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For most of its existence, the vast majority ofenterprises in the Soviet Union were state-owned, with a minority being small, cooperatively owned ones (such asartels and production cooperatives). The Russian term for "enterprise" is"предприятие", "predpriyatiye" and it is usually translated as "company".
For the majority of thehistory of the Soviet Union, except for the periods ofNEP andperestroika, the ownership of themeans of production and hence the enterprises belonged to theSoviet people as a whole. This right of ownership for the vast majority of them (i.e., excluding the cooperative enterprises) was exercised by theSoviet state via its ministries and other agencies at various levels of management.Mikhail Gorbachev and his team believed that a key reason for the poor performance of theSoviet economy lies in the issue of ownership, and the main task of economic reforms duringperestroika was, as the Soviet leadership put it, "denationalization and demonopolization of the economy and the development of enterprise and competition".[1]
In addition to state enterprises,"промысловая кооперация", i.e., production cooperatives, which comprised small producers, artisans and craftsmen, existed until the mid-1960s. These were liquidated and their enterprises, if any, were transferred to state ownership by the resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR of April 14, 1956 "On the Reorganization of Production Cooperation" (О реорганизации промысловой кооперации).[2] The24th Congress of the CPSU partially reversed this policy, recognizing the necessity to significantly expand the production of consumer goods using local resources, envisioning the development of crafts' enterprises and subsidiary industrial production.[3]
After theOctober Revolution, all means of production were nationalized, including foreign businesses. TheNew Economic Policy (NEP) reintroduced private enterprises for small and medium-sized businesses,[4] while the state continued to control large industries, banks and foreign trade.[5] The 1923 Law on Concessions allowed forforeign concessions in the USSR. However, in 1928Joseph Stalin terminated NEP, re-nationalized most of the economy,[citation needed] and banned foreign businesses: following the December 27, 1930 decree ofSovnarkom on concessions,[6] by mid-30s the vast majority of concessions were discontinued and even unilaterally terminated by the Soviet Union, being replaced with concessional contracts.[7][8][9]
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The number of industrial enterprises in the Soviet Union was about 47,000 in 1987. Since 1988, new forms of enterprises began to emerge, although not exactly private, such as cooperatives, leasing arrangements, and the so-called "small enterprises," many of which were established on the basis of plants and other work units of state enterprises. By 1990, state ownership continued to be the predominant form, comprising approximately 84% of the workforce and 87% of national income. However, the legal framework for these new enterprise types remained ambiguous.[1] The initial steps in this direction were initiated in 1986 with the introduction of the "Law on Individual Labor Activity." In 1990, the regulation of various enterprise types was consolidated in the "Law on Enterprises in the USSR" enacted on June 4, 1990. However, the longevity of this law was brief, as thedissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991 led to its discontinuation.
The "Law on Individual Labor Activity" capitalized on the experience of other states ofEastern Bloc, Poland andEast Germany in particular, where small private enterprises demonstrated success. Its adoption was preceded by heated discussion in the press and in the state and party management. Gorbachov's speech at the27th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union postulated the support of the cooperative enterprises:
We are for complete clarity in the question of cooperative property. It has NOT exhausted its potential in socialist production, in better satisfying people's needs. Manykolkhozes and other cooperative organizations demonstrate effective management of doing the job. And where there is a need, the formation and development of cooperative enterprises and organizations should be supported in every possible way. They should be widely used in the production and processing of products, in housing and gardening construction, in the sphere of consumer services and trade.[10]
By that time, tens of thousands of people were officially registered to engage in economic activities, primarily in crafts and trade sectors. Additionally, a larger number of individuals participated in the clandestine "second economy of the Soviet Union." Both legal and illegal entrepreneurs faced the risk of criminal prosecution for "unearned income" as distinguishing between "honestly" and "dishonestly" earned income was challenging.[11][12] The new "Law on Individual Labor Activity" legalized many of the individual economic activities.
By 1983, the Soviet Union approved joint production withinComecon (a.k.a. CMEA).[13] On January 13, 1987, the USSR Council of Ministers issued the "Joint Enterprise Decree" (full name:О порядке создания на территории СССР и деятельности совместных предприятий с участием советских организаций и фирм капиталистических и развивающихся стран[14]), authorizing the formation of joint enterprises between companies from states outside ofComecon (and retroactively within Comecon) and some Soviet entities (cooperation within Comecon). The first officially registered international joint entity wasЛиттара-Воланпак, between Littara (ofLithuanian SSR) andVolánpack[15] (of thePeople's Republic of Hungary), which was engaged in packaging.[16][17] By 1989, 448 international joint enterprises were registered.[18]While the authorized capital of the joint enterprise could include foreign property, the Soviet part was still state-owned, coming from a Soviet legal entity.[14]
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The Law on State Enterprise (Association) of June 20, 1987 was enacted on January 1, 1988, and ceased to be effective on March 7, 1991.[19]
Most enterprises were classified into three major categories, according to the majorforms of property in the Soviet Union:[20]
There were also other types:
There also existed associations of production units calledtrusts,combines, "production associations" and "scientific production associations", organized around the production and distribution of a single sector or product.
