ABSTRACT
Since the early 1980s the number of officials moving from the Soviet defense industries into the key positions in the civilian sector has steadily increased, culminating in February 1988 with the promotion of the head of the Military Industrial Commission to chairman of Gosplan and candidate member status on the politburo. In the Second Five-Year Plan defense industrial output increased almost twice as fast as civilian production. By 1940, almost a third of the state budget was allocated to military needs. On January 11, 1939 the Commissariat of Defense Industry had been split into four separate commissariats: aviation, shipbuilding, ammunition, and armaments. In the Soviet view, the Great Patriotic War confirmed the superiority of the Soviet socialist system for developing a defense base for war. One of the keys to ensuring productivity, particularly in the defense industries, is the process of the unification and the standardization.
