Provisional Regional Government of the Urals
The Provisional Regional Government of the Urals was an anti-Bolshevik provisional government, created in Yekaterinburg on August 13 or 19, 1918, which controlled the Perm Governorate, parts of the Vyatka, Ufa, and Orenburg Governorates. It was abolished in October 1918.
Creation and dissolution
In 1918, a struggle was fought between the Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly and the Provisional Siberian Government for control of the Urals. As a buffer zone between them, in order to establish stable real power, after the occupation of Yekaterinburg by Czechoslovaks by a commission representing members of various parties, at a meeting on August 19, 1918 in Yekaterinburg, the Provisional Regional Government of the Urals was created. The Provisional Regional Government of the Urals was supposed to operate until the convocation of the Ural Regional Duma or the All-Russian Constituent Assembly.On October 26, 1918, the Provisional Ural Government decided to resign and transfer all power in the Urals to the Provisional All-Russian Government, which on November 10 accepted the resignation of the Provisional Regional Government of the Urals.
Composition
The main organs of government were the Council of the Provisional Regional Government of the Urals and 8 main departments, among which there were no such main departments as, for example, the military, communications, and foreign affairs. These issues were decided by other chief managers. As part of the government, the institution of special commissioners functioned to convey the principles of its policy to the population of the Urals.| Position | Person | Party Affiliation |
| Chairman of the Council | Pavel Ivanov | Constitutional Democrat |
| Chief Manager of Trade and Industry | Pavel Ivanov | Constitutional Democrat |
| Comrade Chairman | Lev Krol | Constitutional Democrat |
| Chief Manager of Finance | Lev Krol | Constitutional Democrat |
| Chief Manager of Agriculture and State Property | Alexander Pribylev | Socialist Revolutionary |
| Chief Manager of Education | Vladimir Anastasiev | Socialist Revolutionary |
| Chief Manager of Internal Affairs | Nikolay Aseikin | People's Socialist |
| Chief Manager of Labor | Pyotr Murashev | Menshevik |
| Chief Manager of Justice | Nikolay Glasson | Non-Partisan |
| Chief Manager of Mining | Anton Gutt | Non-Partisan |
Politics
The declaration of the Provisional Ural Government of August 27, 1918 declared a program containing, inter alia, the following main provisions:- Preservation of democratic freedoms;
- Equality of all religions and nations, the right to their cultural self-determination; condemnation of the Bolshevik decree on separation of church and state;
- Promoting the development of industry in the Urals, restoration of private property rights and entrepreneurship in industry, trade and banking;
- The return of plants to their former owners; nationalization of individual enterprises in case of state necessity;
- Saving an eight-hour working day and the existing social insurance system; the establishment of wages by mutual agreement of employers and workers, but no less than a fixed subsistence level;
- Preservation of land in the hands of its actual users until the Constituent Assembly finally resolves the issue;
- Assistance to the White Army;
- The resumption of local government; restoration of rights and relations prohibited by Bolshevik decrees.
However, towards the end of its existence, the Provisional Regional Government of the Urals began to move away from democratic ideas in its policy.
During its existence, the Ural government, among other things, also paid 254,000 rubles for the maintenance of the "white" police and issued 81 legislative acts. The most famous of them:
- On obligatory delivery of all mined platinum exclusively to the treasury;
- About the institute of special direct tax collectors under tax inspectors;
- On state regulation of trade;
- On setting marginal prices for bread and metals.