The All-Russian National Center was an anti-Bolshevik political organization that united representatives of commercial and industrial circles, zemstvo and city institutions, cooperatives, several public groups (Church Council, Old Believers’ communities), etc. It was formed in Moscow in May–June 1918 upon the initiative of members of the Central Committee of the Constitutional Democratic Party Nikolay Astrov, Vasily Stepanov, and Nikolay Shchepkin. The leading core of the Center included such prominent public and political figures as Dmitry Shipov, Mikhail Fyodorov, Pyotr Struve, Sergey Kotlyarevsky. Initially, it had the following structure: the chairman, the bureau, and the plenum.

The basic program of the Center included the fight against Bolshevism, the restoration of a united and indivisible Russia, the preservation of loyalty to the allies in the First World War, support for the Volunteer Army as the main Russian force for the restoration of Russia, the All-Russian government formation, the convocation of the People’s Assembly to determine the governmental form in Russia. To implement the program, it was planned to establish a sole military dictatorship for the transition period.

Until the fall of 1918, the main operational base of the Center was located in Moscow. After many members of the Central Committee of the Kadet Party left for the south where the Volunteer Army was deployed, the Board of the Center was moved to Yekaterinodar. Mikhail Fyodorov became the Chairman of the newly formed central department of the Center, and Prince Pavel Dolgorukov became his Deputy. In August 1919, the Central Directorate moved to Rostov-on-Don. The Center’s offices also operated in Petrograd, Novorossiysk, Simferopol, Kiev, Odessa, Yassy, Kharkov, Batum, Tiflis, Baku, Murmansk, Arkhangelsk, Ufa, Omsk, and other cities.

Since the fall of 1918, the offices in Moscow and Petrograd got underground and worked closely with the Russian Revival Union and the Council of Public Figures. They developed a position on the issues of state-building and politics, provided the Volunteer Army with military operational information about the state and plans of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army, illegally financed operating military organizations in Moscow and Petrograd. In June 1919, the Petrograd office of the Center participated in the uprising of the garrisons of the “Krasnaya Gorka”, “Seraya Loshad”, and “Obruchev” forts. In July–August 1919, the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission (VChK) arrested many members of these branches with the leaders being shot, after that the Center’s activities in Petrograd and Moscow actually stopped.

Significant activity in 1918–1919 was carried out by the branches in central and southern Russia. Their members were part of a Special Council of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of South of Russia (AFSR), took an active part in the development of operational measures to solve the most acute current issues (land, food, financial, etc.) in the territory controlled by the AFSR, conducted campaigning and propaganda among the population. The Central Directorate of the Center had its representatives at the Russian Political Conference in Paris, as well as in London, Constantinople, Greece, Serbia, Czechia, Poland, maintained close contacts with allied missions, working towards strengthening political and economic support for the White Movement.

The Center ceased its activities in early 1920 as a result of the arrests, deaths, and emigration of its active participants after the defeat of the White armies.