Alexander Kerensky: The Catalyst Behind the Russian Revolution

this video has been brought to you by the generous channel members and Lads over at patreon thank you all for supporting me and my content the Russian Revolution is widely considered as one of the most significant events of the 20th century it was a Triumph for Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks who successfully overthrew the provisional government and established the world's first proletarian government this Landmark event marked the beginning of the global spread of Communism the revolution despite its impact on History has been shrouded in many misconceptions and myths in popular accounts the blame for the revolution is placed solely on the tsarist autocracy and Nicholas II according to this view the tsar's supposed decisions created a path for learning to take power but as I delve deeper into my research I discovered that the tsar and the monarchy were not the main cause of the Revolution at all rather than a popular Uprising I believe Lenin's Revolution was chiefly the result of his skillful exploitation of Russia's political climate at that time specifically Latin capitalized on the instability created by the provisional Russian government in the aftermath of the February Revolution but to truly understand the roots of the Revolution we must look beyond the provisional government and focus on the one figure who through his own mistakes and incompetence enabled the Bolsheviks to seize power Alexander karensky I suspect that most of you are not familiar with karensky or know very little about him and that is understandable his name is perhaps only known to those who have encountered him through the hoi 4 mod kaiserike or the popular oversimplified video on the Russian Revolution unfortunately this lack of recognition has rendered karensky somewhat irrelevant when discussing the revolution in a broader sense instead most people tend to focus on the tsar and in doing so Overlook The crucial role that karensky played it is precisely because of his perceived irrelevance that he has managed to evade responsibility for the catastrophic events that transpired this video aims to demonstrate precisely how karensky's actions paved the way for the Bolsheviks to see his power through a thorough analysis of his decisions and their aftermath I will show how karensky was solely responsible for creating the conditions that allowed Lenin and his movement to seize their chance it is worth noting that if you believe karensky was incompetent based solely on oversimplified's portrayal of him you have not seen the full picture herensky immersed as a leading figure in the February Revolution having already gained prominence in the Duma as a vocal opponent of the monarchy his affiliation with the social revolutionary party which was a kind of a liberal Socialist Party helped him maintain cultural relations with both the new government and the petrograd Soviet in fact his position was so highly regarded that he was appointed as the vice chairman of the Soviet although karensky initially served as a Minister of Justice in the new provisional government he would later be reappointed as minister of War it was during his tenure as minister of war that the cracks in his leadership began to show one of karenski's first major decisions in this role was to enforce order number one which granted Soldiers the right to express their opinions freely abolished mandatory saluting and mandate its respectful treatment of soldiers by their officers among other things this decision proved to be highly controversial and had significant consequences order number one was met with significant opposition from the officer course of the army due to two main reasons firstly it was believed that the order hampered the enforcement of discipline within the ranks of soldiers secondly the soldiers knew found right to express their opinions freely let the political agitation at the front which the officers believed went against the Army's apolitical stance instead of actually improving the state of the army order number one created even more confusion among the soldiers perensky's dismissal of several commanders and his replacement of General Alexia for General brusilov who had a clear revolutionary bias towards the provisional government also contributed to the fragmentation of the military leadership order number one proved to be a double-edged sword as it allowed the Bolsheviks to take advantage of the political turmoil in the army they quickly dispatched numerous agitators to the front lines hoping to sway Soldiers with their Marxist ideology this was not an insignificant effort the spread of Lenin's defeatus propaganda to the front further complicated karensky's task military sensors began to hear the name Lenin more and more often in May 1917 not always in approving terms but frequently enough to be of political significance and during this time karensky and brusillov were preparing for the biggest offensive Russia had yet seen in the war the Bruce love offensive targeting the area of Galicia in the austro-hungarian Empire by carrying out this offensive kerensky and the brusilov hope to gain some support for both them and the provisional government by winning this large battle so considering the state of political agitation at the front and how Bolshevik commissars could cause a problem during the offensive you would think that karensky and brusselov would call upon reinforcements from other parts of the Empire that were not infected with bolsheva's thought right wrong they instead called upon reinforcements from the only city bolshevism had a significant Presence at petrograd the arrival of Bolshevik agitators in Galicia was the worst possible news for stavka already officers were grumbling about trans-bolsavism a lack of fighting Spirit some referred to more sourly as Skin bolshevism and then finally when the karensky offensive was launched you had situations like these happening a soldier named miroshkin in 35th division after his unit had captured some well-appointed Austrian trenches convened a Soviet and shouted comrades whose land are we on anyhow let's give the austrians back their land and return to our own borders then if they tried to go further over our dead bodies and the fact that the offensive was going horribly did not help the situation at all as the offensive basically killed off whatever fighting Spirit had been regained by the explosion of bolshevized mutineers and in the end several divisions ended up being entirely unwilling to fight and it was extremely difficult to expel the agitators in theory morale could be improved by expelling Bolshevik troublemakers from the infected units and yet as general baliwav explained to brusalov it is impossible to expel the main agitators in view of the fact that they are armed so let's recap this the Bolsheviks before were only really known in petrograd and had almost non-existent presence in the armed forces with karensky enforcing order number one he had directly allowed the Bolsheviks to send political commissars to the front in an attempt to spread their ideas and on to that it failed offensive that killed over half to a million Russians bolshevism was now becoming a common tale among the units and this is not the end of karenski's blunders in fact we have not even covered his biggest mistake yet foreign 1917 the Bolsheviks feeling a bit cocky decided to finally go through with their revolution in petrograd an event also known as the July days so important was the school attempt to the Bolsheviks that Lenin returned from Exile in Finland to take part in it although according to Witnesses it looked as if he was down a bit however probably the biggest target of the July days was kerensky himself with Leon tronsky painting a giant Target on his back just before the coup attempt broke out telling his men that they should Target him quote Trotsky shouted out in full war cry down with karensky and even urged the men to kill karensky end quote all in all the attempt of the Bolsheviks to seize power in July failed miserably as you could imagine over 2 000 leading Bolsheviks were arrested in the coup attempt and 11 Bolsheviks were charged with high treason and organizing an armed Uprising a few days after the July days he then prime minister Georgie levov would resign his position and choose karensky as his successor arguing that quote strong government is needed and to bring it about a combination of elements of authority is needed such as are embodied in the person of karensky in the Army he is a recognized leader in the country he is a symbol of the Revolution among the Socialists he is perhaps the only man of action he must have the greatest freedom of action to Rally everybody into one whole in order to create that High Spirit in the country which can alone save the motherland end quote now despite levov's Praises karensky was not the most popular person among the Army currently the officer course was still Furious about order number one he was universally blamed for the disastrous karensky offensive and at one time he was even chased off by a mob at the Warsaw Central Station nevertheless karensky was thrilled about his new promotion a bit too thrilled perhaps because the very same day he moved into the Winter Palace sleeping on the bed of former Tsar Alexander III and also using the tar strain carriage for his own travels his first order of business now was de facto dictator was to bring order to the Army and surprisingly this time he actually did it well he declared any withdrawal to be tantamas to treason and even reinstated the death penalty in the Army and naturally this made a pretty strong impression on the Armed Forces now this obviously does not really add up with his decisions as minister of War however one Theory I heard is that karensky intentionally enforced order number one in order to get the Bolsheviks a bit cocky and attempt a coup by having Lenin show his hands karensky made the Bolsheviks fall into a strap as the Communists were now extremely disorganized however frankly I do not believe this I just believe that it was dumb luck for karensky because his next actions doomed Russia to the Grave [Music] in an effort to try and save the Army herensky wanted to promote famous General lover kornalov as chief of staff and cornelov would accept his position under one condition at order number one would be abolished and for the Army to turn a political again with a heavy heart karensky agrito cornlov's demand and three days later cornelove was appointed commander-in-chief of the Russian armies with karenski's acceptance of his terms suggesting four socialist critics at ispalcomm that the two men had teamed up to erode Soviet authority over the Army now it's important to mention that cornelov himself was not that fond of terensky personally and the same opinion goes regarding the provisional government he would criticize karenski's actions numerous times and even State how the country was going to the dogs however only after he reassured cornelov that karensky how to prove this Army reform plan having Cove claimed in an interview conducted just Days Later did cornylov calm down nonetheless he noted that in parting cornlov quote paid me conveyed to karensky the expression of his satisfaction and the Assurance of his perfect loyalty to the government so cornelov's opinion towards karensky was not all that favorable however he was more than willing to cooperate if karensky did not interfere in the Army and just let corn love do his things however karensky on the other hand considering his position and the political climate started getting paranoid karensky began to doubt the man he had just appointed commander-in-chief after the Moscow conference he later recalled it was clear to me that the next attempt at a blow would come from the right and not from the left the documentary record leaves no doubt that he believed by late August 9 1917 that a counter-revolutionary plot was brewing but still both men were doing their duties with both the political situation and that of the army starting to normalize and the Bolsheviks were still being hunted out of petrograd now being completely irrelevant in the political climate but it would take one man to destroy all of that Vladimir nicolaevich levov what would transpire next can be explained no better than something you would see happening between three children in a preschool lavavo is just about to be fired by karensky but he had an idea up his sleeve at around 10 pm on August 24th lavoth entered cornelov's office and I will let Sean McMicken take over from here the two headed off immediately based on a shared antipathy to the Bolsheviks who cornelov informed his guest were planning to quote overthrow wrote the government dubiously lavoth claimed that karensky had authorized him to propose three quarters of action to see off the Bolshevik threat number one a new government with karensky's dictator number two a small oligarchy of three or four members to be invested with unlimited power or number three a military dictatorship under cornellov without asking his mystery guest for credentials cornelov took levov's proposals as genuine and stated a preference for option three so long as karensky and savinkov remained on as ministers astonishingly cornelov had just advocated in effect to overthrow the provisional government even if under entirely false pretenses right after this conversation with cornelov levoth set off for petrograd to have an audience with karensky and I believe you can already see where this is going levolve blatantly told karensky that General kornlov was demanding for the professional government to transfer all its power to the general and at savinkov and karensky must travel to mogilev to get arrested obviously karensky pretty much lost his mind after hearing this but to be fair to him he did demand to speak to cornelove directly first before taking Act connected with cornelov directly through a telegraph this entire misunderstanding could have been solved then and there but instead karensky completely blew it instead karensky pretended that he was levolve and asking whether the plan should be carried out and for karensky and sadenkov to come to mogulov cornelov had actually told levov that that mogalev kransky and savinkov would be made Ministers of justice and War not arrested but obviously this is not what levolve told karensky and by answering yes hornolov had just fallen into karenski's trap believing that a right-wing military coup was imminent krenske called an emergency cabinet meeting at midnight savinkov to his immense credit tried to talk him down using the whole corn love business as a fatal misunderstanding not a conspiracy but karensky was having none of it he proclaimed melodramatically I will not let them have the revolution and in a curious mirror Imaging of what he claimed cornelove was doing karensky asked for and was granted dictatorial Powers soon enough karensky would place all of petrograd under martial law and demanded that cornelov be arrested at once when cornelov heard about everything he was more than Furious in his own radio reply to the country wouldn't allowed finally admitted what truly happened and saw this as a great provocation bonolov then continued based on karensky's dishonorable accusation stated that the government was acting under Bolshevik pressure and that they managed to infiltrate the government cornelov would then conclude his message with quote I General cornelov son of a Cossack peasant declared to all and Sundry that I want nothing for myself except the preservation of a great Russia and I vowed bring the People by any means of victory over the enemy to the constituent assembly end quote by this point cornelove was actually still going through the school attempt not because he was actually trying to go against karensky but because as I mentioned he believed that the government was taken over by the Bolsheviks and that karensky was being pressured into giving out these orders and the political Fallout was devastating the coronalova fair born in misunderstanding was now poisoned by bad faith after reading cornelov's reply karensky must have realized the mistake both men had made in trusting levolve instead he doubled down accusing cornelop in a follow-up communique of treachery but the worst was yet to come in an effort to Halt cornelov's coup kerensky had released all imprisoned Bolsheviks and their leaders in order to form a quote a midi for the people struggle against counter-revolution by doing this karensky officially gave the Bolsheviks amnesty and even supplied them with guns overall korlov's rebellion and coup attempt was very short-lived as he surrendered a couple of days later at moglev and was subsequently imprisoned karensky obviously saw this as a huge victory for the revolution but unknowingly to him he had just put the final nail in the coffin for Russia you see now that corner love was gone karensky needed a new chief of staff and he sent out requests to numerous Russian generals to see if they will accept the role but every single General declined his offer first it was order number one and then after that the Cornell of Affair the Army's allegiance to karensky virtually collapsed in every way General Alexander lukomski he was one of the people that this position was offered to he obviously declined but in the meantime also told karensky that quote the firing of cornelov will lead to Horrors such as Russia has not yet experienced end quote so in order to eliminate a threat that basically never existed and through his own actions karensky had sacked one of the most competent men in the Army subsequently losing the entire support of the Armed Forces and the worst of all in order to fight this Phantom Menace of cornelovism karansky had released the Bolsheviks from prison granted them amnesty and also supplied them with weapons the same group who attempted a coup back in July and called for karensky to be killed honestly even I have no idea what to say about this this sounds like something you would hear in a cartoon and karensky himself was just realizing what his actions meant for Russia foreign was appointed as Chief of Staff the situation of the military began to rapidly improve discipline was returned to the front more Authority was given to the officers and so on but most importantly Major General M.A svetchen reported on July 28 that land political agitation had ceased entirely owing to the Crackdown on the Bolsheviks with the voices of more patriotic socialist revolutionaries now dominating soldiers committees every achievement the Bolsheviks managed to make with agitators thanks to order number one was entirely crushed with cornelov's efforts and Bolshevik influence in the Army became non-existent karensky and cornelov were working side by side to eradicate remaining Bolshevik influence in Russia and it was working but now with the aftermath of the cornelove affair the Army became completely demoralized because considering how many times karensky changed the structure of the army no one knew for who they were fighting now a more common reaction was a fatalistic shrug of shoulders as men wondered why should we fight now summing up the feelings of many one must vitally stay declared this is not a war this is the annihilation of the Russian nation and now with the Bolsheviks being granted complete amnesty the bolshevization of the army continued with even more agitators being sent and of course karensky did nothing to stop them in an effort to try and appease them both of the commissars managed to seize control of the telegraph apparatus and were now vetting all communication towards petrograd and on the other side well no one was even leading the fight against bolshevism just a loose Coalition of anyone who was opposed to them karansky should have been the one to lead it but after alienating the entire Army and pretty much everyone who was on the right of the mensheviks he became a leader without followers but this was not the end of karensky's blunders soon enough the okrana Russia's counterintelligence agency came to karensky with a massive breakthrough after a morning search in one of the Mansions they found countless documents Maps list of regiments involved all connected to the Bolsheviks on seizing power and overthrowing the government this was all karensky needed with this amount of evidence he could finally go through with a treason trial against the Bolsheviks and end their movement for good but what did karensky instead do he abolished yokrana right after they Unearthed this massive amount of evidence rensky decided to let the Bolsheviks off the hook as to fight The Phantom Menace of cornelovism and then abolish the very counterintelligence Department that had Unearthed their evidence stunningly karensky even allowed the Bolsheviks to re-arm ostensibly to help the petrograd against cordellovites this idea being apparently that the Bolshevik military organization was the only experienced Armed Force available the Bolsheviks promptly seized a 40 000 rifles from a government Arsenal what on Earth was kerensky thinking and then shocking literally no one the next month the Bolsheviks finally launched their Revolution now fully armed karensky immediately requested for nearby troops to head to petrograd to quash the Insurrection but this time karenski's past actions finally came back to haunt him herensky's urgent requests for loyal troops to reinforce the capital wired to Northern front headquarters at Scott was simply ignored by the new front Commander General charashimov who tossed the order over to his Aid and said quote this is political and has nothing to do with me in the looming struggle between the Bolsheviks and karensky's government Russia's officers had no dog in the fight keep in mind out of 160 000 soldiers present in petrograd only ten thousand were taking part in the October revolution in comparison karensky's loyalists numbered less than 2 500 and in the face of the Bolsheviks were completely outnumbered and this is why it was easy for the Bolsheviks to take power had any division responded to karensky's plea for help the October Revolution would have been dealt with then and there but instead Karma finally caught up to karensky and realizing everything was lost he got into a car and drove out of petrograd leaving the city to completely fall to the Bolsheviks it is extremely clear that the Bolshevik takeover was not the case of a popular Uprising rather as I mentioned previously Lenin got extremely lucky with the way the provisional government was being run especially by Alexander karensky the amount of mistakes he made during his tenure doomed Russia for bolshevism as I have shown he was the one who directly contributed to their rights to power without even realizing and if he did at least one thing right here the October Revolution would have most likely never happened or would have gone completely differently to attribute the revolution solely to the Tsar would be ludicrous and Nicholas remained in power during The crucial events the Bolsheviks would not have had the opportunity to see his power however it was the actions of one man Alexander karensky that ultimately disrupted the course of events his remarkable incompetence and failure to anticipate the consequences of his actions played a pivotal role in Paving the way for the Bolsheviks to take power karensky emerges as a central figure during the February Revolution deserving significant play for the Bolsheviks rise and their subsequent influence over nearly a decade of Russian history

Channel: Lavader

Views: 60,603

Keywords: Alexander Kerensky, Russian Empire, Russian Revolution, october revolution, February Revolution, Nicholas II, Tsar Nicholas II, Provisional Russian Government, Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky, Bolsheviks, Soviet Union, provisional government, kornilov affair

Id: bTbTy7BE-Gw

Length: 28min 1sec (1681 seconds)

Published: Fri May 19 2023