He was a representative of the moderate Labour Party in the Fourth Duma (1912) and joined the Socialist Revolutionary Party during the Russian Revolution. After the emperor’s abdication in March (February, old style), he was made Minister of War in the Provisional Government of Prince Lvov, succeeding him as Premier four months later. Determined to continue the war against Germany, he failed to implement agrarian and economic reforms, and his government was overthrown by the Bolsheviks in the October Revolution. He escaped to Paris, where he continued as an active propagandist against the Soviet regime.