State Supplies of the USSR, known as theGossnab of USSR (Russian:Госснаб СССР) was active from 1948 to 1953, and 1965 to 1991. Its full name was the State Committee for Material and Technical Supply of theUSSR. Its primary responsibility was the wholesale allocation of material and technical goods to state enterprises, a critical state function in the absence ofmarkets.
Gossnab was one of more than twenty state committees under theCouncil of Ministers, the administrative arm of theSoviet government, along with other economic organs such asGosplan (the state planning committee) andGosbank (the state bank). Created amid a series of economic reforms implemented underPremierAlexei Kosygin in the mid-1960s, Gossnab coordinated the allocation of resources not handled byGosplan.[1] Gossnab had mixed success in creating a wholesale trade system, based on direct contracts between suppliers and users.[citation needed]
The Gossnab coordinated with the USSRState Planning Committee (Gosplan), theMinistry of Finance of the USSR and the sectoral ministries and departments of the USSR and the Union republics.
^"Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR of 05/15/1969 No. 352 "On the approval of the Regulations on the State Committee of the USSR", Article 3".
