Illustration showing Aleksandr Mikhailovich Krymov (1871 1917) and his staff, halted at Luga, 1917. Krymov was appointed commander of the Petrograd Army. He was given the order to advance on the capital to rescue the Provisional Government from what was believed to be a Bolshevik coup. Krymov and his staff, travelling on the train of the 1st Don Cossack Division, were halted by the railway workers, Krymov could only watch in his train compartment as Cossacks in large numbers defected to the Soviet side. On 30 August he agreed to travel with a government representative to Petrograd, and on 31 August he met with Kerensky, where he tried to explain that he had only brought his troops in an attempt to defend the government, but Kerensky ordered him to trial by military court.