‘MANIA GRANDIOSA’ AND ‘THE TURNING POINT IN WORLD HISTORY’: KERENSKY IN LONDON IN 1918

Abstract

Utilizing newly available materials, including his personal MI5 file that was released to the National Archives in 2001, this article re‐examines Alexander Kerensky’s surprise visit to Western Europe in the summer of 1918. His chief biographer, Richard Abraham, called Kerensky’s visit a ‘vital “diplomatic” mission’ and, like many others, accepted Kerensky’s claim to represent the recently created SR–Kadet coalition, the Union for the Regeneration of Russia. Here, though, it is suggested that he represented nobody but himself and that his mission damaged the cause of Centre–Left opposition in Russia to the Bolshevik regime.