Now–editorial Notes

Alexander Kerensky is in the news again, not only because of the publication of his new book “The Crucifixion of Liberty,” but because Dr. Wirt has recently dragged his name into American politics.

Alexander Kerensky, head of the provisional government of Russia after the revolution, was idolized by the Russian people. His fiery eloquence and his sincerity won for him the confidence of the Russian masses, and he was hailed as the “hope” of new Russia. Kerensky was the most daring critic of the Tsar’s government in the Imperial Duma. When others were silent, he denounced the blundering autocracy while it was still in power. The Russian people remembered this and considered him as one of the very few courageous revolutionary leaders. His first post after the revolution was that of Minister of Justice.

It may be of interest to relate show Kerensky abolished the Jewish disabilities in Russia. During the early stages of the provisional government, he decided that the Tsarist cruel anti-Jewish legislation must be done away with. He called several eminent Jewish leaders and asked each of them to submit a project for the abolition of the anti-Jewish laws and regulations. Each of them came with a different project. Of course, they were all eager to have equal rights restored to the Jewish people, but they cautiously suggested various ways of doing it without irritating this or that element, fearing lest the sudden equalization of the Jews with the rest of the Russian population might stir more intense anti-Semitism among the peasants or the nobility. The Jewish leaders did not agree on any one project.

Kerensky could not understand this roundabout way of doing the right thing. So he called in his secretary and dictated a draft of a decree abolishing all Jewish disabilities in new Russia at one stroke of the pen.

It may also be of interest to reproduce at this time what Kerensky said to me in Paris in 1920 about Woodrow Wilson, the Allies, and the Russian problem. The late Premier of new Russia said:

“The Wilsonian peace policy was patterned after the policy of the provisional government of which I was the head. We outlined it first immediately after the revolution, but it was a policy distasteful to England and France. So they did everything they could to undermine us. They did not want us to participate in the liquidation of the war along the lines of our peace program. And we would not have been puppets at the Peace Conference.

“When President Wilson proclaimed his fourteen points, the ## Allies maintained silence. They the were glad that the President and stirred up such sentiments. They knew what effect his speeches must have on the morale of the German people, and upon certain people in the Allied countries. But the Allied statesmen themselves did not take Wilson’s statements seriously. They plotted to carry out their own program.

“Before President Wilson arrived in Europe the first time, a prominent British official said to me; ‘We are not afraid of Wilson. He is not sufficiently familiar with European affairs. Lloyd George will be able to accomplish whatever he pleases.’ And so it actually happened. Lloyd George has done whatever he pleased.”

Kerensky’s glory and power in the new Russia were shortlived. But it should be remembered that he was a victim of Allied diplomacy and of his own excessive idealism. The manner in which he solved the Jewish question in Russia remains a shining example of justice in the annals of history.