Gosplan

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

History

The agency was formed on 22 February 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 test Gosplan. After the creation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the USSR State Planning Commission of the USSR Council of Labour and Defence (СТО СССР, Совет Труда и Обороны СССР) was established on 21 August 1923. The abbreviation "Gosplan" has been used since 1921.

Initially Gosplan had an advisory function. Its primary objective was the co-ordination of the economic plans of Union republics and the creation of the common Union plan. During 1925 Gosplan started creating annual economic plans, known as "control numbers" (контрольные цифры).

Its work was coordinated with the USSR Central Statistical Directorate (центральное статистическое управление СССР), the Narkomat of Finance, and the All-Union Council of State Economy (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 objectives declared by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

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

During May 1955 Gosplan was divided into two commissions: the USSR Council of Ministers State Commission for Advanced Planning (Государственная комиссия СМ СССР по перспективному планированию, USSR Gosplan), and the USSR Council of Ministers Economic Commission on Current Planning (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 State Duma, in Moscow.

Regionalisation Commission

During May 1921, with the introduction of the New Economic Policy, Gosplan's Council of Labour and Defense established the Regionalisation Committee, tasked with developing a plan for the economic-administrative organisation of the RSFSR. Composed largely of technical staff - professional engineers and economists from imperialist times, it was directed 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 examined alternatives of ethno-territorial regionalisation, discussing the topic with the People's Commissariat of Agriculture, the Central Statistical Directorate and the Supreme Soviet (VTsIK) Administrative Commission.^[1]

Method of Material Balances

The introduction of the first five year plan in 1928 led to a re-examination of the roles of Gosplan and VSNKh, the supreme state organization for management of the economy at this time. This re-examination of roles was required because VSNKh itself also had responsibility for planning through the Industrial Planning Commission (Promplan). Re-examination of roles was also required as the introduction of the first five year plan meant that Gosplan's role was no longer one of prognosis and drafting of 'control figures' since plans had now become orders to act.

In order to ensure the success of the plan it was necessary to ensure that inputs from one part of the economy matched outputs from another part of the economy. Gosplan achieved this using a methodology called the system of 'material balances'. For a plan period (in detail for one year and in lesser detail for a five year plan) Gosplan drew up a balance sheet in terms of units of material (i.e. money was not used as part of the accounting process).

The first step in the process was to assess how much steel, cement, wool cloth, etc... would be available for the next year. This calculation was based on the following formula: production minus exports plus imports plus or minus changes in stocks).

The second step was to identify where there were mismatches between levels of outputs of one material that was used as an input in another part of the economy i.e. where there were differences between supply and demand within the economy. If mismatches between supply and demand were identified then, for the one year plan, utilization plans for a particular input material could be cut or alternatively effort was made to increase supply. For the five year plan mismatches between supply and demand could be mitigated by modifying long terms plans to increase productive capacity.

Using this method any changes in the plan to remove mismatches between inputs and outputs would result in hundreds, even thousands, of changes to material balances. This meant that, without the aid of information technology, Gosplan could only deal with the economy in very general terms.

Directors of Gosplan

See also

• Planned economy

References

v d e Agencies and offices of the Union government of the Soviet Union All-Union President and Vice President of the Soviet Union (list) Presidential Council State Council Security Council Premiers Ministries Agricultural Products Procurement Agriculture and Food Assembling and Special Construction Armament Automobile and Agricultural Machine Building Aviation Industry · Building Materials Industry Chemical Industry Chemical and Oil Machinery Building · Coal Industry Cellulose and Paper Industry Civil Aviation Coal Industry Commerce Communications Communication Equipment Industry Construction Construction of Fuel Industry Construction of Heavy Industry Construction of Oil and Gas Industry Construction of Petrochemical Machinery Construction of Power Plants Construction of Road Building and Communal Machines Construction of Tool-Machines Cotton Culture Defense Defense Industry Economy Education Electrical Engineering Electrical Power and Electrification Electronics Industry Electrotechnical Industry Environmental Protection Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ferrous Metallurgy Finance Fish Industry Foreign Economic Relations Forestry Forestry Industry Fruits and Vegetables Gas Industry General Machine Building Geology · Grain Products Health Housing and Architecture Heavy Machine Building Heavy and Transport Machines Construction High Education Industrial Construction Installation and Special Construction Work Instrument-Making, Automation and Control Systems Interior Iron and Steel Justice Light Industry Tool and Tool Building Industry Land Reclamation and Water Resources Machine Building Machine Building for Animal Husbandry and Fodder Products Machine Building for Light and Food Industry Machine Tool and Tool Building Industry Machinery for Stock Raising and Feeding Manufacture of Communication Media Meat and Dairy Industry Medical Industry Medical and Microbiologiacal Industry Medium Machine Building Merchant Marine Mineral Fertilizer Production Metallurgy Non-Ferrous Metallurgy Nuclear Power Industry Oil Industry Oil and Gas Industry · Oil Processing and Petrochemical Industry Power and Electrification Pulp and Paper Industry Radio Industry Railways Rubber Industry Shipbuilding State Farms State Security Technical Cultivation Textile Industry Timber Industry Timber, Paper and Wood Processing Industry Tool and Tool Building Industry Trade, Home Tractors and Agricultural Machines Transport Construction Urban Construction without Portfolio Regional ministries Construction in the Eastern Regions Construction in the Far East and Transbaikal Regions Construction in the Northern and Western Regions Construction in the Southern Regions Construction in the Urals and West Sibirian Regions State Committees and commissions Building Materials Cinematography Construction Defense Defense Technology Fuel Industry Labour and Social Problems Logistics People's Control Prices Publishing Metallurgy State of Emergency Science and Technology Standards and Product Quality Management State Planning State Security Statistics Television and Radio Timber and Paper Industry Transport Construction