The Kornilov Affair backfires on the Provisional Government
A general marches on Petrograd to save the government from the left. It hands the left the weapons instead.
Quick facts
- Dates
- 10-13 September (27-31 August O.S.) 1917
- General
- Lavr Kornilov
- Outcome
- Coup collapsed; Kornilov arrested
What happened
Prime Minister Alexander Kerensky appointed General Lavr Kornilov commander-in-chief of the army after the July Days, hoping to use him to reassure the political right without fully trusting him. On 27 August 1917 by the old calendar, Kornilov ordered General Krymov to march the "Savage Division" and the Third Cavalry Corps on Petrograd, an act Kerensky came to believe was aimed at seizing power outright. The coup collapsed within days largely because the Petrograd Soviet mobilized workers, garrison soldiers, and railway workers, who tore up track and talked directly to Kornilov's troops until the advance fell apart. By 31 August, Krymov was dead by suicide and Kornilov was arrested.
Why it matters
To defend itself against Kornilov, Kerensky had armed the Petrograd Soviet's militias, including Bolshevik Red Guards, which meant the Bolsheviks came out of the affair with weapons, credibility as the ones who had stopped a counter-revolutionary coup, and a rapidly recovering membership. The main political winner was the Bolshevik Party, exactly the outcome Kerensky had least wanted.
How we know
Michigan State University's Seventeen Moments in Soviet History documents Kornilov's march on Petrograd, the Soviet's mobilization that stopped it, and its assessment that the radical left, chiefly the Bolsheviks, were the affair's main beneficiaries.
Sources
- Seventeen Moments in Soviet History, Michigan State University. Kornilov Affair · Reputable sourcesoviethistory.msu.edu · The domain "soviethistory.msu.edu" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- Seventeen Moments in Soviet History, Michigan State University. Kornilov Affair · Reputable sourcesoviethistory.msu.edu · The domain "soviethistory.msu.edu" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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