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member and later, full member of the Politburo. Kirill T. Mazurov, 
earlier identified for his ocean activities, has held the post of First 
Deputy Chairman since 1965. His career has been almost evenly di- 
vided between work in the party and state administration. He became 
a candidate member of the Politburo in 1957, a full member in 
1965. The Presidium’s responsibilities and powers are not clear. It 
probably oversees the preparation of plans, information, and reports 
by the ministries, state committees and other government agencies, 
reviews them, and exercises coordination when necessary. It also is 
the principle issuer of laws, or decrees with the force of law.*”? The 
Council of Minister’s Presidium would probably rely on subordinate 
government agencies for specialists and expertise in issuing maritime 
legislation. 
THE MINISTRIES 
The ministries and state committees execute and coordinate policy 
and also work in much of the detailed policy formulation. The minis- 
tries are executive organs and their activities are guided by established 
party and government policies. The ministries and other administrative 
tiers in the government, however, are in a strong position regarding 
policy responsibility. A minister’s success is judged on the basis of 
plan fulfillment and his management functions result in policymaking 
powers. The ministries are generally staffed by specialists who have 
greater expert knowledge in their field than do party workers. 
Knowledge and information become translated into power when policy 
is concerned with complex or technical issues, and give the ministries 
discretion in designing and executing programs. Information is particu- 
larly important in the ocean field which is a high technology area. 
The ministries operate within guidelines established by the party and 
government, but with broad powers to decide all basic questions af- 
fecting activities and enterprises under their jurisdiction. They are 
to plan and draw up the major elements of capital investment and 
production trends and assure smooth operations, the maximum appli- 
cation of technology, and the availability of personnel. The ministerial 
system attempts central control in a federal framework to insure the 
consideration of the general rather than the regional or specialized 
welfare. The ministerial centralization, however, creates problems 
because it works to disperse authority and power between ministries. 
Ministries frequently compete with each other for preferred policies 
and coordination of operations or policy between ministries is a major 
problem. 
Two general categories of ministries are established on the basis 
of their central powers. The All Union ministry directly administers 
enterprises and activities in its field of competence, regardless of 
the location. The Union Republic ministry works primarily through 
the counterpart ministries in each republic. It has operations both 
in Moscow and in the 15 republic capitals and is frequently considered 
less centralized with some powers dispersed to localities. Both types 
of ministries exist in the ocean field. 
A typical ministry is divided into a number of departments or chief 
administrations (glavki) that are responsible either for functional tasks, — 
°7 See Butler, for a list of Soviet legislation on maritime issues, pp. 220-221. 
