
UPPER LAKE, Calif. – This month's Lake County History Roundtable will feature Bernie Butcher, who will speak on the topic of "Kerensky's Doomed Democracy."
The roundtable will meet beginning at 6:15 p.m. Monday, Oct. 2, with Butcher set to speak at 7 p.m.
The event takes place at the Tallman Hotel in historic Upper Lake, and attendees are offered 10 percent off dinner at the Blue Wing Saloon next door.
Admission is free, though contributions are accepted to help defray the cost of the room and refreshments. Everyone is welcome.
When Butcher, co-owner of the Tallman Hotel and Blue Wing Saloon, attended Stanford University in the 1960, he would occasionally come across a slightly stooped, nearly blind history professor out on stroll.
Butcher had a passion for history, but at the time, he had little interest in Russian history, and since this elderly professor taught Russian history, Butcher had little interest in taking his class.
Later, Butcher became much more interested in the history of Europe, and became more aware of Russian history, particularly the fall of the Romanov Dynasty, the February Revolution and the rise of the Bolsheviks.
In particular, he became fascinated about how a young Russian politician named Alexander Kerensky seized the moment in a critical time of chaos and whose actions over a course of several momentous hours forced the abdication of the czar, ending 300 years of Romanov rule.
Within days, this young Russian was tirelessly shaping events that led to a democratic and free, though chaotic Russia. Soon, he became the president of Russia, leading the largest country in the world during World War One. One of the largest campaigns on the Eastern Front was ordered by him and is named after him.
However, just eight short months later, Kerensky was in the capital when the Bolsheviks struck the shaky new government and overthrew it.
The president barely escaped with his life in a harrowing "cat and mouse" chase that itself would make for an epic movie.
For most of the rest of his life, this former president of Russia worked tirelessly to bring down the Communists and return as president and bring back freedom, and hopefully, prosperity back to his homeland, all the while fearful of assassination by Soviet secret agents.
Once Butcher realized that the elderly Russian history professor he ran across occasionally at Stanford and the former president and epic leader of revolutionary Russia were one and the same person, the reality had quite the effect.
He began a study of Alexander Kerensky, interviewing fellow students who did take the professors classes, and building a unique profile about the man and his impact on world history, an impact that few have had in such a short time.
Butcher penned an essay "A Doomed Democracy,” which was published in the Stanford University Magazine in 2001.
For more information, contact Phil Smoley at 707-349-1008 or Zane Jensen at 707-349-6390.
