Question

What were the role of Kerensky in Russian revolution

Answer 1

Kerensky was born in 1881 in Simbirsk. Like so many of the people associated with the Russian Revolution, he had a comfortable upbringing. His father was a head teacher and one of the star young pupils at his school was Vladimir Ulyanov – later to be better known as Lenin. Kerensky studied law at St Petersburg University. At this moment in history, university students were considered to be a radical body, probably because they could see the ills in Russia’s society – and they certainly could not defend them. From 1912 to 1917, Kerensky was a member of the Duma where he stood as a democratic socialist.

However, as Prime Minister he made two major errors. He ensured that Russia stayed in a war that was detested in the country itself. The overwhelming bulk of the population wanted Russia to withdraw from the war. There must have been few families, especially among the poor, who had not experienced personal tragedy between 1914 and 1917. His second mistake was not to offer the peasants land. Lenin did just this and immediately got the support he and the Bolsheviks needed at the expense of Kerensky.

To undermine the support of the Bolsheviks, Kerensky ordered that elections should take place for a constituent assembly. The elections were to be held in January 1918. Lenin had called for such elections earlier in 1917, so he could not object to this. As Kerensky argued, it was simply an extension of the democratic process denied to the people by the Romanovs. However, all the evidence indicated that the Bolsheviks would have done less well than other groups – including the Mensheviks.

Spurred into action by the near certainty of defeat in the January elections, Lenin ordered a coup d’état on November 7th, 1917. Brilliantly successful, the November Revolution ended the Provisional Government and the power of Kerensky.

Answer 2

After the February Revolution of 1917 he joined the newly formed Russian Provisional Government, first as Minister of Justice, then as Minister of War, and after July as the government's second Minister-Chairman. ... On 7 November, his government was overthrown by the Lenin-led Bolsheviks in the October Revolution.
Kerensky was the leading political figure in the first months after the February Revolution and became the Russian Revolution’s first cult of personality. He was renowned for his stirring and emotional oratory, his commitment to coalition government, and to Russia’s continued engagement in the war.
Though he faced criticism from across the political spectrum when he was unable to avert the Bolshevik seizure of power and subsequent descent into civil war.