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Italy, 1917

In June of 1917 the last advance of the Russian army

at the front of the First World War took place and ended in a complete defeat.

The news about it flew around Europe and reached Italy in no time.

The Russian philosopher Boris Yakovenko wrote about that defeat the following:

“That lightning-fast crush of the entire front that happened

solely for the reason of spiritual degradation that engulfed the soldiers

stroke a hard and irreparable blow at the Russian revolution.

It started the internal collapse, its sliding into the violence and anarchy”.

The Russian revolution was the topic of the research

done by Boris Yakovenko and became the theme of his book.

The revolution that started in February of 1917

approached its terrible fratricidal final by the summer of the same year.

The Real History of the Russian Revolution. October. Episode Six

The power in Russia formally belonged to the Temporary Government

but in reality, there were no real authorities in the country.

In the cities, at the plants and military units councils and committees

of the deputies from workers and soldiers were elected.

The councils were immediately blocking any decisions of the government

that they didn’t like.

If the government insisted on executing its demands,

the councils led thousands of armed people into the streets.

There were no police in the state.

The troops submitted not to their commanders but to the regiment committees

that were deciding which orders to execute. In a result of that,

the authorities had no means of keeping order in the country.

That power was doomed for overthrowing.

The Temporary Government was functioning

only because its opponents were too numerous and couldn’t unite.

However, if any party took single-handed control

over the councils and the armed crowd that listened to the councils,

the government would seize to exist.

By summer of 1917, the Russian revolution had mercilessly swept

off the path of history yesterday’s idols and rulers of minds

whose names had been in all newspapers for years in a row.

Few people remembered about Rodzyanko, Guchkov and Milyukov…

The socialists played the main parts in the politics now:

the socialist revolutionaries, Mensheviks, Mensheviks-internationalists,

Social Democrats, “inter-district Mensheviks”, Bolsheviks and the like.

Representatives of those parties worked at the Councils of the Deputies

from the Workers, Soldiers, Peasants and so all.

Their ideas appealed to people especially when they were talking

about the re-distribution of the land or the end of the war.

They all dreamt of having their country renewed according to their own visions

but all of them saw it united.

However, there were other opinions too.

The Georgian Mensheviks,

Armenian socialist revolutionaries dashnaks,

the musavatists from Azerbaijan decided

to rule over their territories independently.

The ideas of full independence hadn’t gained wide support yet.

In most cases, they only demanded national autonomy.

The Central Rada (“Council”) in Kiev was the most decisive in that respect.

It consisted of over 700 people though they had no authority

to represent the interests of the Ukrainian state.

Both the bodies of the Temporary Government

and its own Council of the Deputies went on working in Kiev too.

Still, it was the Central Rada that declared itself

to be the only representative of the interests of the Ukrainian people

and demanded power.

At the beginning of summer of 1917, the Rada sent a delegation to Petrograd

and demanded the Temporary Government to give Ukraine autonomy

and to recognize the Rada as its highest authority.

The government refused.

Almost at once, a military convention was called upon in Kiev.

Kerenskiy prohibited it, but it still took place.

At the convention, two directions of the Ukrainian nationalist movement met.

The so-called “independence-seekers” demanded the separation of Ukraine

and the creation of its own armed forces.

The other side was represented by the autonomists

who vouched for the autonomy of Ukraine as a part of the Russian state.

They constituted the majority in the Rada.

On June 10, the Central Rada published the so-called First Universal Act –

a manifest like those that had been issued by the Kazaks’ atamans.

By it, the Rada undertook the responsibility for the present state of affairs,

introduced new taxes and declared that the Ukrainian people

should be in command of its own fate.

It didn’t mention the separation from Russia just yet.

However, it founded its own government –

the General Secretariat headed by the writer Vladimir Vinnichenko.

Former accountant Simon Petlyura got the post

of the Secretary of the Military Affairs.

It was a direct challenge to the Temporary Government.

Three Ministers - Tereschenko, Kerenskiy and Tsereteli – were sent to Kiev.

To press on the guests from the capital and demonstrate the strength

of the new power, the Central Rada carried out a military parade.

The real military force it had at its disposal was minimal –

just two incomplete regiments

named after Bogdan Khmelnitskiy and Hetman Polubotok.

However, the Ukrainian politicians found a way out of the situation.

The soldiers at the parade moved in a circle.

After marching in front of the Pedagogical Museum

where the Central Rada was meeting, they ran to the parallel street

and in a few moments paraded in front of the guests from Petrograd again.

They failed to cheat anybody with that trick.

Kerenskiy and the other ministers guessed what was going on.

However, the Rada didn’t concede at the negotiations.

Finally, the sides reached a compromise –

the guests from Petrograd recognized the Central Rada

as a legitimate power, and it agreed not to discuss the issue of autonomy

until the convention of the Constituent Assembly.

The Central Rada published the Second Universal Act in which it stated

that it was always supporting the unity of Ukraine and Russia.

After the delegates from Petrograd had left,

the regiment named after Hetman Polubotok revolted.

The authorities attempted to send the regiment to the front

a couple of times before, but the soldiers kept refusing to go,

and finally, the military authorities stopped allotting the supplies for them.

Officially, the regiment demanded to hand the power over to the Central Rada

but what they wanted in reality was to avoid the front.

The rebels occupied the Kiev fortress and the military plant “Arsenal”.

They were disarmed and later sent to the front.

However, the revolt of the Ukrainian regiment

went almost unnoticed in Petrograd.

More dangerous events were brewing there.

The Bolsheviks decided to test the strength of the Temporary Government.

Italy, 1917

From the book of Boris Yakovenko “History of the Great Russian Revolution”:

“The Anarchy and attempts at the state order didn’t stop or die out.

The disturbances took place in Rostov-on-the-Don, in Stariy Petergof,

in Nizhniy Novgorod, in Yelets, in Ryazan,

and in Petrograd itself the mood remained very tense…”

At the time, the extraordinary investigation commission

of the Temporary Government instigated a criminal case

against Lenin and the Bolsheviks and was investigating their activities

on suspicions of espionage for the benefit of Germany.

However, the leaders of the Bolsheviks were still free.

Lenin kept to his chosen tactics – first of all, to gain influence

and then to seize the control over the Councils.

After that, he planned to use the masses of soldiers and workers

who were the main forces of the Councils,

to arrest the Temporary Government and usurp the power.

In March of 1917, the influence of the Bolsheviks in the capital

was close to zero, but at the beginning of summer it noticeably grew.

And in July Lenin and the Bolsheviks made the first attempt to seize the power.

During the first days of July, incomprehensible and scary chaos

was reigning in the streets of Petrograd.

The passers-by watched with surprise as trucks filled with armed people

drove along the streets. Posters with a short and clear slogan

“The First Bullet is for Kerenskiy” were flying above them.

The agitators of the Bolsheviks kept visiting the caserns.

The soldiers listened to them attentively and favourably.

Their appeals were easy to understand:

“Get Rid of the Minister-Capitalists”,

“Say “No” to the War Until Victorious End”,

and “Peace Without Annexations and Contributions”.

The soldiers of the capital’s garrison didn’t want to fight,

and there was only one party that promised immediate peace – the Bolsheviks.

Lenin published his work called “The April Thesis”,

the first point in which was justification of the need to stop the war.

Lenin’s program also stipulated confiscation of all the landowners’ estates.

However, the leader of the Bolsheviks stated that peace was unattainable

while the Temporary Government held the power.

The 1st Machine Gun Regiment which was as large as a division

and included 11,300 soldiers and 300 officers was considered

to be the least reliable in Petrograd.

It was formed as a training team which was sending

a new marching company to the front every single week.

The soldiers hated to be sent to the front and didn’t want to fight at all.

The regiment was stationed in a district of Petrograd

called “Vyborgskaya Storona” where industrial enterprises

and large capital plants were also situated.

The French journalist Claude d’Anna said the following about it:

“Lenin and Trotskiy feel like hosts here”.

Because of the proximity to the working district,

the soldiers were constantly under the influence of the socialistic propaganda.

In June, the Russian army attempted a decisive advance at the German front.

However, the lack of discipline and command in the troops,

the influence of the socialists, and pacifistic mood

led to the complete failure of the attack.

Thousands of soldiers died in vain;

at the same time, the Bolsheviks’ ideas

about the end of the war ruled the minds in the rear.

During those days the commandment demanded to send

a couple of marching companies of the 1st Machine Gun Regiment to the front.

The troops at the front were coughing up blood

but the machine gunners in Petrograd didn’t want to lose their free existence.

Their regiment committee approved a resolution not to go to the front

until the war became “revolutionary”.

Nobody could answer what they meant by that;

however, it gave them a good pretext to stay at the rear.

After the resolution had been approved,

the Bolsheviks together with the regiment committee carried out a meeting

and called for the end of the cruel violence against the revolutionary troops.

It was the attempt to finally send the machine gunners to the front

that was perceived as “violence”.

On July 3, a revolutionary committee was elected in the regiment.

It sent the delegates to the capital’s plants at once.

The soldiers were shouting the same text:

“All the workers and soldiers of Petrograd have already revolted,

you’re the only ones left!”

The machine gunners believed them,

and the workers were ready to go out into the streets.

The representatives of the regiment arrived in Kronstadt

where a huge crowd had already gathered on the square.

The seamen were listening to passionate speeches:

“The blood of your brothers might already be spilling in Petrograd.

Will you refuse to support your comrades?

Won’t you defend the revolution”?

That was how the seamen of Kronstadt joined the revolt.

The situation became tenser.

No blood had been spilt in Petrograd yet,

but the meetings were on all about the city.

The speakers criticized the Temporary Government

and some people were running from one casern to another

summoning people up for an armed rebellion.

Lenin wasn’t in the city – he went to the summer cottage

of his comrade and publisher Bonch-Bruyevitch.

Other leaders of the Bolsheviks were hesitating.

Finally, they decided not to go for the armed revolt

and to call upon their supporters to remain calm.

The next day, only a peaceful demonstration was planned;

the leaders of the Bolsheviks announced it publicly.

Meanwhile, they kept nudging their people to overthrow the government.

When the member of the Central Committee of the Bolsheviks Stalin

got a call from Kronstadt with a question

of whether people should take rifles to the demonstration, he joked:

“The rifles? You know better, comrades!

We’re writers, so we always have our weapons with us - like a pencil.

You should know what to do with your arms yourselves…”

Josef Vissarionovitch Stalin (Dzhugashvili) came from a poor Georgian family.

He graduated from an Orthodox Religious Collage

and at the age of 16 entered the Tiflis Religious Institute.

At that time, he got involved in the revolutionary activities

and was expelled from the Institute.

He joined the Bolsheviks and met Lenin in 1905.

He was arrested and exiled and imprisoned a couple of times.

During the February revolution,

he had already been at the top of the Bolsheviks’ party.

He supported the Temporary Government at first

but after Lenin’s return to Petrograd

accepted his idea of a new socialistic revolution.

The cars with armed people were still riding all about the city.

The situation in Petrograd grew more and more alarming.

In the Tavria Palace which was filled to the brim

with soldiers and armed workers

the Central Executive Committee of the Councils held endless meetings.

Deputies, representatives of the regiments, and delegates of the plants

were delivering speeches. They all wanted to save the revolution.

The opponents of the Bolsheviks believed that a new revolt

would sweep they off together with the Temporary Government.

The government itself was idling.

Brothers, let’s go to Lenin!

On July 4, the seamen of Kronstadt went to the main headquarters

of the Bolsheviks, the former estate of ballerina Kshesinska.

The seamen were accompanied by trucks with machine guns;

people were shooting into the air.

On reaching Kshesinska’s house, the Kronstadt seamen demanded

to see Lenin who had already returned to Petrograd.

Lenin! Lenin!

Comrades, calm down. Comrade Lenin will now go out to you.

He came out to the demonstrators and delivered a passionate if vague speech.

The chief ardently criticized both the Temporary Government

and the Petrograd Council but avoided the direct appeal to start the revolt.

After listening to Lenin, the seamen went to the Marsovo Field.

When they entered the Liteyniy Avenue, the fire was opened at them.

The Kronstadt seamen started firing back.

It’s still unknown who had opened fire at the seamen.

However, at that time the counter-revolutionaries were blamed.

The wilful searches and even pogroms started in the nearby houses.

The incidents with mysterious shootings happened that day in other places too.

There were dozens of dead and hundreds of wounded.

Nobody knew what was going on.

Rumours about the soldiers’ mutiny and the executions on the rebels

started to circulate about the city.

People said that the soldiers had their heads cut off -

allegedly, by the Kazaks whom Kerenskiy called from the front.

In reality, the Military Minister was not in Petrograd at all

and the other ministers behaved passively.

At first, the government hid at the apartment of the Prime-Minister

Prince Lvov and then at the headquarters of the Petrograd military district.

The ministers claimed that they were holding official meetings.

However, everybody knew that they were simply begging

the commander of the military district General Polovtsev for protection

though he had few reliable troops at his disposal.

The events were developing lightning-fast.

By 4 o’clock, an enraged crowd of the Kronstadt seamen

reached the Tavria Palace.

The situation was absurd.

The seamen wished to hand all the power over to the council

and at the same time were going to rout the Petrograd Council.

The soldiers of the 1st Machine Gun Regiment

who became the instigators of those events were defending the Council.

However, the confrontation was avoided.

After short hesitation, the machine gunners joined the seamen.

On bursting into the building,

the Kronstadt seamen seized the Minister of Agriculture

and the representative of the socialist revolutionaries’ party Viktor Chernov.

The crowd was ready to tear him apart but Lev Trotskiy interfered

and delivered a passionate speech:

“Comrades Kronstadt seamen, the beauty and pride of the Russian Revolution!

I’m sure that nothing will cloud today’s solemn parade

of the revolutionary forces with unnecessary arrests.

Who is for violence? Raise your hand!”

…with unnecessary arrests. Who is for violence?

While Trotskiy was communicating with the seamen,

Chernov was led out of the building.

Thus, the life of the Minister was saved.

In the evening, the commander of the district General Polovtsev

received an order from Kerenskiy to put an end to the unrest.

However, the General didn’t have enough soldiers.

It resembled the days the of February Revolution.

The inactivity of the government, the lack of the forces loyal to it,

a huge city taken over by an armed crowd…

The power was lying under everybody’s feet again.

However, it all changed on the following day.

On the morning of July 5, the Temporary Government made public

the murderous information that the leaders of the Bolsheviks

headed by Lenin were the German spies

and received money from the German secret services.

The authenticity of their evidence was dubious,

and almost all the newspapers refused to publish those revelations.

Only one of them agreed – the newspaper “Zhivoye Slovo” (“The Live Word”)

that was in effect the yellow press.

The law-enforcement officials also took some action.

On July 8, the Temporary Government issued an order

to arrest Lenin, Zinovyev and other leading Bolsheviks

on suspicions of treason and organization of the armed revolt.

In two days, the Special Investigation Commission

for investigation of the level of involvement of the garrisons

of Petrograd and its suburbs in the armed disturbances was formed.

At the same time, the Prosecutor of the Petrograd Court Chamber

entrusted the investigator of cases of particular importance

with “instigating an investigation of the revolt of July 3-5

on suspicions of a crime stipulated by Articles 100 and 108

of the Criminal Code”. In essence, it was the continuation

of the criminal case that had been instigated

against the Bolsheviks back in April.

Lenin and the Bolsheviks weren’t the German spies

in the direct sense of these words.

It’s just the interests of Germany and the Bolsheviks conveniently coincided –

both wanted Russia to lose the war.

Still, the majority of researchers believe that the German government

did finance the Bolsheviks through a couple of channels.

The first one – through Alexander Parvus (Alexander Lvovitch Gelfand)

who cooperated with the German secret services and Lenin’s confidants.

The second source – through the mediation of the Swiss Social Democrat

and German-Austrian agent Karl Moor

who was handing the money over to the Bolsheviks in 1917-1918.

The message that Lenin is…

After the Bolsheviks had been accused of espionage,

the mood of the people started to change.

Just yesterday many soldiers of the Petrograd garrison

were ready to support the Bolsheviks.

However, on finding out about the German money

they hastily turned away from the traitors.

It became much easier for General Polovtsev to talk the soldiers

into defending the Temporary Government.

Besides, the troops were summoned from the front to restore the order.

During the day the crowds that seemed to be innumerable melted like snow.

The troops surrounded the headquarters of the Bolsheviks –

the house of Kshesinska. Stalin held the negotiations.

They agreed that the Bolsheviks would leave the building

if they were permitted to go freely.

The troops from the front arrived in the city,

and the restoration of the order commenced.

Kerenskiy returned from the army too.

The regiment that arrived with him was 40 times less numerous

that the capital’s garrison.

However, the Petrograd units let it disarm themselves without resistance.

The troops detained the soldiers of the 1st Machine Gun Regiment

and led them to the Palace Square where some kind of a filter camp

was opened. 45 instigators of the revolt were arrested.

The rest was sent to the front or to the other rear garrisons –

as far from the capital as possible.

The seamen hid in the Fortress of Peter and Paul.

After the negotiations, they surrendered.

The seamen were disarmed and sent home, to Kronstadt.

Repressions began against the Bolsheviks’ party members.

The leaders of the Russian Social Democratic Working Party

were to be arrested.

Alexander Fedorovitch, we believe that you’re prejudiced

towards the Bolsheviks. They are real revolutionaries…

The Petrograd Council tried to save them

and present them as mistaken but honest revolutionaries.

I don’t think so…

Amidst the debates with the delegation Kerenskiy received a telegram –

the German-Austrian troops broke the front by Tarnopol.

“The German advance that started on July 6

has developed into a real catastrophe that might threaten

the revolutionary Russia with death.

The mood of the units that had been sent forward

has drastically changed through of the efforts of the minority.

Our attack stalled fast.

The majority of the units are now in a state of profound degradation”.

I hope you won’t object to the arrests anymore?

Bolsheviks Trotskiy, Lunacharskiy and Kamenev

whom the soldiers almost tore apart were arrested in Petrograd.

In total, a few dozens of the leading members of the Russian

Social Democratic Working Party of the Bolsheviks were arrested.

Frightened Lenin kept repeating during those days:

“Now they’ll shoot all of us. For them, it’s the most convenient moment”.

He almost guessed it right.

There was a plan to kill Lenin during his arrest.

He had to change five secret addresses

and then hide together with the other leader of the Bolsheviks

Grigoriy Zinovyev close to Petrograd – in a hut by the Lake Razliv.

Grigoriy Alexeyevitch, honey… shall we start the fire?

In August, he moved to the territory of the Great Princedom of Finland

where he was hiding in Yalkal up to the beginning of October,

then in Helsingfors and in Vyborg.

It seemed that the Bolsheviks were done with for good.

The July revolt culminated in the burial of the Kazaks.

Two hundred Kazaks from the Don were the trifling force

that General Polovtsev could rely on during the first days of the disturbances.

A couple of the Kazaks paid for that with their lives.

The Temporary Government arranged solemn funerals for them.

During the July revolt, 20 Kazaks and 4 artillerists were killed,

and 70 people wounded. The rebels lost 16 people dead,

and about 700 people were wounded.

Kerenskiy delivered a passionate speech by their open coffins:

“In front of all of you, I openly claim that all attempts

of instigation of anarchy and disturbances, no matter where they derive from,

will be mercilessly suppressed. Before the bodies of the dead,

I urge you to swear that together with us,

you’ll spare no efforts to save the state and the freedom”.

The crowd carried the Military Minister to his car on their arms.

New changes were introduced in the Temporary Government.

That time, they were radical – Prince Lvov left the post of the Prime-Minister

and the Minister of Internal Affairs.

Alexander Kerenskiy became the head of the government.

The new Prime-Minister settled in the Winter Palace.

When he was leaving his residence, the red banner above it was taken down.

The same thing was done for the Tsar –

when the Emperor used to leave the Winter Palace,

his Imperial banner was taken down the flagstick.

Kerenskiy made rounds of the soldiers on a white horse from the Tsar’s stables

and rode a car from the Tsar’s garage.

Some people seriously believed that Alexander Fedorovitch

was planning to marry one of the daughters of Nicolay II

and in that way, get the Emperor’s crown.

The Emperor and his family were sent away from Tsarskoye Selo

to Tobolsk in Siberia. Kerenskiy gave Nicolay his word

that it was temporary and that in December he would be able to come back.

However, the last Russian Tsar never saw his capital again…

Italy, 1917

From the book of Boris Yakovenko “History of the Great Russian Revolution”:

“The Petrograd Bolshevik mutiny became a new and powerful push

to the further degradation and downfall of the order

and organization in the country”.

After the Bolsheviks’ mutiny had been suppressed,

the situation in the capital changed radically.

The supporters of a “strong hand” now felt more confident.

Among them, there were the most different people –

politicians swept off by the whirlpool of the revolution,

large industrialists, army generals and lower-ranking officers.

Kerenskiy couldn’t unite or head those forces.

That’s why they looked up to General Kornilov.

Lavr Georgiyevitch Kornilov was an ideal candidature

for the restoration of order. Brave and popular at the army,

he wasn’t an old-regime retrograde.

The General was sympathetic with the revolutionary causes

but he hated the anarchy that had engulfed the country

and the army from the bottom of his heart.

The 8th army he headed was in fact the only one

that did well during the infamous June advance.

In summer of 1917, he was appointed the commander of the South-Western Front,

and in two weeks he already was the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army.

The army was in a dire state – the discipline was low,

the soldiers kept refusing to fight, they didn’t listen to their officers,

and the latter blamed that on the soldiers’ committees

formed after the February Revolution.

Kornilov was an ardent opponent to the committees

and believed that politics had no place in the army.

After heading the front, he demanded the government

to reintroduce the martial court and death penalty in the army

to restore discipline in the troops.

In a result of that, General gained many enemies;

however, he gained a lot of supporters too.

A part of them was ready to follow their leader until the end;

the others counted on using his power

to become the politicians of the highest level.

Boris Savinkov was one of them.

Boris Viktorovitch Savinkov, a revolutionary, founder and head

of the “Battle Organization of the Socialist Revolutionaries”.

He participated in preparation of the terroristic acts

of which the Minister of the Internal Affairs of Russia Vyacheslav Pleve,

Moscow General Governor Grand Duke Sergey Alexandrovitch

and Minister of Internal Affairs Petr Durnovo fell victims.

In 1906, he was sentenced to death but escaped from prison.

Lived in the emigration and returned to Russia in 1917.

Savinkov was appointed the commissar of the 7th, and then the 8th army,

then the commissar of the South-Western Front.

Kerenskiy who was heading the Military Ministry

effectively handed it over under Savinkov’s control.

Despite his past of a fighting terrorist, Savinkov despised anarchy

and the power of the crowd and saw himself as a saviour of Russia

from the revolutionary elements. He became one of those

who supported Kornilov’s appointment to the post of the Commander-in-Chief.

Kornilov accepted the post with some reservations.

He insisted that politicians shouldn’t interfere

into the affairs of the military and wanted to reorganize the army.

The socialistic newspapers got alerted.

They perceived the attempts to restore discipline in the army

as a manifestation of counter-revolution and a ghost of dictatorship.

Kornilov did have a plan to restore order.

He made a report to the Temporary Government

in which he demanded to apply the war times laws to the rear,

liquidate the majority of the committees in the army

and hand the railways over under the tough military control.

His report looked like an ultimatum,

and relations between Kornilov and Kerenskiy spoilt in no time.

Savinkov’s intention to make them work together failed.

Meanwhile, on August 12 the State Convention opened in Moscow.

Not only the socialists but also other political parties

and public organizations of the country took part in it.

The Convention took place in the Bolshoy Theatre

and started with a long speech of the Prime-Minister Kerenskiy.

The next day, Kornilov arrived in Moscow.

The officers carried their Commander-in-Chief

to the Railway Station in their arms.

The crowd shouted to him: “Please save Russia!”

Ovations met Kornilov at the Bolshoy Theatre too.

The socialists and soldiers refused to applaud the Commander-in-Chief.

The very first words of Kornilov raised the alarm.

“With deep sadness I must openly claim

that I have doubts that the Russian army will fulfil its duty

before the Motherland without hesitation”.

The General listed the main points of his report

and demanded to immediately undertake decisive measures.

After him, the chair went to Kaledin, the Ataman of the Don Kazak Troops.

He urged to establish strong power in the country

that would be able to act without consulting with the councils and committees;

in effect, he was calling for dictatorship.

Kerenskiy replied that the government Wouldn’t succumb to pressure.

The State Convention ended without achieving anything.

However, it demonstrated that the division in the country remained strong,

the contradictions were hard to reconcile

and the government was very weak.

Italy, 1917

“The Moscow State Convention was the last significant attempt

of the revolutionary power to overcome

the advancing political and social anarchy...”

A new catastrophe at the front became a tragic epilogue to the Moscow Convention.

In a couple of days after the Convention had been closed,

the Germans broke through the front and seized Riga.

The Russian army surrendered that very important city

almost without any resistance.

Only a few regiments and the Latvian Shooters were fighting.

The downfall of Riga opened the way for the German army towards Petrograd.

General Kornilov is accused of the retreat!

General Kornilov is accused of the retreat!

A decision was taken to declare the state of defence emergency in the capital.

The socialists immediately started a propaganda campaign in the mass media.

Kornilov was accused of surrendering Riga to the Germans

and alleged readiness to surrender Petrograd too to strangle the revolution.

The situation exacerbated again.

Murders of the officers recommenced at the front.

Meanwhile in Kazan, explosions blew up the powder plant.

About 12,000 machine guns and almost a million of shells

were destroyed in the stores.

Artillery stores exploded in Petrograd too.

The organizers were never fund.

The country was plunging deeper into the chaos.

For many in those days, General Kornilov was the only hope of salvation.

At that time, rumours about monarchist conspiracies

circulated the country constantly.

Those rumours weren’t confirmed though secret agreements did exist,

although they weren’t monarchist.

The Headquarters of the Commander-in-Chief

became the centre of attraction for the dissatisfied.

In Mogilev, an organization called

“The Union of Officers of the Army and Fleet” was founded.

Its goal was simple and clear –

a military coup headed by Kornilov.

There were also other undercover organizations.

Kerenskiy wasn’t idling too.

He sent Savinkov to Mogilev to discuss some measures of restoration of order

and strengthening the defence of the capital with Kornilov.

They agreed to send some troops from the front to Petrograd.

They also discussed a formation of a new government.

All those measures were agreed with Kerenskiy.

When Savinkov was leaving, Kornilov told him:

“Please tell Alexander Fedorovitch that I’ll support him

in everything if it’s necessary for the sake of our Motherland”.

Don’t worry. I’ll tell everything to Alexander Fedorovitch.

People in Mogilev were sure that everything was going on

as it should be. However, when Savinkov returned to Petrograd,

he unexpectedly met Kerenskiy’s resistance.

The Prime-Minister refused point-blank

to sign the papers brought from the Headquarters.

A new hero appeared on the stage at that moment –

the former member of the Temporary Government Vladimir Lvov.

He was a very emotional and easily disturbed person.

The events in the country had a depressing influence over him.

Lvov Vladimir Nicolayevitch.

The surname was the only thing he shared

with the former head of the Temporary Government.

He came from a noble family and was a deputy of the State Duma.

He held a post of an Ober-Prosecutor of the Holy Synod

during the first and the second Temporary Governments

and was unduly rude and unfavourable towards the bishops

of the Orthodox church. In Kerenskiy’s government,

he didn’t get any position and felt extremely insulted.

Lvov came to Kerenskiy and started to hint vaguely

at some influential forces he allegedly represented

and claimed that the government had to be changed.

Kerenskiy didn’t answer anything concrete.

However, from that moment on Lvov kept saying

that he was acting on the orders of the head of the government.

Vladimir Nicolayevitch went to Mogilev

where he met Kornilov at the Headquarters of the Commander-in-Chief.

Lvov offered the Commander-in-Chief to take the power into his own hands,

although nobody gave him the authority to discuss that.

Kornilov knew that Kerenskiy and Lvov used to be friends,

so he believed him. The General suggested

that Kerenskiy and Savinkov should come to Mogilev

where he would be able to guarantee their safety

and also promised a post of a Military Minister to Savinkov

and of the Minister of Justice to Kerenskiy.

Before leaving for Petrograd,

Lvov talked to Vasiliy Zavoyko, Kornilov’s adjutant.

Zavoyko said that Kerenskiy would be murdered at the headquarters,

and Kornilov wouldn’t be able to prevent that.

Tell to Alexander Fedorovitch that he shouldn’t come.

He is in danger, and we won’t be able to protect him.

What do you mean?

Have a safe journey!

Later the adjutant claimed that he had been joking;

however, Lvov was appalled by what he heard.

While overwhelmed Lvov was going to the capital, the life went on.

Fulfilling his agreements with Savinkov, Kornilov issued an order

to form a Separate Petrograd Army.

He sent the units of the 3rd Cavalry Corps (headed by General Krymov)

and some units of the Aboriginal (“Wild”) Division to Petrograd.

The Headquarters discussed the new authority to be formed –

the Council of the People’s Défense.

He asked to tell Alexander Fedorovitch that he shouldn’t come…

On returning to Petrograd, Lvov told Kerenskiy

that Kornilov had demanded the full authority

and that the life of the Prime-Minister was in danger.

…that they won’t be able to guarantee…

At Kerenskiy’s request, Lvov wrote a report on the demands

he had heard in Mogilev.

Later, Kerenskiy claimed that it was Kornilov’s ultimatum.

-Are you sure he meant it? -I am.

Write.

What shall I write?

Put down everything you heard there.

-Everything? -Everything.

After listening to Lvov’s report,

Kerenskiy went to the telegraph and wrote to Kornilov.

Will it take much longer?

Kornilov confirmed the fact of negotiations

and asked Kerenskiy to come to Mogilev.

Having a false ultimatum and a telegram of the Commander-in-Chief

at his disposal, Kerenskiy arrested Lvov and sent him

to the Fortress of Peter and Paul.

Kornilov was dismissed from the commandment.

The historians are still arguing about the reasons

behind Lvov’s weird actions.

Was it a wish to avenge on Kerenskiy, or did he simply go crazy?

However, it was that weird episode

that had a decisive influence on the further course of events.

Its consequences turned out to be catastrophic.

After Kornilov refused to leave his post, he was declared a rebel.

Submission to him equalled treason.

Kornilov issued the following announcement:

“Russian people! Our Motherland is dying.

I have to stand out openly. I’m General Kornilov,

and I claim that the Temporary Government

under the pressure of the Bolsheviks’ majority is acting in full agreement

with the plan of the German General Headquarters,

that together with the upcoming landing of the troops on the Riga shores

will destroy the army and ruin the country from within.

I’m General Kornilov, a son of a Kazak and peasant, and I claim –

I personally don’t need anything except for the salvation of the Great Russia,

and I swear to keep the people going until the Constituent Assembly

during which the people will independently determine their fate”.

The new commander-in-chief appointed by the Temporary Government

General Lukomskiy refused to accept his post and remained loyal to Kornilov.

A couple of other generals also refused to accept the position

and supported the rebellious general.

Savinkov turned sides and supported Kerenskiy.

Appointed the Military Governor of Petrograd,

he started to organize the resistance to the advance of General Kornilov

which he himself had recently arranged.

The 3rd Cavalry Corps and the Aboriginal Division

that was going towards the capital immediately turned

from the forces for restoration of order into the rebellious troops.

-Give me some more fish soup. -Yes, sure.

Kerenskiy didn’t have a choice but to turn for help

to his political opponents from the Petrograd Council.

It started distributing arms among the workers in the city

as many of them were supported by the Bolsheviks.

Lenin’s party was still illegal

but now it got a chance to return to the political arena.

Vladimir Ilyitch, hello. I brought a letter for you.

-Come in. Will you have some soup? -No, thanks.

Well, let’s see… What are they writing?

Well, Grisha? The fishing trip is cancelled.

We’re going back to Petrograd.

Meanwhile, the troops of General Krymov were moving towards Petrograd.

The movement was slow.

When agitators came to the echelons and started to talk the Kazaks

and Caucasian highlanders out of “strangling the revolution”

the troops stopped completely.

Kerenskiy offered to solve the issue peacefully and without the blood-spilling,

so he summoned Krymov to Petrograd. The latter agreed.

It’s still unknown what had happened in the office during their meeting.

What is known is that Kerenskiy accused the General of a mutiny

and organizing a conspiracy.

So, in a few hours after leaving the Prime-Minister,

Krymov shot himself in his comrade’s apartment.

That suicide put a dot in the story of Kornilov’s advance.

The ex-Commander-in-Chief refused to escape from Mogilev and was arrested.

Together with him, his closest supporters were arrested.

Among them, was the commander of the South-Western Front

General Denikin who had been supporting Kornilov.

After staying in Mogilev for a couple of days,

the arrested were transferred to a small Belorussian town of Bykhov.

Arrested… General Kornilov is arrested.

Alexander Fedorovitch Kerenskiy could feel triumphant.

Again, as during the July events, he was a winner.

The Minister and the Head of the Temporary Government

was at the top of the power.

His enemies seemed to have perished:

Lenin was in hiding, and Kornilov was arrested.

Kerenskiy thought that he had won;

however, the revolutionary elements were still in turmoil around him.

Just a few days ago, his union with Kornilov

could bury the Bolsheviks’ movement for good

and define a completely different way of development for Russia.

The paradox of the story is that the mutiny

which aimed at destroying the Bolsheviks’ danger,

gave Lenin and his party possibly the last chance

to appear on the political stage.

The Bolsheviks didn’t let that chance go…