Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR

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A meeting of the Council of People's Commissars in March 1918

Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR (officially: Council of People's Commissars of the Russian Federal Socialist Soviet Republic ) was the name of the government of Soviet Russia after the successful seizure of power by the Bolsheviks during the October Revolution in 1917. After the establishment of the Soviet Union (USSR) from 1922 to 1946 it became the Union government called the Council of People's Commissars of the Soviet Union . At the same time, the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR continued to exist as the government of the Union Republic of RSFSR .

Government of the Soviets

The new Soviet government met in 1917 under Lenin's chairmanship . The outdated concept of the minister for the individual members was rejected as too bourgeois and the new concept of the people's commissar was formed after a proposal by Leon Trotsky . The formal legitimation took place on the same day, October 26th July. / November 8, 1917 greg. and was adopted at the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets .

In detail it said:

“Until a founding meeting is called, a provisional workers and peasants government called the Council of People's Commissars will be formed to run the country. The management of the various branches of state life is given to commissioners. These must ensure that the program announced at the Congress is brought to life, in close cooperation with the mass organizations of workers, sailors, soldiers, peasants and employees. Government power comes from the college of chairmen of these commissions, that is, the Council of People's Commissars.

The activities of the People's Commissars are controlled by the All-Russian Congress of Workers, Soldiers and Peasants' Councils and its Central Executive Committee (Russian: Всероссийский Центральный Исполнительный Комитет). They also have the right to replace the People's Commissars.

The Council of People's Commissars currently consists of:

People's Commissars for:

The post of People's Commissar for Railway Affairs is temporarily vacant. "

Coalition government

However, the left socialist revolutionaries of the other parties initially refused to join the Council of People's Commissars. From December 8th, the Left Social Revolutionary Party entered into a coalition government with the Bolsheviks under Lenin , which also corresponded to the wishes of some actors around Lenin. A total of eight Left Social Revolutionaries entered the government. Including the People's Commissariats for Agriculture ( Andrej Kolegajew ), Property ( Vladimir Alexandrowitsch Karelin ), Justice ( Isaac Nachman Steinberg ), Post Offices and Telegraphs ( Prosch Pertschewitsch Proschian ). People's commissars without portfolio were Vladimir Evgenievich Trutowski and Vladimir Alexandrowitsch Algasow . In March 1918, however, the Left Social Revolutionaries decided to leave the cabinet in order to express their protest against the peace between Brest-Litovsk and the German Reich.

Later legal manifestation

According to the Constitution of the Russian Federal Soviet Socialist Republic (RSFSR) of July 10, 1918, the Council of People's Commissars had the following tasks:

  • Managing the general affairs of the RSFSR and the individual branches of the administration (Articles 35 and 37);
  • Enactment of laws and the taking of measures that are necessary to ensure the correct and smooth conduct of state affairs (Section 38).

Later effect as regional government

After the establishment of the Soviet Union, the tasks of the Council of People's Commissars of the Soviet Union on the one hand and the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR on the other hand were clearly separated from each other. According to the Constitution of the Soviet Union of January 31, 1924, “the Council of People's Commissars of the Soviet Union issues decrees and orders that are binding for the entire territory of the Soviet Union” (Section 38). He also oversaw the legislation of the Councils of People's Commissars of each of the Soviet Republics (of which the RSFSR was the largest), and he was accountable to the Central Executive Committee of the Soviet Union.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Leonard Schapiro : Party and State in the Soviet Union , Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 1965, page number missing.