Аннотация
The article is devoted to the history of the state institution that existed at the dawn of the Soviet period of the history – the People’s commissariat of property of the Republic (NKIR). Based on the materials of the archives of Saint Petersburg and Moscow, which are being introduced into scientific circulation for the first time, the process of the emergence, activity and abolition of this peculiar department, which was the historical successor of the Ministry of the Imperial Court, is shown. A great influence on the fate of the People’s commissariat of A.V. Lunacharsky was revealed, who formally headed another central institution, but at all stages of the history of the NKIR actively intervened in its work and eventually succeeded in joining the NKIR to the People’s commissariat for education.