Narkomnats
Encyclopedia
People's Commissariat of Nationalities (abbreviation transliterated as Narkomnats) was the Government of the Soviet Union
Government of the Soviet Union
The Council of Ministers of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was the de jure government comprising the highest executive and administrative body of the Soviet Union from 1946 until 1991....

 body set up to deal with non-Russian nationalities. It was part of the Council of People's Commissars.

Origins

It was established even before the October Revolution
October Revolution
The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...

 on 11 June 1917 by the Petrograd Soviet
Petrograd Soviet
The Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies , usually called the Petrograd Soviet , was the soviet in Petrograd , Russia, established in March 1917 after the February Revolution as the representative body of the city's workers.The Petrograd Soviet became important during the Russian...

 as part of three measures to create state forms which would guarantee federal
Federalism
Federalism is a political concept in which a group of members are bound together by covenant with a governing representative head. The term "federalism" is also used to describe a system of the government in which sovereignty is constitutionally divided between a central governing authority and...

 and autonomous solutions to national questions in the Russian Revolution:
  • complete civil equality for all citizens
  • the right to use the mother tongue in official business, on a par with Russian
    Russian language
    Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...

  • the formation of a Soviet of nationality affairs - Narkomnats.


This decision was made in response to the crisis triggered by the Ukrainian
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

 Rada
Tsentralna Rada
The Tsentralna Rada or Central Rada at first was the All-Ukrainian council that united political, public, cultural, professional organizations. Later after the All-Ukrainian National Congress that council became the revolutionary parliament of Ukraine...

's demands for autonomy for national territories and a seat at any peace conference. These demands were rejected by Alexander Kerensky
Alexander Kerensky
Alexander Fyodorovich Kerensky was a major political leader before and during the Russian Revolutions of 1917.Kerensky served as the second Prime Minister of the Russian Provisional Government until Vladimir Lenin was elected by the All-Russian Congress of Soviets following the October Revolution...

. Narkomnats was set up as an organ of the Soviets to prepare for the Constituent Assembly
Constituent assembly
A constituent assembly is a body composed for the purpose of drafting or adopting a constitution...

, particularly as regards how Ukrainian autonomy could be handled. It provided for the organisation of a congress of representatives from all of Ukraine, which in turn would set up a Ukrainian Constituent Assembly. At this time the Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....

s opposed any national autonomy; however, on 13 August, Stalin published a tract that floated the idea of the Party
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the only legal, ruling political party in the Soviet Union and one of the largest communist organizations in the world...

 might set up an agency for nationality affairs.
This came at a time when Kerensky and Mensheviks like Nikolay Chkheidze
Nikolay Chkheidze
Nikoloz Chkheidze was a Georgian Menshevik politician who helped to introduce Marxism to Georgia in the 1890s and played a prominent role in the Russian and Georgian revolutions of 1917 and 1918....

 were arguing for a unified state. Kerensky told Latvia
Latvia
Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...

n representatives that they could only hope for the status of Zemstvo
Zemstvo
Zemstvo was a form of local government that was instituted during the great liberal reforms performed in Imperial Russia by Alexander II of Russia. The idea of the zemstvo was elaborated by Nikolay Milyutin, and the first zemstvo laws were put into effect in 1864...

.

Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...

 as commissar presided over five or six of the first seven meetings of the Narkomnats Collegium, but failed to attend the next twenty one.

Specific Commissariats related to Narkomnats

  • Belnatskom was the Belorussian Commissariat established 31 January 1918
  • Evkom was the Jewish Commissariat
  • Muskom
    Muskom
    Muskom was the Central Commissariat of Muslim affairs in Inner Russia and Siberia set up by the Bolsheviks in January 1918 as part of Narkomnats Mullanur Waxitov was appointed as chair, although he was not a member of the Communist Party. Mirsäyet Soltanğäliev served as the representative of the...

     was the Muslim
    Muslim
    A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...

     Commissariat, chaired by Mullanur Waxitov
    Mullanur Waxitov
    Mullanur Mullacan ulı Waxitov Mullanur Waxitov , also spelled Vakhitov was a Tatar revolutionary active in the Russian Revolution....

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