Russian Republic

The Russian Republic was the short-lived Russian state that controlled, de jure, the territory of the former Russian Empire after its proclamation by the Provisional Government on 1 September 1917, in a decree signed by Alexander Kerensky as Minister-Chairman and Alexander Zarudny as Minister of Justice. It followed the February Revolution and the abdication of Nicholas II, after which a Provisional Government under Prince Georgy Lvov had left the status of the monarchy unresolved. The Republic lasted only weeks: the Bolsheviks seized power by force on 7 November, and its government was dissolved. A partially democratic election of the Constituent Assembly still took place later in November, and on 18 January 1918 that assembly proclaimed Russia a democratic federal republic, only to be dissolved the next day. The Bolsheviks kept the name Russian Republic until it became the Russian Soviet Republic in January 1918 and the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic in the constitution of July.