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 .