The Kornilov Affair: How a General's March Doomed the Provisional Government

In August 1917, four months after the Tsar's abdication, Russia's experiment with democracy hung by a thread. General Lavr Kornilov, the charismatic commander of the Russian army, marched on Petrograd, demanding the suppression of the Bolsheviks and the restoration of order. Prime Minister Alexander Kerensky, caught between the army and the soviets, made a desperate gamble: he armed the Bolsheviks and called on the workers to defend the revolution. The result was a military collapse, a shattered government, and a blueprint for the October Revolution. This episode dives into the personalities, the blunders, and the high-stakes drama of the Kornilov Affair—examining Kornilov's background as a controversial general, the confusing telegram exchanges, the railway workers who halted his troops, and the way the affair permanently shifted power to Lenin's Bolsheviks. We explore the deeper forces: the breakdown of army discipline after Order No. 1, the July Days uprising, and the ideological rift between those who wanted a strong state and those who wanted soviet power. It's a story of miscalculation, ambition, and the moment the Provisional Government signed its own death warrant.

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