It was a time of terrible strain and upheaval.  Crisis followed upon crisis.  Chernov resigned his position as Minister of Agriculture.  Kerensky resigned as Premier, but the members of the Provisional Government by unanimous vote declined to accept the resignation.  They called a joint meeting of all the Cabinet, of leaders of all political parties, of the Duma, of the Soviets of workers, peasants, and soldiers.  At this meeting the whole critical situation was discussed and all present joined in demanding that Kerensky continue in office.  The political parties represented were the Social Democrats, the Socialist-Revolutionists, the Democratic Radicals, the Labor Union party, the Popular Socialists, and the Constitutional Democrats.  From these groups came an appeal which Kerensky could not deny.  He said: 

“In view of the evident impossibility of establishing, by means of a compromise between the various political groups, Socialist as well as non-Socialist, a strong revolutionary government ...  I was obliged to resign.  Friday’s conference, ... after a prolonged discussion, resulted in the parties represented at the conference deciding to intrust me with the task of reconstructing the government.  Considering it impossible for me in the present circumstances, when defeat without and disintegration within are threatening the country, to withdraw from the heavy task which is now intrusted to me, I regard this task as an express order of the country to construct a strong revolutionary government in the shortest possible time and in spite of all the obstacles which might arise.”

For the second time Kerensky was Premier at the head of a Coalition Ministry.  No other government was possible for Russia except a strong despotism.  Theorists might debate the advisability of such coalition, but the stern reality was that nothing else was possible.  The leader of the peasants, Chernov, returned to his old post as Minister of Agriculture and the Constitutional Democrats took their share of the burden.  There were six parties and groups in the new Cabinet, four of them of various shades of Socialism and two of them liberal bourgeoisie.  Never before, perhaps, and certainly only rarely, if ever, have men essayed a heavier or more difficult task than that which this new Provisional Government undertook.

Heroically Kerensky sought to make successful the efforts of General Kornilov, as commander-in-chief, to restore order and discipline in the army, but it was too late.  The disintegration had gone too far.  The measures which the Revolutionary Democracy had introduced into the army, in the hope of realizing freedom, had reduced it to a wild mob.  Officers were butchered by their men; regiment after regiment deserted its post and, in some instances, attempted to make a separate peace with the enemy, even offering to pay indemnities.  Moreover, the industrial organization of the country had been utterly demoralized.  The manufacture of army supplies had fallen off more than 60 per cent., with the result that the state of affairs was worse than in the most corrupt period of the old regime.