Revolutionary Military Council

The Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic or Revvoyensoviet (Революционный Военный Совет, Revolyutsionny Voyenny Sovyet; Реввоенсовет, Revvoyensovyet; also translated as Revolutionary War Council) was the supreme military authority of Soviet Russia and lately the USSR. It was instituted by the decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee ("VTsIK") on September 2, 1918 (known as "Decree about Declaring the Soviet Republic the Military Camp").

Until that moment there were two main military authorities, the Supreme Military Council (Высший военный совет, Vysshy voyenny sovyet) and the Operative Department of the People's Commissariat for Military Affairs (Оперативный отдел Народного комиссариата по военным делам, Opyerativny otdel Narodnogo komissariata po voyennym dyelam).

The decree put all fronts and military organizations under the single command of the Revvoyensoviet headed by the Chairman, with a single commander-in-chief (главком) for strategic and operative military command statewise subordinated only to the Chairman of Revvoyensoviet. The Chairman was People's Commissar for Military and Navy, appointed by VTsIK.

The first Chairman was Leon Trotsky. The first commander-in-chief was Red Latvian rifleman Jukums Vācietis. In July 1919 he was replaced by Sergei Kamenev (1919–1924).

Following the creation of the Revvoyensoviet, the Labour and Defence Council was created on November 30, 1918, headed by Vladimir Lenin and consisted of Chairman of Revvoyensoviet (Trotsky), a representative of VTsIK (Joseph Stalin) and some narkoms. Its goal was mobilizing the resources of the country towards defense.

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