Ministry of Education, founded as the People's Commissariat for Education but commonly called Narkompros , was the Soviet agency charged with the administration of public education and most of other issues related to culture. In 1946, it was renamed the Ministry of Education. Its first head was Anatoly Lunacharsky. However he described Krupskaya as the "soul of Narkompros". Mikhail Pokrovsky and Evgraf Litkens

Evgraf Litkens

Evgraf Alexandrovich Litkens was a Russian Bolshevik who played a major role in the development of Narkompros following the Bolshevik seizure of power....

 also played important roles.

Lunacharsky protected most of the avant-garde artists such as Vladimir Mayakovsky

Vladimir Mayakovsky

Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky was a Russian and Soviet poet and playwright, among the foremost representatives of early-20th century Russian Futurism.- Early life :...

, Kazimir Malevich

Kazimir Malevich

Kazimir Severinovich Malevich was a Russian painter and art theoretician, born of ethnic Polish parents. He was a pioneer of geometric abstract art and the originator of the Avant-garde Suprematist movement.-Early life:...

, Vladimir Tatlin

Vladimir Tatlin

Vladimir Yevgrafovich Tatlin was a Russian and Soviet painter and architect. With Kazimir Malevich he was one of the two most important figures in the Russian avant-garde art movement of the 1920s, and he later became the most important artist in the Constructivist movement...

 and Vsevolod Meyerhold

Vsevolod Meyerhold

Vsevolod Emilevich Meyerhold was a great Russian and Soviet theatre director, actor and theatrical producer. His provocative experiments dealing with physical being and symbolism in an unconventional theatre setting made him one of the seminal forces in modern international theatre.-Early...

. Despite his efforts, the official policy after Stalin put him in disgrace.

Narkompros had a number of sections, in addition to the main ones related to general education, e.g.,

• Likbez
  Likbez
  Likbez was a campaign of eradication of illiteracy in Soviet Russia and Soviet Union in the 1920s and 1930s. The term was also used for various schools and courses established during the campaign...
  
  , a section for liquidation of illiteracy,
• "Profobr", a section for professional education,
• Glavlit a section for literature and publishing (also in charge of censorship in publishing),
• "Glavrepertkom" (Главрепертком), a commission for approval of performers' repertoires.
• Department of the Mobilsation of Scientific Forces, to which the Russian Academy of Sciences
  Russian Academy of Sciences
  The Russian Academy of Sciences consists of the national academy of Russia and a network of scientific research institutes from across the Russian Federation as well as auxiliary scientific and social units like libraries, publishers and hospitals....
  
   reported to after 1918.
• A Theatre Department which published Vestnik Teatra
  Vestnik Teatra
  Vestnik Teatra was the journal of the Theatre Department of Narkompros, founded in Moscow in 1918. It became an influential journal amongst theatrical practitioners during the period following the Bolshevik seizure of power. It published articles by such people as Platon Kerzhentsev and Vsevolod...
  
  
• Vneshkol'nyi Otdel, the adult Education Department run by Krupskaya

Some of these evolved into separate entities, others discontinued.

Izo-Narkompros

The Izo-Narkompros (Изо-наркомпрос), or the section of visual arts

Visual arts

The visual arts are art forms that create works which are primarily visual in nature, such as ceramics, drawing, painting, sculpture, printmaking, design, crafts, and often modern visual arts and architecture...

 (отдел изобразительных искусств) created in May 1918, consisted of two parts: the collegium (deliberative organ) and the section proper (executive organ). The first collegium was headed by Vladimir Tatlin

Vladimir Tatlin

Vladimir Yevgrafovich Tatlin was a Russian and Soviet painter and architect. With Kazimir Malevich he was one of the two most important figures in the Russian avant-garde art movement of the 1920s, and he later became the most important artist in the Constructivist movement...

  and included Kasimir Malevich, I. Mashkov (И. Машков), N. Udaltsova (Н. Удальцова), O.Rozanova (О. Розанова), Alexander Rodchenko

Alexander Rodchenko

Aleksander Mikhailovich Rodchenko was a Russian artist, sculptor, photographer and graphic designer. He was one of the founders of constructivism and Russian design; he was married to the artist Varvara Stepanova....

, Wassily Kandinsky

Wassily Kandinsky

Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky was an influential Russian painter and art theorist. He is credited with painting the first purely-abstract works. Born in Moscow, Kandinsky spent his childhood in Odessa. He enrolled at the University of Moscow, studying law and economics...

. It was subdivided into a number of subsections.

Lunacharsky directed some of the great experiments in public arts after the Revolution such as the Agit-Trains and Agit-boats, that circulated over all Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

 spreading Revolution and revolutionary arts.

He also gave support to Constructivism's

Constructivism (art)

Constructivism was an artistic and architectural philosophy that originated in Russia beginning in 1919, which was a rejection of the idea of autonomous art. The movement was in favour of art as a practice for social purposes. Constructivism had a great effect on modern art movements of the 20th...

 theatrical experiments and the initiatives such as the ROSTA Windows, revolutionary posters designed and written by Mayakovsky, Rodchenko, and others.

List of Russian Ministers of Enlightment

People's Commissars

• Anatoly Lunacharsky
• Andrei Bubnov
  Andrei Bubnov
  Andrei Sergeyevich Bubnov was a Bolshevik revolutionary leader in Russia, and member of the Left Opposition.-Biography:...
  
  
• Pyotr Tyurkin
• Vladimir Potyomkin

Ministers

• Aleksei Kalashnikov
• Aleksandr Voznesensky
• Ivan Kairov
• Yevgeniy Afanasenko
• Mikhail Prokofiev
• Aleksandr Danilov
• Georgiy Veselov

List of Ministers

There were only two Soviet ministers of education:

• Mikhail Prokofiev (December 24, 1966 - December 20, 1984)
• Sergei Shcherbakov (December 20, 1984 - March 5, 1988)

After that it was united into the State committee of the Soviet Union for Public Education headed by Gennadiy Yagodin until November 14, 1991.