in which he would head the “Labor Group” (Trudovik Party). During his mandate, the “Beilis Affair” occurred in Russia, which, according to Kerensky, was fabricated. He initiated a bar association protest in this case. For his initiative, Kerensky was sent to a prison cell for 8 months.

Alexander Fedorovich took an active part in the events of the February Revolution of 1917. He was the most authoritative politician of his time, was deputy chairman of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' Deputies, head of the Provisional Government, and a member of the Socialist Revolutionary Party.

Kerensky's government proved unable to govern the country. Failures at the front, anti-state activities of the Bolsheviks, the speech of Lavr Kornilov, arrests and executions, complete degradation of society. The government was unable to manage all social processes.

In October, Kerensky's Provisional Government fell. Dressed as a sailor, Alexander Fedorovich fled from the capital. His path lay in Pskov. In Pskov, he met with Pyotr Krasnov and together with him organized a campaign against Petrograd. The performance was a failure. Afterwards, Alexander Fedorovich conducted underground activities in Petrograd, but soon emigrated.

In exile he tried to engage in anti-Bolshevik activities. Alexander Fedorovich published several newspapers. When World War II broke out, he declared that he supported the USSR, although he clearly did not like the Stalin Regime. At the end of his life, Kerensky tried to get permission to travel to the USSR, but his efforts were unsuccessful.

Alexander Kerensky died in the USA, at the age of 89, in 1970.

New Year. The owners invited us to their place: they managed to send all the servants out of the house for a day. The next day I had to leave for the capital. Belenky announced that they had to leave without delay. He said that the central committees of the anti-Bolshevik socialist parties spoke out against armed demonstrations on the opening day of the Constituent Assembly and proposed organizing only purely peaceful demonstrations in its support.

The situation was quite absurd. The slogan “All power to the Constituent Assembly” has henceforth lost all meaning. It was absolutely impossible for a legally elected Constituent Assembly to coexist with a dictatorship that rejected the very idea of ​​popular sovereignty. The Constituent Assembly only made sense if it had the support of a government that recognized it as the supreme political power. By the end of 1917, there was no such government in Russia. The slogan “All power to the Constituent Assembly” now sounded only as a rallying call for all forces ready to continue the fight against the usurpers.

For reasons unknown to me at the time, the “Committee for the Defense of the Constituent Assembly” proved unable to carry out an effective struggle. With all this, I told myself, even if the Constituent Assembly is doomed to destruction, let it fulfill its duty to the people and the country, leaving the stage with dignity and leaving the people with an imperishable spirit of freedom.

I was supposed to board the Moscow night train, which stopped in Bologoye at 11 pm. The trains at that time were always overcrowded, the carriages were on their last legs, and there was practically no lighting, especially in the third-class compartments. I was told the number of the carriage where my supporters were already located; I had to hide in the corner of the compartment and try not to attract attention to myself. We arrived at the station on time and, waiting for the train, which was late, began to walk along the platform. I was still accompanied by people armed with grenades, but we were so accustomed to this form of existence that we no longer thought about precautions and talked quite loudly. Suddenly, one of my guardian angels came up to me and whispered: “Be careful. The railroad workers are watching you from the other side of the platform. Look, they are coming for us." We fell silent. A group of railway workers moved from the Moscow platform to ours and headed straight towards us. Everyone had the same thought: everything was lost. However, those who approached took off their caps as a sign of respect and said: “Alexander Fedorovich, we recognized you by your voice. Don’t worry, we won’t give you away!” So my personal security doubled! After that everything went like clockwork. The train arrived and we managed to squeeze into the right carriage, which was almost unlit. Without any incident, we reached Petrograd, where the cab driver took us to the agreed address.

The main thing that most Russians know about Alexander Fedorovich Kerensky, this is that during the storming of the Winter Palace, the head of the Provisional Government fled Petrograd in a woman’s dress.

Alexander Kerensky himself was indignant at such slander throughout his long life. Even half a century later, having met with a Soviet journalist Genrikh Borovik, he asked him to tell “smart people” in Moscow that he did not disguise himself as a maid or a nurse in October 1917.

Alexander Kerensky was born in the city of Simbirsk on May 4, 1881, in the family of the director of the Simbirsk men's gymnasium. Fyodor Mikhailovich Kerensky.

Sasha was a long-awaited son, born after three daughters, so his parents tried to surround the boy with maximum care and attention.

An amazing interweaving of destinies - Fyodor Kerensky’s boss was the director of Simbirsk schools Ilya Nikolaevich Ulyanov. And the principled Fyodor Mikhailovich put the only “B” in the certificate of his son, a gold medalist Vladimir Ulyanov.

The Ulyanovs and Kerenskys were on friendly terms, although Vladimir Ulyanov and Alexander Kerensky did not have common interests in their youth - after all, the future leader of the world proletariat was 11 years older.

Successful lawyer

In 1889, Fyodor Kerensky was transferred to work in Tashkent, where his eldest son went to school. Alexander was a capable student, a brilliant dancer, and excelled in amateur performances. After graduating from the Tashkent gymnasium, Alexander Kerensky entered the law faculty of St. Petersburg University.

Alexander Kerensky. Photo: Public Domain

Despite all his talents and high oratory skills, Alexander Kerensky was distinguished by his stubbornness, intractability, and inability to compromise. Perhaps this is where the mistakes in upbringing, caused by the parents’ excessive love for Sasha and indulging him in everything, took their toll.

Nevertheless, Alexander Kerensky successfully graduated from the university and began his legal career.

Unlike lawyer Ulyanov, whose practice was limited to one unsuccessful case, lawyer Kerensky succeeded in his field. He often participated in political processes, successfully defending the interests of revolutionaries, with whom he openly sympathized.

In 1912, the successful lawyer headed the State Duma Public Commission to investigate the Lena execution, thereby marking the beginning of his political career.

Kerensky, close to the Socialist Revolutionary Party, was elected to the Fourth State Duma and joined the Trudovik faction, since the Socialist Revolutionaries boycotted the elections.

Idol of liberals

Since 1915, Kerensky has become widely known throughout Russia as the best speaker representing the left camp in the State Duma. His critical speeches addressed to the government are a great success.

In December 1916, Kerensky’s speeches in the State Duma became so radical that Empress Alexandra Feodorovna noted that it would be desirable to hang this politician.

But the times were no longer the same, and just two months later, Alexander Kerensky became one of the main figures in the February Revolution, which overthrew the monarchy.

Kerensky, with his speeches, “dragged” soldiers to the side of the revolution, personally supervised the arrests of the tsarist ministers, and was involved in regulating the procedure for the abdication of Nicholas II and his brother Mikhail Alexandrovich.

In March 1917, Alexander Kerensky joined the Socialist Revolutionary Party, immediately becoming one of its leaders, and took the post of Minister of Justice in the first composition of the Provisional Government.

Inspired by the revolution, the Russian liberal intelligentsia turned Kerensky into their idol. In his new post, he himself freed all revolutionaries from prison and exile, reformed the judicial system, and began removing the most odious representatives of the previous government from high judicial posts.

From side to side

The provisional government was not stable; it was torn apart by internal contradictions. In April 1917, in its new composition, Alexander Kerensky became Minister of War and Navy, and in July 1917 reached the top, becoming Minister-Chairman.

However, at the top of the powerful Olympus his position is very unstable. His motto “I want to go in the middle” turns out to be inappropriate in Russia, where right-wing and left-wing radicals are gaining popularity.

Minister of War Kerensky with his assistants. From left to right: Colonel V. L. Baranovsky, Major General G. A. Yakubovich, B. V. Savinkov, A. F. Kerensky and Colonel G. N. Tumanov (August 1917). Photo: Public Domain

Kerensky's political course as head of government changes dramatically. Initially, considering the Bolsheviks as his main opponents, he decides to rely on conservative officers, appointing General Kornilov to the post of Supreme Commander-in-Chief.

However, when in August 1917 Kornilov moved troops to Petrograd “to restore order” in the capital, Kerensky decided that the generals could put an end not only to the Bolsheviks, but also to the government, for which the military had no sympathy.

As a result, Kerensky declared Kornilov a rebel, calling upon all left-wing forces, including the Bolsheviks, to fight him.

As a result, by October 1917, the Provisional Government had practically no real support left.

Defeated idol

This is largely why the storming of the Winter Palace and the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks in Petrograd turned out to be practically bloodless.

Kerensky really fled from Petrograd not in a woman’s dress, but in a man’s suit, but in the car of the American envoy. The head of the Provisional Government himself later claimed that the Americans had kindly offered him the car, while diplomats working in Petrograd had a different version - supposedly Kerensky’s guards simply took the car away.

If Kerensky succeeded in escaping from Petrograd, then returning to power turned out to be impossible. Anti-Bolshevik forces resolutely did not want to see Kerensky as their leader, even his colleagues in the Socialist Revolutionary Party considered it advisable for him to go into the shadows.

Having wandered around Russia until June 1918, Alexander Kerensky moved abroad, where at first he tried to negotiate an intervention to overthrow the Bolsheviks.

However, the former head of the Provisional Government, deprived of influence, very soon became mired in the squabbles and intrigues of the Russian emigration.

Many emigrants considered Kerensky to be the culprit of the fall of the Russian Empire and all subsequent upheavals, which is why the attitude towards him was more than cool.

In 1939, Kerensky, who lived in France, married Australian journalist Lydia Tritton, and after the occupation of France by Hitler, he left for the United States.

Beginning in the late 1940s, the widowed Kerensky wrote memoirs and lectured students on Russian history.

The unforgiven “destroyer of the monarchy”

In the late 1960s, Kerensky, who was well into his 80s, tried to obtain permission to travel to the Soviet Union, but negotiations ended in vain.

Perhaps fortunately for Kerensky himself - after all, most Soviet citizens were convinced that he had long been dead; seeing him in front of them, they would probably ask the same question, hated by politics, about women’s dress.

At the very end of his life, the story with the dress continued - the ambulance, having taken the elderly Russian emigrant, for a long time could not find a place where to place a low-income patient, since there were no free places in the free clinic.

When Kerensky woke up, to his horror, he discovered that he had been placed in an empty bed... in the gynecology department. And although the veteran of Russian politics was soon transferred from there, Kerensky considered this a humiliation no less than the myth of his escape in October 1917.

Kerensky's relatives found funds for treatment in a more decent clinic by selling the politician's archive. However, the seriously ill old man decided that his continued existence had no meaning. He refused to eat, and when doctors began to inject a nutrient solution through a needle, the patient began to pull it out.

Alexander Fedorovich Kerensky spent his last days in his home in New York, where he died on June 11, 1970.

Kerensky’s reputation also hindered him after his death - the Orthodox priests of New York refused to perform a funeral service and bury the “destroyer of the monarchy” in the local cemetery. Alexander Fedorovich was buried in London, where his son lived, in a cemetery that did not belong to any religious denomination.

Meeting with people from Russia, the old man Kerensky repeatedly begged: “I beg you very much, tell me there: I didn’t run away from the Winter Palace in a woman’s dress, well, I didn’t run away! Listen, there are serious people in Moscow! I cannot die in peace while this monstrous slander is written about me in your textbooks!” In vain. The myth of Kerensky’s escape in the form of a nurse (composed, they say, by Lenin himself) turned out to be ineradicable...

In fact, Kerensky not only did not flee from the Winter Palace in a woman's dress - he did not flee from there at all. On the morning of October 25, Alexander Fedorovich, leaving the Provisional Government to sit in the Malachite Hall, together with two adjutants, got into an open car and went to Gatchina, towards the trains with troops approaching Petrograd. They had to be hastened: the Bolsheviks had already captured the banks and the telegraph, they had not yet entered the Winter Palace, but it was clear that they would soon launch an assault. The Minister-President wore a drape coat of English cut and a gray cap, which he always wore. The national flag was flying above the car.

The streets were relatively calm. Red Guard patrols were everywhere, but more and more huddled around the fires - the night and morning turned out to be frosty in winter. The Red Guards did not stop Kerensky's car - some simply looked at him with an indifferent gaze, while others saluted. There were no trains with troops in Gatchina, so we had to move on. Only on the morning of October 26 did Kerensky finally reach his own people - General Krasnov and his Cossacks. There were only a few hundred of them. Soon a telegram arrived: Zimny ​​was taken, the Provisional Government was arrested, power in Petrograd was in the hands of the Bolsheviks.

Waiting for God knows what, we settled in Gatchina. Kerensky was resting in the room assigned to him on the second floor of the Gatchina Palace when a familiar Socialist Revolutionary knocked on his door: “There is a Bolshevik parliamentarian, sailor Dybenko, down there with Krasnov. He demands to hand you over and for this he promises to let the Cossacks back to the Don. The general has already agreed.”

This is where I had to change clothes and run. Kerensky was hurriedly given a sailor's pea coat, a peakless cap, and huge car glasses. The masquerade was a success: Alexander Fedorovich was not recognized, he got out of the palace and got into the car. A couple of hours later, the former head of government hid in the forester’s house - from now on he had to live in Russia illegally. His career, instantly flaring up, streaked across the sky like a bright comet and went out.

Place of birth: Simbirsk, date of birth: April 22

Sasha with her mother. 1883

In the days of Alexander Fedorovich’s triumph, they used to glorify him in poetry, for example in these: “You came out of the midst of the people, from the heart of the working environment.” This was not true. His grandfather, like his great-grandfather, was a hereditary rural deacon (the village was called Kerenki), and only his father turned off the beaten track of the “spiritual department.” Fyodor Mikhailovich began as simple teachers of the Russian language, and having risen faithfully to the director of the Simbirsk classical gymnasium and the rank of state councilor, he received hereditary nobility. Another grandfather, on his mother’s side, is Lieutenant Colonel Adler, a Potsdam German and nobleman. And only on the maternal side, Kerensky’s mother Nadezhda Alexandrovna traced her ancestry from serfs, “from the heart of the working environment.”

In Simbirsk, the Kerenskys became close friends with the Ulyanov family. Ilya Nikolaevich, as you know, was the director of public schools in the Simbirsk province - how could he not get along with the director of the gymnasium, Kerensky. And the ladies - Nadezhda Aleksandrovna Kerenskaya and Maria Aleksandrovna Ulyanova - agreed that they both loved to play music on the piano. In a word, Sasha Kerensky and Volodya Ulyanov were born not just in the same city - in the same circle. Moreover, it was Sasha who was born on April 22, and not Volodya (according to the old style, he was born on the 10th, and this date began to be considered the 22nd after the revolution). But neither in childhood nor later did these two meet: the age difference was too great - 11 years. And yet Sasha remembered his future enemy, he later said: “The girls liked him: although he was short, he was handsome. Two brats my age were in love with him, already an adult young man.” Volodya amazed Sasha, a pious and meek boy, by the fact that he was an atheist and, as they said, threw his pectoral cross into a bucket. When Ilya Nikolaevich Ulyanov died, the elder Kerensky was knocked off his feet, worrying about a boarding house for his friend’s widow. And a year later, a new misfortune happened in the Ulyanov family: the eldest son, Alexander, was arrested and executed for an attempt on the life of the emperor. And here again Fyodor Mikhailovich lent a friendly shoulder: Vladimir and Olga were just passing their final matriculation exams, and the stigma of being related to a state criminal could block all their roads. So, through the efforts of the elder Kerensky, both brother and sister received not only certificates, but also a gold medal (for which, strictly speaking, Volodya did not even have enough points). Moreover, it was Kerensky who gave Volodya a positive reference for admission to Kazan University. When young Ulyanov was expelled from there for participating in student unrest, Fyodor Kerensky got into trouble because of that recommendation. It seems that it was precisely because of this that he was transferred to distant Tashkent - albeit with a promotion to the chief inspector of the Turkestan region, but still, one can consider it an exile...

Ulyanov family (Volodya on the far right)

Sasha left Simbirsk when he was 8 years old. I went to the gymnasium in Tashkent. He also earned a gold medal upon graduation. I wanted to go to the St. Petersburg Imperial Theater - he had talent, temperament, a luxurious voice, grace. In amateur performances, Sasha shone - especially in the role of Khlestakov. The father dissuaded me. It was decided, although to go to St. Petersburg, to enter not the stage, but the university, the Faculty of Law.

Lawyer of all Russia

Having barely graduated from university, Sasha got married. On Olga Baranovskaya - the granddaughter of the famous sinologist and the daughter of a colonel of the General Staff. Young Olga was precocious and stately, although, for Sasha’s taste, she was too calm and a bit fresh. But she was in love with him, and Sasha’s blood was still boiling. We got carried away by solitary walks, burning caresses - and there was no turning back. After the wedding, it became clear almost immediately: she loves, but he doesn’t. However, Sasha soon developed interests that absorbed him entirely.

On Sunday morning, January 9, 1905, the young lawyer Kerensky witnessed a procession of workers with a petition to the Winter Palace, organized by the priest Georgy Gapon. A crowd of festively dressed workers, carrying crosses, icons and portraits of the Tsar, flowed sedately and calmly, like a river, along the street. The sidewalks were crowded with “cleaner” audiences, fascinated by this spectacle. There was no sign of danger. But at the Alexander Garden the procession ran into a living wall of gray greatcoats. The soldiers shot at unarmed people, they fled in panic, and the bullets flew into their backs. This nightmare struck Alexander to the very heart. And then the bar association decided to help the victims, and Kerensky was instructed to visit the families of the victims...

Wife Olga with sons Oleg and Gleb. 1910

In short, when he was asked to write an article about “Bloody Sunday” for the underground newsletter “Petrel,” Alexander did not refuse. For which, a few days later, he ended up in “Kresty” on charges of no less than involvement in the preparation of an armed uprising. The investigation lasted three months, but there was no evidence, and Alexander Fedorovich was released. Since then, he has become the defender of all those persecuted for political reasons.

Whom did Kerensky defend: the Revel peasants who plundered the estate of a local baron (they were acquitted); Armenian nationalists who collected money for the release of their compatriots in Turkey (more than half of the accused were released); South Ural Social Democrats, who robbed the treasury for the needs of the party (Kerensky played on the contradictions in the testimony, and his clients were acquitted); finally, the entire Duma faction of the RSDLP, which aimed to overthrow the monarchy (16 defendants were released due to lack of evidence). Kerensky's talent as a lawyer was indestructible! But it is very peculiar: once the chairman of the court, for the sake of convenience, asked Kerensky to briefly sketch out his speech on paper. “I can’t,” answered Alexander Fedorovich. - When I start speaking, I don’t know what I’ll say. And when I finish, I don’t remember what I said.” But his inspired speeches had a magnetic effect on the jury.

One thing was bad: according to lawyer ethics, you were not supposed to take fees for political cases - only a modest daily allowance. The wife was upset: they have two small sons, why shouldn’t the husband, for the sake of variety, take on a profitable criminal case? Alexander was adamant. Moreover, without flinching, he took 500 rubles from the family budget when he needed to pay bail for another rebel. Alexander Fedorovich began to appear at home less and less often. As soon as possible, he switched to a hysterical falsetto, shouting that he belonged not to Olga, but to all of Russia.

In April 1917, in Estonia, Alexander Fedorovich was received as a hero - they did not forget his defense of the Revel peasants!

But he had fame, and it promised a great career. In the fall of 1910, the Trudovik Party invited Kerensky to run for the Duma. By law, for this he needed to own at least some property. Kerensky had no money, and the Trudoviks themselves bought him a two-story house in the Saratov province. He didn't live there a single day.

Soon after his election to the Duma, Kerensky also joined the Masonic lodge - however, a good half of the Duma members were members there. The lodge was called “The Great East of the Peoples of Russia” and set itself the goal of “unifying opposition forces to overthrow the autocracy and proclaim a democratic republic in Russia.” This fully corresponded to Kerensky’s views, and also greatly facilitated career growth...

In 1912, Alexander Fedorovich showed himself very successfully in the Duma during the investigation of the Lena events (in Eastern Siberia, gendarmes shot a three-thousand-strong demonstration of workers of the Lena Gold Mining Partnership joint-stock company. They went to the prosecutor to complain about unbearable working conditions. 270 people died). Nicholas II sent his commission to the mines, headed by the Minister of Internal Affairs, and the Duma sent his own, headed by Kerensky. Then the results were compared. The minister, justifying the execution, said: “So it was and so it will be!” Kerensky instantly reacted: “It was so, but it will not be so!” This phrase has become a catchphrase.

Kerensky's case at the police department grew larger every day. The spies who were constantly watching him gave him the nickname Speedy. He was really quick, especially with his words. More than once the bully Kerensky was cursed in the Winter Palace. For example, because of the case of Mendel Beilis, accused of the ritual murder of a Christian boy (the blood was allegedly needed for Passover matzah). The case went smoothly; the jury acquitted Beilis, despite pressure on the court from the nationalist “Union of the Russian People,” of which the sovereign himself was a member. Kerensky made a big fuss in the Duma, accusing the government of deliberately inciting ethnic hatred. And he himself ended up under the article of insulting senior officials - only parliamentary immunity saved him. Another time, Kerensky directly stated from the Duma rostrum that the only salvation of the Russian state was revolution. After this trick, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna shouted in irritation: “This Kerensky needs to be hanged!” They began sending two bailiffs to the Duma - specifically to stand next to Kerensky and prevent insults to the royal family.

Gendarmes escort deputy Kerensky from a meeting of the State Duma in April 1914.

Apostle of Freedom

And then February 1917 arrived. The workers rebelled in the capital, and the Petrograd garrison refused to shoot at them and itself joined the rebels. The state collapsed. On that day, February 27, God knows what was happening in the city. Windows are smashed, shops are looted, police stations are on fire. The Council of Ministers resigned and was immediately arrested by the rebels. The Emperor, who hastily left Mogilev, was intercepted on the road along with his entire train (three days later). A sea of ​​scarlet flags and bows, soldiers' greatcoats and... sunflower husks splashed out onto the streets of the capital from nowhere. The well-bred bureaucratic city was unrecognizable. On trams, in cinemas, at rallies - everywhere soldiers, without belts, unbuttoned, joyful, husked sunflower seeds with revolutionary ease, and from this came a crackling sound similar to the chirping of locusts.

Elizaveta Thieme, beloved

In the evening, the Duma elite gathered in the Tauride Palace - these were the people who were to enter the Provisional Government. Kerensky, due to one special circumstance, arrived very late. He was... in the theater, in Alexandrinka. The premiere of “Masquerade” was given there, and Elizaveta Thieme, with whom Alexander Fedorovich was madly in love, shone in the role of Baroness Shtrahl. Lovely Timochka, as he called her, young, intoxicating, with a delicate and passionate body. However, love is love, and because of it he was almost late for the distribution of portfolios. When I got to Tauride, the question of the leader had already been resolved in favor of Prince Lvov. Kerensky was given the post of Minister of Justice in the first Provisional Government. He began by declaring a general amnesty: both the “political” and thousands of thieves and raiders, popularly nicknamed “Kerensky’s chicks,” were freed. The second big deal was the Extraordinary Commission of Inquiry to investigate the crimes of the royal family (by the way, he also worked there).

Going for the first time to Tsarskoe Selo, where the deposed monarch was kept under arrest with his wife and children, Kerensky racked his brains: should he give a hand to the citizen under investigation Romanov? At the last second I decided to be generous. Kerensky rode back in a completely different mood. After several hours of conversation, Nikolai Alexandrovich made the most sympathetic impression on him. Since then, Kerensky often visited Tsarskoe Selo and had long conversations with the former crown bearer. He slowed down the work of the investigative commission as best he could. And he secretly prepared a plan to transport the royal family to England. seemed to agree to accept them. But at first the departure was delayed by the illness of the children, and then the English king changed his mind. He did not want to spoil relations either with the young Russian republic or with his own “leftists”. Things were uneasy in Petrograd, and Kerensky had to hastily send his charges instead of England to remote and quiet Tobolsk. And a year and a half later, at the court of George V, the spaniel Joy, the favorite of Tsarevich Alexei, the only living creature that miraculously survived the reign, will be sheltered.

The former emperor and the crown prince clear snow in Tsarskoe Selo. 1917
The children of Nikolai Romanov are under arrest in Tsarskoye Selo. 1917

Meanwhile, the country was shaking, and Kerensky’s career was gaining momentum. One after another, members of the Provisional Government, unable to cope with the next problem, caused a flurry of popular discontent and resigned. Only Kerensky always remained on the crest of success, like foam on the sea waves in a storm. He rose higher and higher: first the Minister of War, then, after Lvov’s resignation, the head of the Provisional Government. “The first love of the Russian revolution,” “the apostle of freedom and justice,” newspapers wrote about him. Every month, books about him were published: five biographies, not to mention countless collections of speeches.

However, Alexander Fedorovich’s speeches did not make an impression on paper. There was no deep thought or effective rhetoric in them. Kerensky took it differently: he spoke with a breath, moving from one timbre to another, gesticulated excitedly and impulsively - in a word, he acted not on the mind or even on emotions, but on the nerves of the audience. The ladies fell to their knees in front of him and - for the needs of the revolution - tore off their jewelry. The soldiers threw St. George's crosses at his feet in the same way. Much later, Kerensky himself stated: “Perhaps I had no equal. And if television had existed in 1917, I would not have lost to the Bolsheviks, the whole country would have been behind me.” As a real actor, he played different performances in different costumes. For speeches in the Petrograd Soviet, he dressed in a work jacket, appeared before the ladies in a tailcoat, and before the troops in a khaki-colored paramilitary jacket and cap. For some time now he began to put his right hand behind the lapel of his jacket. The gesture, however, was forced: Alexander Fedorovich’s hand hurt from hundreds and hundreds of daily handshakes.

Now he was never at home at all - he lived in Zimny, where Timochka came secretly, under a thick veil, and the ensigns standing guard saluted her. Secluded rooms on the top floor of the palace served as a love nest. There, Kerensky sang his beloved aria from “Aida” in a wonderfully well-trained voice, gave her champagne, and showered her with flowers, but... not jewelry. Amazingly, he still didn’t have a penny to his name. The only valuable thing is an old ring with a skull, donated by a French general.

Taking advantage of the revolutionary confusion, the lovers secretly got married in Tsarskoe Selo, despite already having a wife. At the same time, Kerensky was terribly afraid that Olga would hear about Timochka, and even once called Alexander Blok and asked him not to gossip about this topic in poetry salons.

The famous "Napoleonic" gesture

Meanwhile, the unrest in the country did not subside. The army was disintegrating: “leftist” agitators were running around everywhere, soldiers were fraternizing with the enemy, crowds of deserters went home to divide the landowners’ lands, and along the way they robbed and killed. There was no longer enough food in the rear: bread, meat, and cereals were given out on ration cards. Unemployment, inflation, chaos, peasant unrest... The Bolsheviks, naturally, did not sleep. On July 3, Petrograd burst into flames. Half a million demonstrators with slogans “All power to the Soviets!” and “Down with capitalist ministers!” moved to Winter. We barely managed to disperse them, killing hundreds of seven townspeople. Only then did Kerensky take care to put the Bolsheviks in “Kresty”. Of course, not everyone was caught. The storm was about to strike again - it was time to seriously think about what to do with Russia. The only way out seemed to be a harsh dictatorship - but Kerensky was disgusted by this. And then smart people advised him to enter into a conspiracy with the military, stage a coup and introduce martial law in the country until better times. What was needed here was an authoritative and honest general. The choice fell on Lavr Georgievich Kornilov...

The rebellion that never happened

This is who “came out of the midst of the people.” The son of a retired cornet and a Kazakh nomad, Lavr Georgievich looked strange among the Russian generals, if only because he had a completely Asian appearance. Which, however, helped him make a career in military intelligence: having grown a beard and dressed in a torn robe, he walked all over Afghanistan and Persia, even climbing to places that were not listed on the maps, because no European had set foot there before Kornilov. He knew an abyss of languages ​​and was not afraid of anything at all, believing that there was no escaping kismet fate.

Lavr Kornilov

By the way, he was not as brilliant a military leader as he was a scout, and both in the Russian-Japanese and in the First World War he distinguished himself more by personal courage than by great victories. He himself led his soldiers into battle and, in the midst of a brutal firefight, could climb onto some hill under the very nose of the enemy in order to get a better look at the disposition. The quartermaster only had time to change the caps shot on the head of the poor general - Kornilov himself, no less, was protected by kismet-fate.

Lavr Georgievich truly became famous in 1915... Wounded, he was captured by the Austrians. The Austrians placed Kornilov with full honors in a baronial castle near Vienna. Having barely recovered, the general seized the airplane and tried to escape. Unfortunately, the engine did not start at the last minute. Then the Austrians offered Lavr Georgievich to choose one of three options: take an oath not to participate in the war, and then he would be allowed to go home; take an oath not to make any more attempts to escape, and then he will be left in the castle on the same comfortable terms; or not take any oaths and move to a prisoner of war camp with heavy security. And if he tries to escape from there, then don’t blame me - court martial. Kornilov grinned: “I choose the latter. And I will do what my duty tells me. And how it will turn out is up to fate to decide.”

He nevertheless escaped, having persuaded the camp pharmacist, a Czech by nationality. We got hold of fake documents and civilian clothes, took a train to Budapest, then walked to the Russian border. At the last moment, the Czech was caught by the Austrian gendarmes, Kornilov managed to escape. At home, fame fell upon him. Nicholas II himself received him at Headquarters and hung “George III degree” on his chest. Newspapers vying with each other printed portraits and interviews of the general. As for the pharmacist, he did not disappear: he skillfully feigned madness, somehow survived until the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and was safely released. Kornilov never found out about this and was sure that his savior was executed. But he didn’t feel any remorse: such was the poor fellow’s fate. But he included the name of his savior in the lists of the Czech legion that fought on the side of Russia. At each evening regimental roll call, the non-commissioned officer on duty called the name of Frantisek Mrnjak, to which the platoon commander replied: “Executed by the Austrians for the liberation of General Kornilov.” In the same way, Kornilov did not feel any remorse when he personally arrested the former empress. After all, he never swore allegiance to her - only to the emperor, but he abdicated; the Provisional Government became the legal authority in Russia. What will happen to the empress next is not decided by people, but by kismet fate.

The soldiers of the 8th Army, which was led by Kornilov, knew that such a commander was not to be trifled with. The general did not allow disintegration in his units. As before, he himself led soldiers into battle, severely punished fraternization with the enemy, shot deserters and agitators, despite the abolition of the death penalty by the Provisional Government. By the way, Lavra Georgievich had to execute only 14 people - much less than Kerensky killed when pacifying the summer riots in the capital.

It was such a person that Kerensky chose as the main assistant in the salvation of Russia. To begin with, Kornilov was promoted to commander-in-chief. Then they sent secret envoys to him. Kornilov willingly accepted the offer: he himself believed that only a tough hand would save Russia. It was decided to bring troops to Petrograd by the end of August, wait until the 27th, when, on the occasion of the celebration of the six months of the revolution, demonstrations would certainly begin in the streets, disperse the Petrograd Soviet, arrest the remaining Bolsheviks, hang Lenin, ban rallies, set up concentration camps for the disobedient, and declare military situation in railways and defense factories and so on. Among other things, it was planned to dissolve the Provisional Government and form a new, dictatorial one. It was here that the straightforward and ingenuous Lavr Georgievich made a mistake, saying that he would not want to see Kerensky, an empty and weak-willed man, in its composition. He was quickly convinced that it was impossible to do without the “apostle of freedom”, that it was the biumvirate of Kornilov and Kerensky that would save Russia. The general, after thinking, agreed to this too. Only Kerensky, to whom the whole conversation was conveyed, became nervous: how come Kornilov agreed just for show?

Triumphant meeting of Kornilov in Moscow

Kornilov traveled to Headquarters through Moscow. At the station he was given a triumphal welcome. The Union of St. George's Knights carried the general out of the carriage in their arms, the crowds chanted: “To the Savior of the Russian Army: Hurray! Hooray! Hooray!" - the ladies threw their hats into the air. After reading about this in the newspapers, Kerensky became jealous. Doubts about the correctness of the alliance with Kornilov arose again.

Meanwhile, Kornilov himself, fulfilling his promise, sent General Krymov’s cavalry corps to Petrograd, the rest of the troops under his own leadership were to arrive a little later. And then Kerensky did what no one expected: he took it and declared Kornilov a rebel. He sent telegrams throughout Russia demanding the arrest of the “traitor to the revolution”, and for the defense of Petrograd he distributed weapons to the workers and released the hated Bolsheviks from prison (among others - Trotsky, Kamenev, Lunacharsky), allowing them to form combat detachments.

All this, however, was unnecessary. Nobody was going to storm Petrograd. Krymov was completely lost, having simultaneously received two mutually exclusive orders: to enter Petrograd from Kornilov and to remain in place from Kerensky. A few days later the minister-chairman received him, insulted him, shouted at him, and the honest servant Krymov put a bullet in his forehead.

Many officers were injured then. It was now enough for the soldiers’ and sailors’ committees to accuse any of them of “Kornilovism” in order to be driven out of office, arrested, or simply shot on the spot. The Russian army was completely destroyed. As for the weapons distributed to the workers, they did not give them back, and the Bolsheviks, of course, did not return to prison. In October, all this turned against Kerensky. But then, in August, it seemed to Alexander Fedorovich that the situation had been resolved.

Storming of the Winter Palace in October 1917
Machine gun team of cadets, October 1917

Kismet-fate

Kornilov himself could have quickly marched to Petrograd, captured the city and brought the matter to an end, sweeping away Kerensky on his way. But he remained at Headquarters and, with the exception of sending telegrams in which he accused the Provisional Government of treason, did nothing to save himself. For what? He did only what his duty told him to do. And in this situation it was impossible to make out what exactly this debt consisted of. All that was left was to trust fate and calmly wait to see what would come of it all.

Kornilov waited for the arrest brigade. But he didn’t allow himself to be arrested so easily until Kerensky was given the conditions: to stop sending telegrams discrediting Kornilov, not to arrest anyone else in the rebellion case, to create a strong government in Russia. Having secured a simple promise and not worrying about anything else, he calmly went under arrest. But in fact, none of these conditions were met... The arrest was also unusual - Kornilov was imprisoned... in the Mogilev Metropol Hotel. He could get out of there at any moment: units loyal to him were constantly marching under the windows. But Lavr Georgievich did not do this. Two weeks later, he and other general prisoners were transferred to a real prison in Bykhov. They were also lucky that 2 months later, after the October events, the head of the prison himself released them from there.

Kornilov managed to fight with the Reds. He went to the Don, led the Volunteer Army - about three and a half thousand people, all officers. They had to become privates. “They promoted us to commanders of individual rifles,” the volunteers joked. The Cossacks did not join them - they were too tired of the war. The Cossacks will take up arms only in a few months, when the Reds come to the Don and arrange the devil: “socialization” of girls from 16 to 25 years old, for example (that is, legalized rape). Help from the Entente Volunteer Army will also be provided later. In the meantime, Kornilov has no horses, no rifles, no ammunition, no money for provisions. But there is an army, and standing still, simply repelling the attacks of the Reds, is disastrous for it. So Kornilov went on a campaign to Yekaterinodar to join the local volunteer detachments. Saying goodbye to his family who remained on the Don, Lavr Georgievich, calmly as always, said: “We probably won’t see each other again.” And so it happened.

Kornilovites with his portrait, 1921

The hike turned out to be terribly difficult. The Reds had a clear advantage in strength; the Kornilovites broke through with huge losses. The defenders of Ekaterinodar did not wait for them and surrendered the city just a couple of days before Kornilov’s arrival. Lavr Georgievich held a meeting: is it necessary to storm the Kuban capital, since there is little chance of success, or is it better to bypass Ekaterinodar? But, in this case, where to go? There was nowhere to go. However, the assault scheduled for the morning never took place. At dawn, Red artillery shelled Kornilov's headquarters. There were a lot of people there, but only one was killed - Lavr Georgievich himself. Kismet-fate!

The volunteer army hastily retreated. On the way, on the banks of the Panyri River, Kornilov was buried. They did not put a cross over the grave - on the contrary, they razed the place to the ground. But the Red Army soldiers came across a plot of freshly dug up earth, took up shovels and removed Kornilov’s body from the grave. Then the unimaginable began! The corpse was brought to Yekaterinodar, stripped naked, hung on a tree, and after the rope broke, they began to kick the deceased with boots, spit, and stab him with bayonets. The body was eventually burned at the city slaughterhouse. But they didn’t rest on this either: for several more days clownish processions of mummers rushed through the streets, breaking into shops, demanding vodka “in honor of Kornilov’s soul”...

...It was precisely in those days that Alexander Fedorovich Kerensky, who had grown a beard and shoulder-length curls for secrecy, visited Petrograd for the last time. He was preparing to leave for Paris, settling matters with the French consul. Finally, at great risk, he ventured to approach Thieme’s house. And here she is - as always, cheerful, charming and not alone. Noticing Kerensky, she was amazed: “You? For what? I loved you, but it’s all in the past now, isn’t it? Don't worry about me. Farewell!" There really was no need to worry about her: Elizaveta Ivanovna settled down well under the Bolsheviks. She married a chemistry professor and eventually became a professor at the Leningrad Theater Institute. Of course, she didn’t mention Kerensky.

October Revolution in

Hate folder

1939, Paris. An elegant, youthful gentleman with gray beaver hair rushes along the Place Pigalle with a nervous gait. Some lady was leading a little girl by the hand, stopped and said in Russian: “Tanya! Look at this man and remember him well. It was he who destroyed Russia!” The nervous gentleman shuddered and increased his pace. So many years have passed, and Kerensky still could not get used to such accusations!

He had a special folder labeled “Hate.” He put Soviet cartoons, feuilletons, pages from Soviet textbooks, and insulting letters there. Some reproaches were more or less deserved: that Kerensky played too hard with the Soviets, that he allowed them to destroy the army, that he did not stop the boring war in time, that he did not hang the Bolsheviks, that he killed Kornilov, that in his decisions he looked back at the Masonic leadership... Quite a few came across and frankly absurd slander: that Kerensky’s mother was allegedly a terrorist, prepared bombs for the murderers of Alexander II, and escaped execution only because she became pregnant in prison by a guard (the most exotic details of conception were given), and her last name was either Kirbis or Gelfman. They also wrote that Kerensky wanted to marry one of the tsar’s daughters, and when he was refused, he circled his finger around his neck - they say, in this case, a noose awaits the royal family. That he is mentally ill and has undergone craniotomy. That he snorts cocaine with ether and washes it all down with vodka. And of course, he fled from Winter Palace in a woman’s dress. One emigrant newspaper referred to Kerensky only in the feminine gender - Alexandra Feodorovna.

In exile

Kerensky accepted all this with bitter irony. You'd think someone in his place would know what to do with all this. You would think that someone would be able to stop the raging elements of history. Is it Kornilov? Perhaps, but not a fact, not a fact...

Kerensky was 37 years old when he set foot on foreign soil, and fate gave him another 52 long years, during which he outlived all his friends. He would have survived his enemies if more and more generations had not inherited hatred of him. Over the years, Alexander Fedorovich never accepted any citizenship. I didn’t open a bank account, although I worked hellishly hard: I wrote something, spoke somewhere, gave lectures, published magazines.

It seemed to him that it was unfair to him in Paris, but in Russia someone remembers him, believes in him, is waiting for him. This faith was diligently kindled in him by his new wife (Kerensky divorced Olga, who also managed to emigrate, in the early 30s). Australian Nel, nee Triton, and in her first marriage Nadezhdina: she adored Russia, everything Russian, and especially Russian men. Having married Kerensky, she began to pester her acquaintances with the question: does Alexander Fedorovich have a chance of ever riding into Moscow on a white horse?

Kerensky devoted his entire life in exile to one idea: to reverse Bolshevik propaganda, to convey to his descendants the truth about the February Revolution and... about himself. He was toying with the idea of ​​writing a multi-volume history of the Russian revolution - after all, he had a most valuable archive that he managed to take out of Russia. But one day, entering the office, he discovered his own lackey, who had served him faithfully for a long time - he was stuffing papers from the archive into a bag. They looked into each other’s eyes, the servant took out a pistol, shot at the ceiling, said: “Sorry, Alexander Fedorovich,” and disappeared along with the archive. Nothing other than the machinations of the Cheka...

During Khrushchev’s “thaw” it seemed to Kerensky: now it’s possible! He began to ask to come to Leningrad even for a day, gather historians and give them a lecture... He was not honored with an answer.

After the war and Nel’s death, he moved to America and taught Russian history at Stanford for several years. Alexander Fedorovich found some semblance of happiness and tranquility only in the 60s. He was over eighty, but he looked at most sixty and felt healthier and more vigorous than ever - he was in love again. He said: “Like Tyutchev, I recognized real feeling only in old age.” His last friend was Helen, Elena Petrovna Powers, his own secretary, a rather young woman. They lived quietly and peacefully in New York, in a strange mansion provided to Kerensky by influential American acquaintances. But as soon as problems started with Alexander Fedorovich, he was gently kicked out of there.

In 1967, Kerensky fell ill and had to have surgery on his stomach to remove the tube. “My entire “kitchen” is outside, why should I live now?!” - he despaired. In addition to other troubles, Alexander Fedorovich was almost completely blind. Who needed him like that? Helen has no money, and neither does he. His sons lived in London, but they grew up without him, learned on their own on pennies and, by the way, achieved considerable success: one built bridges all over the world, including across the Bosphorus Strait, the other built power plants. Both treated Alexander Fedorovich with noticeable coolness. However, they didn’t leave him on the street - they found a free municipal clinic in London, where he could die in peace.

With his new wife, Australian Nel

The trouble is that this clinic turned out to be... for women. They performed abortions there for those who could not afford to pay for the operation or childbirth. Alexander Fedorovich was not told about this, but he himself suspected something when he noticed that all women’s voices were heard in the corridors. I extracted the truth from the nurse and was absolutely horrified: now another story about a woman’s dress will be added to the story: about death in a women’s clinic. From the stress, he even somehow cheered up and from a seriously ill, dying man again turned into an active old man with a clear head and strong will. He demanded that Helen be brought to him. How much money, one wonders, did she need to fly from America to such a distance? But somehow she got out of it and arrived. Having learned about everything, she agreed that she needed to run away from the clinic. But where, for what? At some point, hope flashed: one lord called and offered to live in his castle if the old man proved that he was really the same Kerensky. This in itself was tactless, but Alexander Fedorovich accepted humiliation and provided convincing documents. But then it turned out that the lord himself was as naked as a falcon and wanted to rent out his castle to Kerensky. Alexander Fedorovich took his soul away by showering the fool lord with choice curses, but this did not budge the problem. As if at the last straw, they clung to the remains of the archive. There, however, the main value was the “Hate” folder. Stanford only grinned at the offer to buy the archive. But in the rich state of Texas there were those who wanted to be curious. Helen resorted to a trick: she stuffed worthless papers into envelopes, sealed them, and wrote: “Strictly confidential! Open 5 years after the death of Alexander Kerensky” - and it worked! The University of Texas took the bait and coughed up $100,000.

Helen rented a comfortable apartment in New York and moved Alexander Fedorovich there. They might have had enough money for several years of comfortable existence, but Kerensky fell, broke his hip and again found himself in a hospital bed. Fortunately, it was a completely ordinary New York hospital. And Alexander Fedorovich decided not to tempt fate any more. Declaring that now was the right moment to die with dignity, he simply refused to eat. He spat out the probe and pulled out the IV. They tied his hands to the bed - he acted with his feet. Then they began to tie my legs. It was impossible to die with dignity! But I no longer had the strength to live. Despite any medical tricks, Kerensky began to fall into oblivion, called doctors generals, and spoke randomly about Russia. On the day of his last enlightenment, he gave Helen a ring with a skull, which he wore without taking it off for more than half a century. He said: “We didn’t have time to get engaged, so at least take a ring as a memory of me.” She took it - the next day Alexander Fedorovich was gone. It was the summer of 1970... Less than a year remained until Kerensky’s 90th birthday.

But the ordeal did not end there either. They unexpectedly refused to bury him at the cemetery at the Orthodox Church. They say that monarchists are buried here, and their relatives will inevitably desecrate Kerensky’s grave. Helen tried to come to an agreement with the Serbian Orthodox Church, but it also didn’t work out. As a result, Alexander Fedorovich’s body was transported to London and interred there in a cemetery for people of undetermined faith. And there were few people who even felt sorry for him for all this. As if he alone was to blame for everything, or as if he were some kind of unprecedented monster...

Irina Strelnikova

P.S. And the ring that Kerensky gave to Elena Petrovna, as one of her acquaintances soon explained to her, was notorious. It was called the ring of suicides - anyone who owned it would eventually commit suicide. Helen just laughed. And ten years later she herself committed suicide: she found out that she was terminally ill and took a large dose of sleeping pills. Mysticism and nothing more!

#a completely different city - author's walking and interior tours of Moscow

B. Matveeva “Kerensky”

Kerensky - an aspiring lawyer One of the last photos, 1970.

This man, after his political loss, was cursed on all sides - he turned out to be guilty both before his opponents and before yesterday’s admirers. This was led to by his authoritarianism, adventurism and desire to attract attention to his own person at any cost.

Simbirsk lawyer

Alexander Fedorovich Kerensky (1881-1970) was born in Simbirsk into the family of a teacher. The mother was a noblewoman, so the marriage was a misalliance and was “wrong” from the point of view of the norms accepted at that time.

Alexander graduated from high school with honors, and then from the Faculty of Law of St. Petersburg University. There he also became interested in revolutionary ideas, but did not demonstrate ideological consistency: he was a member of the Socialist-Revolutionary and Trudovik parties (he changed his party affiliation for the sake of the possibility of being elected to the State Duma), was a member of the Masonic lodge and never opposed the church or declared himself an atheist.

But Kerensky was a good lawyer, which attracted attention. Among other things. He defended the victims (living participants tried for "riots") and the Lena massacre of 1912. Kerensky had a heavy, rough face and poor health (he survived operations for bone tuberculosis and the removal of a kidney), but he lived a very long life, knew how to behave in public, spoke well, and was distinguished by energy, assertiveness and self-confidence.

He was repeatedly arrested and exiled for his republican position. He was not subjected to particularly cruel punishments, and persecution added to his popularity.

Which ones are temporary?

The rise of Kerensky's political career occurred in 1917, between February and October. He immediately joined the Provisional Government, where he was first the Minister of Justice, then the Minister of War, and then (from July) the Minister-Leader. Kerensky was a consistent republican, but he categorically did not accept advice; advocated the continuation of the First World War and tried to agitate among the soldiers. In the spring of 1917, he enjoyed enormous popularity in society thanks to his revolutionary phraseology and ability to speak, but since the summer interest in him began to wane.

Kerensky’s clearly exaggerated attention to his own person led to this. He lived in the Winter Palace (they said that in the royal bedroom), did not listen to advice and prevented the advancement of any person whom he suspected of having popular sympathy.

After the storming of Winter Palace, Kerensky fled. It’s enough to look at his photo to understand that the story of his escape in women’s clothing is unlikely. Not a single sailor would drink so much that he would not suspect something was wrong at the sight of such a “lady.” The version of Kerensky himself seems more logical - he used the car of the American embassy.

Neither red nor white

Kerensky did not accept Bolshevik power and, having gone abroad, tried to join the white movement. But there he was considered a “red”, the culprit of the fall of the monarchy and the defeat of the Provisional Government, so his political activity was over.

However, he settled down in exile better than many, since he had a profession. Kerensky taught at universities, gave lectures, and published books. His memoirs are a valuable historical source. He died in New York in 1970, but is buried in London. He was married twice and had two sons - bridge engineers.

Unusual coincidences

They are in the biographies of Kerensky and two revolutionary figures with different destinies.

1. Both were born in Simbirsk.
2. Both were children of teachers, and Volodya Ulyanov was a student at the gymnasium, where Fyodor Kerensky was the director.
3. Both have a birthday on April 22, only Kerensky’s is according to the old style, and Lenin’s is according to the new style.
4. Both were lawyers by training, although Lenin did not work as a lawyer.
5. The two families (but not the characters themselves due to the age difference) in Simbirsk were on friendly terms.

Another coincidence connects Kerensky with the last empress. They were namesakes: “Alexander Fedorovich” - “Alexandra Fedorovna”. It was in the usurpation of Alexandra’s bed in Zimny ​​that supporters of the Soviets accused Kerensky, for which they immediately changed his name into a feminine one.