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Soviet Union [USSR] Council of Ministers Presidium
The Constitution stipulated that the Council of Ministers form
a Presidium as the "standing body of the Council of Ministers" to
coordinate its work. The Presidium had the power to act on
questions and speak for the government when the council was not in
session. Apart from a few references in the Soviet literature
indicating that the Presidium provided top-level guidance and
coordination for the economy, little was known about the Presidium.
In the words of American Sovietologist Jerry F. Hough, it was "a
most shadowy institution."
Members of the council's Presidium represented the government's
major planning and production organizations. Although Soviet
sources had differing opinions on its membership, they always
pointed to the council's chairman, first deputy chairmen, and
deputy chairmen as members. Deputy chairmen and first deputy
chairmen usually served as the head of the State Planning Committee
(Gosudarstvennyi planovyi komitet--Gosplan); the chairmen of the
state committees for science and technology, construction, and
material and technical supply; and the permanent representative to
the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (Comecon--see Appendix B).
Deputy chairmen could also act as high-level planners in the
major sectors of the economy, known as industrial complexes
(see Soviet Union USSR - The Complexes and the Ministries
, ch. 12). These planners served as
chairmen of the Council of Ministers' bureaus and commissions for
foreign economic relations, the defense industry, machine building,
energy, and social development. Some Soviet sources included the
minister of finance, the chairman of the Committee of People's
Control, and the CPSU general secretary as members of the Presidium
of the Council of Ministers. Thus, the membership of the Presidium
indicated that it functioned as the "economic bureau" of the full
Council of Ministers.
Data as of May 1989
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