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Nikolai Avksentyev | |
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Николай Авксентьев | |
.jpg) Avksentiev in 1921 | |
| Chairman of the Provisional All-Russian Government | |
| In office 23 September 1918 – 18 November 1918 | |
| Preceded by | Vladimir Volsky (as Chairman of theCommittee of Members of the Constituent Assembly) |
| Succeeded by | Alexander Kolchak (asSupreme Ruler of Russia) |
| Chairman of theProvisional Council of the Russian Republic | |
| In office 3 October 1917 – 7 November 1917 | |
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Succeeded by | Position abolished |
| Minister of the Interior of the Russian Provisional Government | |
| In office 7 August 1917 – 15 September 1917 | |
| Preceded by | Irakli Tsereteli |
| Succeeded by | Alexei Nikitin |
| Personal details | |
| Born | November 28, 1878 Penza,Russian Empire |
| Died | March 4, 1943 (aged 64) New York, New York,U.S. |
| Political party | Socialist Revolutionaries(1905–1921) |
| Education | University of Heidelberg |
Nikolai Dimitrovich Avksentyev (Russian:Никола́й Дми́триевич Авксе́нтьев; 28 November 1878 – 24 March 1943) was a leading member of theSocialist-Revolutionary Party (PSR). He was one of the 'Heidelberg SRs' (a group of Russian students at the University of Heidelberg in the 1890s), likeVladimir Zenzinov. These SRs were influenced byneo-Kantian philosophy andMarxism. As Chairman of theProvisional All-Russian Government, he headed theRussian state from September 23 to November 18, 1918. He was overthrown and arrested by the Minister of War,Alexander Kolchak, who proclaimed himself theSupreme Ruler of Russia.
Born into the Russian nobility, Nikolai Avksentiev attended school inPenza, studied at the Law Faculty ofMoscow University (in 1899 he was expelled due to student unrest). He was a founder and the first chairman of theParty of Socialist Revolutionaries, and during the1905 Russian Revolution was elected to theSaint Petersburg Soviet. Together with other leading figures of theSoviet, he was arrested. In the fall of 1906 he appeared at an open trial, where he defended the position of his party. Like all the main accused, he was convicted and exiled toObdorsk inSiberia, he escaped abroad in 1907. InGermany, at theUniversity of Heidelberg, he wrote a doctrinal thesis onFriedrich Neitszche's concept of the 'Superman'.[1] In exile, he edited the Socialist-Revolutionary newspaper "The Banner of Labor". He was the leader of the right-wing of the Socialist Revolutionaries, a supporter of legal forms of struggle with theimperialist regime and opposed to theterrorist tactics of theLeft SRs. During the First World War Avksentiev was associated with the 'Defencist' wing of the PSR and collaborated closely withVadim Rudnev,Avram Gots and others. He was an active member of the irregularfreemasonic lodge, theGrand Orient of Russia’s Peoples.[2]
After theFebruary Revolution, Avksentiev emerged as a leading figure among the majority faction of the Socialist Revolutionary Party who supported theProvisional Government. He was elected a member of thePetrograd Soviet, and chairman of the Executive Committee of Peasants' Deputies. In August 1917, he was Minister of the Interior in theKerensky administration. He was also chairman of theAll-Russian Democratic Conference or 'Pre-Parliament, and was elected to theAll-Russian Constituent Assembly fromPenza.
With reference to his role in the events of 1917,Leon Trotsky wrote that Avksentiev "was the complete caricature of a statesman. A really charming teacher of language in a ladies' seminary inOryol - that is really all you can say about him, although, to be sure, his political activity turned out far more pernicious than his personality."[3]
After theOctober Revolution, he was one of the organizers of theCommittee for the Salvation of the Homeland and Revolution, for which he was imprisoned in thePeter and Paul Fortress by the new Bolshevik government. As I.I. Manukhin wrote in his memoirs, Avksentiev was released from theKrestov hospital thanks to the intervention of thePeople's Commissar of Justice, Socialist RevolutionaryIsaac Steinberg.[4]
In March 1918, he became a leader of theRussian Revival Union. By a decision of the SR Central Committee, he left at the end of May forSiberia, which was considered by the Socialist-Revolutionaries as a potential base of resistance to the Bolshevik regime. In September 1918, he was elected chairman of theState Meeting in Ufa and headed the newProvisional All-Russian Government, which united the fragmented anti-Bolshevik governments of eastern Russia. On November 18,Alexander Kolchak launched acoup d'etat that dissolved the provisional government and established amilitary dictatorship in its place. Avksentiev was briefly arrested by Kolchak's forces and fled Russia viaVladivostok, with the assistance of the British military. He settled inParis and was active in émigré circles and inFreemasonry.[5] After theNazi invasion of France, Avksentiev and his wife Berthe escaped to the United States, with an emergency visa provided by theJewish Labor Committee and theAmerican Federation of Labor, where he published the magazine "For Freedom". Avksentiev died on March 4, 1943, in New York City.
His daughter,Alexandra became an accomplished painter.
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