PEOPLE'S COMMISSARIAT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF THE USSR: CREATION, STRUCTURE, MAIN FUNCTIONS AND ACTIVITIES (1917–1922)

Abstract

The work is the first in Ukrainian historiography to study the history of the establishment and functioning of the People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs, which was the central body of executive power in the Ukrainian SSR and was responsible for conducting foreign policy. The subject of this study is the history of the formation and functioning of the People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs of the Ukrainian SSR during 1917–1922 as one of the bodies of the state administration system. The object of the study is the main patterns and features of the legal regulation of social relations that were formed in the process of forming the fundamental principles of activity and further organizational and legal development of the People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs It is found that the People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs of the Ukrainian SSR was established on December 14, 1917 in Kharkov by the Congress of Councils of the People's Secretariat for Interethnic Affairs of the Soviet UNR headed by the Bolshevik S. Bakynsky. It has been established that the systematic development of the apparatus of the National Commissariat of Foreign Affairs of the Ukrainian SSR began in 1920, when the “Regulations on the Activities of the People’s Commissariat of Foreign Affairs of the Ukrainian SSR” were developed, which regulated the main duties and functions of the commissariat. The diplomatic department occupied a central place in the structure of the People’s Commissariat of Foreign Affairs of the Ukrainian SSR, which included the following departments: the refenture, the secret part and the protocol part. It was concluded that the People’s Commissariat of Foreign Affairs managed diplomatic relations, conducted negotiations, concluded international treaties and represented the interests of the Ukrainian SSR abroad. The history of the existence of the National Commissariat of Foreign Affairs, as well as the diplomacy of the Ukrainian SSR, turned out to be quite short. On October 18, 1922, the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) adopted a resolution “On the Dissolution of the NKZS Apparatus” and instructed the Deputy Head of the NKZS of the Ukrainian SSR, V. Yakovlev, to begin negotiations with the NKZS of the RSFSR on the unification of the relevant people's commissariats.