CHAPTER XXX

.

GENERAL KORNILOV.

Two days after the Moghilev Conference General Brussilov was relieved of the Supreme Command. The attempt to give the leadership of the Russian Armies to a person who had not only given proof of the most complete loyalty to the Provisional Government, but had evinced sympathy with its reforms, had failed. A leader had been superseded, who, on assuming the Supreme Command, gave utterance to the following:

"I am the leader of the Revolutionary Army, appointed to this responsible post by the people in revolution and the Provisional Government, in agreement with the Petrograd Soviet of Workmen's and Soldiers' Delegates. I was the first to go over to the people, serve the people. I will continue to serve them, will never desert them."[51]

Kerensky, in his evidence before the Commission of Inquiry, explained Brussilov's dismissal by the catastrophal condition of the Front, by the possible development of the German offensive, the absence of a firm hand at the front, and of a definite plan; by Brussilov's inability to evaluate and forestall the complications of the military situation, and lastly, by his lack of influence over both officers and men.

Be it as it may, General Brussilov's retirement from the pages of military history can in no wise be regarded as a simple episode of an administrative character. _It marks a clear recognition by the Government of the wreck of its entire military policy._

On July 19th, by an Order of the Provisional Government, Lavr Georgievich Kornilov, General of Infantry, was appointed to the post of Supreme Commander-in-Chief.

[Map: The Russian Front in June and July, 1917]

In