Following the
February Revolution, Emperor
Nicholas II abdicated his throne and a
Provisional Government was formed, under the leadership of Prince
Georgy Lvov. The status of the monarchy was left unresolved. Officially, the Republic's government was the Provisional Government, although
de facto control of the country was contested between it,
the soviets (chiefly the
Petrograd Soviet), and various ethnic-based
separatists (such as the
Central Council of Ukraine). Soviets were political organizations of the
proletariat, strongest in industrial regions, and were dominated by
left-wing parties. Soviets, whose influence was supplemented with
paramilitary forces, were occasionally able to rival the Provisional Government which had an ineffective state apparatus. During his first weeks as prime minister, Lvov presided over a series of fleeting reforms which sought to radically liberalize Russia. Universal adult suffrage was introduced, freedoms of press and speech were granted, capital punishment abolished, and all legal restrictions of religion, class and race were removed. Unable to rally sufficient support, he resigned in July 1917 in favor of his
Minister of War,
Alexander Kerensky. The Government's control of the military was tenuous. Seamen of the
Baltic Fleet, for example, had far-left views and openly engaged in political activism in
the capital.
Right-wing proclivities among
the army officers were also a problem – Kerensky's attempt to dismiss Gen.
Lavr Kornilov led to a
failed coup. Following the failure of Kornilov's coup, Kerensky proclaimed Russia to be a Republic on 1 September, establishing a
Provisional Council as temporary parliament, in preparation to the elections of a
Constituent Assembly. However, on 7 November 1917,
the Bolsheviks seized power and dissolved both the Provisional Government and the Provisional Council. Nonetheless, a
partially democratic election of the
Constituent Assembly still took place later in November. On 18 January 1918, this assembly issued a decree, proclaiming Russia a democratic federal republic under the name "Russian Democratic Federative Republic", However, the next day the Assembly was dissolved by the Bolsheviks. In response, anti-Bolshevik forces proclaimed the
Russian State in September 1918, under the leadership of the
Provisional All-Russian Government. ==Principal institutions==