Council of the People's Commissars - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Council of People's Commissars , was a government institution formed shortly after the October Revolution

October Revolution

The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...

in 1917. Created in the Russian Republic

Russian Republic

The Russian Republic was a short-lived political entity occupying the territory of the former Russian Empire during the 1917 struggle for power that ended with the October Revolution and the establishment the Soviet regime...

the council laid foundations in restructuring the country to form the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

. 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

Leon Trotsky

Leon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army....

devised the names commissar and council to avoid the more "bourgeois" terms minister
Minister (government)
A minister is a politician who holds significant public office in a national or regional government. Senior ministers are members of the cabinet....

and cabinet
Cabinet (government)
A Cabinet is a body of high ranking government officials, typically representing the executive branch. It can also sometimes be referred to as the Council of Ministers, an Executive Council, or an Executive Committee.- Overview :...

. 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

Congress of Soviets

The Congress of Soviets was the supreme governing body of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and several other Soviet republics from 1917–36 and again from 1989-91. After the creation of the Soviet Union, the Congress of Soviets of the Soviet Union functioned as its legislative branch...

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

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

was established in December 1922, the USSR Sovnarkom was modelled on the RSFSR Sovnarkom. It was transformed in 1946 into the Council of Ministers.

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 Premier of the Soviet Union The office of Premier of the Soviet Union was synonymous with head of government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics . Twelve individuals have been premier...	Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...	Natural causes 1924
Secretary	Nikolai Gorbunov Nikolai Gorbunov Nikolai Petrovich Gorbunov , was at one time personal secretary to Vladimir Lenin.His parents were Pyotr Mikhailovich Gorbunov and Sofia Vasilievna Gorbunova. Pyotr was an honoured citizen who worked as an engineer and later as a director of a paper factory not far from Saint Petersburg...	Executed 1938
People's Commissariat for Agriculture of the RSFSR	Vladimir Milyutin Vladimir Milyutin Vladimir Pavlovich Milyutin was a Bolshevik leader who was appointed People's Commissar of Agriculture in 1917....	Died in prison 1937
People's Commissariat for Military Affairs of the RSFSR	Vladimir Antonov-Ovseyenko Nikolai Krylenko Nikolai Krylenko Nikolai Vasilyevich Krylenko was a Russian Bolshevik revolutionary and a Soviet politician. Krylenko served in a variety of posts in the Soviet legal system, rising to become People's Commissar for Justice and Prosecutor General of the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic.Krylenko was an...	Executed 1939 Executed 1938
People's Commissariat for Naval Affairs of the RSFSR	Pavel Dybenko Pavel Dybenko Pavel Efimovich Dybenko was a Russian revolutionary and a leading Soviet officer.- Until the military service :...	Executed 1938
People's Commissariat for Trade and Industry of the RSFSR	Viktor Nogin Viktor Nogin Viktor Pavlovich Nogin was a prominent Bolshevik in Moscow, holding many high positions in the party and in government, including Chairman of the Moscow Military-Revolutionary Committee and Chairman of the Presidium of the Executive Committee of Moscow Council of Workers'...	Natural causes 1924
People's Commissariat for Education of the RSFSR	Anatoly Lunacharsky	Natural causes 1933
People's Commissariat for Food	Ivan Teodorovich Ivan Teodorovich Ivan Adolfovich Teodorovich was a Russian Bolshevik activist, and the first Commissar for Food when the Council of the People's Commissars was established ....	Executed 1937
People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs of the RSFSR	Leon Trotsky Leon Trotsky Leon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army....	Assassinated 1940
People's Commissariat for Interior Affairs of the RSFSR NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin....	Alexei Rykov Alexei Rykov Aleksei Ivanovich Rykov was a Russian Bolshevik revolutionary and a Soviet politician most prominent as Premier of Russia and the Soviet Union from 1924–29 and 1924–30 respectively....	Executed 1938
People's Commissariat for Justice of the RSFSR	Georgy Oppokov Georgy Oppokov Georgy Ippolitovich Oppokov was a prominent Bolshevik, he was a Left Communist and subsequently a member of the Left Opposition and People's Commissar for Justice....	Executed 1937
People's Commissariat for Labour of the RSFSR	Alexander Shlyapnikov Alexander Shlyapnikov Alexander Gavrilovich Shliapnikov was a Russian communist revolutionary, metalworker, and trade union leader. He is best remembered as a memoirist of the October Revolution of 1917 and as the leader of one of the primary opposition movements inside the Russian Communist Party during the decade of...	Executed 1937
People's Commissariat of Nationalities	Joseph Stalin Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...	Died (Poisoned?) 1953
People's Commissariat for Posts and Telegraphs of the RSFSR	Nikolai Glebov-Avilov Nikolai Glebov-Avilov Nikolai Glebov-Avilov was a prominent Bolshevik.Glebov-Avilov was the son of a cobbler who started work in a printshop in Kaluga. He became a Bolshevik in 1904, and during the 1905 Revolution, he was active in Moscow Kaluga and the Urals working in underground printshops, being hidden by the...	Executed 1937
People's Commissariat for Railways of the RSFSR	(vacant)
People's Commissariat for Finance	Ivan Skvortsov-Stepanov Ivan Skvortsov-Stepanov Ivan Ivanovich Skvortsov-Stepanov was a prominent Russian Bolshevik.Skvortsov-Stepanov was one of the oldest participants in the Russian revolutionary movement, a Marxist writer....	Natural causes 1928

All-Union Sovnarkom

Upon the creation of the USSR in 1922, the Union's government

Government of the Soviet Union

The Council of Ministers of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was the de jure government comprising the highest executive and administrative body of the Soviet Union from 1946 until 1991....

was modelled after the first Sovnarkom. The Soviet republics

Republics of the Soviet Union

The Republics of the Soviet Union or the Union Republics of the Soviet Union were ethnically-based administrative units that were subordinated directly to the Government of the Soviet Union...

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.

Soviet Republics

Council of People's Commissars (Soviet Union)
Council of People's Commissars (Russia)
Council of People's Commissars (Ukraine)
Council of People's Commissars (Ukraine)
Council of People's Commissars of the Ukrainian SSR was the highest governing body of executive power in Ukrainian SSR from January 1919 to 1946. The council replaced the Temporary Workers-Peasants Government of Ukraine...

(Temporary government of Workers and Peasants of Ukraine), initially as the People's Secretariat
People's Secretariat
The People's Secretariat of Ukraine was the executive body of the Provisional Central Executive Committee of Soviets in Ukraine. It was formed in Kharkiv on December 30, 1917 by the Russian and other local Bolsheviks as the Ukrainian Soviet government and the opposition to the Central Rada and the...

of the Ukrainian People's Republic
Ukrainian People's Republic
The Ukrainian People's Republic or Ukrainian National Republic was a republic that was declared in part of the territory of modern Ukraine after the Russian Revolution, eventually headed by Symon Petliura.-Revolutionary Wave:...
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