Leaders of the February Revolution M. Rodzyanko and A. Kerenskii in Late February – Early May 1917 in Soviet Historiography (1918–1985)

The article analyses the Soviet historiography of 1918–85 devoted to the questions of leadership in the February Revolution and the activities of M. Rodzyanko and A. Kerenskii in March – early May 1917. The author proves that starting with the works of S. Piontkovskii (1923–27), D. Erde (1931), O. Lidak (1932), and E. Fokina (1932), the idea prevailed in Soviet historiography that Rodzyanko was a forced revolutionary. This statement was reinforced by the fact that Rodzyanko upheld counter-revolutionary views from the very beginning of the February Revolution and in the following months of the revolutionary year 1917. The same characterization of M. Rodzyanko is found in the works of the historians of subsequent periods of Soviet historiography (E. Chermenskii, 1947, 1976; V. Komin, 1963; E. Burdzhalov, 1967; R. Ganelin, 1967; I. Mints, 1977; I. Pushkareva, 1982). These authors also claimed that he was a forced revolutionary who “headed” the revolution in order to destroy it. An exception in this list is V. Startsev. In his monograph published in 1980, he does not speak about the counter-revolutionary nature of M. Rodzyanko but rather characterizes him as the leader of the bourgeois opposition. Some Soviet researchers call A. Kerenskii a “lackey of the bourgeoisie” (E. Fokin, 1932), a traitor to the cause of the revolution (V. Komin, 1963), who actually took counter-revolutionary positions (R. Ganelin, 1967) and sought to calm down the revolution with his speeches (I. Mints, 1977). Other Soviet historians (D. Sverchkov, 1926, 1927; E. Genkina, 1927; History of the Civil War in the USSR, 1935; V. Startsev, 1978, 1980) draw attention to the popularity of A. Kerenskii among the common people. Judging by the works of Soviet historians, neither Rodzyanko nor Kerenskii were leaders of the revolution in late February – early May 1917. An exception to this can be found in the works by D. Sverchkov (1926, 1927), who claimed that Kerenskii headed the revolutionary movement after the February Revolution.

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