# Georgy Lvov
**Prince Georgy Yevgenyevich Lvov** (Гео́ргий Евге́ньевич Льво́в; 21 October [2 November] 1861, Dresden – 7 March 1925, Paris) was a Russian prince, landowner, and liberal politician who served as the first head of the [Russian Provisional Government](https://www.edgepedia.org/russian-provisional-government) after the [February Revolution](https://www.edgepedia.org/february-revolution) of 1917, holding the posts of Chairman of the [Council of Ministers](https://www.edgepedia.org/council-of-ministers) and Minister of the Interior from 2 (15) March to 7 (20) July 1917.[1](https://history.ru/encyclopedia/lvov-georgiy-evgenevich-2) • [2](https://www.vle.lt/straipsnis/georgij-lvov/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Born / died | 21 October (2 November) 1861, Dresden; 7 March 1925, Paris[1](https://history.ru/encyclopedia/lvov-georgiy-evgenevich-2) |
| Education | Law faculty of Moscow University, graduated 1885[2](https://www.vle.lt/straipsnis/georgij-lvov/) |
| Zemstvo career | Chairman of the Tula gubernia zemstvo board; sources date the tenure 1902–05 or 1903–06[2](https://www.vle.lt/straipsnis/georgij-lvov/) • [1](https://history.ru/encyclopedia/lvov-georgiy-evgenevich-2) |
| Wartime relief work | Head of the All-Russian Zemstvo Union from 1914; co-chairman of Zemgor, the joint supply committee of the zemstvo and city unions, 1915–17[2](https://www.vle.lt/straipsnis/georgij-lvov/) • [1](https://history.ru/encyclopedia/lvov-georgiy-evgenevich-2) |
| Premiership | Chairman of the Provisional Government and Minister of the Interior, 2 (15) March – 7 (20) July 1917; led the first coalition of liberals and socialists from 5 (18) May[2](https://www.vle.lt/straipsnis/georgij-lvov/) • [1](https://history.ru/encyclopedia/lvov-georgiy-evgenevich-2) |
| Exile | Arrested in early 1918, escaped to Omsk, left for the United States in October 1918, then led the Russian Political Consultation in Paris, 1918–20[1](https://history.ru/encyclopedia/lvov-georgiy-evgenevich-2) • [2](https://www.vle.lt/straipsnis/georgij-lvov/) |
## Early life and zemstvo work
Lvov was born in Dresden to a princely family and studied law at Moscow University, completing his degree in 1885.[1](https://history.ru/encyclopedia/lvov-georgiy-evgenevich-2) • [2](https://www.vle.lt/straipsnis/georgij-lvov/) He then worked in the zemstvos, the institutions of local self-government, and in legal institutions of Tula gubernia, where he held large estates.[3](https://www.prlib.ru/node/619683) • [2](https://www.vle.lt/straipsnis/georgij-lvov/) In February 1900 he was elected a zemstvo chief in Moscow uyezd, and three years later became chairman of the Tula gubernia zemstvo board.[3](https://www.prlib.ru/node/619683) The Lithuanian encyclopedia dates the Tula chairmanship 1902–05, while the Russian historical encyclopedia gives 1903–1906.[2](https://www.vle.lt/straipsnis/georgij-lvov/) • [1](https://history.ru/encyclopedia/lvov-georgiy-evgenevich-2)
During the [Russo-Japanese War](https://www.edgepedia.org/russo-japanese-war) of 1904–05 he organized medical and other aid for the Russian army.[2](https://www.vle.lt/straipsnis/georgij-lvov/) In late 1904 he took part in the First All-Zemstvo Congress in Moscow and in six subsequent congresses in 1904–05, and in May 1905 he was a member of a delegation received by [Nicholas II](https://www.edgepedia.org/nicholas-ii) on the question of convening a representative body.[3](https://www.prlib.ru/node/619683)
**Party politics.** From 1905 Lvov was among the leaders of the [Constitutional Democratic Party](https://www.edgepedia.org/constitutional-democratic-party) (Kadets), and in 1906 he was elected to the First State Duma from Tula gubernia.[2](https://www.vle.lt/straipsnis/georgij-lvov/) • [3](https://www.prlib.ru/node/619683) He did not stand for the Second Duma in 1907 but served as a government representative on the Duma's medical and food supply committee.[3](https://www.prlib.ru/node/619683) From 1911 he belonged to the Moscow committee of the Progressist Party, and the Moscow city duma nominated him for city head, a candidacy rejected by Interior Minister N. A. Maklakov.[1](https://history.ru/encyclopedia/lvov-georgiy-evgenevich-2)
## World War I relief organizations
[After Russia](https://www.edgepedia.org/after-russia) entered the war in 1914, Lvov became one of the organizers and the chief commissioner of the All-Russian Zemstvo Union for Aid to Sick and Wounded Soldiers, under the patronage of Grand Duchess Elizaveta Fyodorovna; the union equipped hospitals and supplied the army.[1](https://history.ru/encyclopedia/lvov-georgiy-evgenevich-2) In 1915 it merged with the All-Russian Union of Cities into Zemgor, the chief committee for army supply of the zemstvo and city unions, and Lvov became its co-chairman from the zemstvos.[1](https://history.ru/encyclopedia/lvov-georgiy-evgenevich-2) In these years he took an opposition position toward the imperial government.[3](https://www.prlib.ru/node/619683)
## Premiership, March–July 1917
During the February Revolution the [Provisional Committee of the State Duma](https://www.edgepedia.org/provisional-committee-of-the-state-duma) appointed Lvov chairman of the Provisional Government, a decision Nicholas II approved when he abdicated; Lvov took the posts of Chairman of the Council of Ministers and Minister of the Interior.[1](https://history.ru/encyclopedia/lvov-georgiy-evgenevich-2) • [3](https://www.prlib.ru/node/619683) The government's published program of 2 (15) March 1917 listed an immediate general amnesty for political and religious offenses, freedom of speech, press, union, and strike, abolition of social, religious, and national restrictions, preparation of a Constituent Assembly elected by universal, direct, equal, and secret suffrage, and replacement of the police with a militia with elective officers; it was signed by Lvov as President of the Council of Ministers.[4](https://www.dhr.history.vt.edu/modules/eu/mod03_1917/evidence_detail_24.html) His cabinet also abolished the death penalty, introduced a grain monopoly, and declared amnesty for all prisoners; under his leadership, Finland's constitutional rights and autonomous position were restored, and talks on self-determination began with Poland, Ukraine, and [Lithuania](https://www.edgepedia.org/lithuania).[3](https://www.prlib.ru/node/619683) • [12](https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1918Russiav02/d911)
**Political isolation.** Lvov, a 55-year-old nobleman, found himself politically isolated, unable to reconcile the demands of conservative and socialist factions; his noble origins made him suspect to the soviets, while czarist factions refused to work with the revolutionary government.[5](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/czar-less-russia-winning-was-easy-governing-was-harder-180962897/) Contemporaries saw the hallmark of his government as political spinelessness.[6](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.2753/RSH1061-1983410452) After the [April Crisis](https://www.edgepedia.org/april-crisis), Alexander Kerensky orchestrated a coalition with the socialist parties.[7](https://www.royalhistorian.com/smithsonian-russian-revolution-series-april-1917-the-provisional-government) [Agitation](https://www.edgepedia.org/agitation) for peace with the [Central Powers](https://www.edgepedia.org/central-powers) forced the resignation of Foreign Minister Milyukov and War Minister Guchkov in May 1917, and Lvov formed a second government, the first coalition of liberals and socialists, from 5 (18) May.[8](https://www.encyclopedia.com/reference/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/lvov-prince-georgi-yevgenyevich) • [1](https://history.ru/encyclopedia/lvov-georgiy-evgenevich-2)
**Resignation.** Growing peasant unrest in May and the failure of the June offensive on the Russian-German front discredited the government; during the July crisis Lvov resigned, telling Rodzianko by telephone on 7 July that he could not in conscience accept the program the new government would pursue.[3](https://www.prlib.ru/node/619683) • [9](https://yakovkrotov.com/library/12_l/vo/v_georg_02.htm) He ceded the leadership to Kerensky.[10](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1922_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Lvov%2C_Prince_George_Eugenievich)
## Arrest, escape, and exile
After the October coup of 1917 Lvov fled to Tyumen, was arrested there in early 1918, and was transferred to Ekaterinburg; released pending trial, he escaped to Omsk, held by anti-Soviet forces.[1](https://history.ru/encyclopedia/lvov-georgiy-evgenevich-2) In October 1918 he left for the United States as an envoy of the Provisional Siberian Government.[1](https://history.ru/encyclopedia/lvov-georgiy-evgenevich-2) He settled in France and from 1918 to 1920 headed the Russian Political Consultation in Paris, a body of former ambassadors of the [Russian Empire](https://www.edgepedia.org/russian-empire), White movement figures, and émigrés organized for the Paris Peace Conference; the Allied powers did not recognize its authority.[2](https://www.vle.lt/straipsnis/georgij-lvov/) • [3](https://www.prlib.ru/node/619683) He handed the remaining Zemgor funds abroad over to the émigrés, and in April 1920 opened a labor exchange for Russian émigrés in Paris financed by those funds.[3](https://www.prlib.ru/node/619683)
In his last years in Paris he withdrew from politics, earned his living by manual craft work, and wrote his memoirs (*Vospominaniya*).[1](https://history.ru/encyclopedia/lvov-georgiy-evgenevich-2) • [2](https://www.vle.lt/straipsnis/georgij-lvov/) He died in Paris on 7 March 1925.[1](https://history.ru/encyclopedia/lvov-georgiy-evgenevich-2)
## Assessment
Historians typically describe Lvov as a well-intentioned liberal whose social background and administrative skill suited him to organizational work but who lacked the political base to carry sweeping transformation in a revolutionary environment.[11](https://en.alegsaonline.com/art/119684) The 1922 Britannica judged that he did not possess the qualities needed to save Russia from the approaching catastrophe and that his popularity diminished with remarkable rapidity.[10](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1922_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Lvov%2C_Prince_George_Eugenievich) His colleagues in government criticized him both for mildness of character and for unyielding resistance to socialist proposals.[1](https://history.ru/encyclopedia/lvov-georgiy-evgenevich-2)
## References
1. [ЛЬВОВ, ГЕОРГИЙ ЕВГЕНЬЕВИЧ, Российская историческая энциклопедия (history.ru)](https://history.ru/encyclopedia/lvov-georgiy-evgenevich-2)
2. [Georgij Lvov, Visuotinė lietuvių enciklopedija](https://www.vle.lt/straipsnis/georgij-lvov/)
3. [Родился князь Георгий Евгеньевич Львов, Президентская библиотека имени Б.Н. Ельцина](https://www.prlib.ru/node/619683)
4. [Evidence 24: The Formation and Program of the Provisional Government, March 2/15, 1917, Virginia Tech Digital History Reader](https://www.dhr.history.vt.edu/modules/eu/mod03_1917/evidence_detail_24.html)
5. [Carolyn Harris, In a Czar-less Russia, Winning Was Easy. Governing Was Harder., Smithsonian Magazine](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/czar-less-russia-winning-was-easy-governing-was-harder-180962897/)
6. [The Provisional Government's Mechanism of Power (March–April 1917), Russian Studies in History 41:4](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.2753/RSH1061-1983410452)
7. [Carolyn Harris, April 1917: The Provisional Government, Royal Historian](https://www.royalhistorian.com/smithsonian-russian-revolution-series-april-1917-the-provisional-government)
8. [Lvov, Prince Georgi Yevgenyevich, The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.](https://www.encyclopedia.com/reference/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/lvov-prince-georgi-yevgenyevich)
9. [Георгий Львов: телефонный разговор с М. В. Родзянко, 7 июля 1917](https://yakovkrotov.com/library/12_l/vo/v_georg_02.htm)
10. [Lvov, Prince George Eugenievich, 1922 Encyclopædia Britannica (Wikisource)](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1922_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Lvov%2C_Prince_George_Eugenievich)
11. [Georgy Lvov (1861–1925), Alepsa Online](https://en.alegsaonline.com/art/119684)
12. [Historical Documents - Office of the Historian](https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1918Russiav02/d911)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › Politics and government › Government and public administration › Prime ministers, cabinets, and ministries › Heads of government of Europe*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 18, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 18, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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