Supreme Ruler of Russia

Establishment

The Supreme Ruler of Russia (Russian: Верховный правитель России) was the sole head of state and Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the anti-Bolshevik Russian State during the Russian Civil War. The Directory, created at Omsk on September 23, 1918 by the Ufa State Conference, formed an All-Russian Council of Ministers on November 4 but never possessed real power. Amid the feud between the Samara Komuch, the first anti-Bolshevik government, and the Directory, weakened by defeats at the front, rightist officers and Kadet figures prepared a coup (P3, P46, P71, P72, P214, P215).

On the night of November 17–18, 1918, Cossack officers in Omsk arrested the left-wing SR members of the Directory, Nikolai Avksentiev, Vladimir Zenzinov and Andrei Argunov, along with Deputy Interior Minister Yevgeny Rogovsky (P5, P48). The Council of Ministers, convened in emergency session, declared the Directory non-existent, assumed full authority and resolved to concentrate military and civil power in one person (P6, P49). On November 18, Vice Admiral Kolchak, the minister of war and the navy, was elected by secret ballot and simultaneously promoted to full admiral. Kolchak accepted and announced his assumption of supreme command in his first army order, and in an address to the population published on November 20 he declared that he would follow "neither the path of reaction nor the ruinous path of party politics" (P8, P9, P51, P95, P96, P98, P100).

Powers and structure

Under the "Constitution of November 18", legislative power and initiative were exercised "jointly" by the Supreme Ruler and the Council of Ministers, every law required the Council's prior approval, and the Supreme Ruler held an "absolute veto"; he was also empowered to take any measures, up to emergency ones, to secure the armed forces and establish civil order (P21, P55, P95, P114). If the Supreme Ruler renounced his title, was long absent or fell gravely ill, his functions devolved on the Council of Ministers as a body (P21). The office's symbols, a flag and pennant with a double-headed eagle, were approved on May 9, 1919 (P23, P57).

Unravelling and abolition

On June 24, 1919 Denikin was appointed deputy supreme commander to ensure continuity of command; on December 22 the Council of Ministers provided that in the event of the Supreme Ruler's grave illness, death, renunciation or long absence his duties would pass to Denikin. On January 4, 1920, in Nizhneudinsk, Kolchak issued a decree granting full military and civil authority over the Russian Eastern Outskirts to Grigory Semyonov, and the Russian government itself ceased work that day (P10, P25, P26, P27, P52, P59, P60, P61). Denikin refused the title, citing "lack of official information about events in the East", and on April 4, 1920, under pressure from his generals, handed the command to Baron Pyotr Wrangel and left for Britain (P28, P29, P62, P63). Wrangel accepted the appointment and took the title "Ruler and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces in the South of Russia" on April 11, 1920, effectively extinguishing the office (P29, P63).