Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic or Revvoyensoviet (Революционный Военный Совет, Revolyutsionny Voyenny Sovyet; Реввоенсовет, Revvoyensovyet; also translated as Revolutionary War Council
) was the supreme military authority of Soviet Russia

Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic

The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic , commonly referred to as Soviet Russia, Bolshevik Russia, or simply Russia, was the largest, most populous and economically developed republic in the former Soviet Union....

 and lately the USSR. It was instituted by the decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee

All-Russian Central Executive Committee

All-Russian Central Executive Committee , was the highest legislative, administrative, and revising body of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. Although the All-Russian Congress of Soviets had supreme authority, in periods between its sessions its powers were passed to VTsIK...

 ("VTsIK") on September 2, 1918 (known as "Decree about Declaring the Soviet Republic the Military Camp").

Until that moment there were two main military authorities, the Supreme Military Council (Высший военный совет, Vysshy voyenny sovyet) and the Operative Department of the People's Commissariat for Military Affairs (Оперативный отдел Народного комиссариата по военным делам, Opyerativny otdel Narodnogo komissariata po voyennym dyelam).

The decree put all fronts and military organizations under the single command of the Revvoyensoviet headed by the Chairman, with a single commander-in-chief

Commander-in-Chief

A commander-in-chief is the commander of a nation's military forces or significant element of those forces. In the latter case, the force element may be defined as those forces within a particular region or those forces which are associated by function. As a practical term it refers to the military...

 (главком) for strategic and operative military command statewise subordinated only to the Chairman of Revvoyensoviet. The Chairman was People's Commissar for Military and Navy, appointed by VTsIK.

The first Chairman was 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....

.
The first commander-in-chief was Red Latvian rifleman Ioakim Vatsetis. In July 1919 he was replaced by Sergei Kamenev

Sergei Kamenev

Sergey Sergeyevich Kamenev , 1881  – August 25, 1936), was a Soviet military leader.Kamenev was born Kiev. In World War I he commanded a regiment. He became a member of the CPSU in 1930...

 (1919–1924).

Following the creation of the Revvoyensoviet, the Labour and Defence Council was created on November 30, 1918, headed by 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...

 and consisted of Chairman of Revvoyensoviet (Trotsky), a representative of VTsIK (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...

) and some narkoms. Its goal was mobilizing the resources of the country towards defense.

Revvoyensovet of the USSR was dissolved in 1934.