Kerensky, Ex-Russian Leader, Puts Faith in Democracy Here

Alexander Kerensky, for nine months head of the Russian government during the democratic transition between the Tsarist and the Communist regimes in 1917, sat yesterday afternoon in the Faculty Club and gave his views on world affairs, and rehearsed some of the history in which he has taken a leading part.

Yesterday he attended a lunch there at which President Conant was present, and last night addressed a meeting of the Ford Hall Forum on the subject "On Behalf of Democracy."

Declaring that the chances for either Communism or Fascism in this country and England are negligible, Kerensky traced the reasons why the attempt of his government to establish democracy on Russian soil came to nothing after only eight months. "The essential cause of the Bolshevik victory in Russia," he said, "was the very difficult war in which we were engaged and the fact that the Revolution began during the war--not before, as in the French Revolution."

Revolution Against Democracy

The counter-revolution of November 7 which displaced his government was a revolution against the democratic regime and not against the Tsarists or long-time economic abuses, Kerensky says. When Lenin returned to Russia a month after the first revolution he hailed it as the freest country in Europe, a statement which his subsequent actions were to contradict.

He sees democracy as the only hope for the world today and bases a large part of his faith on the future of the United States. "I am sure that American youth will always remain faithful to this tradition, so necessary to humanity's real culture," he said.

Harvard's organization impressed Kerensky particularly favorably, and this led him to a discussion of the educational situation in pre-revolutionary Russia, with which he was concerned as a member of the Duma, the Russian Parliamentary body.

Education in Russia

He stated that contrary to the general impression, measures for obligatory education were being rushed when the war overtook them. In 1913 an act was passed which within eight years would have completely democratized education for the Russian people. Even before this, the local governments were making progress in education, he said.

Describing Russia after the Bolshevik counter-revolution of 1917 as the first totalitarian state in Europe, Kerensky pointed to the difference between the situation when he was leader of the Leftist opposition to the Tsar, and the present time when all opposition within the party ranks has been stopped.

Recalls Men on Trial Now

The present trials for treason which are filling the newspapers stirred him to recall some of the figures whom he had known. Bukharin he described as a fanatic, but honest in his ideas in comparison with Yagoda. Furthermore he remembers Bukharin from the time when the latter was one of the Bolshevik leaders and he was the leader of the Popular party, as a cultured man, something which could not be said for Yagoda.

Tomorrow Kerensky, who has divided his residence in exile between France and England, leaves for Providence, R. I., and after that a two months' tour of this country. He is extremely interested in how this country is democratically solving the economic problems which face it.

While in Cambridge his constant companions have been Pitirim A. Sorokin, professor of Sociology, and Michael Karpovich, assistant professor of History, both of whom served him in former days.