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]
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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 | 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 |
| People's Commissariat for Social Welfare | Alexandra Kollontai | Natural causes 1952 |
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.
In 1946, the Sovnarkoms were transformed into the Council of Ministers (Sovmin) at both all-Union and Union Republic level.[1][2][3]
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