Council of People's Commissars

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

The Council of People's Commissars (Russian: Совет народных комиссаров 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 in the government of the Soviet Union. The chairman of this council was thus the head of government (whereas the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet was head of state).

The 1918 Constitution of the RSFSR formalised the role of the Sovnarkom of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (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]

Original People's Commissars

The first council elected by the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets was composed as follows. Many early comissars later ended up in opposition to the party majority led by Stalin and allegedly conspired with the Trotskyist opposition^[2] or some other opposition group, which led to their expulsion from the party or being arrested. The party had banned factional opposition groups at the Eleventh Party Congress in 1921.^[3] Still the original People's Comissariat included Left-Communists, Trotskyists and other ex-oppositionists. Most alleged conspirators were executed for treason in the Great Purge, some had sentences reduced to imprisonment.^[4]

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][6][7]

Councils by administrative division

Soviet republics

This article is part of a series on the
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Other countries Atlas

• 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)
• Council of People's Commissars (Belarus), including LitBel
• Council of People's Commissars (Azerbaijan)
• Council of People's Commissars (Far 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)

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

References

External links

• Governments of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics from 1917–1964 and 1964–1991