Seminar "Working practices of the USSR State Planning Committee during the Brezhnev period"

Alexey Safronov (RANEPA) presented the paper "Working practices of the USSR State Planning Committee during the Brezhnev period" on April 22, 2021.

Abstract:

Gosplan was one of the key elements of the Soviet planned economy. However, the real role of Gosplan remains insufficiently studied. This work is based on a series of interviews with V.V. Kossov. The period of his work in Gosplan of the USSR (1966–1981) practically coincides with the time of L.I. Brezhnev’s leadership of the country. The position occupied by V.V. Kossov (deputy head of the department of consolidation, member of the board of Gosplan of the USSR) and his academic background make him a unique source of information on the practices of Gosplan of the USSR in the late Soviet period. The results of the interviews are supplemented by archival information from the Gosplan funds in the Russian State Archive of Archives of Economics, which allows us to clarify the specifics of drawing up a five-year plan using the example of the 9th Five-Year Plan (1971–1975). The study allows us to expand our understanding of the unofficial and informal mechanisms of making management decisions in the “economic headquarters of the country”.

 

Former employees of the USSR State Planning Committee, professors of HSE University Vladimir Viktorovich Kossov and Leonid Sergeevich Grebnev took part in the discussion.

The full text of the paper is available on the WP11 preprint series website.

The full recording of the conference can be found on the CeHistMet YouTube channel.