Conclusion Economic relations among ex-USSR republics: past, present and future

In the days of the Union economic cooperation among the republics was imperative. In the 1977 constitution of the USSR, art. 16 stipulated that the republics are part of a ‘Unified National Economic Entity’. Contrary to other articles in the Soviet constitution (see Chapter 3), this was not a dead letter. The economy of the USSR was planned from Moscow on a sectoral, not a regional, basis. Gosplan (the state planning committee) issued its orders to the (sectoral) ministries in Moscow, and these ministries in turn supervised most of the enterprises.