15 - Some historical reflections

Summary

For the first three years or so of its existence the Council of People's Commissars was the government of the embattled Soviet Republic in fact as well as name. If it subsequently became something less than this it nevertheless remained a key political and administrative body second in importance only to the Political Bureau of the Party Central Committee. Moreover, despite its great expansion since the 1930s, its many reorganisations, its renaming as the Council of Ministers in 1946, and its several changes of leadership, its modern structures and processes have evolved organically out of those established under Lenin, and have manifested a remarkable level of continuity. Many of its parts, including several of the present Soviet ministries, had their origins as people's commissariats or other Sovnarkom agencies formed in the Lenin period, and in some cases beyond that as imperial ministries established well back in the nineteenth century. This legacy is a monument to the achievement of those who built up Sovnarkom from the old and new materials at their disposal and launched it as a functioning institution.

In evaluating this achievement, moreover, it is important to realise how advanced many of Sovnarkom's institutional features were for its time.