The Fall of the Dynasties: The Collapse of the Old Order: 1905-1922

by Edmond Taylor

The incongruous structure with its cupola and marble columns had housed the Imperial Duma, before becoming the general headquarters of the revolution. The Duma itself, or at least its principal members, had joined the rebellion on March 11, by defying an Imperial decree of prorogation. Instead of disbanding, the deputies had on the following day set up a so-called Emergency Committee, chaired by the Duma’s President, the portly, Conservative M. V. Rodzianko, and consisting of the chief Progressive Bloc leaders — Milyukov, Lvov, Guchkov, Basil Shulgin, et al — plus a left-wing maverick, the former Revolutionary Socialist Alexander Kerensky. We are so used to thinking of him as the Kerensky of the Russian Revolution, that we tend to forget he was really its Danton.