After an unsuccessful pro-Bolshevik uprising in Petrograd, Trotsky was arrested on 7 August 1917, but was released 40 days later in the aftermath of the failed counter-revolutionary uprising by Lavr Kornilov.

Lavr Georgiyevich Kornilov (, ; August 18, 1870 – April 13, 1918 ) was a military intelligence officer, explorer, and general in the Imperial Russian Army during World War I and the ensuing Russian Civil War.

Originally a Cossack born in Ust-Kamenogorsk, Russian Turkestan ( now Kazakhstan ) in a family of Cossack Chorąży and his wife of kazakh origin, Kornilov entered military school in Omsk in 1885 and went on to study at the Mikhailovsky Artillery School in St. Petersburg in 1889. in August 1892, he was assigned as a lieutenant to the Turkestan Military District, where he led several exploration missions in Eastern Turkestan, Afghanistan and Persia, learned several Central Asian languages, and wrote detailed reports about his observations.

During the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905 Kornilov became the Chief of staff of the 1st Infantry Brigade, and was involved heavily at the Battle of Sandepu and the Battle of Mukden.

In 1910 Kornilov was recalled from Beijing, but remained in St. Petersburg for only five months, before departing for western Mongolia and Kashgar to examine the military situation along China's border with Russia.

In 1914, at the start of World War I, Kornilov was appointed commander of the 48th Infantry Division, which saw combat in Galicia and the Carpathians.

Being a major general he was a high value prisoner of war, but in July 1916 Kornilov managed to escape back to Russia and return to duty.

Although critical of the Tsar, General Kornilov felt that Russia, as part of the Triple Entente, was committed to continue the war against the Central Powers, and he shared the widespread belief of some Russians that after the February Revolution the country was descending into anarchy and that military defeat would be disastrous for Russia.

Kornilov, convinced that Kerensky had been taken prisoner by the Bolsheviks and was acting under duress, replied by issuing a call to all Russians to " save their dying land.

Even before the Red Army was formed, Lavr Kornilov promised, " the greater the terror, the greater our victories.

The Kornilov Division, one of the crack units of the White Army, was named after him, as well as many other autonomous White Army formations, such as the Kuban Cossack Kornilov Horse Regiment.

* In 1918 the body of Lavr Kornilov, the Russian general, was exhumed from the ground by a pro-Bolshevik mob, beaten, trampled down and burned.

Denikin supported the attempted coup of his commander, the Kornilov Affair, in September 1917 and was arrested and imprisoned with him.

Kornilov was killed in April 1918 near Ekaterinodar and the Volunteer Army came under Denikin's command.

The Kornilov Affair, or the Kornilov Putsch ( Kornilov Coup ) as it is sometimes referred to, was an ( alleged ) attempted coup d ' état by the then Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army, General Lavr Kornilov, in August 1917 against the Russian Provisional Government headed by Alexander Kerensky.

Leading these calls were the officers of the Russian Army, Kornilov amongst them, who feared that ill discipline amongst their troops was responsible for the continued poor performance of the army during the First World War.

It has been thought that after Kerensky had heard reports that a Bolshevik coup was being planned ( which he knew to be false ) that he could use this as an excuse to get rid of Kornilov who he saw as a threat, he ordered Kornilov to send the Third Cavalry Corps to Petrograd to deal with the ' threat '.

She was fiercely critical of the Bolsheviks ' anti-war agitation but also condemned the Constitutional Democrats for their involvement in the Kornilov Affair.

Kornilov () and Kornilova ( feminine ; ) is a common Russian surname derived from the baptismal name Kornil ().

* Alexander Kornilov ( senator ) ( 1801 – 1856 ), Russian governor and senator

* Alexander Alexandrovich Kornilov ( 1862-1925 ), Russian historian and liberal politician

* Alexander Alexeyevich Kornilov, contemporary Russian historian

* Denis Kornilov ( b. 1986 ), Russian ski jumper

* Ivan Petrovich Kornilov ( 1811-1901 ), Russian historian and educator

* Konstantin Nikolayevich Kornilov ( 1879-1957 ), Russian psychologist

* Lavr Kornilov ( 1870-1918 ), Russian general and one of the leaders of the White Movement

* Lev Kornilov ( b. 1984 ), Russian professional footballer

* Vladimir Alexeyevich Kornilov ( 1806-54 ), Russian admiral, killed during the Battle of Malakoff

* Vladimir Nikolayevich Kornilov ( b. 1928 ), Russian poet and fiction writer

* Yevgeny Alexeyevich Kornilov ( b. 1940 ), Russian historian and media researcher

At the second Siege of Przemysl, the Austro-Hungarian garrison showed an excellent knowledge of siege warfare, not only waiting for relief, but sending sorties into Russian lines and employing an active defense that resulted in the capture of the Russian General Lavr Kornilov.

During and after the defeat of Kornilov a mass turn of the soviets toward the Bolsheviks began, both in the central and local areas.

Kornilov had only tried to overthrow the government after being accused of doing so.

Shortly after the Bolshevik revolution of October 1917, Kornilov managed to escape from Bykhov and went to establish the Volunteer Army, which fought the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War.

" Kornilov, argued Kerensky, was drawn into this conspiracy long after the preparatory work had been completed.

) After the death in battle of Colonel Nezhentsev, Kutepov took over the command of the Kornilov Shock Regiment, and after the death of the commander of the 1st Infantry Division he became its commander.

Following the February Revolution and the overthrow of Tsar Nicholas II, he became Chief of Staff to Mikhail Alekseev, then Aleksei Brusilov, and finally Lavr Kornilov.

This order was given without either the knowledge or consent of the Provisional Government and it was not until August 23, following an increased amount of industrial unrest, that Kerensky sent word to Kornilov that this troop movement had government approval.

It was this fear, as Kornilov later confided to his second in command, which led Kornilov to order troops of the Caucasian Native Division to advance to a position closer to Petrograd on July 7.

By a quirk of fate, several future White Army commanders held senior posts in 8th Army at this time — Brusilov's Quartermaster general was Anton Denikin, while Alexey Kaledin commanded the 12th Cavalry Division and Lavr Kornilov was in command of 48th Infantry Division.

In December 1917, Kornilov took command of the combat forces within the army and Alekseyev took charge of political and financial matters.