1898 map of St. Petersburg, the Russian capital, from a German atlas. Central St Petersburg, or Petrograd, is on the Neva River. Key landmarks include the Peter and Paul Fortress, which served as a prison, Nevski Prospect, a primary boulevard south of the Fortress, the Finland Train Station, east of the Fortress, where Lenin made his triumphal return, the Tauride (Taurisches) Palace, which housed the Duma and later the Petrograd Soviet.
St Petersburg (Petrograd); Neva River, Peter and Paul Fortress; Nevski Prospect, Finland Bahnhof (Train Station); Taurisches (Tauride) Palace
"General Kornilov proposed (1) the declaration of martial law in the city of Petrograd; (2) the transfer of all military and civil power to the Supreme Commander; (3) the resignation of all ministers, including the prime minister, and the temporary transfer of all ministerial business to deputy ministers, pending the formation of a cabinet by the Supreme Commander. Petrograd. August 26, 1917. V. Lvov."
Russian General Lavr Kornilov had been made Supreme Commander of the Russian Army on July 31, 1917. Although claiming to support the Russian Revolution, he opposed many of its reforms, and wanted to bring back the death penalty for deserters from the army, many of whom had simply left the front. He had begun planning a coup with conservative officers, financiers, and industrialists in the first days of the revolution. Vladimir Lvov was Chief Procurator of the Holy Synod in the first cabinet of the Provisional Government, and served as an intermediary between Kornilov and Russian Prime Minister Alexander Kerensky. Shocked by what Lvov proposed when the two men met on September 8, 1917 (August 26, Old Style), Kerensky asked him for a written summary of Kornilov's proposal for the Prime Minister to cede dictatorial powers to the General. They met in Petrograd, seat of the Russian government and center of revolutionary activity.
Russia and History's Turning Point by Alexander Kerensky, page 345, copyright © 1965 by Alexander Kerensky, publisher: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, publication date: 1965
1917-09-08, 1917, September, Kornilov, General Lavr Kornilov, Lavr Kornilov, Kornilov conspiracy, Lvov, Vladimir Lvov
