Vesenkha

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Vesenkha (VSNKh) (Russian: Высший совет народного хозяйства (ВСНХ) trans. Vysshiy soviet narodnogo khozyaystva) was the All-Union Council of State Economy or Supreme Council of the National Economy in the Soviet Union.

The Vesenkha was formed in December, 1917 by a Decree of the Council of People's Commissars and VTsIK and dissolved in 1932. Its purpose was to supervise and control the newly nationalised industries. It had rights of confiscation and expropriation.

In each of the union republics of the Soviet Union, subordinate organisations existed. These were referred to as ВСНХ followed by their union republic acronym. (for example: ВСНХ РСФСР (VSNKh RSFSR) for the RSFSR). The all-union council could be referred to as ВСНХ СССР (VSNKh SSSR). In general, the republican VSNKhs had control over small scale, minor industries which used local materials and supplied local markets. Any large scale industrial enterprise was controlled by one of the industrial sector departments of the all-union VSNKh.

Contents 1 Organisational structure 1.1 Functional sector departments 1.2 Industrial sector departments 2 Heads of the VSNKh

[edit] Organisational structure

Within the VSNKh, departments were split into two types.

[edit] Functional sector departments

Departments within the functional sector dealt with decisions relating to finance, planning, economic policy, and research and development.

[edit] Industrial sector departments

Departments of this type were created by decree in 1926 and consisted of "chief departments", known as glavki (glavnye upravlenija).

Heads of all the departments in this sector formed the council of the all-union VSNKh together with representatives from the union republics.

[edit] Heads of the VSNKh

• Valerian Osinski (1917 - 1918)
• Alexei Rykov (1918 - 1920)
• Felix Dzerzhinsky (1924 - 1926)
• Valerian Kuibyshev (1928 - 1930)
• Grigoriy Ordzhonikidze (1930 - 1932)