Council of People's Commissars

The Council of People's Commissars (Russian: Совет народных коммиссаров or Совнарком, translit. Soviet Narodnykh Kommissarov or Sovnarkom, also as generic SNK), was a government institution formed shortly after the October Revolution in 1917. Created in the Russian Republic the council laid foundations in restructuring the country to form the Soviet Union. It evolved to become the highest government authority of executive power under the Soviet system in states which came under the control of Bolsheviks.

Leon Trotsky devised the names commissar and council to avoid the more "bourgeois" terms minister and cabinet. The 1918 Constitution of the RSFSR formalised the role of the Sovnarkom of the RSFSR: it was to be responsible to the Congress of Soviets for the "general administration of the affairs of the state."
The constitution enabled the Sovnarkom to issue decrees carrying the full force of law when the Congress was not in session. The Congress then routinely approved these decrees at its next session.

When the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was established in December 1922, the USSR Sovnarkom was modelled on the RSFSR Sovnarkom. It was transformed in 1946 into the Council of Ministers.^[1]

The Original People's Commissars

The first council elected by the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets was composed as follows:

People's Commissar	Original incumbent	Death
Chairman	Vladimir Lenin	Natural causes 1924
Secretary	Nikolai Gorbunov	Executed 1938
People's Commissariat for Agriculture of the RSFSR	Vladimir Milyutin	Died in prison 1937
People's Commissariat for Military Affairs of the RSFSR	Vladimir Antonov-Ovseyenko Nikolai Krylenko	Executed 1939 Executed 1938
People's Commissariat for Naval Affairs of the RSFSR	Pavel Dybenko	Executed 1938
People's Commissariat for Trade and Industry of the RSFSR	Viktor Nogin	Natural causes 1924
People's Commissariat for Education of the RSFSR	Anatoly Lunacharsky	Natural causes 1933
People's Commissariat for Food	Ivan Teodorovich	Executed 1937
People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs of the RSFSR	Leon Trotsky	Assassinated 1940
People's Commissariat for Interior Affairs of the RSFSR	Alexei Rykov	Executed 1938
People's Commissariat for Justice of the RSFSR	Georgy Oppokov	Executed 1937
People's Commissariat for Labour of the RSFSR	Alexander Shlyapnikov	Executed 1937
People's Commissariat of Nationalities	Joseph Stalin	Died (Poisoned?) 1953
People's Commissariat for Posts and Telegraphs of the RSFSR	Nikolai Glebov-Avilov	Executed 1937
People's Commissariat for Railways of the RSFSR	(vacant)
People's Commissariat for Finance	Ivan Skvortsov-Stepanov	Natural causes 1928

A Sovnarkom session between December 1917 and January 1918, with (from the left) Isaac Steinberg, Ivan Skvortsov-Stepanov, Boris Kamkov, Vladimir Bonch-Bruyevich, V.E. Trutovsky, Alexander Shlyapnikov, P.P. Proshyan, Lenin, Stalin, Alexandra Kollontai, Pavel Dybenko, E.K. Kosharova, Nikolai Podvoisky, Nikolai Gorbunov, V.I. Nevsky, Alexander Shotman, Georgy Chicherin

All-Union Sovnarkom

Upon the creation of the USSR in 1922, the Union's government was modelled after the first Sovnarkom. The Soviet republics retained their own governments which dealt with domestic matters.

Sovmin

In 1946, the Sovnarkoms were transformed into the Council of Ministers (Sovmin) at both all-Union and Union Republic level.^[1][2][3]

Councils by administrative division

Soviet Republics

Soviet Union

This article is part of the series: Politics and government of the Soviet Union

Government Constitution Government Ministries State Committees Executive Officer Council of People's Commissars Council of Ministers Cabinet of Ministers State Council Presidential Council CPSU Communist Party Congress History General Secretary Politburo Central Committee Secretariat Orgburo Leadership Leaders Premiers Cabinets President (List) Vice President Collective leadership Legislature Congress of Soviets Central Executive Committee Supreme Soviet Soviet of the Union Soviet of Nationalities Presidium Congress of People's Deputies Speaker 1989 Legislative election Judiciary Law Supreme Court People's Court Procurator General History 1917–1927 Revolution Civil War 1927–1953 World War II 1953–1964 Khrushchev Thaw 1964–1982 Era of Stagnation 1982–1991 Dissolution Ideology State Ideology Soviet democracy Marxism-Leninism Leninism Stalinism Economy Economy Agriculture Consumer goods Five-Year Plan Kosygin reform New Economic Policy Science and technology Era of Stagnation Material balance planning Society Culture Demographics Education Family Phraseology Religion Transport Repression Censorship Censorship of images Economic repression Great purge Gulag system Collectivization Human rights Mass killings Ideological repression Suppressed research Political abuse of psychiatry Political repression Population transfer Propaganda Red Terror

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• Council of People's Commissars (Soviet Union)
• Council of People's Commissars (Russia)
• Council of People's Commissars (Ukraine) (Temporary government of Workers and Peasants of Ukraine), initially as the People's Secretariat of the Ukrainian People's Republic
• Council of People's Commissars (Belarus), including LitBel
• Council of People's Commissars (Azerbaijan)
• Council of People's Commissars (Fae East)
• Council of People's Commissars (Armenia)
• Council of People's Commissars (Bukhara)
• Council of People's Commissars (Khorezm)
• Council of People's Commissars (Georgia)
• Council of People's Commissars (Abkhazia), including as autonomous
• Council of People's Commissars (Turkestan)
• Council of People's Commissars (Transcaucasia)
• Council of People's Commissars (Kazakhstan), including as autonomous Kyrgyz (before 1925)
• Council of People's Commissars (Turkmenistan)
• Council of People's Commissars (Kyrgyzstan), including as autonomous Kyrgyz (after 1925)
• Council of People's Commissars (Uzbekistan)
• Council of People's Commissars (Tajikistan), including as autonomous
• Council of People's Commissars (Karelia-Finland), including as autonomous Karelia
• Council of People's Commissars (Moldova), including as autonomous
• Council of People's Commissars (Lithuania)
• Council of People's Commissars (Latvia)
• Council of People's Commissars (Estonia)

Autonomous Republics

• Council of People's Commissars (Adjara)
• Council of People's Commissars (Volga German)
• Council of People's Commissars (Bashkorstan)
• Council of People's Commissars (Buryat-Mongolia)
• Council of People's Commissars (Mountainous)
• Council of People's Commissars (Dagestan)
• Council of People's Commissars (Kabardin-Balkaria), including Kabardin (1944-1957)
• Council of People's Commissars (Cossack)
• Council of People's Commissars (Kalmykia)
• Council of People's Commissars (Karakalpakistan)
• Council of People's Commissars (Komi)
• Council of People's Commissars (Crimea)
• Council of People's Commissars (Mari)
• Council of People's Commissars (Mordva)
• Council of People's Commissars (Nakhichevan)
• Council of People's Commissars (North Osetia)
• Council of People's Commissars (Tatarstan)
• Council of People's Commissars (Tuva)
• Council of People's Commissars (Udmurtia)
• Council of People's Commissars (Chechnia-Ingushetia)
• Council of People's Commissars (Chuvashia)
• Council of People's Commissars (Yakutia)

Failed or quasi

• Council of People's Commissars (Donetsk-Krivoi Rog)
• Council of People's Commissars (Odessa), initially as Rumcherod
• Council of People's Commissars (Poland)
• Council of People's Commissars (Galicia)

References

1. ^ ^{a b} "«О преобразовании Совета Народных Комиссаров СССР в Совет Министров СССР и Советов Народных Комиссаров Союзных и Автономных республик в Советы Министров Союзных и Автономных республик» 15 марта 1946 года [On Reforming the Council of People's Commissars into the Council of Ministers, and the Councils of People's Commissars of Union and Autonomous Republics into the Councils of Ministers of Union and Autonomous Republics, 15 March 1946]" (in Russian). Legislation of the USSR 1946-1952. World and Market Economy - Collection of Articles on Economy, Igor Averin. http://www.economics.kiev.ua/download/ZakonySSSR/data04/tex16360.htm. Retrieved 3 October 2010. 
2. ^ Huskey, Eugene. Executive power and Soviet politics: the rise and decline of the Soviet state. M.E. Sharpe. p. 281. ISBN 1563240599. http://books.google.com/books?id=mKcazy5JDCgC&dq. 
3. ^ Law, David A. (1975). Russian civilization. Ardent Media. pp. 185. ISBN 0842205292. http://books.google.com/books?id=f3ky9qBavl4C&dq. 

See also

• 26 Baku Commissars
• Government of the Soviet Union
• Deputy Premier of the Soviet Union
• First Deputy Premier of the Soviet Union
• Executive Officer of the Soviet Union
• Council of Ministers
• Cabinet of Ministers