Council of people's commissars of the RSFSR

Origin of name

In his memoirs, Leon Trotsky ascribes the name "Council of People's Commissars" to himself. According to the memoirs of Vladimir Milyutin, the name "People's Commissar" was proposed by Trotsky, and Kamenev proposed the government as the "Council of People's Commissars". Some have also claimed that the authorship of the term was first coined by Vladimir Antonov-Ovseyenko.

At the same time, from Lenin's notes written no later than October 25, 1917:

"Immediate creation... of a commission of people's commissars... (ministers and comrades of the minister)".

It follows that the name "commissars" (etymologically "the heads of commissions"), as a replacement for the term "ministers", even earlier appeared in the outline of the organization of a new apparatus of government of the future head of the Council of People's Commissars. In the same document, it was planned to create other central government bodies in the rank of commissions (commissions of a revolutionary order, commissions of legislative assumptions, and a number of commissions in various branches of the state life of the country).

History

Provisional Workers' and Peasants' Government

Immediately before the seizure of power on the day of the revolution, the Central Committee of the Bolsheviks instructed Kamenev and Berzin to make political contact with the Left Socialist Revolutionaries and begin negotiations with them on the composition of the future government. During the work of the Second Congress of Soviets, the Bolsheviks proposed that the Left Socialist Revolutionaries enter the government, but they refused. The factions of the Right Socialist Revolutionaries and Mensheviks left the Second Congress of Soviets at the very beginning of its work – before the formation of the government. The Bolsheviks were forced to form a one-party government.

The Council of People's Commissars was formed in accordance with the "Decree on the Establishment of the Council of People's Commissars" adopted by the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies on October 27, 1917 (O.S.). The decree began with the words:

To form for the government of the country, until the convocation of the Constituent Assembly, an interim workers' and peasants' government, which will be called the Council of People's Commissars.

An Attempt at All-Socialist Government

In connection with the demarche of the executive committee of the railway trade union, Vikzhel, who did not recognize the October Revolution, and demanded the formation of a "homogeneous socialist government" of representatives of all socialist parties, the post of People's Commissar of Rail Affairs remained unsubstituted.

The Mensheviks, SRs, and Bolsheviks failed to reach an agreement in December 1917 to form a coalition administration.

In December, Six representatives from the Left SR entered the government, They are

Andrei Kolegayev, People's Commissar of Agriculture

Isaac Steinberg, People's Commissar of Justice

Prosh Proshian, People's Commissar of Post and Telegraph

Vladimir Trutovsky, People's Commissar of Local Government

Vladimir Karelin, People's Commissar of State Property

Mikhail Algasov, People's Commissar without Portfolio

Subsequently, in January 1918, the Bolsheviks managed to split the railway union by forming the Vikzhedor Executive Committee parallel to Vikzhel, which consisted mainly of Bolsheviks and Left Socialist Revolutionaries. By March 1918, Vikzhel's resistance was finally broken, and the main powers of both Vikzhel and Vikzhedor were transferred to the People's Commissariat of Railways.

The Council of People's Commissars lost the character of an interim governing body after the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly, which was legislated by the Constitution of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic of 1918. The All-Russian Central Executive Committee received the right to form the Council of People's Commissars; the Council of People's Commissars was the general management body for the affairs of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic authorized to issue decrees, and the All-Russian Central Executive Committee was entitled to cancel or suspend any decision or decision of the Council of People's Commissars.

Bolsheviks' One-Party Government

The permanent working body of the Council of People's Commissars of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic was the Department of Affairs, which prepared questions for meetings of the Council of People's Commissars and its standing commissions, and received delegations. The staff of the executive administration in 1921 consisted of 135 people (according to the Central State Archive of the October Revolution of the Soviet Union).

By the law of the Soviet Union of March 15, 1946 and the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic of March 23, 1946, the Council of People's Commissars of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic was transformed into the Council of Ministers of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. On March 18, the last decree of the government of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic was issued with the name "Council of People's Commissars". On February 25, 1947, the corresponding amendments were made to the Constitution of the Soviet Union, and on March 13, 1948, the Constitution of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic.

Legislative framework of the Council of People's Commissars of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic

According to the Constitution of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic of July 10, 1918, the activities of the Council of People's Commissars consisted of:

Management of the general affairs of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic;

The management of individual branches of management (Articles 35, 37);

The promulgation of legislative acts and the adoption of measures "necessary for the correct and rapid course of public life" (Article 38).

The Council of People's Commissars informed the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of all decisions and decisions adopted (Article 39), which had the right to suspend and annul a resolution or decision of the Council of People's Commissars (Article 40).

It was created 18 people's commissariats.

The following is a list of People's Commissariats of the Council of People's Commissars of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic according to the Constitution of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic of July 10, 1918:

Of Foreign Affairs;

Of Military Affairs;

Of Maritime Affairs;

Of Domestic Affairs;

Justice;

Labour;

Social Security;

First composition of the Council of People's Commissars of Soviet Russia

Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars – Vladimir Lenin;

People's Commissar of Internal Affairs – Alexey Rykov;

People's Commissar of Agriculture – Vladimir Milyutin;

People's Commissar of Labour – Alexander Shlyapnikov;

People's Commissariat of Military and Naval Affairs – the committee, composed of: Vladimir Ovseenko (Antonov) (in the text of the Decree on the Formation of the Council of People's Commissars – Avseenko), Nikolai Krylenko and Pavel Dybenko;

People's Commissar of Trade and Industry – Victor Nogin;

People's Commissar of Public Education – Anatoly Lunacharsky;

People's Commissar of Finance – Ivan Skvortsov (Stepanov);

People's Commissar of Foreign Affairs – Lev Bronstein (Trotsky);

People's Commissar of Justice – Georgy Oppokov;

People's Commissar of Food – Ivan Theodorovich;

People's Commissar of Posts and Telegraphs – Nikolai Avilov (Glebov);

People's Commissar of Nationalities – Joseph Stalin;

The post of People's Commissar of Rail Affairs remained temporarily not replaced.

Chairmen of the Council of People's Commissars of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic

Vladimir Lenin (November 9, 1917 – January 21, 1924; after the assassination attempt on Lenin, in August–September 1918, the duties of the chairman were performed by Yakov Sverdlov);

Alexey Rykov (February 2, 1924 – May 18, 1929);

Sergey Syrtsov (May 18, 1929 – November 3, 1930);

Daniil Sulimov (November 3, 1930 – July 22, 1937);

Nikolai Bulganin (July 22, 1937 – September 17, 1938);

Vasily Vakhrushev (July 29, 1939 – June 2, 1940);

Ivan Khokhlov (June 2, 1940 – June 23, 1943);

Konstantin Pamfilov (acting from May 5, 1942, to May 2, 1943);

Alexei Kosygin (June 23, 1943 – March 15, 1946).

People's Commissars

Vice-chairmen:

Alexey Rykov (end of May 1921 – ?);

Alexander Tsyurupa (December 5, 1921 – ?);

Lev Kamenev (January 1922 – ?);

Turar Ryskulov (June 1926 – May 1937).

Foreign Affairs:

Leon Trotsky (November 8, 1917 – April 8, 1918);

Georgy Chicherin (May 30, 1918 – July 6, 1923);

Anatoly Lavrentiev (1944 – March 15, 1946).

Military and Naval Affairs:

Vladimir Antonov-Ovseenko (November 8, 1917 – ?);

Nikolay Krylenko (November 8, 1917 – ?);

Pavel Dybenko (November 8, 1917 – March 18, 1918);

Nikolay Podvoisky (November 1917 – March 1918);

Leon Trotsky (April 8, 1918 – January 26, 1925).

Internal Affairs:

Alexey Rykov (November 8, 1917 – November 17, 1917);

Grigory Petrovsky (November 30, 1917 – March 25, 1919);

Felix Dzerzhinsky (March 30, 1919 – July 6, 1923).

Justice:

Subordinate bodies

The Financial Three (May 2, 1922 – May 29, 1922);

Finance Committee (1922–1923).

Assessments

Social composition

Researcher Mikhail Voslensky in his fundamental work "Nomenclature" notes that the "social origin" of the first composition of the Council of People's Commissars was of little use for the Bolshevik party, which declared itself "the vanguard of the working class". In fact, the first composition of the Council of People's Commissars was almost entirely intelligent, and in fact there were only two out of 16 workers in it: Alexander Shlyapnikov and Victor Nogin. In addition, in the first composition of the Council of People's Commissars, there were five nobles: Vladimir Lenin, Anatoly Lunacharsky, Vladimir Antonov-Ovseenko, Ivan Teodorovich and Georgy Oppokov. Trotsky's father was, according to the Soviet classification, a "fist", and Stalin a craftsman, that is, they both belonged, in the Soviet classification, to "petty-bourgeois elements". This state of affairs created the ground for the emergence of the so-called "Labour Opposition" at the end of the Civil War, which also expressed irritation that the workers were actually ruled by intellectuals on their behalf; oppositionists have accused of "degenerating the party leaders" and their "isolation from the party masses" (see also Makhaevschina). At the 10th Congress of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks), the "Workers' Opposition" was accused of:

...criticiz[ing] the intelligentsia in the sense that it sees all evil in our governing bodies and in the fact that intellectuals sit everywhere.

National composition

The national composition of the Council of People's Commissars of Soviet Russia was a subject of speculation.

Vlasovets Andrey Dikiy in his work "Jews in Russia and the Soviet Union" claims that the composition of the Council of People's Commissars was allegedly as follows:

Council of People's Commissars, 1918:

Lenin – Chairman, Chicherin – Foreign Affairs, Russian; Lunacharsky – Enlightenment, Jew; Dzhugashvili (Stalin) – Nationalities, Georgian; Protian – Agriculture, Armenian; Larin (Lurie) – Economic Council, Jew; Schlichter – Supply, Jew; Trotsky (Bronstein) – Army and Navy, Jew; Lander – State Control, Jew; Kaufman – State Property, Jew; Vasily Schmidt – Work, Jew; Lilina (Knigissen) – Public Health, Jew; Svalbard – Cults, Jew; Zinoviev (Apfelbaum) – Internal Affairs, Jew; Anvelt – Hygiene, Jew; Isidor Gukovsky – Finance, Jew; Volodarsky – Print, Jew; Uritsky – Elections, Jew; I. Steinberg – Justice, Jew; Fengstein – Refugees, Jew.

In total, out of 20 people's commissars – one Russian, one Georgian, one Armenian and 17 Jews.

Yuri Emelyanov in his work "Trotsky. Myths and Personality" provides an analysis of this list. The analysis shows that the "Jewish" character of the Council of People's Commissars was obtained through fraud: it was not the first composition of the Council of People's Commissars that was published in the decree of the Second Congress of Soviets, but only those people's commissariats whose heads either were Jews. So, Leo Trotsky, who was appointed to this post on April 8, 1918, is mentioned as the People's Commissar of Military and Naval Affairs, and Alexander Schlichter, who really held this post until February 25, 1918, was mentioned as the People's Commissar of Food (here: "supply"), by the way, he was not a Jew either (Schlichter – Polish landowners of German origin). At the time when Trotsky really became the People's Commissar of Military and Naval Affairs, Alexander Tsyurupa instead of Schlichter already became the People's Commissar of Food.

Another method of fraud is the invention of a number of never-existing people's commissariats. So, Andrei Dikiy in the list of people's commissariats mentioned the never-existent people's commissariats of cults, of elections, of refugees, of hygiene. Volodarsky is mentioned as the People's Commissar of the Press; in fact, he was indeed the commissar of the press, propaganda and agitation, but not the people's commissar, a member of the Council of People's Commissars (that is, in fact the government), but the commissar of the Union of Northern Communes (regional union of Soviets), an active conductor of the Bolshevik Press Decree.