Ministries of the Soviet Union

The name change had no practical effects, other than restoring a designation previously considered a leftover of the bourgeois era.

[3] State Committees were also subordinated to the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union and had similar powers and rights.

These were ministries whose factories and construction projects could be better managed closer to the scene by a regional economic council.

[6] Also, fifteen ministries, transferred previously from Moscow to Republic capitals in a preliminary effort at decentralization, were now disbanded.

Until the late 1980s, ministers enjoyed long tenures, commonly serving for decades and often dying in office.

In addition, the arrangement permitted the central ministry to set guidelines that the republics could then adapt to their local conditions.

Specialized functions included foreign contracts, planning, finance, construction, personnel, and staff services.

State committees oversaw technical matters that involved many aspects of government, such as standards, inventions and discoveries, labor and social issues, sports, prices, and statistics.

Nevertheless, the party ensured its authority over the government through several mechanisms designed to preserve its leading role in society.

The chairman of the Council of Ministers normally occupied a seat on the Politburo, which gave him additional authority to ensure the implementation of his decisions.

In early 1989, Viktor M. Chebrikov, the head of the KGB, and Eduard A. Shevardnadze, the minister of foreign affairs, were also Politburo members.

[10] Within the Council of Ministers and the ministries, the party used its nomenklatura authority to place its people in influential positions.

Approximately one third of the administrative positions in the council bureaucracy, including the most important ones, were on the nomenklatura list.

[10] The principal organizations involved in Soviet military science and technology were subordinate to the defense industrial ministries.

Each of the nine ministries incorporated institutes engaged in applied research and a network of bureaus responsible for designing and developing new military equipment and processes.