1917 - Sovnarkom

• Lenin set up a new cabinet dominated by Bolsheviks, forming the Sovnarkom.
• Chairman

  • Vladimir Lenin
• Commissar for Foreign Affairs

  • Leon Trotsky
• Commissar for Internal Affairs

  • Alexei Rykov.
  • Rykov was later in charge of War Communism.
• Commissar for Nationalities

  • Joseph Stalin.
• Commissar for Social Welfare

  • Alexandra Kollontai.
  • Kollontai was the first woman in history to become an official member of a governing cabinet.
  • She was a key Marxist-feminist.
• Head of the Cheka

  • Felix Dzerzhinsky.
  • Dzerzhinsky becomes a key figure in the Red Terror.