Did Kornilov see through Kerensky’s deception? From his words and deeds one would have to conclude that he took the Prime Minister’s instructions at face value, unaware that the true object of Kerensky’s apprehension was not the Bolsheviks but he himself. As they were saying goodbye, Kornilov assured Savinkov that he intended to support Kerensky because the country needed him.34 For all his faults, Kerensky was a true patriot, and to Kornilov patriotic socialists were a valuable asset.
Following Savinkov’s departure, Kornilov issued orders to General Krymov, whom he retained in his post:
1. In the event you receive from me or directly on the spot information that the Bolshevik uprising has begun, you are to move without delay with the corps to Petrograd, occupy the city, disarm the units of the Petrograd garrison which have joined the Bolshevik movement, disarm the population of Petrograd, and disperse the Soviet.
2. Having carried out this mission, General Krymov is to detach one brigade with artillery to Oranienbaum; following the arrival there, he is to demand of the Kronshtadt garrison to disarm the fortress and relocate to the mainland.
35
The two assignments implemented Kerensky’s instructions. The first—to dispatch the Cavalry Corps to Petrograd—followed the request delivered orally by Savinkov. The second—to disarm Kronshtadt—was in line with Kerensky’s orders issued on August 8 but never carried out.36 Both missions were to protect the Provisional Government from the Bolsheviks. Kornilov may be said to have shown insubordination in retaining Krymov as commander of the Third Cavalry Corps: in justification, he explained to Lukomskii that the government feared Krymov would be too harsh in dealing with the rebels, but it would be grateful to him when it was all over.37 Lukomskii wondered whether the instructions brought by Savinkov were not some kind of trap: Kornilov dismissed these doubts, saying that Lukomskii was “too suspicious.”38
At this time, Kornilov was approached by officers who said they had in Petrograd 2,000 men willing to help suppress the Bolsheviks. They requested from Kornilov 100 officers to lead them: Kornilov promised to provide these men. He said that all should be in readiness by August 26, the earliest of the dates for the anticipated Bolshevik coup, so that when the Bolsheviks rose, at the approach of Krymov’s cavalry the volunteers could seize Smolnyi, the seat of the Soviet.39
60. Vladimir Lvov.
Savinkov reported to Kerensky on August 25 that all his instructions would be carried out.
At this point, an incident occurred which transformed the discord between the Prime Minister and the Commander in Chief into an open rift. The catalyst was a self-appointed “savior” of the country, a kind of stormy petrel, named Vladimir Nikolaevich Lvov. Forty-five years old, from a wealthy landowning family, a man of burning ambitions but no commensurate talents, Lvov had led a restless life. Having studied philosophy at St. Petersburg University, he enrolled at the Moscow Theological Seminary, then pursued desultory studies and for a while contemplated becoming a monk. He eventually chose politics. He joined the Octobrists, and served in the Third and Fourth Dumas. During the war, he belonged to the Progressive Bloc. Owing to wide social connections, he got himself appointed Procurator of the Holy Synod in the First Provisional Government, a post he held until July 1917, when he was dismissed. He took the dismissal badly and harbored a grudge against Kerensky. He is said to have had considerable personal charm, but was regarded as naïve and “incredibly frivolous”; George Katkov questions his sanity.40
In August, Lvov joined a group of conservative intellectuals in Moscow who wanted to save Russia from looming collapse. The country had had no real cabinet since early July, when Kerensky assumed dictatorial powers. Like Kornilov, Lvov and his friends felt that the Provisional Government needed to be strengthened with representatives of business and the armed forces. It was suggested to him that he convey these views to Kerensky. The initiator of the move seems to have been A. F. Aladin, one of those mysterious figures in the Russian Revolution (such as N. V. Nekrasov and V. S. Zavoiko) who exerted great influence without ever emerging from the shadows. A Social-Democratic revolutionary in his youth, Aladin led the Trudovik faction in the First Duma. After its dissolution, he moved to England, where he remained until February 1917. He was close to Kornilov. Affiliated with the group was I. A. Dobrynskii, a Red Cross official, and Lvov’s elder brother, Nicholas, a prominent Duma deputy and leading figure in the Progressive Bloc.
According to Lvov’s recollections (which, however, have been characterized as entirely unreliable), during the week of August 17–22, following the State Conference, he heard rumors of conspiracies at headquarters to proclaim Kornilov dictator and him Minister of the Interior.* He claimed he felt it a duty to inform Kerensky. The two met on the morning of August 22. Kerensky says that he had many visits from would-be saviors of the country and paid little heed to them, but Lvov’s “message” carried a threat which gained his attention.† According to Kerensky, Lvov told him that the base of public support for the government had eroded to the point where it had become necessary to bolster it by inviting into it public figures who enjoyed good relations with the military. He claimed to speak on behalf of these figures, but who they were, he refused to say. Kerensky subsequently denied having given Lvov authority to negotiate in his name with anyone, saying that before he could “express an opinion” on Lvov’s remarks he had to know the names of his associates. He specifically denied discussing the possibility of Lvov’s going to Mogilev to consult Kornilov.41 According to Kerensky, after Lvov left his office he gave the conversation no more thought. There is no reason to doubt Kerensky, but it is not improbable that, consciously or not, he gave Lvov the impression that he wished to know more, using him, if not as a proxy, then as an intelligence agent to learn whether there was any substance to persistent rumors of anti-government plots in Mogilev.‡
Lvov returned at once to Moscow to report to his friends on the talk with the Prime Minister: the interview had been successful, he told them, and Kerensky was prepared to discuss a reorganization of the cabinet. On the basis of Lvov’s account, Aladin drafted a memorandum:
1. Kerensky is willing to negotiate with headquarters;
2. the negotiations should be conducted through Lvov;
3. Kerensky agrees to form a cabinet enjoying the confidence of the country and the entire military;
4. in view of these facts, specific demands must be formulated;
5. a specific program has to be worked out;
6. the negotiations must be conducted in secrecy.
*
This document suggests that in reporting the conversation with Kerensky, Lvov exaggerated the Prime Minister’s interest in his proposal.
Accompanied by Dobrynskii, Lvov went to Mogilev. He arrived on August 24, just as Savinkov was departing. Since Kornilov was too busy carrying out Kerensky’s instructions to receive him, he checked in at a hotel, where he claimed to have heard rumors of Kornilov’s plot to kill Kerensky. Horrified, he decided to protect the Prime Minister by pretending to act on his behalf and negotiate a reconstitution of the cabinet. “Although Kerensky had not given me specific authority to conduct negotiations with Kornilov,” he recounted, “I felt that I could negotiate in his name inasmuch as, in general, he was agreeable to the reorganization of the government.”42 He saw Kornilov late that night and again the following morning (August 25). According to Kornilov’s deposition and the recollections of Lukomskii, who was present, Lvov identified himself as a representative of the Prime Minister on an “important mission.”43 With reckless lack of caution, Kornilov neither requested to see Lvov’s credentials nor asked Petrograd to confirm his authority to speak for the Prime Minister, but immediately entered with him into the most sensitive and potentially incriminating political discussions. His mission, Lvov said, was to learn Kornilov’s views on how to assure firm government in Russia. In his own opinion, this could be accomplished in one of three ways: (1) if Kerensky assumed dictatorial powers; (2) if a Directo
ry was formed with Kornilov as a member; (3) if Kornilov became dictator, with Kerensky and Savinkov holding ministerial portfolios.44 Kornilov took this information at face value because he had been officially told some time earlier that the government was contemplating a Directory modeled on the English Small War Cabinet to improve the management of the war effort.45
Interpreting Lvov to mean that Kerensky was offering him dictatorial powers, Kornilov responded that he preferred the third option. He did not crave power, he said, and would subordinate himself to every head of state; but if asked to take on the main responsibility, as Lvov (and, presumably, the Prime Minister) suggested he might, he would not refuse.46 He went on to say that in view of the danger of an imminent Bolshevik coup in Petrograd, it might be wise for the Prime Minister and Savinkov to seek safety in Mogilev and there join him in discussions on the composition of the new cabinet.
The interview over, Lvov at once departed for Petrograd.
Lukomskii, who was politically more astute, expressed suspicions about Lvov’s mission. Had Kornilov asked for his credentials? No, Kornilov replied, because he knew Lvov to be an honorable man. Why had Savinkov not asked his opinions of cabinet changes? Kornilov shrugged off this question.47
On the evening of August 25, Kornilov invited Rodzianko by telegraph to come to Mogilev, along with other public leaders, in three days’ time. Lvov wired a similar message to his brother. The meeting was to deal with the composition of the new cabinet.48
At 6 p.m. the following day (August 26), Lvov met with Kerensky in the Winter Palace.* Just as in his interview with Kornilov he had posed as a representative of the Prime Minister, so he now assumed the role of an agent of the Commander in Chief. Without telling Kerensky that he had asked Kornilov’s opinion of three options for restructuring the government, which he had formulated with his friends but presented as coming from the Prime Minister, he said that Kornilov demanded dictatorial authority. Kerensky recalls that on hearing this he burst out laughing. But amusement soon yielded to alarm. He asked Lvov to put Kornilov’s demands in writing. Lvov jotted down the following:
General Kornilov proposes:
1. That martial law be proclaimed in Petrograd.
2. That all military and civil authority be placed in the hands of the Commander in Chief.
3. That all ministers, not excluding the Prime Minister, resign and that provisional executive authority be transferred to deputy ministers until the formation of a cabinet by the Commander in Chief.
V. Lvov
49
Kerensky says that as soon as he read these words everything became clear:50 a military coup was in the making. He might have asked himself why Kornilov had to employ as intermediary the former Procurator of the Holy Synod rather than Savinkov, or better yet, he might have rushed to the nearest telegraph to ask Kornilov or Filonenko whether the Commander in Chief had indeed commissioned Lvov to negotiate on his behalf. He did neither. His certainty that Kornilov was about to seize power was strengthened by Lvov’s insistence that Kornilov wanted Kerensky and Savinkov to depart that very night for Mogilev. Kerensky concluded that Kornilov wanted to take them prisoner.
There can be little doubt that the three “conditions” attributed by Lvov to Kornilov had been concocted by him and his friends in order to force the issue: they did not reflect Kornilov’s answer to what he had been told were questions posed to him by the Prime Minister. But they were just what Kerensky needed to break Kornilov. In order to obtain incontrovertible proof of Kornilov’s conspiracy, Kerensky decided for the time being to play along. He invited Lvov to meet him at 8 p.m. in the office of the Minister of War to communicate with the general by telegraph.
Lvov, who spent the interval with Miliukov, was late. At 8:30, having kept Kornilov waiting for half an hour, Kerensky initiated a telegraphic conversation, in the course of which he impersonated the absent Lvov. He hoped, he said later, with this deception to obtain either a confirmation of Lvov’s ultimatum or else a “bewildered” denial.
What follows is the complete text of this celebrated exchange as recorded on telegraphic tapes:
Kerensky: Prime Minister on the line. We are waiting for General Kornilov.
Kornilov: General Kornilov on the line.
Kerensky: How do you do, General. V. N. Lvov and Kerensky are on the line. We ask you to confirm that Kerensky can act in accordance with the information conveyed to him by Vladimir Nikolaevich.
Kornilov: How do you do, Aleksandr Fedorovich. How do you do, Vladimir Nikolaevich. To confirm once again the outline of the situation I believe the country and the army are in, an outline which I sketched out to Vladimir Nikolaevich with the request that he should report it to you, let me declare once more that the events of the last few days and those already in the offing make it imperative to reach a completely definite decision in the shortest possible time.
Kerensky [impersonating Lvov]: I, Vladimir Nikolaevich, am enquiring
about this definite decision which has to be taken, of which you asked me to inform Aleksandr Fedorovich
strictly in private. Without such confirmation from you personally, Aleksandr Fedorovich hesitates to trust me completely.
Kornilov: Yes, I confirm that I asked you to transmit my urgent request to Aleksandr Fedorovich to
come to Mogilev
.
Kerensky: I, Aleksandr Fedorovich, take your reply to confirm the words reported to me by Vladimir Nikolaevich. It is impossible for me to do that and leave here today, but I hope to leave tomorrow. Will Savinkov be needed?
Kornilov: I urgently request that Boris Viktorovich come along with you. What I said to Vladimir Nikolaevich applies equally to Boris Viktorovich. I would beg you most sincerely not to postpone your departure beyond tomorrow …
Kerensky: Are we to come only if there are demonstrations, rumors of which are going around, or in any case?
Kornilov: In any case.
Kerensky: Goodbye. We shall meet soon.
Kornilov: Goodbye.
51
This brief dialogue was a comedy of errors with the most tragic consequences. Kerensky later maintained—and he persisted in this version to the end of his life—that Kornilov had “affirmed not only Lvov’s authority to speak in Kornilov’s name, but confirmed also the accuracy of the words which Lvov had attributed to him”—namely, that he demanded dictatorial powers.52 But we know from eyewitnesses at the other end of the Hughes apparatus that when the conversation was over, Kornilov heaved a sigh of relief: Kerensky’s agreement to come to Mogilev meant to him that the Prime Minister was willing to work jointly on the formation of a new, “strong” government. Later that evening, Kornilov discussed with Lukomskii the composition of such a cabinet, in which both Kerensky and Savinkov would hold ministerial posts. He also sent telegrams to leading statesmen inviting them to join him and the Prime Minister in Mogilev.53
Thanks to the availability of the tapes, it can be established that the two men talked at cross-purposes. As concerned Kornilov, all that he had confirmed to Kerensky posing as Lvov was that he had, indeed, invited Kerensky and Savinkov to Mogilev. Kerensky interpreted Kornilov’s confirmation to mean—without any warrant except such as provided by his fevered imagination—that Kornilov intended to take him prisoner and proclaim himself dictator. It was an omission of monumental proportions on Kerensky’s part not to inquire directly or even obliquely whether Kornilov had in fact given Lvov for transmittal a three-point ultimatum. In the conversation with Kerensky, Kornilov said nothing about the cabinet resigning and full military and civilian power being placed in his hands. From Kornilov’s words—“Yes, I confirm that I asked you [i.e., Lvov] to transmit my urgent request to Aleksandr Fedorovich to come to Mogilev”—Kerensky chose to infer that the three political conditions presented to him by Lvov were authentic as well. When Filonenko saw the tapes, he observed that “Kerensky never stated what he was asking and Kornilov never knew to what he was responding.”* Kerensky believed that by
impersonating Lvov he was communicating with Kornilov in an understandable code, whereas he was speaking in riddles. The best that can be said in defense of the Prime Minister’s behavior is that he was overwrought. But the suspicion lurks that he heard exactly what he wanted to hear.
On the basis of such flimsy evidence, Kerensky decided on an open break with Kornilov. When Lvov belatedly turned up, he had him placed under arrest.† Ignoring Savinkov’s pleas that before doing anything precipitous he communicate once again with Kornilov to clear up what in Savinkov’s mind was an obvious misunderstanding, Kerensky called a cabinet meeting for midnight. He told the ministers what had transpired and requested “full authority”—that is, dictatorial powers—to enable him to deal with the military coup d’état. The ministers agreed that one had to stand up to the “general-conspirator” and that Kerensky should enjoy full powers to deal with the emergency. Accordingly, they tendered their resignations, which Nekrasov interpreted to mean that the Provisional Government had, in effect, ceased to exist.54 Kerensky emerged from the meeting as nominal dictator. After the cabinet adjourned at 4 a.m. on August 27, no more regular cabinet meetings were held, decisions from now until October 26 being taken by Kerensky acting alone or in consultation with Nekrasov and Tereshchenko. In the early hours of the morning, either with or without the approval of the ministers—most likely on his personal authority—Kerensky sent Kornilov a telegram dismissing him and ordering him to report at once to Petrograd. Until his replacement had been named, General Lukomskii was to serve as Commander in Chief.* By breaking with Kornilov, Kerensky could pose as champion of the Revolution: according to Nekrasov, during the night meeting of the cabinet, Kerensky said, “I will not give them the Revolution”55—as if it were his to give or keep.
While these events were taking place, Kornilov, ignorant of Kerensky’s interpretation of their brief exchange, proceeded with preparations to help the government suppress the anticipated Bolshevik rising. At 2:40 a.m. he cabled Savinkov:
The Russian Revolution Page 71
