The
Council of People's Commissars (, 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.
The Original People's Commissars
The first council elected by the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets was composed as follows:
All-Union Sovnarkom
Upon the creation of the USSR in 1922, the
Union's government was modelled after the first Sovnarkom. The
Soviet......
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