Comrade Kerensky. Boris Kolonitskii

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СКАЧАТЬ top officials in the ministry but denouncing this extremely powerful ministry as a whole. ‘The leading circles of the Interior Ministry are in very close touch with a highly influential political tendency in Russia which considers it a matter of the utmost urgency to restore swiftly a close unity with the government in Berlin.’ To save the country was the duty of those elected by the people. ‘The State Duma must do everything to defend the nation from a shameful stab in the back.’¹²³ Kerensky’s letter gained widespread distribution, with some people writing it out in full in their diaries. According to the police, the letter was the subject of lively debate in politically engaged student circles, leaflets with the text were distributed at Petrograd University, and left-wing student groups – social democrats and internationalist Socialist Revolutionaries – tried to use it as anti-war propaganda.¹²⁴ Even the Bolsheviks published it.¹²⁵ It was distributed in Moscow, Kharkov, Kiev, Kronshtadt and at the front, and it was also translated into Estonian.¹²⁶

The climate of increasing spymania and xenophobia during the war caused competing conspiracy theories to spring up. Almost all the political parties made use of Germanophobia for their own purposes, although right-wing theories were tinged with anti-Semitism and Anglophobia. The opposition talked ever more insistently about a ‘German party’ at court who were angling for a separate peace, and rumours spread about the ‘empress’s plot’.¹²⁷ After the revolution, the most far-out conspiracy theories had conferred on them the status of proven fact, and those who had come up with them and spread them assumed the reputation of courageous patriots who had exposed the treacheries of the old regime. Hatred of the police force, which was abolished after the February Revolution, contributed, in the light of Kerensky’s ‘exposure’ of the would-be conspiracy at the Interior Ministry, to further increasing the popularity of the revolutionary minister.

      Creating his own version of a ‘stab in the back of the Russian army’, Kerensky discredited the conspiracy theories of his adversaries. During the war, right-wing politicians and high-ranking military officers spread rumours that, at the front line, practically the entire Jewish population was spying for the enemy and, in the Jewish shtetl of Kuzhi, Jews allegedly even opened fire on Russian troops. Kerensky travelled to Kuzhi and conducted an investigation, on the basis of which in the Duma he called the accusation a vile slander.¹²⁸ One of his 1917 biographers also writes about the Kuzhi investigation.¹²⁹ A reputation as a defender of national minorities was a considerable asset after February 1917.

      During the revolution, journalists supportive of Kerensky recalled another earlier episode. In 1916 many residents of Kazakhstan and Central Asia were conscripted to work in the rear, following which there was an uprising accompanied by bloody ethnic conflicts. It was brutally suppressed by Russian troops. Kerensky, having lived in Tashkent in his youth, and feeling himself a ‘Turkestani’, took these events very much to heart and, together with Duma deputies representing the empire’s Muslim population, travelled to Turkestan.¹³⁰ On his return to the capital, he talked about his trip at a closed session of Duma deputies. Giving his interpretation of this complex conflict, he ascribed all the region’s ills to the foolish actions of the tsarist administration. There was, in fact, no denying the incompetence of the government, and after February 1917 Kerensky’s version of events was just what people wanted to hear. The old regime got the blame for everything that had gone wrong. His expedition to Turkestan enhanced Kerensky’s standing with the Muslim intelligentsia, and this was manifested in 1917 when the Central Bureau of Russian Muslims and the Muslim Committee in Moscow gave him a rousing welcome.¹³¹

      Leonidov, in his biographical sketch, even insists that it was thanks to Kerensky’s decisive actions that the situation in the region had not deteriorated further in 1916. ‘When these regrettable events were playing out, Kerensky had yet to recover from a serious operation. Straight out of bed, still unwell, in defiance of all the prohibitions of his doctors, he set off to try to persuade General Kuropatkin that he should not turn the formerly loyal peoples of Turkestan into rebels and not allow Russia, which was engaged in fighting a foreign enemy, to trample this peaceful outlying region underfoot.’¹³²

The mention of illness needs elaboration. Doctors discovered Kerensky was suffering from renal tuberculosis, and he had a kidney removed on 16 March 1916 in a clinic in the Finnish resort of Bad Grankulla. For several months his ability to work was severely impaired, and even in early 1917 many people noticed he was looking very unwell. He received numerous letters and telegrams wishing him a speedy recovery.¹³³ Journalists and writers did their best to give him support. These included the economist Ber Brutskus, the publisher and political activist Yakov Sakker, the poet Sergey Yesenin, the writer Alexey Chapygin and the essayist Dmitry Filosofov. Among those urging him to get well soon was his biographer Lidiya Armand. Collective letters from groups of students give a sense of the reputation Kerensky enjoyed among radically inclined young people. An open meeting of students at Moscow University sent greetings to their ‘greatly esteemed comrade’ and expressed the hope that they would soon be able to hear the ‘ardent words of a true representative of Russian democracy’. Participants in an open meeting of students of the Psychoneurological Institute sent congratulations on the occasion of his recovery to the ‘courageous tribune of the people’ and also hoped they would soon again hear the ‘strong, ardent words of the deputy who defends the cherished aspirations of Russian democracy.’ Kerensky was sent good wishes also by the Social Democratic bloc in the Duma, the Jewish Democratic group, and the Trudovik fraction.¹³⁴ Many of those who sent good wishes after his operation went on to support Kerensky politically in 1917 after he had become a minister. It was testimony not only to Kerensky’s authority but also to the emotional ties between the Leader and his supporters. This sympathy for Kerensky when he was ill, as we shall see, also influenced the formation of images of the Leader during the revolution.

      Returning to the matter of how well informed Kerensky was, we should mention that he also knew of plans for a coup d’état which were being made in political and military circles. He later recalled: ‘We too, the leaders of the Masonic organization, knew of the conspiracy and, although unaware of all the details, also prepared for the decisive moment.’ Kerensky was himself present at some of the conspirators’ meetings. On one occasion he had a visit from officers intent on arresting the tsar who wanted to enlist his support.¹³⁵ The fact that various groups involved in complicated political intrigues wanted to involve Kerensky is testimony to his reputation and influence. Later Kerensky himself admitted he had been hoping for a coup as early as 1915.¹³⁶ These episodes, however, did not feature prominently in efforts to boost his reputation in 1917.

      We find Kerensky under consideration for possible inclusion in a new government in the event of a change of regime.¹³⁷ Rumours to that effect circulated widely, and it is noteworthy that even Lenin in Switzerland was writing in early 1917 about the possibility of a government being established in Russia by Milyukov and Guchkov or by Milyukov and Kerensky.¹³⁸ Kerensky’s growing authority was even more evident to the political elite of Petrograd.

By the beginning of 1917 Kerensky was in a unique situation. His social position, his personal qualities and the resources he had at his disposal made him welcome in highly diverse political circles whose representatives rarely had any contact with each other. Kerensky was both a parliamentarian and a lawyer; he associated with Freemasons and the political underground. His status as a member of the Duma, his parliamentary immunity, his knowledgeability and his fame enabled him to render effective assistance, without undue personal risk, to those in the underground. His position as someone with access to the world of the illegals made him interesting and respected by politicians who confined themselves to legal activities. In different ways and for different groups he was the mouthpiece of public opinion, a source of influence, a moral authority and a well-informed expert. The peculiarities of the political system which had developed in 1905–7 and during the war made it possible for Kerensky to act in such diverse roles at the same time, but only someone endowed with exceptional personal and professional qualities could have taken advantage of these opportunities.

      Kerensky was at the centre of diverse political СКАЧАТЬ