Kerensky’s Double-Cross: The Failed Coup That Handed Lenin the Red Guard

The Kornilov Affair of August 1917 marked the decisive moment when Alexander Kerensky's political miscalculations armed Lenin's Bolsheviks and eliminated their final military opposition.

Key Takeaways

• Kerensky likely orchestrated General Kornilov's march on Petrograd to crush the workers' councils, then betrayed him at the last moment
• The affair resulted in weapons being distributed to Bolshevik Red Guards, fundamentally shifting the power balance
• Military opposition to Lenin collapsed as officers felt betrayed by Kerensky's treatment of their commander-in-chief
• Trotsky regained control of the Petrograd workers' council and formed alliances with Lenin's organization
• Kerensky's vanity and short-term thinking destroyed Russia's last institutional check on Bolshevik power
• Lenin now possessed both military resources and political legitimacy to seize control within weeks
• The oligarchs continued supporting Kerensky despite his failures, fearing military rule would threaten their interests
• Religious divisions between Orthodox Christians and Old Believers complicated political alliances among Russia's elite

The Kornilov Conspiracy: Kerensky's Calculated Gamble

• Alexander Kerensky appointed General Lavr Kornilov as commander-in-chief with the apparent intention of using military force to restore order in Petrograd and eliminate the workers' councils that threatened his government's authority
• Kornilov assembled troops and began moving them toward the capital, acting on what he believed were Kerensky's direct orders to suppress the Bolshevik-influenced soviets and restore military discipline through canceling General Order Number One
• The plan initially seemed to have Kerensky's full support, with communications flowing between the two men through intermediaries who coordinated the military advance on the capital
• Kerensky had concentrated unprecedented power in his hands, serving simultaneously as Prime Minister and War Minister despite having no military background or understanding of military affairs
• The provisional government lacked legitimacy, having never been elected or properly appointed, yet maintained recognition from Western powers who saw Kerensky as their preferred leader in Russia

The Betrayal: Kerensky's Last-Minute Reversal

• At the crucial moment when Kornilov's forces approached Petrograd, Kerensky suddenly reversed course and publicly denounced his own commander-in-chief as a coup plotter attempting to establish a military dictatorship
• Kerensky's motivation appears to have been pure self-preservation - he realized that if Kornilov successfully restored order, the popular general would eclipse him politically and potentially remove him from power entirely
• The reversal demonstrated Kerensky's fundamental character flaws: all-consuming vanity, belief in his own political genius despite repeated failures, and inability to think beyond immediate personal interests
• Rather than face the possibility of being marginalized by a successful military intervention, Kerensky chose to ally with the very forces he had originally planned to suppress
• This decision revealed the provisional government's complete dependence on Kerensky's personal whims rather than any coherent political strategy or institutional framework

Lenin's Strategic Victory: Arms and Organization

• The immediate beneficiary of Kerensky's betrayal was Lenin's Bolshevik organization, which gained access to weapons depots in Petrograd that had previously been secured against them
• Trotsky, now back in control of the Petrograd workers' council, orchestrated the distribution of arms to Red Guard units organized in factories throughout the city, creating a formidable paramilitary force
• Lenin's organization transformed from a political movement into an armed revolutionary force capable of seizing and holding power through military action rather than just political maneuvering
• The Bolsheviks gained control of the critically important Petrograd soviet while simultaneously expanding their influence in workers' and soldiers' councils across Russia
• Lenin demonstrated superior political acumen by understanding the importance of legitimacy, planning to use an All-Russian Congress of Workers' and Soldiers' Councils as legal cover for his seizure of power

Military Collapse and Institutional Breakdown

• The Russian army, already demoralized by the disastrous June offensive that Kerensky had ordered, completely disintegrated as a political force following his betrayal of Kornilov
• Military officers felt deeply betrayed by Kerensky's treatment of their respected commander-in-chief, destroying any remaining loyalty to the provisional government
• The army had been the only institutional force capable of opposing Lenin's well-organized revolutionary movement, and its elimination left no significant obstacles to Bolshevik power
• Kornilov's arrest and the destruction of military discipline meant that when Lenin moved to take power, no organized force would defend Kerensky's government
• The collapse extended beyond mere political opposition - the military's institutional structure and chain of command had been so thoroughly undermined that it ceased to function as a coherent organization

The Oligarchs' Dangerous Game

• Russian oligarchs continued supporting Kerensky despite his obvious incompetence because they feared military rule would lead to their arrest and the seizure of their economic assets
• Many oligarchs belonged to the Old Believer religious sect, which had maintained tensions with the Orthodox establishment for centuries, creating additional barriers to cooperation with traditional military leadership
• Some oligarchs harbored delusions that they could eventually control or work with Lenin, having previously provided financial support to his revolutionary activities when it served their interests
• The oligarchs' preference for a weak, controllable leader over competent governance led them to prop up Kerensky's failures rather than risk losing influence under military leadership
• Their miscalculation would prove fatal - Lenin's militant atheism and commitment to revolutionary transformation meant he would show no mercy to former financial backers once he gained absolute power

Kerensky's Pattern of Political Destruction

• Kerensky's role in the Kornilov Affair followed his established pattern of short-sighted decisions that prioritized personal advancement over Russia's institutional stability
• He had previously convinced Grand Prince Michael to refuse the throne after Tsar Nicholas's abdication, eliminating Russia's legal and constitutional framework without providing any replacement structure
• His disastrous June offensive against German forces had been ordered without understanding the army's condition, resulting in massive casualties and further demoralization of Russian forces
• The lawyer-turned-politician surrounded himself with associates from his Masonic lodge rather than qualified administrators, creating a government based on personal loyalty rather than competence
• His latest scheme involved calling a Constituent Assembly for December, but this appeared to be another desperate attempt to outmaneuver Lenin rather than genuine democratic reform

The Kornilov Affair sealed Lenin's path to power by eliminating military opposition and providing his forces with weapons. Kerensky's betrayal of his own plan transformed a potential check on Bolshevik ambitions into the final step toward revolutionary victory.