Alexander Kerensky, leader of Russia's Cadet party and a member of the Provisional government in 1917 as Minister of Justice, War, and Prime Minister. From 'The War of the Nations Portfolio in Rotogravure Etchings Compiled from the Mid-Week Pictorial Published by the New York Times Co. New York City N.Y.' © Copyrighted 1919 by the New York Times Company 1914 - 1919

Alexander Kerensky, who was head of the Russian Government when the Russian front collapsed.

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Monday, November 12, 1917

"By the morning of the twenty-ninth we should have been in Petrograd, but we had only gotten as far as Tsarskoye Selo. That same day an anti-Bolshevik revolt broke out in the capital. At four in the afternoon I was called to the telephone. It was the Mikhailsky Castle calling from the very center of the city, where the headquarters of the government supporters were located. They begged me to send help, but we were unable to give it.

The final act in the tragedy of the Provisional Government's struggle for the freedom and honor of Russia was played out on October 30, near Pulkovo, the site of the famous observatory. Against us were arrayed 12,000 men variously armed. The so-called Pulkovo Heights were occupied by Kronstadt sailors. We had 700 Cossacks, one armored train, the first infantry regiment to reach us from the front, and a few field guns."

Quotation Context

Alexander Kerensky was head of the Provisional Government that the Bolshevik Revolution overthrew. He managed to escape Petrograd, and spent the following days trying to rally troops to retake the capital. As he writes in his memoir, Russia and History's Turning Point, he gathered half-hearted support that was defeated. Tsarskoye Selo was the summer palace of the deposed Tsar. His dates, October 29 and 30 are November 11 and 12, New Style. Kronstadt was an island naval base in the gulf west of Petrograd, and strongly supported the revolution.

Source

Russia and History's Turning Point by Alexander Kerensky, page 443, copyright © 1965 by Alexander Kerensky, publisher: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, publication date: 1965

Tags

1917-11-12, 1917, November, Petrograd,