Soviet minister married Miss Arkansas (formerly Colorado) (9)
I believe the answer is:
commissar
'formerly colorado' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.
'soviet minister married miss arkansas' is the wordplay.
'soviet minister' becomes 'com' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'married' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'arkansas' becomes 'ar' (abbreviation for the US state).
'com'+'miss'+'ar'='COMMISSAR'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for commissar that I've seen before include "Soviet official" , "USSR official" , "Party official" , "Communist official" .)