Kerensky's dress and the storming of the Winter Palace: myths and the truth about the October Revolution. Kerensky. Did he change into a woman's dress? Kerensky fled disguised as a woman's dress

05.03.2020

The story of a woman’s dress stuck with Alexander Kerensky forever, but did Kerensky really run from Petrograd in a woman’s dress?

There are moments and scenes in the history of the Russian revolution that are engraved in the memory of even those who do not deeply immerse themselves in this material - Lenin on an armored car, a shot from "Aurora", workers going to storm the Winter Palace ...

In this row there is such a scene - head of the Provisional Government Alexander Kerensky flees from Petrograd in a woman's dress.

"I left Petersburg in my paramilitary uniform"

The Minister-Chairman of the All-Russian Provisional Government, Alexander Fedorovich Kerensky, outlived almost all of his political associates and opponents. He died in June 1970 at the age of 89 in New York.

Almost until his last day, Kerensky wrestled with the story of the dress, proving that it was a fiction.

Journalist Henrikh Borovik, the only one and the representatives of the Soviet press who spoke with Kerensky said that the aged politician desperately urged him: “Mr. Borovik, well, tell me there in Moscow — you have smart people! Well, I didn’t run from the Winter Palace in a woman’s dress! ”

In an interview with an employee of the Russian section of Radio Canada Alexander Lieven, which Kerensky gave in 1964, he told the following: “When on the night of the 25th I came to the headquarters, more than half of the officers there already showed their very“ unpleasant ”feelings for the Provisional Government. In the morning it was decided that I would personally go to meet the troops sent to Petersburg. In Russia, they say that I fled in the costume of a sister of mercy. But I left Petersburg in my open car, in my paramilitary uniform, sitting next to my adjutants and assistant. We ordered the driver to drive from St. Petersburg to the Moscow outpost at Tsarskoe Selo along the big streets - Morskaya and others, where telegraphs and telephones were already occupied by the rebels. We drove slowly, and the rebels were so lost that they saluted me. And only near the outpost we were fired upon. They shot at the tires - they didn't hit. We arrived at a stop in Gatchina, and we all felt that something was not quite right. I ordered to pour gasoline, and drove on immediately, and the next car, which was walking with me at a great distance, was fired upon, and everyone was injured inside. That was the real picture. "

Kerensky escaped in a car confiscated from US diplomats?

So how did the woman's dress runaway story come about?

On October 24, Kerensky attended a meeting of the Pre-Parliament in Petrograd, and demanded the adoption of a resolution expressing full support for the actions of the Provisional Government. However, the resolution was adopted evasively, which did not suit the Prime Minister.

On the morning of October 25, Kerensky left Petrograd to meet the troops coming from the front to help the government.

In an interview in 1964, Alexander Fedorovich does not mention which car he used to leave the capital. But in the book "From Afar" he is more frank: "At the moment of departure, representatives of the British and, as far as I remember, American embassies came to me with a statement that representatives of the Allied powers would like a car flying with me to go with an American flag."

U.S. Ambassador to Russia David Francis in his book Russia From the Window of the American Embassy recalls this somewhat differently: “Secretary Whitehouse ran up to me in great you need a car to go to the front. Whitehouse and his brother-in-law, Baron Ramsay, traveled with an officer to headquarters to investigate the source of this astonishing claim. There they found Kerensky ... Everyone was terribly agitated, and complete chaos reigned. Kerensky confirmed the officer's statement that he needed Whitehouse's car to go to the front. Whitehouse said: this is my own car, and you (he pointed to the Winter Palace, on the other side of the square) have more than thirty cars waiting at the entrance. Kerensky answered: they were spoiled at night, and the Bolsheviks are in charge of all the troops in Petrograd, with the exception of a few who declare their neutrality; they refuse to obey my orders. Whitehouse and Ramsay, consulting hastily, came to the reasonable conclusion that, since the car had already been seized, in fact, they could no longer resist. Leaving headquarters, Whitehouse remembered the American flag and, returning, told the officer who had requested the car that he must remove the flag before using the car. He objected, and after some wrangling Whitehouse had to be content with a protest against Kerensky's use of the flag ... "

"I was transformed into a very ridiculous sailor": how the head of the government escaped from Gatchina

Witnesses confirm that Kerensky left Petrograd in the car of the American Embassy, but in men's clothes.

But Kerensky still had to change. Having reached Gatchina, he settled there and tried to gather forces for a revenge. However, the campaign against Petrograd failed. October 31 Cossacks General Krasnova concluded a truce with the Bolsheviks. A Bolshevik arrived for negotiations on November 1 Pavel Dybenko, who quickly found a common language with the Cossacks. The proposal to "change Kerensky to Lenin", of course, did not sound serious, but it was enough to scare the head of the Provisional Government to death. He realized that the Cossacks were not going to die for him.

General Krasnov wrote in his memoirs: “I went to summon the Cossack of the 10th Don Cossack Regiment Rusakov and ordered to appoint 8 Cossacks to guard the Supreme Commander. Half an hour later, the Cossacks came and said that Kerensky was not there, that he had fled. I raised the alarm and ordered to find him, believing that he could not escape from Gatchina and is hiding somewhere here. "

And here is what Kerensky himself wrote about his disappearance from Gatchina: “I still do not consider myself entitled to tell in detail my departure from the Gatchina Palace. The Bolsheviks are still in power - people are still alive ... I left the Palace 10 minutes before the traitors broke into my rooms. I left, not knowing for another minute that I would go. I went ridiculously disguised under the noses of enemies and traitors. I was still walking along the streets of Gatchina when the persecution began. I walked along with those who saved me, but whom I had never known before and had seen for the first time in my life. In these minutes they have shown self-control, courage and unforgettable selflessness. "

And what did Alexander Fyodorovich change into? Here are his own words: “I transformed into a very ridiculous sailor, the sleeves of his pea coat were short, my tawny boots and leggings were clearly out of style. The visor was so small for me that it could hardly stay on top of my head. Huge chauffeur glasses completed the disguise. This appearance of Kerensky during his escape was confirmed in their memoirs by those who saw him on November 1.

So, Kerensky really did dress up, running away from the Bolsheviks, but not a woman, but a sailor, and not in Petrograd, but in Gatchina.

“Do you know what they called me? "Alexandra Fedorovna"! "

Curiously, the story of the escape of the head of the Provisional Government was not invented by the Bolsheviks. The primary source is the younger brother of the head of the cadet school, which was supposed to defend Winter. It was with his light hand that the legend of a woman's dress went to the people.

It was eagerly replicated later both in Soviet Russia and in emigration circles. Famous russian lawyer Nikolay Karabchevsky wrote: “After reigning for a short time in a work jacket, in the name of deepening the revolution, and then in the marching uniform of a funny“ commander-in-chief ”, he fled from the Winter Palace, as they said, in the dress and headscarf of a sister of mercy, which gave the opportunity for him to escape safely. In what costume he later fled from the Bolsheviks abroad, I do not know exactly. "

Even in the performance of the famous Taganka Theater "Ten Days that Shook the World" in the 1970s, "Kerensky", running away, disguised himself as a nurse, becoming "Alexandra Fedorovna" from "Alexander Fedorovich".

And here you can find the origins of the myth. The fact is that in the summer of 1917, the head of the Provisional Government was compared with the last empress, who, as you know, was called Alexandra Feodorovna. Where did such a comparison come from, Kerensky himself explained in an interview with Genrikh Borovik: “They all hated and hate me! They are monarchists ... Do you know what they called me? "Alexandra Fyodorovna"! They hinted that I allegedly slept on the bed of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. And I, I swear to God, did not sleep there! "

Why did they believe it?

But it’s unlikely that the story about a woman’s dress would be so willingly believed if it were about a different policy. For example, Lenin was also credited with escaping from Petrograd to Razliv from the persecution of the Provisional Government in a woman's dress. This version, however, was not taken seriously. When it came to Kerensky, various political forces were ready to believe anything.

The last head of the Provisional Government during the February Revolution was considered a popular tribune and one of the most popular politicians in Russia. This fact brought him to the highest post. However, Kerensky's rush from left to right and the absence of a firm political line led to the fact that by October 1917 he completely squandered his political authority. There was no one to save the Provisional Government. Kerensky was now seen as a political freak, a clown, for whom the role of "nurse" fits perfectly.

During his lifetime, the head of the Provisional Government could not get rid of such a reputation. Apparently, the female attire stuck with him in history forever, despite any denials.

Fearing the reprisals of the Bolsheviks during the October events of 1917, the chairman of the Provisional Government A.F. Kerensky fled from the Winter Palace, disguised as a sister of mercy (according to another version, a maid).

The source of these rumors is believed to be the brother of the head of the cadet school, which was supposed to defend Winter. Kerensky himself, many years later, already in exile in the United States, categorically denied such "accusations", explaining them with hatred of the authors of the rumors towards him.

According to another version of the myth, Kerensky fled in a woman's dress not from the Winter Palace, but from Gatchinsky, where he moved after power was in the hands of the Bolsheviks. The ex-chairman of the Provisional Government accidentally contributed to the spread of this myth. In his memoirs, he writes: I left the Palace 10 minutes before the traitors broke into my rooms. I left, not knowing for a minute that I would go. I went ridiculously disguised under the noses of enemies and traitors. I was still walking through the streets of Gatchina when the persecution began.

The myth of Kerensky's "women's dress" was successfully picked up by both official propaganda and popular rumor. In 1938, the artist Grigory Shegal finished the painting "The Flight of Kerensky from Gatchina", in which the main character is depicted in women's clothing; a reproduction of the painting was subsequently replicated by Soviet textbooks.

Despite the fact that many years have passed since then, the image of Kerensky in a woman's dress still exists in the public consciousness.

Examples of using

Rebel Colonel Mohammed Kabar unsuccessfully copied Kerensky - he fled in a canoe, disguised as a woman's dress ... (Mikhail Kuznetsov. Trouble on the Comoros // Socio-political magazine "Planet", April 2008)

If I were bin Laden, without hesitation, I would have fled Afghanistan in a woman's dress, like Kerensky in 1917. Pakistani rumor has it that Osama has already acquired four doppelgangers in case of escape. (D. Aslamov. In Peshawar, being Russian today is no less dangerous than being an American . Komsomolskaya Pravda, 09.10.2001 . Text by: Nakhimova E.A.)

Suddenly, information appears: Ms. Kaljurand, the Estonian ambassador to Russia, wearing a wig and a man's suit, like Kerensky in 1917, came out of the cordon. Apparently, through the Dutch embassy, from where she was taken to the Sheremetyevo airport(N. Beroeva. New Stalingrad. - Komsomolskaya Pravda, 28.04.2007 . Text by: Nakhimova E.A. The precedent name "Kerensky" in modern domestic media // Political linguistics. Issue 1 (24). 2008)

I.E. Repin... A. Kerensky. 1917

Reality

After the events of October 1917, the head of the Provisional Government found himself in an extremely disadvantageous position for himself. On the one hand, the Bolsheviks demanded his extradition, on the other hand, after the speech of General Kornilov, which he declared illegal, the army actually refused to support. Kerensky was forced to leave Petrograd and go to Gatchina, where he thought to wait out the battles between the Bolsheviks and the Cossack detachments of General Krasnov who went to fight them. But the Cossacks already at the end of October concluded a truce with the Bolsheviks - the Krasnovites were not going to defend Kerensky, whom they considered a traitor after the Kornilov speech. Fearing extradition, Kerensky fled from Gatchina and, after several months of wandering around the country and trying to join anti-Bolshevik movements, left Russia.

Kerensky, who lived until 1970, suffered from the story of the "woman's dress" until the last years of his life. In 1966, communicating with the Soviet journalist Genrikh Borovik, he emotionally declared: “Mr. Borovik, tell me there in Moscow - you have smart people! Well, I didn’t run from the Winter Palace in a woman’s dress! ” The chairman of the Provisional Government explained such rumors by the hatred of the monarchists; according to him, they also spread gossip that he slept on the Empress's bed, and called him “Alexandra Fedorovna” behind his back.

Apart from Kerensky's words, no one directly refutes the myth of the flight from Zimny, but it is significant that other eyewitnesses, describing his departure, emphasized completely different things. For example, in the story of Kerensky's escape, US Ambassador to Russia David Francis remembered most of all the hijacking of a car of the American Embassy by the adjutants of the head of the Provisional Government (Kerensky himself delicately informs in his memoirs that a car with an American flag was "provided" to him).

General Krasnov subsequently spoke about the flight from Gatchina with "ridiculous dressing up", according to whom, quoted by P.N. Milyukov, Kerensky left "in a sailor's jacket and blue glasses."

The main vulnerability of the myth is the absence of a unified version of events. His repeaters agree only that Kerensky changed into a woman's dress. What kind of dress it was - a maid or a nurse; under what circumstances, during which stage of his flight, the chairman of the Provisional Government could have disguised himself in this way - the authors of the myth do not give an unambiguous answer.

Sources and Literature

There are moments and scenes in the history of the Russian revolution that are engraved in the memory of even those who do not deeply immerse themselves in this material: Lenin on an armored car, a shot from "Aurora", workers going to storm the Winter Palace ...

There is a scene like this in this row: head of the Provisional Government Alexander Kerensky flees from Petrograd in a woman's dress.

"I left Petersburg in my paramilitary uniform"

Almost until his last day, Kerensky wrestled with the story of the dress, proving that it was a fiction.

Journalist Henrikh Borovik, The only representative of the Soviet press who communicated with Kerensky said that the aged politician desperately urged him: “Mr. Borovik, tell me there in Moscow — you have smart people! Well, I didn’t run from the Winter Palace in a woman’s dress! ”

In an interview with an employee of the Russian section of Radio Canada Alexander Lieven, which Kerensky gave in 1964, he told the following: “When on the night of the twenty-fifth I came to the headquarters, there already more than half of the officers showed their very 'unpleasant' feelings for the Provisional Government. In the morning it was decided that I would personally go to meet the troops sent to Petersburg. In Russia, they say that I fled in the costume of a sister of mercy. But I left Petersburg in my open car, in my paramilitary uniform, sitting next to my adjutants and assistant. We ordered the driver to drive from St. Petersburg to the Moscow outpost at Tsarskoe Selo along the big streets - Morskoy and others - where telegraphs and telephones were already occupied by the rebels. We drove slowly, and the rebels were so lost that they saluted me. And only near the outpost we were fired upon. They shot at the tires - they didn't hit. We arrived at a stop in Gatchina, and we all felt that something was not quite right. I ordered to pour gasoline, and drove on immediately, and the next car, which was walking with me at a great distance, was fired upon, and everyone was injured inside. That was the real picture. "

Kerensky escaped in a car confiscated from US diplomats?

So how did the woman's dress runaway story come about?

On October 24, Kerensky attended a meeting of the Pre-Parliament in Petrograd and demanded the adoption of a resolution expressing full support for the actions of the Provisional Government. However, the resolution was adopted evasively, which did not suit the Prime Minister.

On the morning of October 25, Kerensky left Petrograd to meet the troops coming from the front to help the government.

In an interview in 1964, Alexander Fedorovich does not mention in which car he left the capital. But in the book "From Afar" he is more frank: "At the very moment of departure, representatives of the British and, as far as I remember, the American embassies came to me with a statement that representatives of the Allied powers would like a car under the American flag to go with me."

U.S. Ambassador to Russia David Francis in his book Russia From the Window of the American Embassy recalls this somewhat differently: “Secretary Whitehouse ran up to me in great you need a car to go to the front. Whitehouse and his brother-in-law, Baron Ramsay, traveled with an officer to headquarters to investigate the source of this astonishing claim. There they found Kerensky ... Everyone was terribly agitated, and complete chaos reigned. Kerensky confirmed the officer's statement that he needed Whitehouse's car to go to the front. Whitehouse said: this is my own car, and you (he pointed to the Winter Palace, on the other side of the square) have more than thirty cars waiting at the entrance. Kerensky answered: they were spoiled at night, and the Bolsheviks are in charge of all the troops in Petrograd, with the exception of a few who declare their neutrality; they refuse to obey my orders. Whitehouse and Ramsay, consulting hastily, came to the reasonable conclusion that, since the car had already been seized, in fact, they could no longer resist. Leaving headquarters, Whitehouse remembered the American flag and, returning, told the officer who had requested the car that he must remove the flag before using the car. The latter objected, and after some wrangling Whitehouse had to be content with a protest against Kerensky using the flag ... "

"I was transformed into a very ridiculous sailor": how the head of the government escaped from Gatchina

Witnesses confirm that Kerensky left Petrograd in the car of the American Embassy, but in men's clothes.

And here is what Kerensky himself wrote about his disappearance from Gatchina: “I still do not consider myself entitled to tell in detail my departure from the Gatchina Palace. The Bolsheviks are still in power - people are still alive ... I left the palace 10 minutes before the traitors broke into my rooms. I left, not knowing for another minute that I would go. I went ridiculously disguised under the noses of enemies and traitors. I was still walking along the streets of Gatchina when the persecution began. I walked along with those who saved me, but whom I had never known before and had seen for the first time in my life. In these minutes they have shown self-control, courage and unforgettable selflessness. "

So, Kerensky really did disguise himself, fleeing from the Bolsheviks, but not as a woman, but as a sailor, and not in Petrograd, but in Gatchina.

“Do you know what they called me? "Alexandra Fedorovna"! "

It was subsequently readily replicated both in Soviet Russia and in emigration circles. Famous russian lawyer Nikolay Karabchevsky wrote: “After reigning for a short time in a work jacket, in the name of deepening the revolution, and then in the marching uniform of a funny“ commander-in-chief ”, he fled from the Winter Palace, as they said, in the dress and headscarf of a sister of mercy, which gave the opportunity for him to escape safely. In what costume he subsequently ran away from the Bolsheviks abroad, I do not know exactly. "

Even in the performance of the famous Taganka Theater "Ten Days That Shook the World" in the seventies, Kerensky, running away, disguised himself as a nurse, becoming "Alexandra Fedorovna" from "Alexander Fedorovich".

And here you can find the origins of the myth. The fact is that in the summer of 1917, the head of the Provisional Government began to be compared with the last empress, who, as you know, was called Alexandra Feodorovna. Where did such a comparison come from, Kerensky himself explained in an interview with Genrikh Borovik: “They all hated and hate me! Well they are monarchists ... Do you know what they called me? "Alexandra Fyodorovna"! They hinted that I allegedly slept on the bed of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. And I, I swear to God, did not sleep there! "

Why did they believe it?

The last head of the Provisional Government during the February Revolution was considered a popular tribune and one of the most popular politicians in Russia. This fact brought him to the highest post. However, Kerensky's rush from left to right and the lack of a firm political line led to the fact that by October 1917 he completely squandered his political authority. There was no one to save the Provisional Government. Kerensky was now seen as a political freak, a clown, for whom the role of "nurse" fits perfectly.

During his lifetime, the head of the Provisional Government could not get rid of such a reputation. Apparently, the female attire stuck with him in history forever, despite any denials.

Grigory Shegal. "The flight of Kerensky from Gatchina." 1938

So, in the year of the 100th anniversary of the "Great Russian Revolution", as it is now customary to call this event, we will continue to collect exhibits for the virtual museum of the revolution / counterrevolution of 1917-1991.
After, which for a whole century, and even longer, became the dress of revolutionaries (Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Chiang Kai Shi, Deng Xiaoping, Pol Pot, Che Guevara, three Kims ...), let's move on to "exhibit number two", other clothes of Alexander Fedorovich. Which, in addition, he never wore in real life ... but, nevertheless, she firmly entered the historical myth about him and about the revolution of October 25. And in the history of art (painting, including caricature, and cinema). And into historical symbolism ...
Of course, we are talking about the famous "women's dress" of Kerensky, either a sister of mercy, or a maid, in which he changed to escape from the Bolsheviks. In reality, it is impossible to find this outfit, alas, because it never existed, but for a virtual museum it is just right. Well, let us trace the birth of this revolutionary legend, beautiful in its beauty and symbolism.
What was the case in reality? On the eve of the assault, Kerensky left the Winter Palace in his usual clothes, that is, everything in the same paramilitary jacket. The American embassy even provided the head of the Russian government with a diplomatic car with a Stars and Stripes flag for his greater safety. On it, he left the Winter Palace. The counter officers, according to him, as usual, saluted the commander-in-chief, he answered them in kind ...
But with the second flight of Kerensky, this time from the Gatchina Palace, the situation was a little more interesting. The situation around the prime minister was unbearable there: the Bolshevik Pavel Dybenko arrived in Gatchina for negotiations. General Pyotr Krasnov (the same future ally of Hitler, hanged by the verdict of a Soviet court in 1947) became Kerensky's last hope. Krasnov recalled: "On the morning of November 1, the negotiators returned and a crowd of sailors with them. Our truce was accepted, signed by the representative of the sailors Dybenko, who himself granted us. Huge growth, handsome man with curly black curls, black mustache and a young beard, with with big dark eyes, white-faced, ruddy, infectious cheerful, sparkling with white teeth, with a ready-made joke on his laughing mouth, a physically strong man posing for nobility, he charmed in a few minutes not only the Cossacks, but also many officers.
- Give us Kerensky, and we will provide you with Lenin, if you like, we will change ear to ear! he said, laughing.
The Cossacks believed him. They came to me and said that they were demanding the exchange of Kerensky for Lenin, whom they would immediately hang at the palace. "

Kerensky's "branded" clothes in 1917 - a paramilitary jacket

In his testimony after his arrest in 1917, General Krasnov spoke about the future as follows:
“On November 1, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief (Kerensky) demanded me. He was very agitated and nervous.
- General, - he said, - you betrayed me ... Here your Cossacks definitely say that they will arrest me and hand me over to the sailors ...
- Yes, - I answered, - there is talk about it, and I know that there is no sympathy for you anywhere.
“But the officers say the same thing.
- Yes, the officers are especially unhappy with you.
- What should I do? I have to commit suicide.
- If you are an honest man, you will now go to Petrograd with a white flag and report to the Revolutionary Committee, where you will talk as head of government.
- Yes, I will, General.
“I’ll give you security and ask the sailor to come with you.”
- No, not a sailor. Do you know that Dybenko is here?
- I don't know who Dybenko is.
- This is my enemy.
- Well, what to do? Once you are playing a big game, then you need to give an answer.
- Yes, only I will leave at night.
- Why? It will be an escape. Drive calmly and openly; so that everyone can see that you are not running.
- Yes OK. Just give me a reliable escort.
- Good. I went to summon the Cossack of the 10th Don Cossack Regiment Rusakov and ordered to appoint 8 Cossacks to guard the Supreme Commander. Half an hour later, the Cossacks came and said that Kerensky was not there, that he had fled. I raised the alarm and ordered to find him, believing that he could not escape from Gatchina and is hiding somewhere here. "
Krasnov sent a telegram to General Dukhonin at Headquarters that day: "He ordered the arrest of the commander-in-chief; he managed to escape." Later, in his memoirs, Krasnov tried to embellish his behavior on that day, as if there was no betrayal on his part, and he told the prime minister: “No matter how great your guilt before Russia, I do not consider myself entitled to judge you. I guarantee. " And gave him the opportunity to escape ...
Kerensky himself confidently wrote about Krasnov's betrayal, and talked about his escape (emphasis mine): “I still don’t consider myself entitled to tell in detail my departure from the Gatchina Palace. The Bolsheviks are still in power - people are still alive ... I left the Palace for 10 minutes before the traitors broke into my rooms, I left, not knowing for a minute that I would go. I went ridiculously disguised under the noses of enemies and traitors. I was still walking along the streets of Gatchina when the persecution began. I walked along with those who saved me, but whom I had never known before and had seen for the first time in my life. In these minutes they have shown self-control, courage and unforgettable selflessness. "
What did Alexander Fyodorovich actually change into at the Gatchina Palace on November 1, 1917? Pavel Milyukov, according to Krasnov, specified that Kerensky left the palace "in a sailor's jacket and blue glasses." One of his adjutants, midshipman Kovanko, later told the details of these minutes. Kerensky told his adjutants that he decided to shoot himself so as not to fall into the hands of the Bolsheviks. But he has a sore arm, and he is afraid that he will not kill himself, but only cripple. Therefore, he asks them to cast lots, which of them will shoot him. The lot fell on Kovanko. “And I must say that this Kovanko was a very artistic guy: he could make jokes and joke to the spot. Then he says to Kerensky:“ Why are we really limp ?! ”He grabbed the driver's fur jacket (then there were open cars ), put blue glasses on Alexander Fedorovich, his cap. " Self-portrait of Kerensky himself: “I was transformed into a very ridiculous sailor, whose pea jacket sleeves were short, my reddish-brown boots and leggings were clearly out of style. The visor was so small for me that it could hardly stay on top of my head. Huge chauffeur glasses completed the disguise.
However, the phrase "went ridiculously disguised", published in a memoir essay in 1926, later cost Alexander Fyodorovich dearly. (I remember reading it in a history textbook in a Soviet school in the early 80s). She was very helpful in spreading the famous myth.
By 1927, the legend about the "female dress" of the commander-in-chief was already ready. It was reflected in the poster of the artist Vasily Pshenichnikov (1882-1957) from the Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia (AHRR), created for the 10th anniversary of the revolution. It depicts Kerensky in an undefined red woman's dress. But this is not yet the dress of a sister of mercy or a maid.

Vasily Pshenichnikov. Poster, 1927. Signed: "THE FLIGHT OF KERENSKY FROM GATCHINA. Kerensky decided to suppress the revolution with all his might. His last hope remained in the Cossacks. But the Cossacks did not support Kerensky either. Comrade Dybenko, a member of the military-revolutionary committee, who came to Kerensky's headquarters, in Gatchina , called a meeting, at which it was decided to arrest Kerensky and send him to Petrograd. 10 minutes before his arrest, on November 14, at about 3 pm, Kerensky, disguised as a woman and taking advantage of the excitement in the palace, fled from the indignant Cossacks and soldiers. "

And among the White emigration, the legend of "Kerensky's flight from the Winter Palace in a woman's dress" was born even earlier. Lawyer Nikolai Karabchevsky wrote: “Kerensky generally liked to dress up in masquerade, and he was a master at it.
As I was told at one time, he once appeared on Shrovetide at the apartment of a Duma member, where guests were gathered, in the vestments of an ancient Roman of the times of the republic, with a sword in his hands. Everyone found that wearing a helmet, from under which his characteristically spread ears protruded, and with a sword in his hands, on his thin legs, he very successfully expressed the steadfast courage of a Russian revolutionary.
Later, he had to disguise himself not on the occasion of Shrovetide.
Having reigned for a short time in a work jacket, in the name of deepening the revolution, and then in the marching uniform of a funny "commander-in-chief", he fled from the Winter Palace, as they claimed, in the dress and headscarf of a sister of mercy, which, with his clean-colorless physiognomy, gave him the opportunity to safely hide. In what costume he later fled from the Bolsheviks abroad, I do not know exactly. "
In 1937, the legend rose to a new level, she entered the "Short Course in the History of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)"! It said about his flight from Gatchina: "As for Kerensky, he, dressed in a woman's dress, managed to hide."
By the 20th anniversary of October, in 1937-1938, the Soviet artist Grigory Shegal (1889-1956) created the painting "The Flight of Kerensky from Gatchina", in which a frightened Kerensky hastily changes into the clothes of a sister of mercy in one of the palace rooms; a reproduction of the painting was often placed in Soviet textbooks.
Boris Efimov also noted in the creation of the legend:

Boris Efimov. Caricature of A.F. Kerensky

In 1957, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the revolution, the famous Soviet cartoonists Kukryniksy had a hand in the myth of the female dress of the commander-in-chief. They created the painting "Kerensky's Last Exit".

Kukryniksy. "Kerensky's Last Exit". 1957-1958

Well, in the film "Messengers of Eternity" (1970), the legend took the last step: Kerensky in a woman's dress fled not from Gatchina, but from the Winter Palace (however, Karabchevsky argued the same way back in the 1920s).
In the television movie "Blackmail" from the series "Experts are conducting the investigation" (case No. 6, 1972), the old-regime lady Antonina Valerianovna Prakhova reassured her young accomplice, an unnamed Blackmailer (the role of A. Dzhigarkhanyan), that if something happened he would leave the police ambush, "as Alexander Fedorovich left. "
- Which Alexander Fedorovich?
- Yes, Kerensky.
- How did he leave?
- In a woman's dress. You need to know Russian history!
In the film "Crown of the Russian Empire" (1971), the actress Lyudmila Gurchenko sang "chansonette couplets" to the poems of Robert Rozhdestvensky, among which was this:
By the way, Kerensky himself is behind the cordon,
Moved into a woman's dress, mi pardon,
Dropping women's clothes and corset
He expressed his hopes tête-à-tête.
- Sorry, Monsieur Kerensky, how to grow old
Maybe it's better to die for Russia?
For the sake of honor and prestige, I'm not kidding.
He's laughing:
- What am I, redhead? I do not want!

Fortunately, Alexander Fedorovich did not hear these couplets (he died in 1970), but of course he knew about the legend itself. In 1966, talking with the Soviet journalist Genrikh Borovik, he began a conversation with him with an emotional statement: “Mr. Borovik, tell me in your place in Moscow! There are serious people there too! Well, let them stop writing as if I escaped from the Winter Palace in a woman's dress! This was not the case! And I did not run, but, according to our common decision, I left to meet our troops, which still did not arrive and did not arrive from Gatchina to help the Provisional Government! I left in my car and in my usual paramilitary suit ... Many people saw me, I was not particularly hiding. Soldiers, even red ones, if they recognized me, saluted me! .. What does a woman's dress have to do with it ?! "
G. Borovik said: “Apparently, this untruth burned his heart 50 years later.
- Alexander Fedorovich, but the Bolsheviks did not come up with it, - I answered. - The younger brother of the head of the cadet school, which was supposed to defend the Winter Palace, first wrote about this ...
- Yes, they all hated and hate me! Kerensky exploded. - They are monarchists ... Do you know what they called me? "Alexandra Fedorovna"! They hinted that I allegedly slept on the bed of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. And I, I swear to God, did not sleep there! "
By the way, not only monarchists called “Alexandra Fedorovna” after the last Empress Kerensky. In Mayakovsky's poem Good, one of the Bolsheviks says:
To be
Kerensky
bat and skinned!
Already we
raise
from the king's bed
this
the most
Alexandra Fedorovna.
Well, and at the end of the review of this, I repeat, beautiful, from my point of view, historical myth, a couple of small personal memories on the topic.
In 1979, the teacher told the schoolchildren, including myself, such a historical tale. As if in childhood, when young Sasha Kerensky and Volodya Ulyanov lived in Simbirsk, and their fathers were fellow teachers, little Sasha came to the Ulyanovs at the Christmas tree. And at the same time he changed into a girl's fancy dress ...
And second: around 1990 I remember a cartoon from the informal (opposition) press of that time, from the newspaper Novaya Zhizn. In the drawing, Alexander Fedorovich Kerensky demonstrated a woman's dress to Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev ...

B. Matveeva. Kerensky. 1989

Complete encyclopedia of our delusions Mazurkevich Sergey Alexandrovich

Kerensky. Did he change into a woman's dress?

The activities of Alexander Fedorovich Kerensky, head of the Provisional Government of Russia in 1917, are assessed by historians in different ways. For the most part, these assessments are negative. One of his contemporaries wrote about Kerensky: "Kerensky's soul was bruised by the role that history imposed on him - a random little man." It is a pity, of course, that in Kerensky's place there was no more decisive person who could resist the Bolsheviks. But what was, what was, and who knows how it could have been different.

Let's move on to our myth. According to the overwhelming majority of our compatriots, Kerensky fled from the Winter Palace, disguised as a nurse, donning a ladies' skirt. However, was it really so?

While in exile, Kerensky was strongly outraged by the stories that he fled, dressed in women's clothes. In fact, there was no such change. Learning that there were red patrols on the streets adjacent to Zimny, Kerensky went to the front to meet the troops. He rode not at all in women's clothes, but in a paramilitary jacket and breeches, which he always wore since he became Minister of War. At some posts, the Red Guards even saluted him and stretched out to attention.

But it should be noted that there was a story about dressing up. When General Krasnov's offensive on Petrograd failed, the Cossacks were going to betray Kerensky if the Bolsheviks promised to let them go to the Don. It was here that Kerensky had to change, but again not in a woman’s dress, but in a sailor’s clothing. Although he looked ridiculous in a sailor's pea coat with short sleeves, brown boots, a tight peakless cap and huge glasses on his nose, none of the Cossacks recognized Kerensky in such an outfit. So he managed to escape.

As for a woman's dress, Kerensky would probably look very interesting in it, considering that he had a red beard at that time.

After Kerensky managed to lead the Cossacks, he hid for forty days like Lenin in Razliv. By the way, this is not one coincidence in the lives of the two creators of the revolution. Kerensky was also born on April 22, also in Simbirsk, and he studied at the same gymnasium where Lenin was. But this is where the coincidences end: after the Bolshevik coup, Lenin, as you know, began to build a new Russia, and Kerensky went into exile in June 1918. By the way, in order to leave Russia, he had to change again, this time as a Serbian officer.

Some researchers ascribe to Kerensky almost the "Napoleon complex" on the grounds that he put his hand behind his waistcoat. However, the reason for this is different. Kerensky once had his wrist broken. Since it did not recover, it had to be worn with a bandage. And Alexander Fedorovich did not want to be called a "wounded duck", and therefore put his hand behind his waistcoat.

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