Khilafat movement also named the Kerensky Offensive, was an attack on the whole Galician sector of the front Low morale, poor supply, and the arrival of German reserves quickly brought the advance to a halt As a consequence of that defeat, the provisional government was compelled to reorganize Kerensky, whose rhetoric still seemed to win him popular support, became prime minister His essential problem was that his country was exhausted after three years of warfare Kerensky, however, felt obliged by Russia’s commitments to its allies to continue the war against the Central Powers He also foresaw that Germany would demand vast territorial concessions as the price for peace For those reasons, Kerensky decided to continue the war Lenin and his Bolsheviks were promising “peace, land, and bread.” There was a rapid increase in the number of deserters: By the autumn of 1917, an estimated million men had left the army Many of these soldiers used their weapons to seize land from the nobility Kerensky was powerless to stop the redistribution of land in the countryside Kerensky’s refusal to end Russia’s engagement in the war proved his undoing He found himself increasingly isolated between the extreme revolutionaries on the left and those on the right He forced Lenin to flee the country following the July Days demonstration and subsequently announced a postponement of constituent assembly elections until November Despite his efforts to unite the whole country, he alienated the moderate political factions as well as the officers’ corps by dismissing the supreme commander, General Lavr Kornilov In September, Kerensky took over his post personally When Kornilov started a revolt and marched on Petrograd, Kerensky was obliged to request assistance from Lenin and distribute weapons to the Petrograd workers Most of these armed workers, however, soon sided with the Bolsheviks Kerensky publicly declared a socialist republic on September 14 and released radical leaders from prison Lenin was determined to overthrow Kerensky’s government before it could be legitimized by elections Kerensky’s fall was triggered by his decision on November to arrest the leaders of the Bolshevik committee, which resulted only in bringing about their uprising On November 7, the Bolsheviks seized power in what became known as the October Revolution Kerensky escaped from Petrograd and went to Pskov, where he rallied loyal troops for an attempt to retake the capital His troops were defeated Kerensky lived in hiding until he could leave the country in May 1918 Kerensky, then only 36 years old, spent the remainder 187 of his long life in exile He lived in Paris, engaged in the quarrels of the exiled Russian leaders When the Germans occupied France in 1940, he escaped to the United States In 1939 he had married the Australian journalist Lydia Tritton In 1945, Kerensky traveled with her to Australia and lived there until her death in 1946 Thereafter, he returned to the United States and spent much of his time at Stanford University in California, where he used the Hoover Institution’s archive on Russian history He lectured at universities, wrote, and broadcast extensively on Russian politics and history as well as on his revolutionary experiences When Kerensky died in 1970, he was the last surviving major participant in the events of 1917 See also Russian Revolution and Civil War Further reading: Abraham, Richard Alexander Kerensky: The First Love of the Revolution New York: Columbia University Press, 1987; Fuller, William C The Foe Within: Fantasies of Treason and the End of Imperial Russia Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2006; Lincoln, W Bruce Passage through Armageddon: The Russians in War and Revolution, 1914–1918 New York: Simon and Schuster, 1986; Strongin, Varlen Kerenskii, zagadka istorii Moscow: AST-Press Kniga, 2004 Martin Moll Khilafat movement The institution of the khalifa, the leader or representative of the Muslim community after the death of the prophet Muhammad, had been associated with the Turkish Ottoman Empire since the 16th century At the time of World War I, the Ottoman emperor and khalifa headed the largest independent Islamic political entity in the world When Great Britain declared war on the Ottoman Empire in November 1914, it promised the Muslim subjects of the British Empire in India that the conflict would not involve attacking the Muslim holy places in Arabia In return, the British asked for the loyalty of their Muslim subjects to British war efforts During the course of the war, it became evident that the Ottoman Empire would be dismembered Consequently, the khilafat question came to be of increasing importance to Muslims in India On March 20, 1919, at a public meeting of 15,000 Muslims from Bombay, a Khilafat committee was formed By November 1919 following widespread public demonstrations in support of the Khilafat movement, an All-India Khilafat Conference assembled in Delhi The conference protest-