Kerensky.—Emboldened by the success of this coup Kerensky now put himself forward as a candidate for the premiership. Prince Lvov was accordingly presented by the Soviet members of the Government with an ultimatum which required him, in ac cordance with the decisions of the recently held Congress of Soviets, to declare Russia a republic without waiting for the con vocation of the Constituent Assembly, to suppress finally the Duma and the Council of State, and to accept the Congress's policy of forbidding any sale of land before the meeting of the Constituent Assembly. The Prince refused to comply with these demands, regarding them as a usurpation of the rights of the Constituent Assembly, and promptly sent in his resignation. The ministry was then reconstructed, Kerensky becoming prime min ister as well as minister of war and Tseretelli succeeding Prince Lvov as minister of the interior. With the formation of the new ministry the Russian Revolution entered on a new phase—a phase of inaction. The record of Kerensky is indeed singularly barren. He failed to put new vigour into the prosecution of the war. He left the question of concluding peace just as he found it. He made no attempt to settle the various difficulties involved in the labour question. And he was so indifferent to the agrarian problem that he allowed the peasants to settle it as best they could.
In fact the only achievements of Kerensky's administration were the declaration of Russia as a republic and the convocation at Moscow of a spectacular State Assembly representing all classes in the country and all political groups. The actual pur pose which this Assembly was meant to serve is obscure ; but its composition and the choice of Moscow for its sittings seem to show that it was convoked with some vague hope of investing Kerensky's Government with that moral authority and sanction which it had hitherto so conspicuously lacked. Nothing remark able however resulted from its three meetings save a series of hysterical speeches in which the prime minister announced his determination strenuously to support the Revolution and ruth lessly to suppress its enemies, whether they came from the Right or from the Left.
Kornilov.—Meantime the generals at the front and the mem bers of the General Staff in the capital began to think that their time had come. Taking stock of the anarchy prevailing in the country and of the disorganization of the army they began to be more and more inclined to favour the creation of a military dic tatorship. By temperament and by position Kerensky was in favour of such an idea and he actually supported General Kornilov the commander-in-chief in the preliminary steps for establishing the dictatorship. He only quarrelled with him when he realised that the general himself was aspiring to become dic tator. Suspecting Kornilov's designs he promptly declared him a traitor and an enemy to the Revolution; to which the general replied by sending picked Cossack regiments under the com mand of General Krymov against Petrograd with the object of intimidating Kerensky, and forcibly suppressing the Soviet. Thereupon, Kerensky, turning his back on the Right, appealed to the Left for support ; and the Executive Committee of the Soviet appealed in its turn to the workers to fight the threatened counter Revolution. The Bolshevik leaders, now released from prison,
took up the challenge with enthusiasm, and, recognizing that their opportunity had arisen, proceeded to arm the workers, in antici pation of the arrival of Krymov's troops. But no battle for the capital took place ; for deputies from the Petrograd workers and soldiers went to meet the Cossacks and persuaded them that they had been sent on a false errand. And so the plan for setting up a military dictatorship failed, with the result that Kornilov, Denikin his close colleague at the front and three other generals, were arrested and imprisoned and that Krymov shot himself after being interrogated by the prime minister.
Rapid Rise of the Bolsheviks.—Just as the failure of the Bolshevik rising in July proved to be the opportunity of the Right, so now the collapse of Kornilov's raid gave their chance to the extreme Left. Soviet Russia was in a state of feverish activity. It was arming itself physically and morally for a fight against the counter-Revolutionary movement. The first result of this re vival of revolutionary fervour was a renewal of the hatred to the officer class ; and a new wave of massacre swept over the country, taking peculiarly ugly form in Finland where sailors killed their admirals and officers by throwing them overboard and beating them to death in the water. The All Russian Executive Committee of Soviets was reduced to sending emissaries to stop these out rages; while another sign of the times was that these emissaries had to be chosen from the Bolshevik ranks. The moderates were speedily losing their hold on the masses. Lenin's supporters indeed were now rapidly increasing their forces, so much so that by the middle of September both the Petrograd and the Moscow Soviets passed for the first time Bolshevik resolutions; while the moderate leaders, who had presided over them since their creation, were now replaced by Trotsky at the new and by Nogin at the old capital.
It thus became increasingly evident that the next Congress of Soviets, which was summoned for the end of October, was likely to elect an All Russian Executive Committee on which the Bol sheviks would have a majority, and that this majority would de clare in favour of assuming the supreme power in the State. In the circumstances Lenin displayed considerable moderation and political shrewdness when he addressed a letter to the existing Executive Committee in which he called upon them to break away from Kerensky, now autocratic head of a directory, and the bour geoisie and to declare themselves the Government of the country. The Committee rejected this overture; but, though they still continued unofficially to support Kerensky they withdrew their representatives from his Government. The united front of Soviet Democracy, which had seemingly been re-established by the chal lenge thrown out by Kornilov, was now finally broken. The Bol sheviks proceeded to declare the Executive Committee traitors to the Revolution and at last worked openly for their overthrow and for that of the bourgeois Government.