Kornilov Affair
코르닐로프 반란
A failed military coup in late August 1917 in which General Lavr Kornilov, Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army, ordered troops to march on Petrograd against the Provisional Government. Kornilov demanded martial law, restoration of the death penalty, and suppression of the soviets, but Prime Minister Alexander Kerensky declared him a traitor and called on the Petrograd Soviet for defense; railway sabotage and Bolshevik agitation among the advancing troops dissolved the putsch without bloodshed. The affair fatally weakened the Provisional Government and catalyzed a dramatic recovery of Bolshevik popular support and arms, becoming the decisive turning point toward the October Revolution.
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Sources
- Wikipedia (RU) Russian Wikipedia: full account of the coup, its background, and the multiple historiographical names (Корниловский мятеж, Корниловщина)
- Wikipedia (EN) English Wikipedia: dates (10–13 September 1917 N.S.), the role of Bolsheviks and railway workers in thwarting the coup, and its consequence as the turning point toward the October Revolution
- britannica.com Encyclopaedia Britannica: confirms the affair as a pivotal event that weakened the Provisional Government and boosted Bolshevik prestige
- prlib.ru Presidential Library of Russia: detailed chronology including the arrest of Denikin and other generals, Krymov's suicide, and the Bolshevik role in organizing Red Guards and the subsequent Bolshevization of the soviets