18 
many of the facilities described in the Directory. Generally, those facilities 
which the policymakers believe require centralized management are either 
subordinate to or controlled by the U.S.S.R. Council of Ministers. 
As a collective body, a Council of Ministers is the highest executive and 
administrative organ of State power in the U.S.S.R. and the republics. When 
meeting as a body, the members of a Council of Ministers are executives who 
perform the acts necessary to give legaleffectto policy. The members of the 
Council of Ministers are ministers and other types of heads of specified 
governmental units. These units administer the facilities and institutions 
subordinate to them. The Directory lists these administrative affiliations. 
See Figures 1 and 3 for the administrative relations of the U.S.S.R. and 
republic governments, and Figure 4 for a graphic presentation of govern- 
mental bodies subordinate to the U.S.S.R. Council of Ministers. 
There are five All-Union and ten Union-Republic ministries subordinate 
to the U.S.S.R. Council, which are general State bodies directing definite 
spheres of economic life. The preservationof some All-Union ministries was 
necessitated by the special conditions in those sectors of the economy. For 
example, centralized guidance of the financial system is determined by the 
unity of the monetary system in the Soviet Union, (6,36) 
As of December, 1962, the U.S.S.R. Council of Ministers has 25 State 
Committees in charge of various fields of the economy and technology. 
These are shown in Figure 4. The Council also has committees and central 
boards and administrations in charge of specialized sectors of economic 
management. 
The functions of the State Committees differed from the functions of 
the economic ministries. The State Committees were supra-agencies that 
did not manage directly the enterprises in the respective branches of 
economy. Their job was to elaborate and put into effect a single technical 
policy, to make a detailed study of the special problems of their branches. 
The State Committees compiled plans of research and design work and then 
controlled their fulfillment. The results of their activity and their reports 
were used in working out long-term and current economic plans. 5,6) 
Decisions made in November, 1962, changed the character of the State Com- 
mittees that deal with branches of the economy. The Central Committee of 
the Party decided that guidance of research and design organizations would 
have to be centralized in the appropriate industrial State Committees. They 
would now have administrative control over most research and design 
facilities, and would have the deciding word in working out plans for new 
technology in their respective branches. (4) 
