Provisional All-Russian Government

A State Conference took place at Ufa between 8 and 23 September 1918, which resulted in the establishment of this alternative to the Russian Republic and then when that was overthrown by the Bolshevik government. It encompassed 170 delegates, including some from other regions. A compromise resulted: the Komuch gained recognition for the SR-dominated All-Russian Constituent Assembly (elected in November 1917) as the eventual basis of power, but they also lost their claim to be the legal All-Russian government. In its place a five-man Directory was set up as the embodiment of the new government. All five had their deputies, personal backup members of the Directory, some of whom were located at a considerable distance from Ufa.

The Council of Ministers carried out the day-to-day administration of the government. A majority of the Council of Ministers (10 out of 14) had served formerly as members of the Provisional Siberian Government.

The Act on the Formation of the All-Russian Supreme Power[2] established that the PA-RG “is the only bearer of supreme power throughout the entire Russia until the convocation of the Constituent Assembly”. The Act provided "the transfer of all the functions temporarily assigned by the regional governments" to the PA-RG. Thus, the sovereignty of regional formations was canceled and replaced by "broad autonomy of regions", which limits completely depended on the "wisdom of the Provisional All-Russian Government".

The foundations of the national state structure of Russia should have proceeded from federal principles: “the organization of liberated Russia on the basis of recognizing of broad autonomy for its individual areas, due to geographic, economic and ethnic characteristics; assuming the final establishment of the federal government by the sovereign Constituent Assembly ..., recognition of right for cultural and national self-determination for the minorities that do not occupy a separate territory".

The following were named as urgent tasks to restore the state unity and independence of Russia:

1. Struggle for the liberation of Russia from the Soviet government;
2. Reunification of the torn away, fallen away and scattered regions of Russia;
3. Non-recognition of the Brest and all other treaties, concluded both on behalf of Russia and its individual parts after the February Revolution, by any government, except for the Russian Provisional Government; restoration of the actual force of contractual relations with the Entente powers;
4. Continuation of the war against the German coalition.

Council of Ministers
Cabinet of Russia
Members of the Directory and the Council
Date formed	4 November 1918 (1918-11-04)
Date dissolved	18 November 1918 (1918-11-18)
People and organisations
Chairman	Pyotr Vologodsky
Deputy Chairman	Vladimir Vinogradov
No. of ministers	14
Member party	Socalist Revolutionary, Constitutional Democratic
History
Predecessor	Komuch and Siberian government
Successor	Council of Ministers of the Russian State

On October 9, the Directory left Ufa and moved to Omsk due to the threat of the capture of Ufa by the advancing Soviet troops. On October 13, the former commander of the Black Sea Fleet Vice Admiral Alexander Kolchak arrived in Omsk, who later became a member of the Council of Ministers of the PA-RG. On November 4, the Government appealed to the regions with a demand to immediately dissolve "all Regional Governments and Representative Institutions without exception" and transfer all powers to the All-Russian Government (Council of Ministers). Such a centralization of state was justified by the need to "recreate the homeland's combat power, which is so necessary in the time of the struggle for the revival of Great and United Russia", and "to create the necessary conditions to supply the army and organize the rear". On the same day, on the basis of the Provisional Siberian Government, the executive body of the Directory was formed — the All-Russian Council of Ministers, headed by Pyotr Vologodsky. Now it was possible to achieve the abolition of all regional, national and Cossack governments in the East of Russia and thereby formally consolidate the forces of anti-Bolshevik resistance.

The Directory ceased its activities after the events on the night of 17/18 November 1918, when a group of servicemen of the Cossack units stationed in Omsk arrested the chairman of the Directory Nikolai Avksentyev, member of the Directory Vladimir Zenzinov, deputy member Andrey Argunov, as well as the Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs, head of the secret service Evgeny Rogovsky. All of them were members of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party.

On the morning of November 18, the Council of Ministers gathered for an emergency meeting with the participation of two members of the Directory (Pyotr Vologodsky and Vladimir Vinogradov) having discussed the current situation, recognized the Directory as non-existent, announced the assumption of the fullness of the supreme power and came to the conclusion about the need for "the complete concentration of military and civil power in the hands of one person with an authoritative name in the military and public circles." It was decided in principle “to transfer temporarily the exercise of supreme power to one person, based on the assistance of the Council of Ministers, assigning to such a person the name of the Supreme Ruler", after which "the Regulations on the temporary structure of state power in Russia" (the so-called Constitution of November 18) was developed and adopted, which established the procedure for the relationship of the Council of Ministers and the Supreme Ruler.

Vice Admiral A. V. Kolchak was elected to the post of Supreme Ruler by secret ballot of members of the Council of Ministers. Kolchak was simultaneously promoted to the rank of full Admiral. Kolchak announced his consent to the election and, by his very first order in the army, announced his acceptance of the title of Supreme Commander-in-Chief.

A new Russian government was formed, in which nearly all of the member of the Directory's Council of Ministers retained their offices. It operated until January 4, 1920. The arrested SR politicians were expelled from Siberia and ended up in Europe.

The Supreme Leader issued the following manifesto to the population:

The Provisional All-Russian Government has fallen. The Council of Ministers, having all the power in its hands, has invested me, Admiral Alexander Kolchak, with this power. I have accepted this responsibility in the exceptionally difficult circumstances of civil war and complete disorganisation of the country, and I now make it known that I shall follow neither the reactionary path nor the deadly path of party strife. My chief aims are the organisation of a fighting force, the overthrow of Bolshevism, and the establishment of law and order, so that the Russian people may be able to choose a form of government in accordance with its desire and to realise the high ideas of liberty and freedom. I call upon you, citizens, to unite and to sacrifice your all, if necessary, in the struggle with Bolshevism.

Included among Kolchak's ministers was former prominent Tsarist minister Sergey Sazonov, who would represent the government at the Paris Peace Conference.[3]

• Evan Mawdsley, The Russian Civil War (2008). Edinburgh, Birlinn, pp. 143–8.

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