Editing Alexander Kerensky (section)

=== October Revolution of 1917 ===
{{Further|October Revolution}}
During the [[Kornilov Affair]], Kerensky had distributed arms to the [[Petrograd]] workers, and by November most of these armed workers had gone over to the Bolsheviks.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Estonians; The long road to independence|last=Faure and Mensing|first=Gunter and Teresa|publisher=Lulu|year=2012|isbn=978-1105530036|page=161}}</ref> On {{OldStyleDateNY|6–7 November|25–26 October}} 1917, the Bolsheviks launched the [[October Revolution|second Russian revolution]] of the year. Kerensky's government in Petrograd had almost no support in the city. Only one small force, a subdivision of the 2nd company of the [[Women's Battalion#1st Petrograd Women's Battalion|First Petrograd Women's Battalion]], also known as The Women's Death Battalion, was willing to fight for the government against the Bolsheviks, but this force was overwhelmed by the numerically superior pro-Bolshevik forces, defeated, and captured.<ref name=gwar>{{cite web|title=Women Soldiers in Russia's Great War|url=http://russiasgreatwar.org/media/military/women_soldiers.shtml|publisher=Great War|access-date=1 April 2013}}</ref> The Bolsheviks overthrew the government rapidly by seizing governmental buildings and the Winter Palace.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The History Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained|last=|publisher=DK|year=2016|isbn=978-1465445100|page=278}}</ref>

Kerensky escaped the Bolsheviks and fled to [[Pskov]], where he rallied some loyal troops for an [[Kerensky–Krasnov uprising|attempt to re-take the city]]. His troops managed to capture [[Tsarskoye Selo]] but were beaten the next day at [[Pulkovo Heights|Pulkovo]]. Kerensky narrowly escaped, and he spent the next few weeks in hiding before fleeing the country, eventually arriving in France. During the [[Russian Civil War]], he supported neither side, as he opposed both the Bolshevik regime and the [[White Movement]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bl.uk/people/alexander-kerensky|title=Alexander Kerensky|website=British Library|access-date=24 July 2017|archive-date=28 February 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200228151902/https://www.bl.uk/people/alexander-kerensky|url-status=dead}}</ref> Meanwhile, viewed by [[Woodrow Wilson]] as the spokesman for Russian democracy, he strongly influenced Wilson on Russian matters. Kerensky sought to discredit [[Alexander Kolchak]] in Western eyes, telling American diplomats that if Kolchak succeeded, he would "inaugurate a regime hardly less sanguinary and repressive than that of the Bolshevists."<ref name="prrubr">{{cite book |last1=Pipes |first1=Richard |title=Russia Under the Bolshevik Regime |date=April 4, 1995 |publisher=Vintage |isbn=0679761845 |page=95 |edition=4th}}</ref>