Council of People’s Commissars
gigatos | June 12, 2022
Summary
Council of People”s Commissars (Russian: Совет народных коммисаров, Soviet narodnych kommisarov), with the Russian abbreviation Sovnarkom (Russian: совнарком), is a (anti-bourgeois) name coined by Trotsky in November 1917 for the Bolshevik cabinet. The prime minister (Lenin) carried the title of Chairman of the Council of People”s Commissars. At the head of each ministry was a People”s Commissar, assisted by a Collegium. In 1946, the Council of People”s Commissars of the Soviet Union was replaced by a Council of Ministers.
From 1919 to 1946, the functions of ministers in the government of the RSFSR and later the Soviet Union were performed by the People”s Commissars (Russian title: Narodny Komissar or Narkom). A ministry was called a people”s commissariat (Russian: Narkomat) and the country”s main council the Council of People”s Commissars. All individual Soviet republics (the autonomous and the republics) had a council of people”s commissioners during this period.
In 1946, the Sovnarkom was renamed the Sovmin (Soviet ministrov). The People”s Commissars and People”s Commissariats became ministers and government departments.
The building of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union was located in Moscow”s Kremlin next to the building of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet.
After the November Revolution in Germany, Reich Chancellor Friedrich Ebert established a Rat der Volksbeauftragten. After the election of the Weimar National Assembly in February 1919, the council was dissolved and replaced by a provisional government. The Rat der Volksbeaufragten consisted of: Friedrich Ebert (right wing SPD), Philipp Scheidemann (center wing SPD), Otto Landsberg (right wing SPD), Emil Barth (left wing USPD), Hugo Haase (right wing USPD) and Wilhelm Dittmann (right wing USPD).
After the assassination of Bavarian Prime Minister Kurt Eisner (USPD) in January 1919, his supporters decided to declare a socialist council republic with a Rat der Volksbeauftragten as the executive board of the Central Workers” and Soldiers” Council of Munich. This Rat der Volksbeauftragten was dominated by the anarchists Erik Mühsam, Gustav Landauer, and some USPD members. In April 1919, the Communists took power in Bavaria. In May 1919, Munich was occupied by free bands; the “Red Raden Republic” was overthrown by the “White Government Forces.”
In Spartakist (Communist) Bremen, a council republic with a Rat der Volksbeauftragten also ruled for a short time.
In 1919, the Hungarian Councils Republic was established under the leadership of the communist Belá Kun, with a Council of People”s Commissars answerable to a Central Workers” and Soldiers” Council. This council republic was ended by the Romanian army and the “White Army” of Admiral Miklós Horthy.
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