{{short description|Soviet government organisation (1917–1924)}} The '''People's Commissariat of Nationalities of the RSFSR''' ({{Langx|ru|Народный комиссариат по делам национальностей РСФСР}}, ''Narodny komissariat po delam natsional'nostey RSFSR''), abbreviated '''NKNats''' ({{Langx|ru|НКНац}}) or '''Narkomnats''' ({{Langx|ru|Наркомнац}}), an organization functioning from 1917 to 1924<ref>{{cite book|last=Hirsch|first=Francine|author-link=Francine Hirsch|chapter=State and Evolution: Ethnographic Knowledge, Economic Expediency, and the Making of the USSR, 1917–1924|editor1-last=Burbank|editor1-first=Jane|editor2-last=von Hagen|editor2-first=Mark|editor2-link=Mark von Hagen|editor3-last=Remnev|editor3-first=Anatolyi|title=Russian Empire: Space, People, Power, 1700–1930|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NmzT3q0k5XMC|series=Indiana-Michigan series in Russian and East European studies|date=8 August 2007|publisher=Indiana University Press|publication-date=2007|page=161|isbn=9780253219114|accessdate=2015-07-23|quote=The new Soviet constitution of 1924 dissolved Narkomnats [...].}}</ref> in the early Soviet period of Russian and Soviet history, tasked with dealing with non-Russian nationalities. Its head, Joseph Stalin, as the chairman of the People's Commissariat of Nationalities (1917–23), served as a member of the Council of People's Commissars.
==Origins== It was established even before the October Revolution on 11 June 1917<ref>''Petrogradskii Sovet Rabochikh i Soldatskikh Deputatov: Protokoly Zasedanii'' (Moscow: Gosudarstvennoe Izdatel'stvo, 1935).</ref> by the Petrograd Soviet as part of three measures to create state forms that would guarantee federal 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 par with Russian * the formation of a Soviet of nationality affairs – Narkomnats.
This decision was made in response to the crisis triggered by the Central Council of Ukraine's demands for autonomy for national territories and a seat at any peace conference. These demands were rejected by Alexander Kerensky. Narkomnats was set up as an organ of the Soviets to prepare for the Constituent Assembly, particularly in regards to 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 Bolsheviks opposed any national autonomy; however, on 13 August, Joseph Stalin published a tract that floated the idea of the Party might set up an agency for nationality affairs.<ref>''Revoliutsionnoe Dvizhenie v Rossii v Avgust' 1917 Goda: Protokoly'' (Moscow: Izdatel'stvo Akademii Nauk SSR, 1959) This text was omitted from the collected Works of Stalin)</ref> This came at a time when Kerensky and Mensheviks like Nikolay Chkheidze were arguing for a unified state. Kerensky told Latvian representatives that they could only hope for the status of Zemstvo.<ref>''Revoliutsionnoe Dvizhenie v Rossii v Mae-Iun' 1917 g.'', III (Moscow: Izdatel'stvo Akademii Nauk SSR, 1959).</ref>
In 1918, Joseph Stalin as the chairman presided over five or six of the first seven meetings of the Narkomnats Collegium, but failed to attend the next twenty one.<ref>'Stalin as Commissar of Nationalities' by Jeremy Smith in [https://books.google.com/books?id=LXo-0FUpZccC&q=Narkomnats&pg=PA55&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false ''Stalin: A New History''] by Sarah Davies (Editor), James Harris (Editor), 2005, p. 55, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511614897.006</ref>
==Specific commissariats related to Narkomnats== * Belnatskom was the Belarusian commissariat established 31 January 1918<ref>''The Sorcerer as Apprentice: Stalin as Commissar of Nationalities 1917–1924'' by Stephen Blank, Greenwood Press 1995, p. 20.</ref> * Evkom was the Jewish commissariat<ref>Zvi Y. Gitelman, ''Jewish Nationality and Soviet Politics: The Jewish Sections of the CPSU, 1917-1930'' (1972).</ref> * Muskom was the Muslim commissariat, chaired by Mullanur Waxitov * Volga Commissariat for German Affairs, charter approved by Narkomnat on May 29, 1918<ref name="Volga Commissariat">{{cite web |title=Право.ru: законодательство, судебная система, новости и аналитика. Все о юридическом рынке. |url=https://pravo.ru/news/view/123033/ |website=ПРАВО.Ru |publisher=ПРАВО.Ru |access-date=9 June 2023 |language=ru}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist|2}}
==Further reading== * James R. Millar, ''Encyclopedia of Russian History'' (2004) 3: 1000–1027, 1158–59.
{{authority control}}
{{bots|deny=Citation bot}}
Nationalities Category:Soviet ethnic policy Category:1917 establishments in Russia Category:Joseph Stalin Category:1924 disestablishments in the Soviet Union Category:Government ministries disestablished in 1924 Category:Government ministries established in 1917