As the government of the Soviet Union, the Council of People's Commissars of the Soviet Union and the People's Commissariats led by it played a key role in such significant events for the country and society as the economic recovery after the Civil War, the New Economic Policy, agricultural collectivization, electrification, industrialization, five-year plans for the development of national economy, censorship, the fight against religion, repression and political persecution, the Gulag, the deportation of peoples, the annexation of the Baltic States and other territories by the Soviet Union, the organization of the partisan movement, the organization of industrial production in the rear during the Great Patriotic War.

Leon Trotsky had originally suggested Lenin's government be named Council of People's Commissars.

[9] Throughout the activities of the Council of People's Commissars of the Soviet Union, the number and names of government bodies changed several times due to the creation of new institutions and the separation, merger and abolition of previously created ones.

The composition of the Council of People's Commissars of the Soviet Union was changed accordingly.

However, the chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the Soviet Union was given the right to select and submit candidates for approval.

Under the chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the Soviet Union, there was a staff of his deputies.

According to the Constitution of 1924, the people's commissariats of the Soviet Union were divided into all-union and united.

The Council of People's Commissars of the Soviet Union had the right to create, reorganize and abolish subordinate institutions, which were directly subordinate to the Council of People's Commissars of the Soviet Union.