Aleksandr Kerensky

Alexander Fedorovich Kerensky (1881-1970) was the Prime Minister of Russia after the downfall of the last Tsar and immediately before the Bolsheviks came to power.

Originally from Simbirsk[?], Kerensky was a law graduate of Saint Petersburg University in 1904. Kerensky showed his political sympathies early on with his frequent defence of anti-Tsar revolutionaries. He was elected to the Fourth Duma in 1912 as a member of the Trudoviks[?]. He remained in politics during World War I and by 1917 he was a member of the Provisional Committee of the Duma as a Socialist Revolutionary. He also managed to retain the vice-chairmanship of the Petrograd Soviet. When the Provisional Government was formed he was initially Minister of Justice but he became Minister of War in May and Prime Minister in July 1917. Following the failed coup of General Kornilov in August and the resignation of the ministers, he appointed himself Supreme Commander-in-Chief as well. When the Bolsheviks took control in October he fled to Pskov[?] and after an attempt to overthrow the Bolsheviks - troops under his direction captured Tsarskoe Selo[?] on October 28th but were defeated the next day at Pulkovo[?] - he left for France.

He moved to the United States in 1940 where he lived until his death.