The Kornilov affair, was a misunderstanding by the commander in chief of the Russian Army, General Lavr Kornilov, from 10 to 13 September 1917, against the Russian Provisional Government headed by Alexander Kerensky and the Petrograd Soviet of Soldiers' and Workers' Deputies. Due to a sabotage made by Vladimir Lvov, recently fired from his political position, claimed to Kerensky that Kornilov wanted to overthrow the government, Kerensky thus declared Martial Law and declared Kornilov guilty of treason. Kornilov, who wrongly thought the Bolsheviks had seized control of the government and thus were putting words in Kerensky's mouth, began marching towards the capital to save Kerensky and the Provisional Government from the coup he was certain it had just happened.