All-Russian Central Executive Committee

The All-Russian Central Executive Committee (Всероссийский Центральный Исполнительный Комитет (ВЦИК)) was the supreme governing body of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic in between sessions of the All-Russian Congress of Soviets from 1917 to 1937. In 1937, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee was replaced with the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR.

Its full name at one point was the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the Soviets of Workers', Peasants', Red Army, and Cossack Deputies (Всероссийский Центральный Исполнительный Комитет Советов рабочих, крестьянских, красноармейских и казачьих депутатов).

Organization
The 1918 Russian Constitution required that the All-Russian Central Executive Committee convene the All-Russian Congress of Soviets at least twice a year (Statute 26 of Article III). Additional sessions could be called by the All-Russian Central Executive Committee or on the request of local Soviets. The All-Russian Central Executive Committee was elected by a full Congress, with no more than 200 individuals. It was completely subordinate to the Congress. The functions of the Collegiate or the Presidium were not declared in the Constitution, but presumably they were supposed to be purely supervisory or revisionary bodies.

Provisions
The All-Russian Central Executive Committee gave a general direction for the policies of the Worker-Peasant government and all bodies of the Soviet power in the country. It united and coordinated activities for legislation and administration as well as supervised the endorsement of the Soviet Constitution, declarations of the All-Russian Congress of Soviets and central bodies of the Soviet power. The All-Russian Central Executive Committee reviewed and adopted the projects of decrees and other propositions introduced by the Council of People's Commissars and separate departments as well as issued its own decrees and instructions.

The All-Russian Central Executive Committee summoned the All-Russian Congress of Soviets to which it presented the reports on its activity, general policy, and other inquiries. The All-Russian Central Executive Committee formed the Council of People's Commissars for general administrative affairs of the republic and departments (called People's Commissariats) for the management of separate branches of administration. Deputies of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee worked in the departments or executed special assignments of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee.

State budgets (for the RSFSR as a whole and for each of the republic's administrative divisions) were decided jointly by the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the All-Russian Congress of Soviets.

History
The first All-Russian Central Executive Committee was elected at the First All-Russian Congress of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies' Soviets, held in Petrograd, June 3–24 1917. The first Central Executive Committee of the All-Russian Congress of Soviets was not a governing body, and its chairman Nikolai Chkheidze was not the head of the Russian state.

This changed with the October Revolution; at the Second All-Russian Congress of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies' Soviets held in Petrograd in November 1917 a new Central Executive Committee was elected and given the authority to form an executive government of the RSFSR i.e. the Council of People's Commissars. It was composed of 62 Bolsheviks, 29 Left SRs, and 10 Mensheviks and Right SRs The chairman of the second All-Russian Central Executive Committee was Lev Kamenev, who directed the day-to-day work of the committee and had a tie-breaking vote.

Following the adoption of the 1936 Soviet Constitution, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee was replaced with the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR.

Chairmen of the Central Executive Committee of the RSFSR

 * Lev Kamenev (November 9–21, 1917)
 * Yakov Sverdlov (November 21, 1917 – March 16, 1919; died in office)
 * Mikhail Vladimirsky (acting; March 16–30, 1919)
 * Mikhail Kalinin (March 30, 1919 – July 15, 1938)

On December 30, 1922, the Soviet Union was formed. It comprised the Russian SFSR and other communist-controlled Soviet republics. Mikhail Kalinin retained his position as chairman of the Central Executive Committee of the All-Russian Congress of Soviets and became chairman of the newly formed Central Executive Committee of the All-Union Congress of Soviets as well. Both positions were mostly ceremonial, increasingly so in later years.