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Sectoral Agencies

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Policy-Making for Russian Industry

Part of the book series: Studies in Russian and East European History and Society ((SREEHS))

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Abstract

In most models of the Soviet Union, the sectoral agencies, essentially the branch ministries, occupied an important place. For the adherents of the command economy they were essential instruments of the central command agencies. They assembled much of the information needed to plan the command economy, and then passed on and enforced the commands that were its essence. Those arguing for an ekonomika soglasovanii claimed that the roles were effectively reversed — the central agencies were the instruments of the sectoral agencies as they engaged in that strange mixture of cooperation and competition which was the distribution of resources under the ekonomika soglasovanii.

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Notes

  1. For descriptions of the functions and behaviour of the branch ministries, see S. Fortescue, ‘The industrial ministries’, in E. Huskey (ed.), Executive Power and Soviet Politics. The Rise and Decline of the Soviet State, Sharpe, Armonk, NY, 1992, Chapter 6; A.C. Gorlin, ‘The power of the Soviet industrial ministries in the 1980s’, Soviet Studies, No. 3, 1985, pp. 353–70; D.A. Dyker, ‘The power of the industrial ministries’, in D. Lane (ed.), Elites and Political Power in the USSR, Elgar, Aldershot, 1988, Chapter 8; S. Whitefield, Industrial Power and the Soviet State, Clarendon, Oxford, 1993.

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  2. The debate is summarized in S. Fortescue, ‘Soviet bureaucracy and civil society’, in C. Kukathas, D.W. Lovell and W. Maley (eds), The Transition from Socialism. State and Civil Society in Gorbachev’s USSR, Longman Cheshire, Melbourne, 1991, Chapter 8.

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  3. For an interesting account of the place of the branch ministries and the Ministry of Industry in the Hungarian economy, see E. Szalai, ‘Integration of special interests in the Hungarian economy: the struggle between large companies and the party and state bureaucracy’, Journal of Comparative Economics, Vol. 15, No. 2, June 1991, pp. 284–303.

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  4. E.M. Rice, ‘Public administration in post-socialist Eastern Europe’, Public Administration Review, Vol. 52, No. 2, March–April 1992, p. 119.

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  5. Ekonomicheskaia gazeta, No. 26, 1989, p. 15. For a similar call by a less well-known figure, see Pravitel’stvennyi Vestnik, No. 21, 1989, pp. 4–5.

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  6. Izvestiia, 28 July 1990, p. 2. For briefer interviews, see Moskovskie novosti, No. 29, 1990, p. 9; Kommersant, No. 27, 1990, p. 4.

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  7. Kommersant, No. 10, 1992, p. 6.

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  8. See the interview with him in Izvestiia, 7 December 1991, pp. 1–2.

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  10. RFE/RL Research Report, 10 January 1992, p. 38; Kommersant, No. 8, 1992, p. 21.

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  11. Kommersant, 24 November 1992, p. 5; 4 December 1992, p. 5; Izvestiia, 3 December 1992, p. 2; 16 December 1992, p. 3; Finansovye Izvestiia, 30 December 1992, p. 8.

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  18. It does not seem to be keen to keep this responsibility, judging by its recommendation that a State Committee or Ministry of Textile and Light Industry be established. Ekonomika i zhizn’, No. 6, 1995, p. 4.

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  24. Delovoi mir, 1–7 August 1994, pp. 27–30. For an example of more reform oriented views from the committee, see Ekonomika i zhizn’, No. 3, 1995, p. 1 of supplement.

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  27. Kommersant, 20 April 1995, p. 3; Delovoi mir, 22–28 May 1995, p. 12.

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  28. As described by Shurchkov in Rossiiskii ekonomicheskii zhurnal, No. 9, 1994, p. 5.

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  29. Sobranie zakonodatel’stva, No. 3, 1994, item 1008; Ekonomika i zhizn’, No. 3, 1995, p. 17.

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  30. Ekonomika i zhizn’, No. 36, 1993, p. 22; Sobranie aktov, No. 35, 1993, item 3321.

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  35. For some commentary on the brief existence of the Committee for Agricultural, Food and Processing Machine Building, see Kommersant, 4 September 1993, p. 2.

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  36. Ekonomika i zhizn’, No. 37, 1993, supplement p. 17.

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  37. Delovoi mir, 17 July 1993, p. 5.

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  38. S. Fortescue, Science Policy in the Soviet Union, Routledge, London, 1990, Chapter 4.

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  39. Pribory i sistemy upravleniia, No. 8, 1994, pp. 43–5; Vestnik mashinostroeniia, No. 4, 1994, p. 4.

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  40. Stal’ No. 8, 1994, p. 6; Traktory i sel’skokhoziaistvennye mashiny, No. 1, 1995, p. 5; Vestnik Komiteta po metallurgii, Nos 5–6, 1994, p. 6.

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  41. For example, in February 1994 the ‘Construction, road and community machine building’ section of the Council of the Committee for Machine Building examined and approved the strategic plan of the sector. Stroitel’noe i dorozhnoe mashinostroenie, No. 8, 1994, pp. 2–3.

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  42. Rabochaia tribuna, 25 October 1994, p. 2; Vestnik mashinostroeniia, No. 9, 1994, p. 4.

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  43. For example, Khimicheskoe i nefiianoe mashinostroenie, No. 3, 1993, p. 2.

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  44. For details, see Vestnik Komiteta po metallurgii, Nos 7–8, 1995, pp. 3–4. For examples of some other programmes, see the ‘Russian State Programme for the Development of Electronics Technology’ (Sobranie zakonodatel’stva, No. 3, 1994, item 229) and the programme’ state support for the lathe industry’ (Sobranie aktov, No. 6, 1994, item 469; Sobranie zakonodatel’stva, No. 7, 1995, item 545).

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  45. Vestnik Komiteta po metallurgii, Nos 7–8, 1995, p. 4.

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  46. Ekonomika i zhizn’, No. 10, 1995, p. 26.

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  47. The commission has 23 members. The sectoral committees do not feature on any list of members the author has seen, but a considerable proportion of the membership is unaccounted for. Sobranie zakonodatel’stva, No. 9, 1994, item 1025; Kommersant, 3 March 1995, p. 5.

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  48. Vestnik Komiteta po metallurgii, Nos 9–10, 1994, p. 15.

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  50. Delovoi mir, 7–13 February 1994, p. 11.

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  52. Vestnik Komiteta po metallurgii, Nos 5–6, 1994, pp. 17 and 20.

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  53. Vestnik Komiteta po metallurgii, Nos 11–12, 1994, p. 25.

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  54. Metallurg, No. 4, 1993, p. 4.

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  55. Vestnik Komiteta po metallurgii, Nos 5–6, 1994, p. 20; Nos 11–12, 1994, p. 26.

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  56. Vestnik Komiteta po metallurgii, Nos 7–8, 1994, p. 8.

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  57. In 1995 the government decided to ban non-budget investment funds. The Committee for Metallurgy, with the agreement of the sector’s Council of Enterprise Directors, replaced it with a sectoral Fund for Investments in Metal Industry Enterprises. Whether payments into this fund can be kept off the state budget is not clear. Vestnik Komiteta po metallurgii, Nos 11–12, 1995, p. 18.

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  58. Vestnik Komiteta po metallurgii, Nos 9–10, 1994, pp. 18–19.

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  59. Kommersant, 8 July 1995, p. 11; Tiazheloe mashinostroenie, No. 1, 1993, pp. 34–5; Delovoi mir, 8–14 May 1995, p. 17.

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  60. Delovoi mir, 7–13 February 1994, p. 10.

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  61. Kommersant, 16 August 1995, p. 2.

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  62. For examples, see Kommersant, 27 May 1993, p. 9; Mashinostroitel’, No. 4, 1994, p. 5

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  63. Kommersant, 25 August 1993, p. 3; Delovoi mir, 13 October 1994, p. 1. For the government’s imprimatur on the deal, see Sobranie zakonodatel’stva, No. 20, 1994, item 2282.

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  64. Delovoi mir, 23 November 1995, p. 5.

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  65. Rabochaia tribuna, 6 September 1994, p. 2.

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  66. Finansovye Izvestiia, 21 September 1995, pp. 1–2.

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  67. Kommersant, 22 February 1996, p. 2.

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  68. Kommersant, 31 August 1994, p. 3. The system has been controversial and bloody, contributing to warfare that has wracked the aluminium industry and the murder of the reputed inventor of the system, Vadim Iafiasov. Kommersant, 12 April 1995, p. 14; 14 April 1995, p. 2; Izvestiia, 21 April 1995, p. 5.

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  69. Finansovye Izvestiia, 10 November 1994, p. 1; Kommersant, 6 October 1994, p. 3.

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  70. For the effect on output in the second half of 1994, see Traktory i sel’skokhoziaistvennye mashiny, No. 1, 1995, p. 3. The approach then spread to the automobile and aviation sectors. Kommersant, 15 November 1994, p. 3; Sobranie zakonodatel’stva, No. 7, 1995, item 545.

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  71. See the clause forbidding it in the Law on Joint-Stock Companies (Art. 10.1). Panorama privatizatsii, No. 2, 1996, p. 52. It is something which displeases Ogurtsov, the head of the Committee for Machine Building. Mashinostroitel’, No. 4, 1994, p. 3.

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  72. Tsvetnye metally, No. 8, 1994, pp. 12–13; Delovoi mir, 7 October 1994, p. 1.

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  73. Tsvetnye metally, No. 8, 1994, pp. 12–13.

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  74. Ekonomika i zhizn’, No. 44, 1995, p. 39.

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  75. See a decision of the collegium of the Committee for Metallurgy’ suggesting’ that all the sector’s enterprises open an account in the bank. Vestnik Komiteta po metallurgii, Nos 3–4, 1994, p. 12.

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  76. Ekonomika i zhizn’, No. 44, 1995, p. 39.

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  77. Kommersant, 6 December 1994, p. 5.

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  78. Delovoi mir, 13 September 1994, p. 5.

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  79. Kommersant, 1 September 1994, p. 3. For a deputy head of the Committee for Metallurgy admitting the committee’s lack of analytical expertise in the domestic market, see Rabochaia tribuna, 6 September 1994, p. 2.

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  80. For an example, see the Committee for Metallurgy’s directives to its own apparatus and the sector’s enterprises on implementation of presidential decrees on wage rates and family allowances. Vestnik Komiteta po metallurgii, Nos 11–12, 1995, pp. 22–4.

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  81. For example, Vestnik Komiteta po metallurgii, Nos 9–10, 1994, pp. 18–19

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  82. Vestnik Komiteta po metallurgii, Nos 7–8, 1994, p. 6.

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  83. Note that the Committee for Metallurgy distributes EU steel quotas among its enterprises. Kommersant, 28 March 1995, p. 2.

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  84. Kommersant, 2 August 1994, p. 9.

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  85. For its membership, see Vestnik Komiteta po metallurgii, Nos 9–10, 1994, pp. 16–17.

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  86. Vestnik Komiteta po metallurgii, Nos 11–12, 1994, p. 61.

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  87. Tsvetnye metally, No. 8, 1994, pp. 4–6; Metallurg, No. 4, 1993, pp. 6, 12–13; No. 5, 1993, p. 4.

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  88. Sobranie zakonodatel’stva, No. 7, 1994, item 700; Kommersant, 25 November 1994, pp. 1 and 3.

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  89. Noril’sk Nickel, in which the state had a three-year 38 per cent shareholding before the recent’ shares-for-credit’ auction, had as state representatives on its board deputy heads of the Ministry of Finance, GKI, GKAP, RFFI, the Committee for Metallurgy, the Committee for Precious Stones, and Shurchkov of the State Committee for Industry Policy. Izvestiia, 22 April 1995, p. 3. Representatives from the Committee for Metallurgy, the Industry Department of the central government apparatus, the State Committee for Defence Industry and the Ministry of Economics sit on the board of the Verkhne-Saldinsk Metal Association. Izvestiia, 29 March 1995, p. 2; Kommersant, 29 April 1995, p. 9. In one case a deputy chair of the Committee for Machine Building is on the board of a company which appears to have no shares owned by the state. Kommersant, 15 March 1993, p. 12.

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  90. Kommersant, 8 April 1995, p. 10; Finansovye Izvestiia, 6 April 1995, p. 8.

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  107. Stal’ No. 5, 1993, p. 94.

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  108. Avtomobil’naia promyshlennost’, No. 7, 1994, pp. 2–3. One notes here the absence of AvtoVAZbank, which is part of the apparently rival Berezovskii automobile industry group. ‘Drevmash’ is another sectoral AO with its own bank, which it is said allows for prompt payments even when a creditor might be short of cash. Rossiiskii ekonomicheskii zhurnal, No. 3, 1994, p. 54.

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  110. Stroitel’no-dorozhnye mashiny, No. 10, 1993, pp. 2–3.

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  111. Also on the sales side, in 1993 the Department of New Developments of the concern ‘Spetsmashstroi i metallurgiia’, a structure based on segments of the old Ministry of Defence Industry, was working hard to get orders for its factories. Tiazheloe mashinostroenie, No. 1, 1993, pp. 34–5.

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  112. Stroitel’no-dorozhnye mashiny, No. 8, 1993, p. 2. Eight enterprises working in the same sub-branch had created a new AO. The Kalinin Factory had 50 per cent of the shares. It is not obvious why it should be described as a conglomerate.

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  113. Khimicheskoe i nefiianoe mashinostroenie, No. 10, 1993, pp. 34–5.

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  114. Avtomobil’naia promyshlennost’, No. 7, 1994, p. 38.

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  115. Delovoi mir, 10 August 1994, p. 6.

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  116. Delovoi mir, 28 September 1993, p. 5.

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  117. For an example, see Vestnik Komiteta po metallurgii, Nos 9–10, 1994, pp. 18–19.

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  118. Delovoi mir, 27 December 1995, p. 1. One should recall in this regard the complaints above of the general director of the Kalinin Machine Building Factory about Stroidormash.

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  119. Izvestiia, 20 August 1994, p. 1.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Political Science, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

    Stephen Fortescue (Senior Lecturer and Head of School)

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© 1997 Stephen Fortescue

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Fortescue, S. (1997). Sectoral Agencies. In: Policy-Making for Russian Industry. Studies in Russian and East European History and Society. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-14172-2_4

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