The Ministries of the Soviet Union () were the government ministries of the Soviet Union. After the Russian Revolution of 1917 the previous bureaucratic apparatus of bourgeois ministers was replaced by People's Commissariats (; Narkom), staffed by new employees drawn from workers and peasants. On 15 March 1946 the people’s commissariats were transformed into ministries. The name change had no practical effects, other than restoring a designation previously considered a leftover of the bourgeois era. The collapse of the ministry system was one of the main causes behind the fall of the Soviet Union. State Committees were also subordinated to the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union and had similar powers and rights. History After the end of World War II, Commissariats were reorganized to meet the needs of reconstruction. The Commissariats of the Tank Industry and of Mortar Armament were liquidated. Their staffs and facilities became a part of a large number of Commissariats created in late 1945 and 1946. The activities of the new Commissariats were denoted by the titles: Agricultural Machinery Construction, Automobile Industry, Construction and Road Building Machinery, Construction of Fuel Enterprises, Construction of Heavy Industry Enterprises, Heavy Machine Building, Machinery and Instruments, and Transport Machinery Building. Khrushchev decentralized authority, abolishing ten ministries. These were ministries whose factories and construction projects could be better managed closer to the scene by a regional economic council. These included the Automobile Industry Ministry, the Ministry of Construction of Oil Industry Enterprises, and the Heavy Machine Building Ministry. Also, fifteen ministries, transferred previously from Moscow to Republic capitals in a preliminary effort at decentralization, were now disbanded. The functions of such republican ministries as those of the Coal Industry, Fish Industry, Oil Industry, and Construction of Coal Industry Enterprises were delegated to regional economic councils. All Soviet ministries, with the exception of the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Atomic Energy, were abolished or taken over by the Russian Federation on 20 December 1991. The Soviet Ministry of Atomic Energy was abolished in January 1992, replaced by the Ministry for Atomic Energy of the Russian Federation. The Soviet Ministry of Defense was disbanded on 16 March 1992. Ministry system Ministers were the chief administrative officials of the government. While most ministers managed branches of the economy, others managed affairs of state, such as foreign policy, defense, justice, and finance. Unlike parliamentary systems in which ministers are members of