It was established even before the
October Revolution on 11 June 1917 by the
Petrograd Soviet as part of three measures to create state forms that would guarantee
federal and
autonomous solutions to national questions in the
Russian Revolution: • complete civil equality for all citizens • the right to use the
mother tongue in official business, on par with
Russian • the formation of a Soviet of nationality affairs – Narkomnats. This decision was made in response to the crisis triggered by the
Central Council of Ukraine's demands for autonomy for national territories and a seat at any peace conference. These demands were rejected by
Alexander Kerensky. Narkomnats was set up as an organ of the Soviets to prepare for the
Constituent Assembly, particularly in regards to how Ukrainian autonomy could be handled. It provided for the organisation of a congress of representatives from all of Ukraine, which in turn would set up a Ukrainian Constituent Assembly. At this time the
Bolsheviks opposed any national autonomy; however, on 13 August,
Joseph Stalin published a tract that floated the idea of the
Party might set up an agency for nationality affairs. This came at a time when Kerensky and
Mensheviks like
Nikolay Chkheidze were arguing for a unified state. Kerensky told
Latvian representatives that they could only hope for the status of
Zemstvo. In 1918,
Joseph Stalin as the chairman presided over five or six of the first seven meetings of the Narkomnats Collegium, but failed to attend the next twenty one. ==Specific commissariats related to Narkomnats==