Kerensky, Aleksandr Feodorovich
Kerensky, Aleksandr Feodorovich
(kərĕn`skē, Rus. əlyĭksän`dər fyô`dərəvĭch kâ`rĭnskē), 1881–1970, Russian revolutionary. A lawyer, he was elected to the fourth dumaduma, Russian name for a representative body, particularly applied to the Imperial Duma established as a result of the Russian Revolution of 1905. The parliamentary organization of 1906, largely the work of Count Witte, provided for a state council (an upper house, with some
..... Click the link for more information. in 1912 as a representative of the moderate Labor party. He joined the Socialist Revolutionary party after the February Revolution of 1917 that overthrew the czarist government and became minister of justice, then war minister in the provisional government of Prince Lvov. He succeeded (July, 1917) Lvov as premier. Kerensky's insistence on remaining in World War I, his failure to deal with urgent economic problems (particularly land distribution), and his moderation enabled the Bolsheviks to overthrow his government later in 1917. Kerensky fled to Paris, where he continued as an active propagandist against the Soviet regime. In 1940 he fled to the United States; later he continued to travel and lecture. He wrote The Prelude to Bolshevism (1919).
Bibliography
See R. Abraham, Alexander Kerensky (1987).