Central Statistical Board Under the Council of Ministers of the USSR

a Union (republic) agency for the centralized management of socialist record keeping and statistics in the USSR. The Central Statistical Board was established in 1918. From 1930 to 1948 it was subordinate to the State Planning Commission of the USSR (Gosplan); in 1948 it was placed under the Council of Ministers of the USSR.

The Central Statistical Board collects, processes, and promptly submits to the government scientifically grounded data on the fulfillment of state plans, the efficiency of social production, and scientific and technological progress. It works on improving the standard scientific methodology, the organization of record keeping and statistics, and the system of statistical indexes. The board is charged with subjecting statistical data to economic analysis, creating and providing for the efficient functioning of the automated system of state statistics, compiling the report balance of the national economy, and compiling the intersector balance of production and distribution of output. It publishes a variety of statistical materials, including the yearbook The National Economy of the USSR and reports on the fulfillment of state plans for the development of the national economy of the USSR. An additional task of the board is the introduction of scientific organization of labor and management in its associated organizations, enterprises, and institutions.

The Central Statistical Board performs its functions through the central statistical boards of the Union republics, which are also subordinate to the councils of ministers of the republics, and through local state statistical agencies. These local agencies include statistical boards of autonomous republics, krais, and oblasts; raion or city information-processing centers; and state statistics inspectorates.

To ensure full coverage of the process of expanded reproduction and the standardization of indexes, the Central Statistical Board establishes a minimum level of statistical reporting for the entire country; all branches of the economy must file reports that include the approved statistical reporting indexes. In addition, the board approves statistical reporting forms for kolkhozes and for those enterprises, organizations, and institutions that are part of the system of ministries and agencies of the USSR; the board issues instructions on how to complete the forms.

Data sources include periodic and annual reports submitted by enterprises, organizations, and institutions on standard forms and within deadlines stipulated by the Central Statistical Board of the USSR or by the boards of the Union republics. Other sources of data are provided by large-scale economic surveys and by censuses; these sources include the all-Union population censuses of 1959, 1970, and 1979, the intersector report balances of production and distribution of output for 1959, 1966, and 1972; and the reassessments of the county’s fixed capital stock as of Jan. 1, 1960, Jan. 1, 1972 (for organizations that make use of profit-and-loss accounting), and Jan. 1, 1973 (for budget-financed organizations).

In the second half of the 1950’s the collection and processing of the reports of enterprises, organizations, and construction projects in various branches of the national economy were centralized in state statistical agencies. Ministries of the various branches of the economy receive their basic data through agencies of the Central Statistical Board of the USSR. Centralized reporting has made it possible to extensively mechanize statistical work. The Central Statistical Board takes part in the development and establishment of the national automated system for the collection and processing of data required for record keeping and for the planning and management of the national economy (OGAS); it also organizes work aimed at the mechanization and automation of computations involved in accounting.

The Central Statistical Board includes the Main Administration for Computations; the Main Computer Center, which has sophisticated machines and computers for processing periodic and annual reports; and the Computer Center for the Mechanized Processing of Census and Periodic Data. The central statistical boards of the Union republics and the statistical boards of oblasts, krais, and autonomous soviet socialist republics have computer centers; in addition, many raion information-processing centers have been established.

The Central Statistical Board of the USSR develops the methodology for comparison of statistical data on the USSR and foreign countries, systematizes and generalizes indexes of the level of development of socialist and capitalist countries, and takes part in the work of the Standing Commission on Statistics of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON). In cooperation with the UN and its regional organizations, the board takes part in the discussion of issues relating to statistical organizations, programs, and methods.