Establishment of the Vesenkha

Central Executive Committee, Establishment of the Supreme Council of the National Economy. December 14, 1917

  1. The Supreme Council of the National Economy is established under the Council of the People's Commissaries.

  2. The task of the Supreme Council of the National Economy is the organization of the national economy and state finances. For that purpose the Supreme Council of the National Economy elaborates general standards and a plan for the regulation of the economic life of the country, coordinates and unifies the activity of the central and local regulating institutions (fuel board, metal board, transport board, central supplies committee, etc., and the respective People's Commissaries of commerce and industry, supplies, agriculture, finances, war, and navy, etc.) of the All-Russian Board of Workmen's Control, and also of the corresponding activities of factory and trade organizations of the working class.

  3. The Supreme Council of the National Economy is given the right of confiscation, requisition, sequestration, and compulsory syndication of various branches of industry and commerce, and other measures in the domain of production, distribution, and state finances.

  4. All existing institutions for the regulation of the national economy are subordinated to the Supreme Council of the National Economy, which is given the right to reform them.

  5. The Supreme Council of the National Economy is formed: (a) of the All-Russian Board of Workmen's Control, whose personnel is determined by the decree of November 14, 1917; (b) of representatives of all the People's Commissaries; (c) of learned persons, who are invited and have a consulting vote.

  6. The Supreme Council of the National Economy is divided into sections and departments (as fuel, metal, demobilization, finance, etc.), and the number and the sphere of activity of these sections and departments are determined by the entire Board.

  7. The departments of the Supreme Council of the National Economy conduct the work of regulating the separate branches of national economic life, and also prepare the measures of the respective People's Commissaries.

  8. The Supreme Council of the National Economy forms out of its membership a bureau of fifteen persons, for the coordination of the current work of the sections and departments and the performance of tasks which demand immediate attention.

  9. All projects of law and large measures which have reference to the regulation of the national economy in its entirety are submitted to the Council of the People's Commissaries through the Supreme Council of the National Economy.

  10. The Supreme Council of the National Economy unifies and directs the Soviets of Workmen's, Soldiers', and Peasants' Deputies, which include the local organs of workmen's control, and also the local commissaries of labor, commerce and industry, supplies, etc. In the absence of corresponding economic branches, the Supreme Council of the National Economy forms local organs.

All decisions of the Supreme Council of the National Economy are binding upon the economic departments of the local Soviets, which constitute the local organs of the Supreme Council of the National Economy.

Source: Decrees of the Soviet Government (Moscow: Institute of Marxism-Leninism, 1957), Vol. I, pp. 172-174.

1917

EVENTS February Revolution Formation of the Soviets April Crisis Revolution in the Army July Days Kornilov Affair Bolsheviks Seize Power First Bolshevik Decrees Constituent Assembly Treaty of Brest Litovsk
FOUR KINDS OF STATES Communist Party Building Economic Apparatus Building the Soviets Red Guard into Army State Security
DISINTEGRATION OF THE OLD SOCIETY Depopulation of the Cities Food Supply Conflict with the Church Death of the Old Culture Destruction of the Left The Empire Falls
CREATION OF A NEW SOCIETY New Letters and Dates Culture and Revolution The New Woman Workers Organization Peasant Revolution Organs of the Press Raising Socialist Youth