Lvov, Georgii

L’vov, Georgii Evgen’evich 

Born Oct. 21 (Nov. 2), 1861; died Mar. 7,1925, in Paris. Prince, Russian political figure, large pomeshchik (landlord). A member of the Constitutional Democrat (Cadet) Party. By education a lawyer.

L’vov served in the Ministry of Internal Affairs from 1886 to 1893. He was chairman of the Tula province zemstvo board (a body of local self-government) in 1902-05 and a participant in the zemstvo congresses of 1904-05. During the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05 he organized among all the zemstvos a movement of aid to the wounded. He was a deputy to the first State Duma. During World War I he was chairman of the All-Russian Zemstvo League and one of the leaders of the unified committee Zemgor, which was backed by the bourgeoisie and pomeshchiki (landlords). After the February Revolution of 1917 (up to the July days of 1917) he was head of the two first cabinets of the bourgeois Provisional Government. He implemented an antipopular imperialist policy and advocated “decisive” measures of struggle against the revolutionary movement. After the October Revolution of 1917 he emigrated to France. During the Civil War of 1918-20 he headed the counterrevolutionary Russian Political Conference in Paris.