Politically, it was a weak, ill-supported, and highly-disorganized governing body, though it formally oversaw the development of the Northern Corps and the antibolshevik operations against Petrograd in autumn 1919.

On 10 October 1918, a military force called the Pskov Independent Volunteers Corps of the Northern Army was established in the Pskov-Ostrov-Rēzekne region, which at the time had been occupied by Germany since 24 February 1918.

On August 11, 1919, the Council of Defence was reformed as the Regional (Oblast) Government of Northwest Russia under the encouragement of General Hubert Gough and the Allied Military Mission to the Baltic.

In May 1919, the Northwestern Army was formed by general Nikolai Yudenich, one of the most successful Russian commanders of World War I.

However, Yudenich's forces were overexerted and were driven back to Estonia in the face of Red Army counterattacks.