People's Commissariat for Agriculture


People's Commissariat for Agriculture was set up in Petrograd in October 1917. Vladimir Milyutin was appointed the first People's Commissar of Agriculture. He was a member of the Council of People's Commissars.
The Narkomzem offices located at Orlikov Pereulok, 1, Moscow were designed by Aleksey Shchusev in 1928. This building is currently occupied by the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation.
Following the establishment of Sovnarkom at the Second All-Russian Congress of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies' Soviets Lenin attended the Extraordinary All-Russia Congress Of Soviets Of Peasants' Deputies where he promised that the Left Socialist Revolutionaries could select one of their members to become the Narkomsem Commissar. Andrei Kolegayev was appointed to this position on 23 December 1917.
In 1946 the Commissariat was replaced by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food.

People's Commissars of Agriculture

Narkomzem CommissarTerm of office
Vladimir Milyutin 8 November 1917 - 29 November 1917
Alexander Schlichter29 November 1917 - 23 December 1917
Andrei Kolegayev23 December 1917 - 1 March 1918
Semyon Sereda 1 March 1918 - 1 December 1921
Valerian Osinsky-Obolensky 1921 - 1922
Yakovenko, Vassiliy Grigor'yevich 1922 - 6 July 1923
Aleksandr Petrovich Smirnov1923 - 1928
Nikolay Kubyak1928 - 1929
Yakov Yakovlev 8 December 1929 - 1 March 1934
Mikhail Chernov1 March 1934 - 29 October 1937
Robert Eiche 29 October 1937 - 15 November 1938
Ivan Aleksandrovich Benediktov 15 November 1938 - 11 December 1943
Andrey Andreyev 11 December 1943 - 15 March 1946