Alexandr Kerenskii was born on April 22 (May 4), 1881, in Simbirsk (present-day Ulyanovsk). His father, as the director of the Simbirsk Gymnasium, kept in touch with the director of Simbirsk schools, Ilya Nikolaevich Ulyanov, the father of Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Lenin). Together with his family, Alexander left for Tashkent in 1889. After graduating from a Tashkent gymnasium with a gold medal, Kerensky entered the History and Philology Department of St. Petersburg University in 1899. He also attended classes at the Law Department. During his student years, Kerenskii supported the Socialist Revolutionary Party. After graduating from university in 1904, he married Olga Baranovskaia and became an assistant barrister in St. Petersburg. Kerenskii became close to members of the liberal political group Union of Liberation.¹

During the 1905 Revolution, he was imprisoned for his connections with the military wing of the Socialist Revolutionaries. A year later, he and his family were sent to Tashkent, but on September 21, 1906, the case against him was dismissed due to a lack of evidence. After this, he continued practicing law in St. Petersburg, gaining popularity in politically motivated trials. In 1912, Kerenskii ran for the fourth State Duma on the list of the Trudoviks from the city of Volsk (Saratov province) and was elected. He headed the Duma Public Commission that investigated the Lena Massacre and also joined the Duma Masonic organization Grand Orient of Russia's Peoples, serving as secretary from 1916 until February 1917. By the February Revolution, Kerenskii had gained great popularity in the Duma and with the public. On February 27, 1917, he became Deputy Chairman of the Petrograd Soviet.²

On March 2, he joined the Provisional Government as minister of justice. He joined the Socialist Revolutionary Party (Socialist Revolutionaries). Kerenskii was elected to the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (VTsIK). In July, as minister of war and the navy, he made trips to the front to strengthen morale. On July 20, he took over as minister-chairman of the second coalition government. He made contact with General Lavr Kornilov, who led troops to Petrograd to restore order at the end of August 1917. Kerenskii backed away from his arrangement with Kornilov, sparking an open conflict in which he accused Kornilov of an insurrection against the government. On September 15, the Kerenskii government proclaimed Russia a republic and formed a so-called Directory to govern the country. Before the October coup, Kerensky resigned on October 24. A day later, together with General Pyotr Krasnov, Kerenskii went to Ostrov to meet the Russian army.³

At the end of 1917, Kerenskii lived on estates in Pskov and Novgorod provinces. He spent some time in Finland, secretly visiting Petrograd and Moscow, and after the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly in June 1918, he left Murmansk for England. He met with British Prime Minister Lloyd George at Downing Street and also with French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau.⁴ In 1920, he moved to Paris, where he wrote his memoirs, lectured and published the weeklies Days and New Russia, collaborating with Ivan Bunin, Zinaida Gippius, Dmitry Merezhkovskii, Konstantin Balmont and Ivan Shmelyov. Gradually he moved away from politics. In 1940, Kerensky left for the US, where he taught at American universities and published his works. On March 13, 1949, together with Viktor Chernov and Vladimir Zenzinov, he established the League of Struggle for the People's Freedom, which published the The Coming Russia magazine. Meanwhile, he continued to lecture at universities and appear on the radio in the US and Canada. He died in 1970 in New York.⁵

Alexandr Fedorovich Kerenskii
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