Enterprises in the Soviet Union

This article is part of a series on the
Politics of the Soviet Union
Leadership Leaders President (list Vice President) Collective leadership State Council Presidential Council
Communist Party Congress Central Committee History General Secretary Politburo Secretariat Orgburo
Legislature Congress of Soviets (Central Executive Committee) Supreme Soviet Soviet of the Union Soviet of Nationalities Presidium Congress of People's Deputies Speaker 1989 Legislative election
Governance Constitution Official names 1924 1936 1977 Government Ministries State Committees Executive Officer Premiership Cabinets Council of People's Commissars Council of Ministers Cabinet of Ministers
Judiciary Law Supreme Court Military Collegium People's Court Procurator General
Ideology Soviet democracy Marxism–Leninism Leninism Stalinism Khrushchevism De-Stalinization
Society Economy Agriculture Consumer goods Five-Year Plan Kosygin reform New Economic Policy Science and technology Era of Stagnation Material balance planning Transport Culture Demographics Education Family Phraseology Religion Repression Censorship Censorship of images Great Purge Gulag system Collectivization Human rights Ideological repression Suppressed research Political abuse of psychiatry Political repression Population transfer Propaganda Red Terror
Other countries Atlas

Enterprises in the Soviet Union were legal entities engaged in some kind of economic activity, such as production, distribution, the provision of services, or any other economic operation. An enterprise was the general equivalent of "company", which was the legal entity prominent outside of the Eastern-bloc economies. Enterprises and production units engaged in activities that are generally undertaken by business-enterprises in capitalist systems, including the design, production, manufacture and distribution of producer and consumer goods and services. In contrast to business enterprises, enterprises and production associations did not engage in business-related activities such as marketing, buying-and-selling and financial decisions.

An enterprise often included production units, or associations of production units collectively called "Production associations", organized around the production and distribution of a single sector or product. An example of a production association was the Kazan Aircraft Production Association.

The official term for economic units in the Soviet Union was "предприятие", or "enterprise".

History

With the exception of the brief period of New Economic Policy, the Kosygin reform and the final period of perestroika before the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the terms company, business, corporation, etc., were considered to be attributes of capitalism that were inapplicable to the Soviet socialist economy.

Types of enterprises

Enterprises were classified into three major categories, according to the major forms of property in the Soviet Union:

• Based on property of Soviet citizens
  • Individual enterprises
  • Family enterprises
• Based on collective property
  • Collective enterprises
  • Consumer cooperatives
  • Production cooperatives
  • Various incorporated businesses: partnerships, joint-stock companies, etc.
  • Enterprises of public (общественные) or religious (религиозные) organizations
• Based on state property
  • Union state enterprises
  • Republican state enterprises
  • Communal state enterprises

There were also other types:

• Mixed enterprises (смешанные предприятия)
• Rental enterprises (арендные предприятия)
• etc.

See also

• Economy of the Soviet Union
• Collective ownership
• Soviet-type economic planning
• State enterprise
• Material Product System
• Planned economy