A photo montage of the first Sovnarkom – the Bolshevik-dominated council of ministers
The new government Soviet took shape in the weeks after October 1917. One of its first steps was the formation of an executive committee called Sovnarkom (a condensed name for Soviet Narodnyk Kommissarov, or the ‘Soviet People’s Commissars’). Sovnarkom was effectively a cabinet of ministers, though the Bolsheviks avoided using those bourgeois-sounding terms.
The first Sovnarkom was formed in November 1917 and contained 17 different commissars, each with a different portfolio or area of responsibility. The commissars, all Bolsheviks, were selected by the party’s central committee and endorsed by the Second Congress of Soviets.
Among the Sovnarkom’s prominent members were Lenin (chairman), Trotsky (commissar for foreign affairs), Joseph Stalin (nationalities), Alexandra Kollontai (social welfare) and Alexander Shlyapnikov (labour).
Seven members from the Left SR faction were later admitted to Sovnarkom as commissars. They lasted just a few months before resigning in protest after the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.