Gosplan

Gosplan or State Planning Committee (Russian: _ru. Госпла́н, IPA-ru|gɐˈsplan) was the committee responsible for economic planning in the Soviet Union. The word "Gosplan" is an ­abbreviation for Gosudarstvennyi Komitet po Planirovaniyu (Russian: _ru. Государственный комитет по планированию, State Committee for Planning). One of its main duties was the creation of Five-Year Plans.

History

The body was formed on February 22, 1921 as the "RSFSR State Planning Commission", by decree of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic's Sovnarkom. The GOELRO plan, the first large-scale Soviet plan to recover the Russian economy, was first to put Gosplan to the test. After the creation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on August 21, 1923, the USSR State Planning Commission of the USSR Council of Labour and Defence ( _ru. СТО СССР, Совет Труда и Обороны СССР) was established. The abbreviation "Gosplan" has been in use since 1921.

Initially Gosplan had an advisory role. Its primary objective was the co-ordination of the economic plans of Union republics and the creation of the common Union plan. In 1925 Gosplan started creating annual economic plans, known as "control numbers" ( _ru. контрольные цифры). who had worked on issues to do with electrification in 1920.

Its work was coordinated with the USSR Central Statistical Directorate ( _ru. центральное статистическое управление СССР), the Narkomat of Finance, and the All-Union Council of State Economy ( _ru. ВСНХ), and later with Gosbank and Gossnab.

With the introduction of five year plans in 1928, Gosplan became responsible for their creation and supervision according to the outlines set out by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

In 1930 the Statistical Directorate was merged into Gosplan, and on February 3, 1931 Gosplan was resubordinated to the Sovnarkom.

In May 1955 Gosplan was split into two commissions: the USSR Council of Ministers State Commission for Perspective Planning ( _ru. Государственная комиссия СМ СССР по перспективному планированию, USSR Gosplan), and the USSR Council of Ministers Economic Commission for Immediate State Economic Planning ( _ru. Государственнaая экономическая комиссия СМ СССР по текущему планированию народного хозяйства, Госэкономкомиссия СССР). These were, respectively, tasked with predictive and immediate planning. The work of the latter was based on the five-year plans delivered by Gosplan, with Gosplan planning 10–15 years ahead.

Gosplan was headquartered at the building now occupied by the Federation Council of Russia, in Moscow.

Regionalisation Commission

In May 1921, with the introduction of the New Economic Policy, Gosplan's Council of labour and Defense set up the Regionalisation Committee, tasked with developing a concrete plan for the economic-administrative organisation of the RSFSR. Largely composed of technical staff - professional engineers and economists from imperialist days, it was led by Ivan Gavrilovich Alexandrov, former member of the State Commission for the Electrification of Russia, but not however a member of the Bolshevik Party. The commission looked at alternatives to ethno-territorial regionalisation, discussing the issue with the People's Commissariat of Agriculture, the Central Statistical Directorate and the Supreme Soviet (VTsIK) Administrative Commission. ["Empire of Nations: Ethnographic Knowledge and the Making of the Soviet Union" by Francine Hirsch, Cornell University Press, 2005]

Heads of Gosplan

See also

*Planned economy

References