Was the Kerensky Regime Bonapartist?
Scattered through his article, Frank refers to ‘Bonapartist a-la-Kerensky’, the Bonapartism of Kerensky, thus assuming that Bonapartism had in fact been established under the Kerensky regime – entirely unwarranted by a knowledge of the period. Frank takes one or two conditional formulations of Lenin and Trotsky in relation to the Kerensky regime in Russia and tries to convert them into hard and fast definitions. In reality, the record speaks against him. It is significant to note that the chapter in the History of the Russian Revolution to which he refers, is headed, not ‘Bonapartism’, but Kerensky and Kornilov – Elements of Bonapartism in the Russian Revolution. Trotsky was always particularly careful on definitions and thus when he says ‘elements’, he does not mean the thing itself. And for very good reason. No doubt Kerensky would have liked to play the role of Bonaparte. The possibilities of Bonapartism were rooted in the situation. But Bonapartism was never achieved because the Bo
