This article, signed, "A Chicago Spectator," gives a vivid description of Kerensky's three-day stay in Chicago in April, 1927. The 'Spectator' next briefly touches on the warm reception Kerensky was given by the fifty-five members of the faculty of the University of Chicago, headed by its president. Next, how he appeared on that same day (April 22, 1927) before a body of 300 students. He was listened to with a consuming interest. Many questions were asked and he gave apt answers to them.

On the next day, Saturday, April 23, members of the City Club (the cream of the local American intelligentsia) gave him a banquet, which was an unusually solemn affair.

In the writer's opinion, the high point of Kerensky's visit to Chicago was the mass-meeting on Sunday, April 24, at the Ashland Auditorium, attended by over 3,000 people, chiefly Russians.

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Duncan Clark, editor of the Evening Post, presided, and after his brief introduction the audience rose and cheered wildly the speaker, Alexander Fyodorovich Kerensky. He spoke for almost an hour. Touching on the February Revolution, he reminded the audience that not by the Bolsheviks was the land given to the peasants, since a decree to abolish land ownership was signed by the cadet (Constitutional Democrat) Shingarev, then Secretary of Agriculture.

Kerensky said that the Bolsheviks seized power chiefly through dissension in the Provisional government. The lack of determination and the hesitation of the government played into the hands of the Bolsheviks, who seized power only for the purpose of establishing in the country a completely reactionary state of affairs, politically and socially. The Bolsheviks not only failed to wipe out capitalism, but created something worse yet, a still more bourgeois state of affairs. Russia lost seven million people in the World War, and twenty million through the Bolshevik dictatorship, a figure given by the Bolshevik authorities proper.

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There was thundering applause in response to the striking rhetorical points. All visible attempts to uproot the meeting were anticipated and, therefore, properly guarded against by the sponsors, so that every "insolent attempt" was timely and energetically nipped in the bud.

It is further related that after Kerensky had finished, and during the period of putting questions to the speaker, a great tumult and excitement ensued in the hall. But Kerensky controlled this by his warning that he would answer all the questions put to him only if quiet and order were maintained. Questions were then asked by Communists, who scattered themselves over all parts of the spacious hall. One such question is quoted:

"How did a comparatively small handful of Communists succeed to continue in power for ten years over a country of one hundred and fifty million?"

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A stormy rejoicing comes from a considerable part of the audience, welcoming the question; yet Kerensky, by a reassuring gesture of the hand, restores order and, amidst a dead calm, replies approximately thus:

"There are 500,000 party Communists in Russia. Each of them counts for a government official, and on this basis the Communists permit themselves to think that if in the past Nikolai I allowed himself to rule Russia with the help of 200,000 policemen, why then cannot they - the Communists -rule with half a million party members?"

In the same spirit - we are told - Kerensky replied to a number of similar questions. His answers were brief and apt; yet, the Communists would not subside. Nevertheless, the meeting ended well, with an uproarious ovation followed by a banquet at the Palmer House.

There it was where the hoodlum Telesnizky, together with the local leader of the Kirilov gang, Bush, swooped down and struck Kerensky.

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The author does not describe what followed; instead he passes on to the more palatable events of the following day, when a second banquet was given to the former ruler of Russia, at the same hotel, by the Council of Foreign Relations, attended by over five hundred people, the very cream of the local liberal caste, and on the evening following this banquet Kerensky delivered his last address before leaving Chicago,at the Chicago Culture Center. The meeting was well attended; it was followed by an intimate tea, since the audience was loath to leave. The tea was attended by some sixty people.

The following morning (April 26) Kerensky, accompanied by his secretary and escorted to the depot by many friends and admirers, left Chicago.

It is recorded that the address before the Chicago Culture Center was agreed upon by its sponsors only after a long and lively debate at a special session by three hundred members, with a final decision that Kerensky was to deliver the address on the condition that he speak exclusively of the period when he was at the helm, and will not touch on the present regime.