The state, which emerged in 1918 covering the area of the Urals, Siberia, and the Far East and subsequently comprised the territories of the south, north, and north-west of Russia. The main state entity of the Whites during the Civil War in Russia.

 

The Russian state was proclaimed on September 23, 1918, by the State conference of delegations of non-Bolshevik governments and organizations in Ufa. The Conference vested the supreme power in the Provisional All-Russian Government (Ufa Directorate) until the convocation of the Constituent Assembly. In early October, as the Reds were advancing, the government moved to Omsk. On November 4, 1918, a new executive body, the All-Russian Council of Ministers (chaired by Pyotr Vologodsky) was formed, which included the members of both this Government and the Provisional Siberian Government. The Council included supporters of the one-person authoritarian government, headed by Aleksander Kolchak.

 

On the night of November 18, 1918, a military coup occurred in Omsk. Next morning, the emergency meeting of the Council of Ministers abolished the Ufa Directorate dominated by representatives of the revolutionary democracy. The supreme power was transferred to the Supreme Ruler, Kolchak was elected as such (from November 7, he held the post of Minister of War and Navy in the Council of Ministers). At the same time, he was promoted to full admiral and accepted the post of Supreme Commander of all land and marine forces. The Russian government was formed, which included the Supreme Ruler, the Council of Ministers, the Council of the Supreme Ruler, and provisional bodies. Pyotr Vologodsky retained the position of Chairman of the Council of Ministers (from November 22, 1919, the post was taken over by Viktor Pepeliaev). The leading political role was played by the Council of the Supreme Ruler (Pyotr Vologodsky, Ivan Mikhailov, George C. Guins, Viktor Pepelyaev, etc). The newly formed government got hold of the gold reserve of the former Russian Empire, which had owned the Ufa Directorate. On January 3, 1919, Kolchak issued an order on the formation of the Russian army, which united the armed forces of the Whites. Omsk government obtained the support of Entente countries.

 

Kolchak’s government pursued the principle of non-predetermination, i.e. they left the solution of basic social, economic, and political issues to the discretion of the future National Constituent Assembly. On the land issue, the government hesitated between returning lands to former owners and securing a new harvest. New land seizures were prohibited, actual users of the seized land (peasants) were transferred to the category of tenants, and the lands were provisionally given over to the state. Reprisals against the Soviet regime supporters, as well as conscription measures in wartime environment often led to uprisings, which were brutally suppressed. This only caused the growth of the red partisan movement in Siberia.

 

The supremacy of the Omsk government was gradually recognized by other state entities of the Whites. On January 11, 1919, the supreme power of Kolchak was recognized by the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia (AFSR) Anton Denikin (formally, in June 1919), on April 30, 1919, by the Provisional Government of the Northern Region, in June, by General Nikolay Yudenich. Kolchak, on his part, confirmed their authority. Evgeny Miller and Nikolay Yudenich were appointed governor-generals, the Urals army was transferred to the military subordination of the AFSR. In the winter and spring of 1919, the Russian army conducted many successful battles against the Reds and was able to advance to the area of the Urals. But already in June, the Eastern Front of the Red Army went on an offensive, which caused Kolchak’s troops to make a hasty retreat to the east. On November 15, 1919, the Red Army captured Omsk, and the Russian government moved to Irkutsk. Kolchak’s echelon with the gold reserve was blocked in Nizhneudinsk by the Czechoslovak Legion.

 

On January 4, 1920, Aleksander Kolchak handed over the supreme all-Russian power to the AFSR Commander-in-Chief Anton Denikin (who did not accept it), and “the entirety of military and civilian power throughout the entire territory of the Russia Eastern Outskirts” to Ataman Grigory Semyonov. The Russian government as well as the Russian state as a whole ceased to exist.

 

On January 5, as a result of an uprising, the power in Irkutsk passed to the Political Center. The command of the Czechoslovak Legion extradited Aleksander Kolchak and Viktor Pepeliaev to it in exchange for a free advance to Vladivostok. After the transfer of power to the Bolshevik Military Revolutionary Committee, on the night of February 6–7, 1920, they were shot.