The Ministry of Education of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), formed on 3 August 1966, was one of the most important government offices in the Soviet Union. It was known as the People's Commissariat for Education, or Narkompros, until 1946. Narkompros was a Soviet agency founded by the State Commission on Education and charged with the administration of public education and most of other issues related to culture.

Anatoly Vasilyevich Lunacharsky was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and the first Bolshevik Soviet People's Commissar (Narkompros) responsible for the Ministry of Education as well as an active playwright, critic, essayist, and journalist throughout his career.