Soviet of People’s Commissars, Functions of the Supreme Economic Council. August 8, 1918
Original Source: Narodnoe khoziaistvo, No. 11 (November 1918), pp. 63-64.
1. The Supreme Council of National Economy is the economic section of the Central Executive Committee and is responsible to it as well as to the Soviet of People’s Commissars.
2. The Supreme Council of National Economy is to regulate and organize all production and distribution and to manage every enterprise of the Republic.
Note. All decrees and ordinances which the People’s Commissariats of Food and Agriculture issued in regard to the distribution of supplies remain in force.
3. All drafts of the state budget must be presented for preliminary consideration to the Supreme Council of National Economy, and after this body has given its decision shall-be brought before the Soviet of People’s Commissars.
4. The financing of all branches of the national economy shall be undertaken by the Supreme Council of National Economy in cooperation with the Commissariats of Finance and of State Control.
5. To direct–within the limits of the general economic policy of the Sovnarkom and the All-Russian Central Executive Committee–the activities of the Supreme Council of National Economy as well as the regional and local councils of national economy, there is established a plenum of the Supreme Council of National Economy, with the following membership:
a) The All-Russian Central Executive Committee — 10
b) The All-Russian Council of Trade Unions — 30
c) The Regional Councils of National Economy — 20
d) The All-Russian Council of Workers’ Cooperatives — 2
e) The People’s Commissariat of Food — 2
f) The People’s Commissariat of Ways and Communication – 1
g) The People’s Commissariat of Labor — 1
h) The People’s Commissariat of Agriculture — 1
i) The People’s Commissariat of Finance — 1
j) The People’s Commissariat of Commerce — 1
k) The People’s Commissariat of the Interior — 1
Note. The People’s Commissariats not mentioned above have the right to send their representatives to the meetings of Plenum of the Supreme Council of National Economy in a consulting capacity only.
6. Members of the Plenum are appointed for six months.
Note. The different commissariats shall be represented by the commissars themselves or by their assistants.
7. The Plenum is to meet not less than once a month.
8. The executive business of the Supreme Council of National economy shall be entrusted to a Presidium of nine members, of which eight shall be elected by the Plenum and approved by the Soviet of People’s Commissars, while the chairman shall be elected by the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and vested with all the rights of a People’s Commissar.
V. Ul’ianov (Lenin)
President of the Soviet of People’s Commissars
A. Rykov
Chairman of the Supreme Council of National Economy
Source: James Bunyan, ed., Intervention, Civil War, and Communism in Russia, April-December 1918 (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1936), pp. 405-406.