The Socialist Revolutionary official who pressed the revolutionary government toward coercive order
Maxim Filonenko was a lawyer and Socialist Revolutionary official who embodied the pressure placed on the revolutionary government by the collapse of the army and the demand for political freedom. As a government commissar at the front and at Supreme Headquarters, he worked with Kornilov and Savinkov to restore the death penalty and strengthen military discipline, marking the coercive turn of July 1917. He tried to mediate between Kornilov and Kerensky, but ultimately sided with Kerensky during the Kornilov crisis. After October he joined anti-Bolshevik underground activity, and in exile worked as a lawyer and professor of law.
Career Timeline
- 1906–1913Studied shipbuilding at the Saint Petersburg Polytechnic Institute
- 1914Entered the First World War as a sub-lieutenant in the Life Guards Grenadier Regiment
- 1917.06Provisional Government commissar with the 8th Army
- 1917.07–08Government commissar under Supreme Commander Kornilov
- 1917.08Tried to mediate between Kornilov and Kerensky, then supported Kerensky
- 1917–1918Participated in anti-Bolshevik underground activity in Petrograd
- 1918–1919Member of the Arkhangelsk city duma under the Northern Region provisional government
- 1933–1940Professor of Roman law at the University of Brussels