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A Council of People's Commissars was a from of governance developed by the Bolsheviks during their seizure of power in the October Revolution, 1917. At first it was formed as a temporary measure until the Constituent Assembly could be held. However, the Bolsheviks suppressed the Constituent Assembly. With the foundation of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic at the Fifth All-Russian Congress of Soviets, the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR was formalised. Following this various Councils of People's Commissars were formed in the fluid situation of the Russian Civil War. With the formation of the Soviet Union in 1922 the Councils of People's Commissars were given a clearer role in the emerging state. The Council of People's Commissars of the Soviet Union was formed on 6 July 1923 by the All-Russian Central Executive Committee.

The original Council of People's Commissars

The street action and the storming of the Winter Palace, seat of the provisional government took place to coincide with the opening of the Second All-Russian Congress of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies' Soviets on the morning of 7 November 1917 [O.S. 25 October]. It was at this congress that the first Council of People's Commissars was established, even though its actual remit of jurisdiction had not yet been determined. The Bolsheviks had a majority at this congress, and 70 Right Socialist Revolutionaries and Mensheviks walked out in protest at the coup which was then in progress. The decree, published on 10 November 1917 [O.S. 28 October], stated that the Council of People's Commissars was a "temporary workers' and peasant government" that would last "until the convocation of the Constituent Assembly". It laid out how various People's Commissariats would be established to management of different branches of state life. Their composition was meant to ensure the implementation of the program proclaimed by the Second Congress, "in close union with the mass organisations of workers, women workers, sailors, soldiers, peasants and employees".

People's Commissar	Original incumbent	Death
Chairman	Vladimir Lenin	Natural causes 1924
Secretary	Nikolai Gorbunov	Executed 1938
People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs	Alexei Rykov	Executed 1938
People's Commissariat for Agriculture	Vladimir Milyutin	Died in prison 1937
People's Commissariat for Labour	Alexander Shlyapnikov	Executed 1937
Committee for Military and Maritime Affairs	Vladimir Antonov-Ovseyenko Nikolai Krylenko Pavel Dybenko	Executed 1939 Executed 1938 Executed 1938
People's Commissariat for Trade and Industry	Viktor Nogin	Natural causes 1924
People's Commissariat for Education	Anatoly Lunacharsky	Natural causes 1933
People's Commissariat for Finance	Ivan Skvortsov-Stepanov	Natural causes 1928
People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs	Leon Trotsky	Assassinated 1940
People's Commissariat for Justice	Georgy Oppokov	Executed 1937
People's Commissariat for Posts and Telegraphs	Nikolai Glebov-Avilov	Executed 1937
People's Commissariat for Labour	Alexander Shlyapnikov	Executed 1937
People's Commissariat for Food	Ivan Teodorovich	Executed 1937
People's Commissariat of Nationalities	Joseph Stalin	Natural causes 1953
People's Commissariat for Railways	(vacant)

Councils of People's Commissars

• Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic – Council of People's Commissars of Azerbaijan