Ebook: Russia 1917, the Kornilov Affair: Kerensky and the Breakup of the Russian Army

Examines events surrounding the Kornilov Affair, the supposed planned coup d'etat against the provisonal government by General Kornilov the supreme commander of Russia's armed forces. Prime Minister Kerensky, obsessed by the fear of mutiny, denounced Kornilov as a traitor and had him arrested. Kerensky then made himself supreme commander of the armed forces causing great upheaval and total disorganisation of the military and loss of fighting strength. The Bolsheviks were thus able to seize power without meeting any organised resistance in October 1917. This work examins whether Kornilov really did plan a coup or was it a figment of Kerensky's suspicious imagination? The facts of the case are vital but obscured by conflicting testimony of the partcipants. Katkov's long immersion in the literature of the period and access to unpublished documents uniquely qualify him to write the history of this confused but crucial episode of the Russian Revolution.