After the revolution, the new communist government had to rebuild the power system. This is objective, because the very essence of power and its social sources have changed. How Lenin and his associates succeeded, we will consider in this article.
Formation of a power system
Note that in the early stages of the development of the new state, in the conditions of the Civil War, the Bolsheviks had certain problems in the process of forming government bodies. The causes of this phenomenon are both objective and subjective. Firstly, many settlements in the process of hostilities often fell under the control of the White Guards. Secondly, the confidence of the people in the new government was weak at first. And most importantly, none of the new government officials had experience in the public administration system.
What is SNK?
The system of supreme power more or less stabilized by the time the USSR was founded. The state at that time was officially ruled by the Council of People's Commissars. SNK is the supreme body of executive and administrative power in the USSR. In fact, we are talking about the government. Under this name, the body officially existed from July 6, 1923 to March 15, 1946. Due to the impossibility of holding elections and the convening of parliament, at first the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR also had the functions of legislative power. Even this fact tells us that there was no democracy in the Soviet period. The combination of executive and legislative powers in the hands of one body speaks of the dictatorship of the party.
Structure of the Council of People's Commissars
In this body, there was a clear structure and hierarchy of posts. SNK is a collegial body that made decisions unanimously or by a majority of votes during its meetings. As already noted, in its type the executive body of the USSR of the interwar period is very similar to modern governments.
Headed the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR Chairman. In 1923, officially headed the state V.I. Lenin. The structure of the body included the positions of vice-chairmen. There were 5. In contrast to the modern government structure, where there is the First Deputy Prime Minister and three or four ordinary Deputy Prime Ministers, there was no such division. Each of the deputies oversaw a separate area of ​​work of the SNK. This had a beneficial effect on the work of the body and the situation in the country, because it was precisely in those years (from 1923 to 1926) that the NEP policy was carried out most effectively.
In its activities, SNK tried to cover all areas of the economy, economy, as well as the humanitarian direction. Such conclusions can be made by analyzing the list of USSR people's commissariats in the 1920s:
- internal affairs;
- on issues of agriculture;
- labor;
- the People’s Commissariat of Defense was called "for military and naval affairs";
- commercial and industrial direction;
- public education;
- finance;
- foreign affairs;
- People’s Commissariat of Justice;
- the People’s Commissariat, which oversaw the food sector (especially important, provided the population with food);
- Commissariat of railway communication;
- on national issues;
- in the field of printing.
Most of the activities of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, formed almost 100 years ago, remain in the sphere of interests of modern governments, and some (for example, the print industry) were especially relevant then, because only with the help of leaflets and newspapers could propaganda of communist ideas be conducted.
SNK regulations
After the revolution, the Soviet government took the right to publish both ordinary and extraordinary documents. What is SNK decree? In the understanding of lawyers, this is a decision of an official or collegial body, taken in an emergency. In the understanding of the leadership of the USSR, decrees are important documents that laid the foundation for relations in certain sectors of the country's life. The authority to issue decrees of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR was received under the 1924 Constitution. Having become acquainted with the Constitution of the USSR of 1936, we see that there documents are not mentioned there. In the history of the most famous are such decrees of the Council of People's Commissars: on land, on peace, on the separation of the state from the church.
The text of the last pre-war Constitution already refers not to decrees, but to the right of the Council of People's Commissars to issue resolutions. SNK has lost its legislative function. All power in the country passed to the party leaders.
SNK is an organ that lasted until 1946. Later it was renamed the Council of Ministers. The system of power organization, set out on paper in a 1936 document, was almost ideal at that time. But we are well aware that all this was only official.