The
Council of People's Commissars (, translit.
Soviet narodnykh kommissarov or
Sovnarkom, also as generic SNK) was a government institution formed shortly after the
October Revolution in 1917. Created in the
Russian Republic the council laid foundations in restructuring the country to form the
Soviet Union. It evolved to become the highest government authority of executive power under the
Soviet system in states which came under the control of the
Bolsheviks.