The ministry was created in 1809 as the Ministry of Railway Transport of the Russian Empire; after the revolution it became the People's Commissariat for Railways of the USSR and then (after 1946) the Ministry of Railways, later expanding its authority and becoming the Ministry of Transport of the USSR. After the collapse of the Soviet Union it was re-established as the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (this being the successor state to the USSR). When that state was renamed to the Russian Federation on December 25, 1991, the ministry's name was again changed to Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation.