Which was used before the adoption of the Constitution of the RSFSR in 1918.

Since 1918, the formation of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR was the prerogative of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, and since 1937 - the Supreme Council of the RSFSR. The Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR was formed from the People's Commissars - the heads of the People's Commissariats (People's Commissariats) of Soviet Russia - headed by the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR. Similar councils of people's commissars were created in other Soviet republics. [ ]

"Immediate creation ... of a commission of people's commissars ... (m [ministers] and t [ovari] shim [ministers] ra").

Immediately before the seizure of power on the day of the revolution, the Central Committee of the Bolsheviks instructed Kamenev and Winter (Berzin) to enter into political contact with the Left SRs and begin negotiations with them on the composition of the future government. During the work of the Second Congress of Soviets, the Bolsheviks offered the Left SRs to join 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 "" adopted on October 27, 1917. The decree began with the words:

To form a provisional workers 'and peasants' government, which will be called the Council of People's Commissars, to govern the country, pending the convocation of the Constituent Assembly.

The Council of People's Commissars lost its character as a temporary governing body after the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly, which was legislatively enshrined in the Constitution of the RSFSR in 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 body of the general management of the affairs of the RSFSR, which had the right to issue decrees, while the All-Russian Central Executive Committee had the right to cancel or suspend any resolution or decision of the Council of People's Commissars.

The issues considered by the Council of People's Commissars were decided by a simple majority of votes. The meetings were attended by members of the government, the chairman of the Central Executive Committee, the manager of affairs and secretaries of the Council of People's Commissars, representatives of departments.

The permanent working body of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR was the affairs department, which prepared questions for the meetings of the Council of People's Commissars and its standing commissions, and received delegations. The staff of the administration of affairs in 1921 consisted of 135 people (according to the data of the TsGAOR of the USSR).

By the USSR law of March 15, 1946 and the Decree of the Presidium of the RSFSR Supreme Soviet of March 23, 1946, the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR was transformed into the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR. On March 18, the last resolution of the government of the RSFSR with the name "Council of People's Commissars" was issued. On February 25, 1947, the corresponding changes were made to the Constitution of the USSR, and on March 13, 1948, to the Constitution of the RSFSR.

All the resolutions and decisions adopted by the Council of People's Commissars were reported by the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (Article 39), which had the right to suspend and cancel the resolution or decision of the Council of People's Commissars (Article 40).

Further, the list of People's Commissariats of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR is quoted in accordance with the Constitution of the RSFSR of July 10, 1918:

Under each people's commissar and under his chairmanship, a board was formed, the members of which were approved by the Council of People's Commissars (Article 44).

The People's Commissar had the right to single-handedly make decisions on all issues under the jurisdiction of the commissariat headed by him, bringing them to the attention of the collegium (Article 45).

With the formation of the USSR in December 1922 and the creation of an all-Union government, the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR became the executive and administrative body of state power of the Russian Federation. The organization, composition, competence and procedure for the activities of the Council of People's Commissars were determined by the Constitution of the USSR in 1924 and the Constitution of the RSFSR in 1925. From that moment on, the composition of the Council of People's Commissars was changed in connection with the transfer of a number of powers to the allied departments. 11 republican people's commissariats were established:

The Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR now included, with the right of a decisive or advisory vote, representatives of the USSR People's Commissariats under the Government of the RSFSR. The Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR, in turn, allocated a permanent representative to the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR (according to the information of the SU [ decipher], 1924, no. 70, art. 691.).

Since February 22, 1924, the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR had a single Department of Affairs (based on the materials of the TsGAOR of the USSR).

The SNK also included the chairman of the State Planning Committee of the RSFSR and the head of the Department of Arts under the SNK of the RSFSR.

The vacant post of People's Commissar for Railway Affairs was later taken up by M. T. Elizarov. On November 12, in addition to the Decree on the creation of the Council of People's Commissars, A. M. Kollontai, the first woman minister in the world, was appointed as the people's commissar of state charity. On November 19, E.E. Essen was appointed People's Commissar for State Control.

The historical first composition of the Council of People's Commissars was formed in the conditions of a tough struggle for power. In connection with the demarche of the executive committee of the Vikzhel railway trade union, which did not recognize the October Revolution and demanded the formation of a "homogeneous socialist government" from representatives of all socialist parties, the post of People's Commissar of Zheldor remained unreplaced. Later, in January 1918, the Bolsheviks managed to split the railway trade union, forming the Vikzhedor executive committee parallel to the Vikzhel, which consisted mainly of the Bolsheviks and Left Social Revolutionaries. By March 1918, the resistance of the Vikzhel was finally broken, and the main powers of both the Vikzhel and the Vikzhedor were transferred to the People's Commissariat of Railways.

The People's Commissariat for Military and Naval Affairs was formed as a collegium, consisting of Antonov-Ovseenko, Krylenko, Dybenko. By April 1918, this committee virtually ceased to exist.

According to the recollections of the first People's Commissar of Education Lunacharsky A.V., the first composition of the Council of People's Commissars was largely random, and the discussion of the list was accompanied by Lenin's comments: "If they turn out to be unfit, we will be able to change." As the first People's Commissar of Justice, the Bolshevik Lomov (Oppokov G.I.), wrote, his knowledge in justice included mainly detailed knowledge about tsarist prisons with the peculiarities of the regime, “we knew where they beat, how they beat, where and how they put them in a punishment cell, but we didn’t know how to run the state ”.

Many people's commissars of the first composition of the Council of People's Commissars of Soviet Russia were repressed in the 1930s.

State charity (from 04/26/1918 - Social security; NKSO 11/4/1919 merged with NK Labor, 04/26/1920 divided):

The ethnic composition of the Council of People's Commissars of Soviet Russia is still the subject of speculation.

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

And, conversely, the list does not include, for example, the really existing People's Commissariat of Railways and the People's Commissariat of Posts and Telegraphs. As a result, Andrei Dikiy does not even agree on the number of people's commissariats: he mentions the number 20, although there were 14 people in the first composition, in 1918 the number was increased to 18.

Some posts are listed with errors. Thus, the chairman of the Petrograd Soviet, G. Ye. Zinoviev, is mentioned as the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs, although he never held this position. Proshyan (here - "Protian"), a drug addict of posts and telegraphs, is credited with the leadership of "agriculture".

Jewishness is arbitrarily attributed to a number of persons, for example, the Russian nobleman Lunacharsky A.V., an Estonian who never entered the government, or Lilina (Bernstein) Z.I., who was also not a member of the Council of People's Commissars, but worked as the head of the department of public education at the executive committee of the Petrosoviet), Kaufman (perhaps referring to the cadet A.A. Kaufman, according to some sources, was attracted by the Bolsheviks as an expert in the development of land reform, but was never a member of the Council of People's Commissars).

The list also mentions two Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, whose non-Bolshevism is not indicated in any way: People's Commissar of Justice Steinberg IZ (referred to as "I. Steinberg") and People's Commissar of Posts and Telegraphs PP Proshyan, referred to as "Protian-agriculture" ... Both politicians were extremely negative about the post-October Bolshevik policy. Before the revolution, IE Gukovsky belonged to the Menshevik "liquidators" and took the post of People's Commissar of Finance only under pressure from Lenin.

In exactly the same way - perhaps not without "imitation" of A.R. Gotsu - capable of foresight, Trotsky insisted that commenting on this "position" of Trotsky, his current ardent admirer V.Z.Rogovin seeks, in particular, to convince readers that that Lev Davidovich was allegedly devoid of lust for power, had a firm intention. But these arguments are designed for completely innocent people, because Trotsky never refused membership in the Central Committee and the Politburo, and a member of the Politburo stood in the hierarchy of power incomparably higher than any People's Commissar! And Trotsky, by the way, did not hide his extreme indignation when in 1926 he was "relieved of his duties as a member of the Politburo" ...

In 2013, speaking about the Schneerson collection at the Moscow Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center, the President of the Russian Federation V. V. Putin noted that "

“If we discard the speculations of pseudoscientists who know how to find Jewish origins in every revolutionary, then it turns out that in the first composition of the Council of People's Commissars (SNK) there were 8% Jews: of its 16 members, only Leon Trotsky was a Jew. In the government of the RSFSR 1917-1922. Jews were 12% (six out of 50). If not to speak only of the government, then in the Central Committee of the RSDLP (b) on the eve of October 1917 there were 20% Jews (6 out of 30), and in the first composition of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) - 40% (3 out of 7). "

Council of People's Commissars (1917-1937) and its functional activities.

The history of Soviet state administration dates back to the Second Congress of Soviets. It met at a turning point, when Petrograd was in the hands of the insurgent workers and peasants, and the Winter Palace, where the bourgeois Provisional Government sat, had not yet been taken by the insurgents. The creation of a new system of public administration began with the development and proclamation of certain political postulates. In this sense, the address of the Second Congress of Soviets "To Workers, Soldiers, Peasants!" the formation of the Soviet state. Here, the main directions of the domestic and foreign policy of the new state were formulated:

the establishment of peace, the free transfer of land to the peasantry, the introduction of workers' control over production, the democratization of the army, etc. The next day, October 26, these programmatic theses were concretized and embodied in the first decrees of the Soviet government - "On Peace" and "On Land". The first Soviet government was formed by another decree. The resolution of the congress said: “To form a temporary workers 'and peasants' government, which will be called the Council of People's Commissars, to govern the country until the convocation of the Constituent Assembly. The management of individual branches of state life is entrusted to commissions, the composition of which must ensure the implementation of the program proclaimed by the congress. " The decree established the following people's commissariats: agriculture, labor, military and naval affairs, trade and industry, public education, finance, foreign affairs, justice, food, mail and telegraphs, nationalities and railway affairs. Control over the activities of the People's Commissars and the right to dismiss them belonged to the Congress of Soviets and its Central Executive Committee.

Soviet statehood was born under the strong influence of democratic sentiments that reigned in society. At the same II Congress of Soviets, V.I. Lenin argued that the Bolsheviks are striving to build a state in which “the government would always be under the control of the public opinion of their country ... In our view,” he said, “the state is strong because of the consciousness of the masses. It is strong when the masses know everything, they can judge everything and go for everything consciously. " Such a broad-based democracy was supposed to be realized by attracting the masses to governing the state.

Is the emergence of a new government in Russia and the creation of a new management system logical? In the literature, one can find the point of view about the illegality of the decisions of the Second Congress of Soviets due to its insufficient representativeness. Indeed, the representation at the congress was not national, but class: it was a congress of workers 'and soldiers' deputies. The Peasants 'Congress of Soviets met separately, and the unification of the Soviets of Workers', Soldiers 'and Peasants' Deputies took place only in January 1918. Nevertheless, such global changes in the life of the country could not happen without reason. The Second Congress of Soviets was undoubtedly the organ of the insurgent people, the organ of the revolutionary masses, representing practically the entire country and all more or less significant national regions. The congress expressed the will of the most organized and socially active part of society, which wanted changes for a better life and actively sought them. Although the congress was All-Russian, it was not and could not be nation-wide.

The Soviet system of government was born in a multi-party system. According to researchers' estimates, about 300 political parties operated in Russia, which can be conditionally subdivided into regional, national, and all-Russian. The latter numbered about 60. The composition of the Second Congress of Soviets in terms of party affiliation was, as is known, mainly Bolshevik. But other socialist and liberal parties were also represented there. The positions of the Bolsheviks were further strengthened when the representatives of the Right Socialist-Revolutionaries, Mensheviks and Bundists left the congress. They demanded to suspend the work of the forum, because, in their opinion, Lenin's supporters usurped power. More than 400 local councils from the largest industrial and political centers of the country were represented at the congress.

The congress formed the supreme and central authorities. The All-Russian Congress of Soviets was declared the supreme body. He could solve any questions of state power and administration. The congress created the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (VTsIK), which performed the functions of the supreme power between the congresses of the Soviets. The All-Russian Central Executive Committee was created on the basis of proportional representation from all party factions of the congress. Of the 101 members of the first composition of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, 62 were Bolsheviks, 29 were Left SRs, 6 were Menshevik internationalists, 3 were Ukrainian socialists, and 1 SR-maximalist. The Bolshevik L.B. Kamenev. The central body of power was the government formed by the decision of the II Congress of Soviets - the Council of People's Commissars (Sovnarkom, SNK). It was also headed by the Bolshevik V.I. Lenin. The offer to join the government was received by the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries and Menshevik internationalists, but they refused. A distinctive feature of the new bodies of power and administration was the combination of legislative and executive functions. The force of law was not only the decisions of the Congress of Soviets and the Central Executive Committee, but also the decrees of the Council of People's Commissars and even the acts of individual people's commissariats.

Thus, the Second Congress of Soviets proclaimed the creation of a new state and formed the bodies of power and administration. The congress formulated the most general principles of the organization of Soviet statehood and laid the foundation for the creation of a new system of state administration.

Having seized power, the Bolsheviks were looking for opportunities to expand its social base. To this end, they negotiated with the leaders of the Left SRs about the conditions for their entry into the Council of People's Commissars. At the beginning of November 1917, at a plenary meeting of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, a compromise resolution "On the conditions of agreement between the socialist parties" was adopted. It emphasized that an agreement is possible only on condition that the Second Congress of Soviets is recognized as "the only source of power" and that "the program of the Soviet government, as expressed in the decrees on land and peace" is recognized.

The negotiations of the Bolsheviks with the Left SRs ended in December 1917 with the creation of a coalition government. Along with the Bolsheviks, the SNK included seven representatives of the Left Socialist-Revolutionary Party. They headed the People's Commissars of Agriculture (A.L. Kolegaev), Posts and Telegraphs (P.P. Proshyan), Local Self-Government (V.E. Trutovsky), Property (V.A.Karelin) and Justice (I.Z. Shteinberg) ... In addition, V.A. Aglasov and A.I. Diamonds became Commissars without a portfolio (with a casting vote). The first was a member of the collegium of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs, the second - the People's Commissariat of Finance. The Left SRs, holding important posts in the cabinet, like the Bolsheviks, were responsible for the key directions of the government's activities in the conditions of the revolution. This made it possible to expand the social base of management processes and thereby strengthen state power. The alliance with the Left SRs left a noticeable mark on the administrative practice of the first months of Soviet power. Representatives of the Left SRs were included not only in the central government bodies, but also in the governments of the national republics, the revolutionary committees of the counterrevolutionary bodies, and the leadership of army units. With their direct participation, the "Declaration of the Rights of the Working and Exploited People" was developed and adopted by the III All-Russian Congress of Soviets, which proclaimed Russia a Republic of Soviets. Together with the Bolsheviks, the Left SRs unanimously voted in the All-Russian Central Executive Committee to dissolve the Constituent Assembly.

The bloc with the Left SRs allowed the Bolsheviks to solve the most important political and administrative task - to unite the Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies with the Soviets of Peasants' Deputies. The unification took place at the III All-Russian Congress of Soviets in January 1918. At the congress, a new composition of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee was elected, which included 160 Bolsheviks and 125 Left Social Revolutionaries.

However, the alliance with the Left SRs was short-lived. March 18, 1918, not recognizing the ratification of the Brest-Litovsk Peace, the Left Social Revolutionaries withdrew from the government

The Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR (Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR, SNK of the RSFSR) is the name of the government of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic from the October Revolution of 1917 to 1946. The SNK included People's Commissars who headed the People's Commissariats (People's Commissariats, NK). Similar councils of people's commissars were created in other Soviet republics; during the formation of the USSR, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR was also created at the union level.

general information

The Council of People's Commissars (SNK) was formed in accordance with the "Decree on the Establishment of the Council of People's Commissars" adopted by the II All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies on October 27, 1917.

Immediately before the seizure of power on the day of the revolution, the Central Committee of the Bolsheviks instructed Kamenev and Winter (Berzin) to enter into political contact with the Left SRs and begin negotiations with them on the composition of the government. During the work of the Second Congress of Soviets, the Bolsheviks offered the Left SRs to join 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 name "Council of People's Commissars" was proposed by Trotsky:

Power has been won in St. Petersburg. It is necessary to form a government.

What should you call it? - reasoned out loud Lenin. Only not by ministers: this is a vile, worn-out name.

It could be commissars, I suggested, but now there are too many commissars. High Commissioners, perhaps? No, "supreme" sounds bad. Couldn't it be "folk"?

People's Commissars? Well, that would probably do. And the government as a whole?

Council of People's Commissars?

The Council of People's Commissars, Lenin added, this is excellent: it smells awful of revolution.

The Council of People's Commissars lost its character as a temporary governing body after the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly, which was legislatively enshrined in the Constitution of the RSFSR in 1918. The body of general management of the affairs of the RSFSR - which in the Constitution of the RSFSR was called the "Council of People's Commissars" or "Workers 'and Peasants' Government" - was the highest executive and administrative body of the RSFSR, having full executive and administrative power, the right to issue decrees having the force of law, while combining legislative, administrative and executive functions.

The issues considered by the Council of People's Commissars were decided by a simple majority of votes. The meetings were attended by members of the Government, the chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, the manager of affairs and secretaries of the Council of People's Commissars, representatives of departments.

The permanent working body of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR was the affairs department, which prepared questions for the meetings of the Council of People's Commissars and its standing commissions, and received delegations. The staff of the administration of affairs in 1921 consisted of 135 people. (according to the data of the Central State Autonomous Educational Establishment of the USSR, f. 130, op. 25, d. 2, ll. 19 - 20.)

By the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR dated March 23, 1946, the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR was transformed into the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR.

[edit] Legislative base of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR

According to the Constitution of the RSFSR of July 10, 1918, the activities of the Council of People's Commissars are:

management of general affairs of the RSFSR, management of individual branches of management (Articles 35, 37)

the publication of legislative acts and the adoption of measures "necessary for the correct and rapid course of state life." (Article 38)

The People's Commissar has the right to single-handedly make decisions on all issues under the jurisdiction of the commissariat, bringing them to the attention of the collegium (Article 45).

All adopted resolutions and decisions of the Council of People's Commissars are reported by the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (Article 39), which has the right to suspend and cancel the resolution or decision of the Council of People's Commissars (Article 40).

17 people's commissariats were created (in the Constitution, this figure is indicated erroneously, since there are 18 of them in the list presented in article 43) ..

on foreign affairs;

on military affairs;

on maritime affairs;

for internal affairs;

social security;

education;

post and telegraph;

on affairs of nationalities;

financial affairs;

ways of communication;

agriculture;

trade and industry;

food;

State control;

The Supreme Council of the National Economy;

health care.

Under each people's commissar and under his chairmanship, a board is formed, the members of which are approved by the Council of People's Commissars (Article 44).

With the formation of the USSR in December 1922 and the creation of an all-union government, the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR became the executive and administrative body of state power of the Russian Federation. The organization, composition, competence and procedure for the activity of the Council of People's Commissars were determined by the Constitution of the USSR in 1924 and the Constitution of the RSFSR in 1925.

From that moment on, the composition of the Council of People's Commissars was changed due to the transfer of a number of powers to the allied departments. 11 people's commissariats were established:

domestic trade;

finance

internal affairs

enlightenment

health care

farming

social security

The Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR now included, with the right of a decisive or advisory vote, representatives of the USSR People's Commissariats under the Government of the RSFSR. The Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR, in turn, allocated a permanent representative to the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR. (according to the information of the SU, 1924, No. 70, art. 691.) Since February 22, 1924, the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR have a single Department of Affairs. (based on materials of the TsGAOR USSR, f. 130, op. 25, d. 5, l. 8.)

With the introduction of the Constitution of the RSFSR of January 21, 1937, the SNK of the RSFSR is accountable only to the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR, in the period between its sessions - to the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR.

Since October 5, 1937, the composition of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR includes 13 people's commissariats (data of the Central State Archive of the RSFSR, f. 259, op. 1, d. 27, l. 204.):

Food Industry

light industry

timber industry

farming

grain state farms

livestock farms

finance

domestic trade

health care

enlightenment

local industry

communal services

social security

The SNK also includes the chairman of the State Planning Committee of the RSFSR and the head of the Department of Arts under the SNK of the RSFSR.