Sovnarkhoz

Sovnarkhoz, (Совнархоз, Совет Народного Хозяйства, "Sovet Narodnogo Hozyaistva", "Council of National Economy"), usually translated as Regional Economic Council, was an organization of the Soviet Union to manage a separate economic region.They were subordinated to the Supreme Soviet of the National Economy.

Sovnarkhozes were introduced by Nikita Khrushchev in July 1957 in an attempt to combat the centralization and departmentalism of ministries. The USSR was initially divided in 105 economic regions, with sovharknozes being operational and planning management. Simultaneously, a large number of ministries were shut down.

In practice, the ministerial compartmentalism was replaced by territoriality (местничество, "mestnichestvo", in Russian economic slang), miscoordination and duplication of efforts, despite making the failure to fulfil obligations to other sovnarknozes a criminal offence.

Despite several attempts to patch the new organizational structure, it failed in its purpose to increase the productivity of the planned economy in the Soviet Union.