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. Trotsky, 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.

Original People's Commissars

Lenin and Stalin in 1922

The first council elected by the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets was composed as follows. Like most other Old Bolsheviks, most of the members were killed in the Great Purge, which was ascribed at the time to police misconduct but which in reality happened in accordance with Stalin's oversight.

People's Commissar	Original incumbent	Death
Chairman	Vladimir Lenin	Strokes, 1924
Secretary	Nikolai Gorbunov	Executed 1938
People's Commissariat for Agriculture of the RSFSR	Vladimir Milyutin	Executed 1937
Council of People's Commissars on War and Navy Affairs	Nikolai Krylenko (War College)	Executed 1938
	Pavel Dybenko (Navy College)	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	Georgy Oppokov	Executed 1937
People's Commissariat for Labour	Alexander Shlyapnikov	Executed 1937
People's Commissariat of Nationalities	Joseph Stalin	Natural causes 1953
People's Commissariat for Posts and Telegraphs of the RSFSR	Nikolai Glebov-Avilov	Executed 1937
People's Commissariat for Railways	(vacant)
People's Commissariat for Finance	Ivan Skvortsov-Stepanov	Natural causes 1928
People's Commissariat for Social Welfare	Alexandra Kollontai	Natural causes 1952

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.

Councils by administrative division

Soviet republics

Soviet Union
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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)

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)
• Council of People's Secretaries (Soviet Ukraine)

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