I must be the only reader who is annoyed by your sloppiness as far as Russian terminology is concerned. (not really - but let me play a pedant).
Anastais Ivanovich Mikoyan ("from Ilyich, to Ilyich without a heart attack or a stroke" - it rhymes in Russian - also known as the Abbe Sieyes of the Russian Revolution) was the First Deputy >Prime Minister< : strictly speaking, First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR. Of course, though the Council of Ministers was >Sovet Ministrov<, it was, most certainly, not a "Soviet". In fact, the term itself was a post-war Stalinist restauration of Tsarist terminology: "Sovet Ministrov" had been the name of the Imperial cabinet from 1905 to 1917 (this terminlogical restauration was curiously incomplete: a soviet >deputy< minister became >zamestitel' ministra< : the old pre-revolutionary >tovarishch ministra<being taken for other usage). But there was a more profound meaning in which the >Sovet Ministrov< was a Council, rather than a Soviet. Soviets, by their Soviet constitutional definition, where actually sovereign, embodying both executive and legislative roles, and more. The Council of Ministers was, certainly, an executive organ - it was adjacent to, but not one of the actual Soviets.
This, of course leads to another bit of pedantry. When I was growing up and learning English, translating official Soviet jargon was a big chunk of it ("taken unanimously!"). I do not think I would have ever considered translating "Sovet" in Sovet Ministrov as anything other than Council: sure, it used to be the same word, but the meanings had diverged clearly enough. Nobody would ever translate the UN "Sovet Bezopasnosti" as "Security Soviet" either. So, though I know you were just joking about SEV, let me give you a >sovet< (advice - another meaning of the same Russian word) - never confuse Councils and Soviets :)
And last - but not the least. Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. RSFSR, damn it - it says so on my high school diploma. RSFSR - reads the same in each direction (you can yourself reconstruct some anti-communist/anti-semitic jokes from 100 years ago, can't you?)
Anyway, just irrelevant nonsense from somebody who has tortured his own Mexican kids by forcing them to memorize the meanings of VLKSM (All-Union Leninist Communist Union of Youth - Komsomol) and VTsSPS (All-Union Central Council of Professional Unions, the official "trade unions" of the regime). Don't ask me why.
I must be the only reader who is annoyed by your sloppiness as far as Russian terminology is concerned. (not really - but let me play a pedant).
Anastais Ivanovich Mikoyan ("from Ilyich, to Ilyich without a heart attack or a stroke" - it rhymes in Russian - also known as the Abbe Sieyes of the Russian Revolution) was the First Deputy >Prime Minister< : strictly speaking, First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR. Of course, though the Council of Ministers was >Sovet Ministrov<, it was, most certainly, not a "Soviet". In fact, the term itself was a post-war Stalinist restauration of Tsarist terminology: "Sovet Ministrov" had been the name of the Imperial cabinet from 1905 to 1917 (this terminlogical restauration was curiously incomplete: a soviet >deputy< minister became >zamestitel' ministra< : the old pre-revolutionary >tovarishch ministra<being taken for other usage). But there was a more profound meaning in which the >Sovet Ministrov< was a Council, rather than a Soviet. Soviets, by their Soviet constitutional definition, where actually sovereign, embodying both executive and legislative roles, and more. The Council of Ministers was, certainly, an executive organ - it was adjacent to, but not one of the actual Soviets.
This, of course leads to another bit of pedantry. When I was growing up and learning English, translating official Soviet jargon was a big chunk of it ("taken unanimously!"). I do not think I would have ever considered translating "Sovet" in Sovet Ministrov as anything other than Council: sure, it used to be the same word, but the meanings had diverged clearly enough. Nobody would ever translate the UN "Sovet Bezopasnosti" as "Security Soviet" either. So, though I know you were just joking about SEV, let me give you a >sovet< (advice - another meaning of the same Russian word) - never confuse Councils and Soviets :)
And last - but not the least. Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. RSFSR, damn it - it says so on my high school diploma. RSFSR - reads the same in each direction (you can yourself reconstruct some anti-communist/anti-semitic jokes from 100 years ago, can't you?)
Anyway, just irrelevant nonsense from somebody who has tortured his own Mexican kids by forcing them to memorize the meanings of VLKSM (All-Union Leninist Communist Union of Youth - Komsomol) and VTsSPS (All-Union Central Council of Professional Unions, the official "trade unions" of the regime). Don't ask me why.
And the first thing I do why trying to be pedantic: misspel "Anastas"
And then misspell "spell". I am incorrigible.