People's Commissar
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From 1919 to 1946, functions of ministers in the government of Russia and, later, the Soviet Union were performed by People's Commissars (Russian title: Narodny Komissar, or Narkom). A ministry was called People's Commissariat (Russian: Narkomat), and the country's main governing body was the Council of People's Commissars (Russian: Sovnarkom).
Communists wanted to create a government of workers and peasants. Traditionally, government is a council of ministers nominated by a ruler or by a president. The communists saw this as a bourgeois institution, and wanted to organize things differently in a workers' state. After the October revolution, political power was held by councils (soviets) of workers, peasants and soldiers. The Second all-Russian Congress of Soviets (1917) introduced and elected the first Council of People's Commissars (Sovnarkom) to manage Russia in the name of working people. The Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars, also elected by the Congress of Soviets, had a function similar to that of a prime minister. The first Chairman of Sovnarkom was Vladimir Lenin.
In 1946, under Stalin's rule, the Commissars were renamed Government Ministers, as a part of the reorganization of the Sovnarkom into Sovmin.
Several other Communist states also initially featured Commissars in their governments.
See also
Template:Poli-stubde:Volkskommissar es:Comisario del pueblo nl:Volkscommissaris ro:Comisar al poporului sl:Ljudski komisar it:Consiglio dei Commissari del Popolo