Georgy Lvov

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
In this name that follows Eastern Slavic naming customs, the patronymic is Yevgenyevich and the family name is Lvov.
Georgy Lvov
Георгий Львов
Prime Minister in March 1917
Minister-Chairman of the Russian Provisional Government
In office
15 March 1917 – 20 July 1917
Preceded byNikolai Golitsyn
(As Prime Minister of Russia)
Nicholas II
(As Emperor of Russia)
Succeeded byAlexander Kerensky
Minister of Interior
In office
15 March 1917 – 20 July 1917
Prime MinisterHimself
Preceded byAlexander Protopopov
Succeeded byNikolai Avksentiev
8th Prime Minister of Russia
In office
15 March 1917 – 20 July 1917
MonarchVacant
Preceded byNikolai Golitsyn
Succeeded byAlexander Kerensky
Personal details
Born
Georgy Yevgenyevich Lvov

2 November 1861
Russian Orthodoxy

prime minister of the Russian Republic from 15 March to 20 July 1917. As Russia's de facto head of state, he led the Provisional Government after the February Revolution led to the abolition of the Russian monarchy
.

A member of the Lvov princely family, Lvov was born in Dresden, Germany, and gained national fame for his relief work in the Russian Far East during the Russo-Japanese War. In 1906, he was elected to the First Duma as a member of the Constitutional Democratic Party. After the February Revolution, Lvov was made head of the Provisional Government and oversaw a number of liberal reforms. A series of political crises ultimately brought down his government, and in July 1917 he resigned as prime minister and was succeeded by his war minister, Alexander Kerensky. After the October Revolution, Lvov was arrested by the Bolsheviks, but later escaped to France by way of the United States. He settled in Paris and died in 1925.

Early life and education

Georgy Lvov was born on 2 November 1861

Rurik dynasty princes of Yaroslavl.[3] His father was a reform-minded liberal who spent almost all his income on his children's education; Lvov and his five brothers were sent off to the most prestigious Moscow schools. Throughout his youth, Georgy lived with his family at their ancestral home at Popovka in Tula Governorate, less than 120 miles (190 km) away from Moscow and only a few miles away from Yasnaya Polyana, the home of writer Leo Tolstoy. The Lvovs counted Tolstoy as one of their closest friends.[4]

By the standards of the Russian noble class, the Lvovs lived a frugal lifestyle. Luxuries were minimal and their estate was considered small at only 1,000 acres (400 ha).

University of Moscow. The family laid off all their servants and lived like peasants ― Lvov would later recall this time as a source of his own emancipation: "It separated us from the upper crust and made us democratic". As a result of their labour, all debts were repaid by the late 1880s and their ancestral home saved.[5]

In 1899, Prince Lvov married a Hungarian-born portrait painter Vilma Lwoff-Parlaghy in Prague; they were quickly divorced, though Vilma continued to style herself the "Princess Lwoff-Parlaghy" using her artist name with the authorization of Prince Lvov. The prince also continued to provide her with a permanent annual allowance.

Lvov was also married to Countess Julia Alexeievna Bobrinskaya (1867–1903), great-great-granddaughter of Grigory Orlov and Catherine the Great, without issue. They met whilst Lvov was working in a soup kitchen in Tambov Governorate during the Russian famine of 1891–1892.[6]

Pre-revolution

Russo-Japanese War

Lvov, deputy of the State Duma of the I convocation, 1906

With the outbreak of war between the

Nicholas to let the brigade go; the tsar was so moved by his patriotic sentiment that he ended up hugging and kissing him and wished him well. The relief mission, which won high praise from Russian military leaders, turned Lvov into a national hero and enabled the zemstvos to reintegrate themselves into Russian governing society.[7]

Revolution of 1905

A year later he won election to the

First Duma, and was nominated for a ministerial position. He became chairman of the All-Russian Union of Zemstvos in 1914, and in 1915 he became a leader of the Union of Zemstvos as well as a member of Zemgor, a joint committee of the Union of Zemstvos and the Union of Towns that helped supply the military and tend to the wounded from World War I. In December 1916, after Prince Lvov's tirades at the Congress of Zemstvos, the Voluntary Organisations would allow no one to work for the government unless their collaboration were purchased by political concessions.[8]

February Revolution

On 14 January O.S. (27 January N.S.) Lvov proposed to Grand Duke

Petrograd; unofficially they sought to clarify the internal situation in Russia.[9]

Head of the provisional government

During the

provisional government
founded by the Duma on 2 March 1917.

During his first weeks as prime minister, Lvov presided over a series of fleeting reforms which sought to radically liberalise 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.

right to vote, saying "Why shouldn't women vote? [...] Surely, with universal suffrage there can be no reason to exclude women".[10] Lvov's reforms helped create a new culture of democracy in Russia. One peasant from Penza province changed his surname to Lvov, and another to 'Demakratov'.[11]

Unable to rally sufficient support, he resigned in July 1917 in favour of his

Minister of War, Alexander Kerensky
.

Georgy Lvov, 1919

After the

peace conference in Paris
, where the centre of world politics moved.

Having failed to achieve any practical results in the United States, Lvov departed to

National Bank of the United States. Later he left politics, living in Paris in poverty, working at handicraft and writing his memoirs. Georgy Lvov died in Paris, France
on 7 March 1925 at the age of 63.

Memorials

There is a memorial to Prince Lvov in

Boulogne-sur-Seine and is buried in Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois Russian Cemetery
in France.

A relative of his by the name of Prince Andre Nikita Lwoff (1901–1933), variously described as either Georgy Lvov's son or nephew, is buried in the old cemetery in Menton, France.

Further reading

Lvov wrote an autobiography, 'Воспоминания' ("Memories"), while in exile and a biography was also written in 1932 by Tikhon Polner entitled 'Жизненный путь князя Георгія Евгеніевича Львова. Личность. Взгляды. Условія дѣятельности' ("The Life Course of Prince Georgy Yevgenievich Lvov. Personality. Views. Conditions of Activity"). Neither has been translated but both have been reprinted and are still available in Russian.

Notes

  1. ^ Russian: Гео́ргий Евге́ньевич Львов

Note on transliteration: An older French form, Lvoff, is used on his tombstone. Georgy can be written as Georgi and is sometimes seen in its translated form, George or Jorge.

References

Citations

  1. ^ Porter 2015, p. 101.
  2. ^ Tucker 2014, pp. 1003–4.
  3. ^ Porter 1997, p. 375.
  4. ^ a b c Figes 2017, p. 49.
  5. ^ a b Figes 2017, p. 50.
  6. ^ Figes 2017, p. 159.
  7. ^ a b Figes 2017, p. 169.
  8. ^ G. Katkov (1967) Russia 1917. The February Revolution, p. 228.
  9. ^ Lyubin 2017, p. 103.
  10. ^ a b Figes 2017, p. 358.
  11. ^ Figes 2017, p. 349, 358.

Bibliography

  • Figes, Orlando (2017). A People's Tragedy: the Russian Revolution (100th anniversary ed.).
    ISBN 9781847924513
    .
  • Porter, Thomas Earl (Winter 1997). "Prince Georgii Evgenevich Lvov: A Russian public servant" (harv). Canadian-American Slavic Studies. 31 (4).
    doi:10.1163/221023997X00825
    .
  • Porter, Thomas Earl (16 January 2015). "Prince Georgii E. Lvov: The Zemstvo, and the failure of Russian liberalism". Международный научно-исследовательский журнал. 31 (12).
    ISSN 2227-6017
    .
  • Lyubin, Dmitry (2017). 1917, Romanovs & Revolution: The End of Monarchy (in Dutch).
    ISBN 978-9078653677
    .
  • Tucker, Spencer (2014). World War I: The Definitive Encyclopedia and Document Collection (2nd ed.).
    ISBN 978-1851099641
    .

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Georgy Lvov.
Political offices
Preceded by
Nicholas II of Russia

(Emperor)
 Minister-Chairman of the Russian Provisional Government
15 March 1917 – 20 July 1917 		Succeeded by
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