Gosplan

/gos plahn"/, n. (in the Soviet Union)

the official planning organization, which drew up projects embracing trade and industry, agriculture, education, and public health.

[ < Russ Gosplán, for Gosudárstvennaya plánovaya komíssiya State Planning Commission]

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Central board that supervised various aspects of the planned economy of the former Soviet Union.

The name is an abbreviation of the Russian for "State Planning Committee." Established in 1921, Gosplan originally advised the government but assumed a more comprehensive planning role in 1928, when the First Five-Year Plan was adopted in an effort to bring about rapid industrialization and collectivization. Throughout the existence of the Soviet Union it was responsible for translating general economic objectives outlined by the Communist Party into specific national plans. See also command economy, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

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▪ Soviet economics

abbreviation of  Gosudarstvennyy Planovyy Komitet , English  State Planning Committee 

      central board that supervised various aspects of the planned economy of the Soviet Union by translating into specific national plans the general economic objectives outlined by the Communist Party and the government. Established in February 1921, Gosplan was originally an advisory council to the government, its functions limited to influencing the level and direction of state investments. It assumed a more comprehensive planning role in 1928, when the First Five-Year Plan, which called for rapid industrialization and a drastic reduction of the private sector of the economy, was adopted. Gosplan's role in the Soviet economy changed frequently to suit a variety of economic reorganizations; after the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991 the future of Gosplan was uncertain.

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