ABSTRACT
Central to the Soviet economic system were so-called branch ministries, hierarchical administrative structures to which were subordinated all enterprises and research organisations of the various sectors of the economy. The ministries worked closely with the State Planning Committee, Gosplan, and other central functional agencies responsible for planning and managing the economy, and their ministers were members of the principal organ of government, the Council of Ministers. The most influential of them were also members of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. The industrial ministries were institutions at the very heart of the 'administrative-command' economy. It is therefore not surprising that many pro-market reformers in the late 1980s regarded their continued existence as a major obstacle to economic transformation.
