Economic and legal status of state enterprise in the USSR initial period of “stagnation”

A well-known feature of the Soviet economy was the nationalization of the main part of production relations, that is, the economy of the Soviet state was based on planning and state ownership of the means of production. At the same time, it should be borne in mind that over the 74 years of functioning of the Soviet state (1917-1991), the economy within the specified framework developed contradictorily in different periods. The article reveals the situation in the initial period of the so-called "stagnation", when L.I. Brezhnev became the General Secretary of the CPSU and the head of state, replacing N.S. Khrushchev, who was dismissed. The change of leadership also meant a change in the economic course - from territorial economic councils to sectoral ministries (the "Kosygin" reforms), where the main link was the state enterprise. The emphasis is on economic-legal and political-economic aspects. The key norms of the "Regulations on the Socialist State Production Enterprise" approved in 1965 by the Council of Ministers of the USSR are commented on. It is noted, in particular, that, being the most important structural unit of the productive forces of the Soviet socialist society, the state enterprise combined the labor force of the collective and the people's means of production in order to fulfill the established plan. The state enterprise had a certain economic independence, but was under the centralized management of higher management bodies and party organizations of the CPSU. At the same time, the state and the enterprise were not responsible for each other's obligations, but, for example, bankruptcy of the enterprise (in modern parlance) was excluded. This combination gave rise to many problems, which were never solved until the end of the USSR.