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Council of People's Commissars
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<p>The Council of People's Commissars (CPC) (<a href="/facts/Russian_language/ETXrTgHV">Russian</a>: Совет народных комиссаров (СНК), <a href="/facts/Romanization_of_Russian/FoQM4wI4">romanized</a>: <i>Sovet narodnykh kommissarov (SNK)</i>), commonly known as the <i>Sovnarkom</i> (Совнарком), were the highest <a href="/facts/Executive_(government)/fPCCh3VU">executive authorities</a> of the <a href="/facts/Russian_Soviet_Federative_Socialist_Republic/W9pC4bK6">Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic</a> (RSFSR), the <a href="/facts/Soviet_Union/m7wWsPto">Soviet Union</a> (USSR), and the <a href="/facts/Soviet_republics/slVCXCrh">Soviet republics</a> from 1917 to 1946. </p><p>The <a href="/facts/Council_of_People%2527s_Commissars_of_the_Russian_Soviet_Federative_Socialist_Republic/JrxqaASP">Sovnarkom of the RSFSR</a> was founded in the <a href="/facts/Russian_Republic/u3Nd32Ir">Russian Republic</a> soon after the <a href="/facts/October_Revolution/5q9GlMv9">October Revolution</a> in 1917 and its role was formalized in the <a href="/facts/Soviet_Russia_Constitution_of_1918/FrKsRfql">1918 Constitution of the RSFSR</a> to be responsible to the <a href="/facts/Congress_of_Soviets_of_Russia/Q2vmIADh">Congress of Soviets of the RSFSR</a> for the "general administration of the affairs of the state". Unlike its predecessor the <a href="/facts/Russian_Provisional_Government/TbI9uI5T">Russian Provisional Government</a> which had representatives of various political parties, and except for the brief two-party cabinet with the <a href="/facts/Left_Socialist-Revolutionaries/5lq0VY43">Left Socialist-Revolutionaries</a> from December 1917 to March 1918, the Sovnarkom was a government of a single party, the <a href="/facts/Bolsheviks/UAHzalnN">Bolsheviks</a>. The <a href="/facts/Council_of_People%2527s_Commissars_of_the_Soviet_Union/3MJV5cDu">Sovnarkom of the USSR</a> and <a href="/facts/Congress_of_Soviets_of_the_Soviet_Union/VsSKReQz">Congress of Soviets of the USSR</a> founded in 1922 were modelled on the RSFSR system, and identical Sovnarkom bodies were founded in the Soviet republics and <a href="/facts/Autonomous_Soviet_Socialist_Republics/sN1X58zM">autonomous republics</a>. The Sovnarkom evolved into the main executive of the <a href="/facts/Government_of_the_Soviet_Union/TUzn71Pa">government of the Soviet Union</a> with its head, the <a href="/facts/Premier_of_the_Soviet_Union/uMhIFtVf">Premier of the USSR</a>, serving as <a href="/facts/Head_of_government/eHYPvGWL">head of government</a>. The Sovnarkom issued decrees having the force of law when the Congress was not in session, and if these decrees were not approved at the Congress's next session, they were considered revoked. </p><p>The Sovnarkom was dissolved and transformed into the <a href="/facts/Council_of_Ministers_of_the_Soviet_Union/gE9Y6Ffz">Council of Ministers</a> in 1946. </p>