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i9I7] LETTER TO M. TERESTCHENKO
political matters and of human nature, as well as by her
extreme affability.
In view of my sincere sympathies with regard to M.
Terestchenko, whom I had known when he was not
much more than a youth at his worthy mother’s house,
I wrote him a private letter under date of the 23rd
September, in which I revealed the whole origin of my
resolution, and said, amongst other things, as follows:
"It has been proved to me that M. Kerensky,
whatever his enthusiasm and sincerity, is neither a statesman
nor a fit man to govern, but merely the leader of a party.
His whole past grips him, and does not allow him to
view the position frankly. And both he and you are
surrounded by men with whom I can have nothing in
common, and whom I rightly look on as enemies of
our country.
"I see clearly," I concluded, "that in yielding one
position after another, Kerensky and you are helping,
though involuntarily, to pile up the monstrous and
inappropriate erection of an anarchical Russia, an erection
which will end by falling and by burying you under the
ruins !"
This prophecy was fulfilled exactly six weeks later.
If I had been able to foresee, when writing those lines,
the base and treacherous role that M. Kerensky was to
play so soon after over the taking up of arms by Korniloff,
I should never have spoken of him in such indulgent
terms, still less should I have bracketed his name with
the honourable name of M. Michael Terestchenko.
What occurred immediately after the winding up of
Korniloffs hazardous enterprise in the bosom of the
Provisional Government of Petrograd does not come
within the scope of these Reminiscences. But I am
still wondering how, under those very circumstances,
honourable men professing moderate opinions,1 could
have consented to be in the Government and sit next
the " Dictator," instead of keeping carefully away from
1 These were some young, very rich and ambitious merchants, and
big manufacturers of Moscow.
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