24 October 1917. Alfred Knox

Non-fiction

Project 1917 is a series of events that took place a hundred years ago as described by those involved. It is composed only of diaries, letters, memoirs, newspapers and other documents

Alfred Knox

4, Dvortsovaya embankment, Petrograd, Russian Republic (British Embassy)

Savinkov thinks that Kerensky is honest, but says that Trotsky (Bronstein) and Kamenev (Rosenfeldt) could be bought. Lenin and Kollontai are fanatics

. Filonenko said that up till last night he would have said that Kerenski was honest, but his confession yesterday that he had set a trap for Kornilov on September 8th by pretending that Lvov was at the telegraph apparatus made him ready to believe anything of him.

The Russians, like ourselves, during the war were inclined to attribute the result of their own shortcomings to the machinations of the enemy. There is no evidence that German intrigue had anything to do with the Kornilov affair. It seems clear from the evidence available that Kornilov was led by his conversations with Lvov, whom he imagined to be a friend of Kerenski, and with Savinkov, whom he knew to be Kerenski’s deputy in the Ministry of War, into the belief that Kerensky would support him in carrying out the plan which he and every officer of experience knew to be the only chance of restoring discipline in the army. Kerenski’s telegram ordering his resignation came as a bolt from the blue on September 9th, and he believed that in the interests of the country and the army he had no choice but to refuse.

Officer elements who surrounded Kornilov, and who naturally hated Kerenski, failed to understand that the co-operation of the Prime Minister was essential. They exaggerated to a criminal degree the strength of the forces at their disposal.

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