Aleksandr Kerensky

Alexander Kerensky was born in Simbirsk, Russia, in 1881, the son of a lower-ranking nobleman in the Russian aristocracy. As a law student he gained renown for his skillful defense of socialist activists arrested by the Czarist police, which may well have contributed to his political party, the Socialist Revolution, being outlawed in 1912. That same year he was elected to the Russian Duma (Parliament). After the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the overthrow of the Czar, Kerensky was named Minister of Justice in the Provisional Government. He was appointed Minister of War in May of that year, and since Russia was still involved in World War I, he made preparations for a new offensive against the Germans. Unfortunately, the Russian military had become dispirited, disenchanted and demoralized after a series of crushing defeats and staggering losses (the Battle of Tannenberg alone cost them more than 100,000 dead, brought about mainly because of stupefyingly inept and incompetent leadershi