Collegiality in the People's Commissariats, 1917-1920

Impulses towards collective decision-making in industrial and military administration in the early years of Soviet power have been well documented by historians. The equivalent expression in state administration, however, has not received the same attention. This article uses evidence from the Soviet state and party archives, memoir material and published legislation and congress records to demonstrate the collegial modus operandi of the early Soviet central state institutions, the People's Commissariats. It argues that the collegium represented a revolutionary innovation by the Soviet leadership and was a key aspect of the organisational culture cultivated at this time inside the state apparatus.