With the abdication of Emperor Nicholas II after the February Revolution of 1917, power in Russia passed to the Provisional Government formed by the liberal leadership of the Duma.
By that time, the government had been de facto dissolved, and the newly elected Assembly was also disbanded after its very first session by the Bolsheviks on 19 January 1918.
Various anti-Bolshevik governments began to form across Russia since early 1918, initially emerging among the cossacks of Don and Kuban.
Two months later, Admiral Alexander Kolchak headed the Russian State as a Supreme Ruler in result of a military coup.
After Kolchak's defeat in 1920, the White movement started to decline, with most of its members leaving Russia in November 1920 under the command of General Pyotr Wrangel.