The orator ground away between revolution and counter-revolution
In March 1917, taking the rostrum of the Petrograd Soviet to announce his acceptance of the Justice Ministry, he cried: "I cannot live without the people. In the moment you begin to doubt me, then kill me!" The workers and soldiers filling the hall erupted in wild applause.
The face of the Provisional Government and its last premier. In August 1917 he armed even the jailed Bolsheviks to stop Kornilov; in October, no army anywhere would come to save him. The story of his escaping in a dress is a Soviet fabrication. He spent half a century in exile lecturing on what had gone wrong, and died in New York.
Career timeline
1912–1917Duma deputy (Trudovik); famed defence lawyer in political trials
1917.03Justice Minister: amnesty, abolition of the death penalty
1917.05War Minister: the failed June offensive
1917.07–10Premier: the Kornilov affair; overthrown in October
1918–1970Exile in Paris and New York: writing and lecturing
Peasant-born officer who commanded the United Partisan Army of Tambov and chaired the Union of Working Peasantry
Born in the village of Inokovka in Kirsanov district, Tambov province, he was conscripted in 1904 during the Russo-Japanese War and stayed on for extended service in St Petersburg. In the First World War he fought in Galicia, winning the full set of four St George Crosses and four St George Medals; he was commissioned in 1915 and made lieutenant in 1917. After the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk he returned home, worked in the local militia and in 1918 formed a partisan detachment. In June 1920 he took command of the 2nd Insurgent Army and in November of the United Partisan Army of the Tambov region, while also chairing the Union of Working Peasantry. The Russian-language source says he was killed in a clash near the village of Bogoslovka on 28 February 1921; the English-language source places his death around June 1921.
Career timeline
1904Conscripted during the Russo-Japanese War; extended service
1915Commissioned as an officer
1917Lieutenant
1918Formed a partisan detachment at Inokovka
1920Commander of the 2nd Insurgent Army (June); commander of the United Partisan Army of Tambov and chairman of the Union of Working Peasantry (November)