Sovnarkom governed in the name of the soviets, but was also claimed to be an instrument of ‘the dictatorship of the proletariat’, which, as Lenin was to explain, meant ‘in essence’ the dictatorship of the Communist Party. These two bases of Sovnarkom's claim to legitimacy, though potentially in conflict, were harmonised in practice by the majorities which the Communists contrived to secure themselves in the soviets, and in particular in their all-Russian congresses, from October 1917 onward. At the same time this twofold legitimation had the effect of placing Sovnarkom in a complex network of relationships linking it, on the one hand, with bodies emanating from the congresses of soviets, and on the other, with bodies emanating from the congresses of the party. These relationships, which extended beyond the formal trappings of authority and the adoption of broad policy orientations to the details of day-to-day government, underwent marked changes over time. To properly understand the evolution of Sovnarkom, therefore, we need to know something about these supreme organs of the soviets and the party and their mutual interconnections.

The soviets, composed of deputies elected by open vote at places of work, originated during 1917 in the towns and military and naval units, and only gradually spread to the rural areas.